Road Tripping with Carly and the Girls

The girls and I are in Utah tonight. We just spent the last two days out on the road. My mom drove back with us as well.

As road trips go, it was really pretty good. Although there was a threat of bad weather, and we saw quite a few snowflakes, the roads were clear and dry most of the way. And the girls were as good as gold, and better. DVDs and electronic games are a real lifesaver in the car.

This was the first long road trip I've ever made with a GPS, and it was really nice. We've named her Carly. She talks to me, and I talk back, so I figured she needed a name.

Carly is a Garmin nuvi 200 - just a simple, entry level GPS, but she kept us on the straight and narrow. Well, except for that little detour through Podunk County, Kansas. I'm still not sure what that was about. I told her if she ever directed me to get off the freeway and take the little red road, I wasn't going to do it.

Now, driving from Texas to Utah isn't terribly hard, especially since we picked the I-35-70-25-80 route - only four roads to remember, and no real need for directions. But where Carly really came through was helping us find places to eat and exchange our Redbox movies.

It's a funny kind of man thing really. I don't like to ask for directions, but getting directions from a technological gadget, that's just plain cool!

Also, as a true geek, I appreciated the fact that she knew not only where we were going, but when we would get there. And she kept all of the statistics for our trip.

Total time: 25 hours, 10 minutes (does not include overnight accommodations)
Moving Time: 20 hours, 41 minutes
Trip Length: 1456.7 miles
Overall Average: 57.8 mph
Moving Average: 70.4 mph
Maximum Speed: Classified

Comments

Autumn Ables said…
Oh, you make me laugh! You're such a funny guy.

That's such a cool thing that you had nifty Carly helping out and lots of gadgets for the girls to be occupied with. Your trip up to Utah is farther then ours. But I still am NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO THE DRIVE!

We use Red Box too and you have the right idea by watchingand returning along the way. Great idea!!!

Glad you made it safe to Utah...we leave tomorrow morning- Wednesday- with a overnight stay in Vegas. I hope to be up and chipper Friday morn with a smile...I'm NOT a morning person! See ya soon!
3/18/08, 2:59 PM
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