Once again, I’ve been listening to a voice and following its instructions without question. Of course it helped that I really didn’t know where I was and the voice was saying:
“Take slipway right onto I-87”

Almost a year since our last road trip, we went away for a long weekend to Lake George, in upstate New York. The voice was from a Garmin nuvi 760, a GPS with Text-To-Speech, and clearer maps and instructions than the old GPS. It always helps to be told which side of the road to find your onramp or your destination. Its successor, the Garmin nuvi 765T has even more features.

I must admit that I’m really sold on the Text-To-Speech feature. Combined with intelligent lane instructions it really takes a lot of the guess work out of driving with a GPS. This was one of the longest road trips so far with a GPS instead of a map. At stops along the way it was simply a matter of unplugging the unit from DC power, and letting it power down by itself. Then, when we were ready to go, the GPS quickly started up where we had left off.

The Garmin nuvi 760 is also good at finding satellites. I was pleasantly surprised that it was able to get a satellite fix while laying on a table about two feet from a west-facing window at home.

The Garmin nuvi 760 is not perfect. I’m not sure If it was the particular unit I had, but the volume just didn’t seem loud enough. This was solved by connecting it to the car stereo.