Where the hell am I?

In late 2007, my boss at the time was kind enough to allow me the time off to fulfill a 30 year dream and take Susan to Italy for a month for our 30th anniversary. I bought a Garmin GPS to take with us because we were going to travel to Italy via Munich and then drive down. That little thing literally saved my life a couple of times on that trip. I think I would still be trying to find my way out of Milan if I hadn't had that Garmin.

The map databases (domestic and European) are now 2 years old, so it seemed reasonable to update them to the latest. I could buy a one-time update for $70 or lifetime updates for $150. That certainly seemed to be a no brainer decision, so I went for the lifetime.

The Garmin web-site says its as easy as 1-2-3 and I will have to admit that it went pretty smoothly, sort of. After paying for the update, there were only a couple of clicks that needed to done to get the new databases.

Not so fast!

First you have to update the software. You download the Garmin "Communicator" software and it then brings down the new software for the handheld device and the new maps database. That's when I found out that not all USB ports on my Dell desktop are created equal. The computer has two USB ports accessible from the front and two from the back. The two on the front do not provide enough power to sustain the operation of the handheld. I have subsequently found that it won't support the iPhone either.

After some frustration, I plugged the USB cable in one of the ports on the back and everything began to work properly. Everything went pretty smoothly after that, but the entire process took four and a half (4.5) hours! The download of the map databases is very slow.

I am now primed with the latest maps on my GPS and ready to rock and roll.