Flashes of Panic

One of the reasons I volunteered to accompany A up to the Dartmouth Relays was that I finally had installed maps on my Palm and could try out the GPS Navigator. On the face of it, this wasn’t really the best trip to use it on, because driving from Medford to Hanover is as easy as falling off a log: I-93 to I-89 to NH-120 and hey, there’s the track. I could’ve done it by memory.

The advantage of the Navigator turned out to be knowing how much longer I was likely to be on the road. This makes for easier decisions about when to stop for a break, for example. When you know where you’re going, though, the voice prompts are just annoying.

We could really have used another feature on the way back. Near the I-93/I-293 split south of Manchester, about three or four exits from the Massachusetts border, traffic stopped somewhat abruptly, and there was a smokey smell I assume was either hot brake pads or scorched tires. A momentary vantage point showed brake lights red over a mile ahead.

Unfortunately, the Palm and the GPS hadn’t managed to make a Bluetooth connection since we’d left Hanover, so the navigation wasn’t able to suggest an alternate routing. (It still thought we were either in Hanover, where it had last had a signal, or Medford.) Fortunately, traffic was stopped enough that we could pull out a paper map and work out that I-293 would swing us west around the south end of Manchester, where we could pick up route 3 down through Nashua. If I didn’t know New Hampshire as well as I do, though, it would’ve been nice to get a suggestion for a way around.

Now Playing: It’s Nearly Africa from English Settlement by XTC