Sunday, March 21, 2010

Ms Garmina Gets Glamorous

One of the inter-trip rituals, is downloading new maps for the Garmin Nuvi 200 that we use to find our way. That process can be very frustrating unless you remember to switch your browser to Internet Explorer. My favorite browser is now Google Chrome, but using that one lets you do a three-hour download that seems to be unable to run. Unfortunately, there is no prior warning about this requirement on the Garmin site.

I finally got the new maps loaded onto Ms Garmina and then noticed that there was a new program which could also be loaded, so of course, I did that. Then I noticed that there was an "Extras" choice on the menu screen that was available for user-content. After digging around a little on the net, I found a site which has numerous point of  interest files available for such things as campgrounds, museums and photography. This is a real gem for travelers like us. The site is POI Factory -- pretty amazing. Before I knew it, I had downloaded a couple of dozen files with 6,500 points of interest into that little GPS. I don't think there is any way to tell how much space is left -- snooping while attached to the computer shows no storage at all. Must be magic. Anyhow, the new availability of things like seaside campgrounds in the Southeast should be very useful.

No comments: