I made my way out of Utah, through a corner of Colorado, and into New Mexico on route 491 which was formerly known as route 666. They changed the name some time back because a lot of superstitious types refused to drive on "The Devil's Highway". I even saw tee shirts at one truck stop on a reservation that read "I survived the Devil's Highway".
On my way to El Paso I stopped at a Petro truck stop and saw a sign that indicated that the Lowrance iWay 250c GPS unit was on sale for $100 off. Pretty good deal. I had been wanting to buy one but the price had put me off for a while. Knocking off $100 put it into a price range I consider reasonable for such a unit so I bought one.
I tested it out with my El Paso deliveries. As I was delivering electronic billboards and they were going directly to where they would be hung there were no exact addresses for the two locations. I had what road they were on and the nearest cross street. I plugged that info into the GPS unit and it lead me right to both locations. Spot on.
I thought that the turn by turn voice directions would be annoying but I actually like it as there is no real need to actually look at the screen while driving. Just follow the pleasant sounding female voice's directions and it will lead you right to where you're going.
I tested it again when I had to make a pick up in Albuquerque this afternoon. I plugged in the address of the location where I was to pick up and the unit led me straight to the place no problems. I did call for directions just to be sure, but the GPS was dead on.
I'm now on my way back to Wisconsin. I plugged in the information regarding my destination and let the unit plan the route. The route was exactly as I would have chosen. Not bad.
The thing also plays MP3s and displays photos, but I don't see much point to that really and doubt that I will use those features.
What can I say? I like my toys.
It was pretty hot in Albuquerque this afternoon. About half way through securing the load I started feeling a bit light-headed and sick to my stomach. I realized that I was suffering from the early stages of heat exhaustion. I climbed into my rig and sat in the air conditioning while sipping on cold Gatorade. After about 15 minutes I had managed to drink a pretty fair amount of the stuff and had cooled down enough that I was feeling ok again. I'm glad I had thought to stock the fridge with Gatorade yesterday.