Rookies taking a moving van / dolly-towed car around Appalachia - best option?

[Lifemagician]

My litany of being led astray by the gps could add to the above. Suffice to say that at one point, late, I called 911 for help, as *I could not find my way to my rural destination. On his arrival, the first thing the officer did was have a good look at my gps, and then warned me about its routing limitations.

Furthermore, I was astonished when he told me that calls like mine were quite common in their district. I have not used a gps since.

Lifey

[Lifemagician]

However, note that you are not allowed to pump your own in NJ, it's attendant service only.

Depends on where you go and how determined you are to pump your own. At Pilot the manager has always let me pump my own.

Lifey

[glc]

If caught, the manager would be heavily fined. It's state law.

[MoPac]

The ability to play with online maps has certainly gotten better over the past decade, although there are still advantages to paper maps that I've yet to see duplicated on electronic maps. That's especially true when you don't have access to a data connection - which severely limits the capabilities of most electronic maps - and while on the road, the places you most need help from a map are the places you're least likely to have a reliable signal.

Why not just cache the map data before the trip? Even with Google Maps, this is fairly easy to do, so you can get a local copy of everything in the areas you define (which can be pretty big) and then don't have to worry about whether you have a signal. I used this to great effect driving through Bosnia and Croatia. And since your phone/tablet/whatever's GPS still works fine and for free, your current position and other details can still be overlaid live on the cached map. OSM applications are built to allow you to download big tiles full of the latest everything for states or other regions, and it's all pretty seamless.

Google Maps took my daughter home via a circuitous route...
If I had listened to it, I would have added 2.75 miles to my commute....
...would send people over a cowpath with a locked gate across it..

...have a good look at my gps, and then warned me about its routing limitations.
...I have not used a gps since.

Why not take advantage of all the great mapping detail and the actual GPS function (the satellite positioning) and just not the route guidance? This is the thing that sort of makes me scratch my head (and I work a lot with mapping systems, so I'm also interested to know how people think about maps). Why do problems with automated route suggestions cause people to ditch unrelated things -- the whole electronic map database/display and the live satellite positioning -- in favor of paper maps, which are generated from the same or similar kinds of databases? Is it a response to the fact that the route guidance came from the same device that displays maps while not doing routing or displays the GPS position fix, and so the frustration is directed at the device rather than the routing algorithm, and the device is just sort of seen as a tainted source of information?

1) On a recent big trip (our first) our GPS did not work at all...We REALLY depended on the paper maps.
2) the brand new TomTom that we bought, on very many occasions, would have sent us through some ridiculous roads (e.g. Private, small road, dirt road, farmland, etc...) - so it was only through maps that we learned this.

I admit I don't have much direct experience with those dedicated units like TomToms or what mapping engines they use -- that experience sounds like a nightmare. Having a simple dash/windshield mount for my phone has meant never really being tempted to invest in one, although I guess a lot of new cars still have dedicated navigation systems that are similar.

[Subman]

I think that you, whatever happens, have the ability of reading a map, which is great.

I guess my point was that countless people will set out on cross-country / otherwise ambitious trips with only the electronics to guide them. And that's ok, but what if your phone gets out-of-charge/lost/stolen? Or your GPS decides to call it a day?

It is at moments like this (I was leaving New York when this happened to me) when the good old paper map - and the ability to read it - has its day. The people who don't have one/cannot read it are in serious trouble at this point.

Technology, as great as it is these days, has a habit of breaking down, in my experience. So one should have the old fashioned back-up, always.

Have a safe trip!