Today’s portable street navigators or GPS tracking devices do more than just provide you directions. They’re also like the yellow pages in that they can find you a Starbucks, Lowes or for that matter any place and literally tell you how to get there.

Getting lost is no longer an option with GPS
The magic in portable street navigators or GPS tracking devices is due to GPS or a Global Positioning System. This is a satellite-based navigation system made up of a network of 24 satellites placed into orbit by the U.S. Department of Defense. GPS was originally intended for military applications, but in the 1980s, the US government made the system available for civilian use.

GPS works in any weather conditions, anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day. There are no subscription fees or setup charges to use GPS.

To use GPS you’ll have to spend some money on a portable street navigator or GPS tracker. When turned on, the device locates three of the 24 satellites circling earth and triangulates on your position. Pretty cool! The portable street navigators are relatively inexpensive. You can get some for as low as $150 or spend much more. Most units are deeply discounted from their suggested retail prIce. There are stationary street navigators too, but they are expensive and besides they can’t be transferred to another car, etc.

Portable Street Navigation in Action
I was in Maryland at the third Home Depot of the day trying to find some brackets to finish my closet project. It was an unfamiliar store in an unfamiliar place, but I was able to find it easily with no missed turns and no back tracking that’s to the best GPS I’ve ever used – the Garmin Nuvi 370 Pocket Vehicle GPS Navigator and Personal Travel Assistant with European Maps.

It was truly a marvelous device. Not only did it store maps for all of the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico, but most of Western Europe as well. I discovered just how great this capability was this summer when it helped me navigate via car flawlessly from Zurich to Geneva to Strasbourg to Brussels and to Rotterdam. It even alerted me to fixed and mobile speed cameras along the route!

The Nuvi 370 was not my first device. I also used it very similar cousin, the Nuvi 360 – essentially the same device, but with an older GPS chipset and without the European Maps. Before that I had used the Garmin Quest and Quest II. Nice units at the time, but certainly overtaken by Garmin's latest offerings.

But now back to my shopping experience. I still couldn’t find the brackets I needed after trips to three different Home Depots. So, I decided I needed to try a Lowes, but where was the nearest one? I knew where one was, but it was very much out of my way. I ask a fellow Home Depot shopper and he told me the nearest Lowes was about 20 miles away. This did not seem encouraging.

Back in the car the Nuvi 370 came to life when I started my car. Using the touch screen I worked down the menus looking for shopping locations. I chose to spell the store name and within fifteen seconds all the Loews in the vicinity started popping up. Each was annotated with the mileage to the store and the general compass heading. There was a Lowes store about 20 miles away, but there was also one only 5 miles away in the other direction!

I selected the closer store and the Nuvi started calculating the route. In only a few seconds the unit’s pleasant voice gave me the first of the detailed directions I needed to follow. It also showed the route on is screen and the estimated time that I would arrive at my destination. As I approached turns or forks in the road the Nuvi kept me on the proper course. It even alerted me of traffic problems.

In just a short time, I arrived at Lowes and found the bracket I needed. But now I was in an area with which I was totally unfamiliar. No problem. Using the Nuvi’s touch screen I selected “Home” as my next destination and in short order the map appeared with the route I needed to follow indicated. The unit’s voice gave me my first direction I arrived home exactly at the time my Nuvi had estimated.

Benefits galore
I can’t tell you how much I enjoy being able to locate just about any address, store, point of interest, gas station, ATM – you name it without any hassle. With the price of gas what it is, getting to my destinations fast and correctly the first time and every time really is a great benefit.

If you’re still using paper maps and/or if you’re the kind of person who never asks for directions and uses the trial and error method of navigation, a GPS should definitely be something to look into. And if you want a really great one, look at Garmin’s Nuvi series. They really perform!