Theoretical Question

Theoretical Question – how many navigation systems does one need to find one’s way in the rural US?  One or two maybe?  We currently have 5.  Yes, 5, and we’ve still missed our mark 2 days out of 3.  To be fair, we aren’t using all 5 all the time but you’d think with 2 or 3 we’d land at our destination on the first try. 

System one is our RV Garmin GPS system.  Brand new last year after our other system dumped us on the side streets of Los Angeles, it’s pretty reliable, routing us away from low overhead hazards, roads too small for RVs and other dangers not apparent until too late.  We have her voice set on the “Samantha” setting so we call her Sam for short.

Sam

System two is a trucker’s navigation app on the iPad.  It has a male voice so we call him John.  John doesn’t not connect to satellites, instead relying on memory and the occasional wifi connection so that he knows where he is.  Also able to keep us away from weak bridges and low overheads but not aware of traffic jams and other quickly developing hazards.

John

System 3 is the Navigator (aka Robin) and a big paper trucker’s atlas.  Yes, very old school, but reliably present with safe routes color-coded.  Not always fast but reassuring.  Systems 4 and 5 are two cell phones with Siri on one and Sir Laddie on the other (Robin has changed Siri to the male British voice we affectionately call Sir Laddie in honor of our British friend Simon).  We rarely resort to 4 and 5 in Chuck, probably because we only have 4 hands between us and two of them are on the steering wheel.

On the first day we were feeling pretty smug as Sam and John agreed on routing all the way from Kenosha to Springfield, IL.  Day two started out well, as again they agreed even while talking over each other occasionally.  They both routed us one exit past our destination but then disagreed on exactly how to get back, Sam seemingly putting the RV park in the middle of the freeway while John landed us pretty much on point.

Yesterday got a little hairy at the end.  Sam seemingly had the RV park firmly programmed while John couldn’t get closer than the highway number.  We exited the Oklahoma Turnpike at Big Cabin and following Sam’s directions sailed past our destination at 60 mph.  It was a divided highway with a fair amount of traffic and no places to pull off and turn around especially when the combined length of rig and car is about 50 ft.  Next opportunity to reverse was the town of Adair, 11 miles down the road.  In Adair we turned off the highway on Main St and headed around the block, we thought, except the street didn’t have any cross streets and rapidly turned into a narrow gravel road crossing tiny streams on tinier culverts that clearly were not designed to support 32 tons of RV.  We crept along for several miles, passing bulls and cows in adjacent pastures until Sam finally indicated a cross trail leading back to the highway.  The Navigator got out to scout before we turned onto it.  The vultures were circling (ok, that might be a slight exaggeration) and we turned onto the goat track.  A mile further and we were back onto the highway and soon arrived at our destination.

Today we head for Oklahoma City, a big city.  I have high hopes.