My New Best Friend Driving Co-pilot: The Garmin c550

My parents bought me the coolest gift ever for my belated birthday (hint: I'm an Aries). A Garmin StreetPilot® c550 GPS navigation unit!

I finally got it this morning. UPS botched the delivery twice due to employee error ("Oh, you wanted the correct the address, not schedule a future delivery!"), so I drove 10 miles to downtown in search of the main UPS Fortress of Package-itude, er hub. Though I forgot the tracking # (doh!), the UPS gal and I were able to locate my package via the INCORRECT address, not the correct one. (Stupid database programming!)

Then it was off to the I-10, and while stuck in traffic I opened the box. Hmm? A tiny little gadget! I imagined it being the size of a portable DVD player screen, but nope, it's about as big as a good-sized bar of soap, maybe thicker. I figured I'd have to charge it or otherwise set it up, but I tried turning it on. It asked me for my time zone and country. Pressed the screen twice. Suddenly, there I was on the slightly 3-D map, represented by a cartoon car icon, moving 2 mph west on the I-10. Coool!

I got off the I-10 and drove west on Venice Blvd. The next available street name showed on the screen at the top. I couldn't even READ the actual sign. Awesome!

The one thing it didn't handle perfectly (and nor should any driver have to, IMHO) is streets changing names. For example, as I drove up Centinela, the next turn was labeled "Idaho" but what I really wanted to do was make a left on "Colorado" -- but they're the same street. It did change to Colorado once I made the turn though.

Haven't named her yet. Stay tuned for further adventures of Brian and his Navi-Computer (and forget Obi Wan, I'm not gonna switch 'er off).