Effective road trip planning can eliminate many of the logistics stresses in traveling areas unknown. Remember that 80’s road trip as a child with mom trying to read a road map while dad navigated through Atlanta, both trying to watch for exits and ramps and not losing their cool?

My trusty Garmin Nuvi 54LM GPS allows me to program at home waypoint destinations for hotel stops, known restaurant stops and other POI (Points of Interest) along our route. The 5” screen offers a large display with lane assist very helpful in navigating LA's highways on route from Desert Springs to Ventura.

Most GPS’s offer lifetime mapping updates nowadays, but you’ll need to pop in a MicroSD expansion in most cases and visit the manufacturers site to pick up maps specific to your area. I was sitting next to a couple waiting for my rented Mustang convertible who had the same GPS as I did but could not get the maps to fully load as they had not picked up the full map set for the area before flying out.

So much better than folded paper maps for every city, state and country …

~ GG Staff

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