Living in an RV or Why I Use My Wife’s Deodorant

One of many decisions my wife and I made when we decided to become fulltime RVers was to purchase a gps unit. I have been reading several blogs and made a decision to purchase a Garmin Nuvi 350 when the time was right. That time happened last week as we were getting ready to go to Chicago. After remembering our nightmare of getting around in Chicago during a trip last year, we decided to purchase the Garmin Nuvi 350 GPS at a local Wal-Mart. I had decided upon this unit based upon reviews of the Garmin unit that praised the superior windshield mount and best routing software.

All I can say is if this is the best the industry has, I’ll wait until Apple develops an iGPS unit before I buy another one. The windshield mount just isn’t going to work. I’m either going to superglue it to the windshield or find another mounting option. (BTW, the optional mounting disk is useless — it just won’t stick any where on my wife’s Dodge Ram truck’s dashboard.) The maps are so full of errors that I sincerely hope that no one has to use these for anything important. The maps had our hotel as well as two adjacent hotels and a shopping mall misplaced. It told us to take an Interstate North when the map directed us to the Interstate South. The maps had towns on the wrong side of the road and street names that did not correspond to actual signage (for example, Park Street on street signs showed up as 37th street on the map).

I do wish that the people doing the reviews would try out these units out in the wild – especially in smaller cities and in the countryside. I realize that keeping maps updated is a huge undertaking, but as GPS units proliferate, I’m certain that the units with the most accurate maps will seize the biggest market share. From what I’ve seen from my first trip with the Garmin Nuvi, Garmin will not be that market leader.