SUCH - Tarheel Chapter BMW Car Club of America

tryside fi rst hand, as it were. Having a GPS unit
would probably put a crimp in that. Analogous to
the “build it and they will come” principle, even
an occasional glance at the display would put me
in the position of the proverbial tourist who never
actually sees any of the sights he or she visits
except through the lens of a camera. Where’s the
fun in that?
A much more immediate and practical problem
(as I see it) is that a free-standing GPS unit
is worth stealing. Having one in any of our cars
would vastly increase chances of some greedy
lout breaking a window (or worse) while trying to
grab the unit. Even if the perp were to fail in the
attempt, the cost of the resulting damage would
exceed by far the usefulness of the unit.
This doesn’t quite close the book on GPS for
me. One area where I think it’s supremely useful
is in hiking and camping off the beaten path. The
purpose-built hand-held units now available are
great – waterproof, long-life batteries, displays
that are readable in all kinds of light conditions –
the lot.
But it’s obvious I still have a lot to learn
about the different kinds of units out there. Case
in point: I gave son Paul a Magellan hand-held for
his birthday. He loves to explore our many state
parks on foot, and loved my present, at fi rst – but
ended up returning it to the store. Seems I had
neglected to notice that this particular unit is
primarily designed for geocaching. Now, I know
that’s a sort of point-to-point treasure hunt that
can take one all over the state, the country – or
even the world. What I didn’t realize was that this
particular unit was so specialized as to pretty
much preempt other, more pedestrian functions –
such as fi nding your way in uncharted territory.
Oh well, I guess it’ll take me a few more baby
steps to really join the 21st century.
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