Greater Houston Pocket GPS World Touch-n-Try Meet up

Dave

At the end of September a small group of GPS fans assembled in North-West Houston, pretending to attend a yard sale that Lutz decided to hold.

Along they came, with an agenda at heart. Not to see what was for sale, but they heard of a new GPS Guru in the neighbourhood! So their main goal instead was to get a quick consultation about the available GPS gear and the best ways to fit it into their cars.....I guess you already know how this will turn out!

The full article is available here.

areiss · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 05, 2004 Posts: 5

As one of the visiting trio I have to say that I went from vague to quite a bit less vague, thanks to Lutz. I am now a GPS convert and happily sporting a Dell Axim X30/624Mhz and the Dell BT GPS/Navteq maps. Lutz helped me in areas that are difficult to assess, such as in-car kits, other navigation software options and just being able to touch-and-feel equipment that one cannot easily find in a store. He was extremely hospitable to us off-the-street visitors and we hope that his garage sale was not unduly affected.

I took keen interest in Lutz's comment about free beer on future visits. It would be a good opportunity to share with him my "first" GPS experience (below).

"On this first drive I did find a little glitch in the mapping directions. It actually could be a biggie if you are unfamiliar with the Houston/Galveston area and unfailingly follow the voice navigation. We were going to Seabrook to buy some shrimp and on approaching the tall bridge on Hwy 146 my GPS instructed me to turn left in 1000ft, then once at that point it said turn sharp left. Only problem was that this was a third of the way up the bridge and about 100ft above the road to turn left onto. Obviously if I had been a Japanese taxi driver I would have done so without hesitation. Out of curiosity I wanted to see how the GPS would react, I knew where and how to go anyway. Well, passing where I "should" have turned, the GPS had me do a U-turn and then back at the same spot to turn right, all of this while on the bridge. After getting home and doing a little analysis and also checking on Mapquest (which gave the same instructions) I think I see the problem. A birds-eye view does indeed show the turn to be the most logical but the reality is that there is a vertical distance of about 100ft to deal with. I shall pass on my discovery to the map makers and hopefully be suitably rewarded. Who knows how many lives I could save. I wonder if we have lost any Japanese families on their way to buy fresh seafood using GPS. Will check on the web."

Lutz, best regards to you and your wife.

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