[CigarNut]

First, let me say that I use GPS navigation systems in my cars and love them. They usually get me where I want to go with little fuss and few or no mistakes.

However, I recently made a trip to Eugene, OR (about 100 miles south of where I live) for a few days to drop my son off at college and discovered a problem (for me) with using GPS. I have been to Eugene several times, usually for just a few hours. This trip was a couple of days.

Normally, when I drive someplace I check out a paper map -- although they can be difficult to find, AAA always manages to help me out. However, for this trip to Eugene I did not have time to get a map, but I figured "I have a Nav system, it will be fine".

While I did not have any problems per se, I realized in my driving around the city of Eugene that I did not have any spatial awareness of the city itself. In traveling between a number of different locations (by using GPS to locate and navigate) I came to realize that I had no idea where I was in relation to my destination or where I was heading or to my hotel.

This was a real problem for me. I was not concerned about locating the destination, but I had no feel for the transit itself or the transit times like I would when say traveling from home to work, or from home to the local cigar bar.

I decided that in all future travels I need to check out a map so that I have that extra comfort of spatial awareness.

[/RANT=OFF]...