jack.allwardt

As an aviator who has used GPS for over 18 years as a "secondary" navigational tool, I sure enjoy the convenienve of having one in my Jeep Patriot. This is a portable unit--a Garmin GPSMap 276C--and I have a semi-permanent mount with an external antenna.

Driving is challenging enough without having to find your way with maps, and hand-written directions. Turn-by-turn directions with ETA and Distance to the next turn and/or destination help you keep track of your trip progress.

And even if you should lose sat. coverage--say a steel overcrossing, tunnel, etc. the GPS map will give you some guidance until the sat come back into view.

And, you can spend from $150 to $1K for a unit--my advice is to start small--buy a used unit to get used to it. Be sure you can update the internal GPS software as well as the mapping stuff.

And--have fun with this new technology!