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It was time for our family to get away — time for a road trip! We often go on shorter trips to the cottage or to family that is a few hours away — but this was our first “big” road trip that would take more than one day on the road.

March break was coming up and the desire to get away was very strong. Plans to visit some old friends that moved to Montreal fell through and we were left scrambling for a place to go. My brother Dave and his family ware traveling down to Hilton Head SC and Savannah GA and invited us to join them. We jumped at the chance — both to spend time with them and to get away to a warmer climate!

We booked the hotel and started looking for a good route to get there. It didn’t look too bad — ten hours the first day and seven on the second day — we can handle that! However the more I thought about it the more I was concerned about the navigating part of the trip. My wife is a great navigator but we were heading into very unfamiliar roads.

I had given my mother a GPS for Christmas — learning to drive at 65 I thought she might like the navigation help. SO I called Mom - told her of our plans and asked if we could borrow the GPS. She was more than happy to share it with us!

The day we left on our trip was plagued by a wicked snow storm — the easy ten hour trip became a nightmarish 17 hours long. We drove through some of the worst weather I have ever driven in —ever! But the GPS didn’t just help — I think it saved us!

There were some unexpected benefits to using the GPS on our travels. First —all the concern about where we are going, when we had to turn next etc. was gone - the GPS was giving me ample warning of my navigational changes. The second benefit was even more of a surprise —the GPS showed me what was on the horizon! Now you have to remember that we were driving in unfamiliar territory during a very bad winter storm with snow blowing everywhere producing whiteout conditions. Whenever I had no idea where the road in front of me was going I could just have a peek at the GPS —what a life saver! Well we made it through the first day of travel with a couple of close calls and eight white knuckles. The second day and the rest of our trip seemed quite easy after that.

The GPS had it’s usual benefits of helping us find local roads and points of interest etc. It came in quite handy trying to find our way to some local geocaches too — typical stuff — but I think the real bonus came while driving through the bad weather!

With the borrowed GPS back in my Mother’s hands — I know that next time a big road trip comes along it is worth the price to buy a GPS — whether it’s a Garmin, Magellan or a TomTom — who knows?