Looks good; what do you do for an internet connection on the road?

 

Looking good! Which nav app are you using? Have you tried Copilot GPS (not sure if it's suitable for Canada)? If you do, recommend instead of the voices they now offer, that you download the free (currently) beta of Ivana Voice. Much less mechanical sounding. Otherwise, an okay nav app (on rare occasion wants me to take little side roads when the highway goes straight through, go figure).

 

I'll buy a SIM card. It's $5 a month for 10 MB, on a sliding scale (it'll bump you into different packages the more you use). Overall it's relatively affordable if I have to use it. However it has wifi so will mostly stick to that, and it has a built in GPS. GPS will allow me to use it for nav and trails outside of cell coverage - which is good... as it's very remote up here, and while there's coverage around towns, there's nothing on the highways in between. It'll also allow me to use it in the US without having to fear the US roaming rates on my cell. I still haven't looked up what the phone I used last summer was billed while in Seattle - maybe I should for shits and giggles. It was a company demo phone (I work for a cell company) and the bill was zero'd out.

MapFactor Navigator... it was one of the two top rated free ones. I'll screw around with every free one possible before buying one, as this is solely something for when I'm down south (Whitehorse has 26k people, and no major city for 1200 miles). I typically try to avoid using Nav unless absolutely needed, and am more a look at the map and figure out where you're going type of guy. Sometimes not really realistic, but that's my preference over something telling you how to get where you're going. As for how it's orientating, I almost think that's a factor of how the device is mounted (almost vertical). I don't remember it doing this when I did my test run with this app just after buying the Nexus. Might have to try it with a flatter positioning.

One of the things I like about it, is it does do turn by turn instructions, and will automatically re-route you if you go off course (2 complaints I read about with other apps). It also gave me options on what maps to download. Unfortunately Canada is all one pack... so I have that, Alaska, Washington and Oregon (the mostly likely 3 US states I'll see any time soon) already downloaded (about 1GB).

 

Just back from Big Bend. Couple pics of the Jeep ...

Camped at Guale 2 in Big Bend Ranch State Park. Supposed to be the prettiest view in the region. Sadly, we arrived just as the sun finished setting, and the next morning we were literally in the clouds.


Camped at Terlingua Abaja in Big Bend National Park. That is Santa Elena Canyon in the background. Cut by the Rio Grande River, Mexico is on the left and the U.S. on the right.


On the drive back, north of Terlingua.

 

As always jealous!!
Looks like a great time!

 

Thanks for the info, very useful - especially the tip about MapFactor. It's rare to see a free full map download which is great because a full time internet connection is not needed.

Much appreciated.

 

You have the most awesome setup I have seen yet !

 

Mojave desert a couple of weeks ago with some friends, great camping. 50's at night, 70's during the day.

 

Thanks! Here's one more pic I overlooked in my first post. This was on the way down as that big winter storm was sweeping into western Texas. I hit it in Midland/Odessa. Image shot in the Davis Mountains ...

 

Good to see FJs out there. Going to miss them when they go out of production. On this trip I was running with an Xterra ...