Tag Archives: directionally challenged

Meet Daisy

In January 2021 we became a two truck family with the purchase of Ruby, The Big Red Truck. While Ruby is awesome (and red!), I told Kenn sometime last year that I wasn’t going to want to drive a huge truck as my primary vehicle forever. While Ruby is comfortable and drives well, she has some big blind spots. I’ve had a couple of close calls because of not being able to see through the truck itself. Parking can also be problematic. When I go to the optometrist I try to remember to drive Kenn’s smaller truck; the parking lot at the optometrist’s office just isn’t designed for larger vehicles.

My off-hand comment about wanting a change at some nebulous point in the future resulted in many conversations about what sort of vehicle I would like. I wanted a smaller SUV-type vehicle. Kenn and I are both tall and prefer vehicles with higher seats, especially as we age. A vehicle such as a Mini Cooper that I would have to crawl in and out of wasn’t even on my radar. Kenn kept encouraging me to test drive various vehicles, but I had no interest in doing so until we were ready to actually make a purchase. Well, that time arrived a couple of weeks ago.

Knowing that this day was coming, I had already narrowed my top contenders to a Toyota RAV4 or a Subaru, probably a Forester since the Outbacks I had previously driven had been uncomfortable. We have owned Toyotas for almost twenty years and know how reliable they are. Subaru also has a reputation for reliability. I have always wanted a Subaru; I’m a fan of what the company stands for and their commitment to making the world a better place. Knowing that this is probably one of the last “new” cars we will buy, we both had a few things we were looking for: Kenn wanted all-wheel drive, and I wanted bells and whistles. I don’t need all the bells and whistles, but I don’t want bare-bones either. So, the test-driving began.

We test drove a hybrid RAV4 and I liked it fine. It drove well and I would expect it to provide us many years of problem-free use. We then went to the only Subaru dealership in the area and test drove a Forester. The Forester was just okay. I preferred the RAV4 over the Forester. I had been reluctant to test drive another Outback but, I finally decided to give one a try since the last one I drove was a 2018 and there may have been improvements since then. Before we left the dealership, we test drove an Outback Wilderness and I had to admit that it was nice. After we left the dealership, I decided that we needed to look into Outbacks a little more so I went to the dealership’s website and found another one to look at. We made another trip to the dealership for yet another test drive… and bought a car. Everyone, meet Daisy.

Daisy and her Cinnamon Brown Pearl exterior
Not the best picture, but I love the Java interior

Daisy is a 2022 Outback Touring. I love everything about her. All Subarus are all-wheel drive, so that checked off Kenn’s one requirement. As a Touring edition, Daisy has all the bells and whistles. I always thought heated seats were a stupid idea until we purchased Ruby, at which point I discovered that they are AWESOME. Daisy has heated and cooled seats. I’m still not sold on the whole cooled seat idea, but leather seats in a Georgia summer may well change my mind, LOL. Also, after test driving Daisy, I uttered words that I have never before said about a car – Daisy is fun to drive. Kenn enjoys driving, but for me it has always just been a way to get from Point A to Point B. And yes, some vehicles drive better than others, but I have never before considered driving fun. Daisy has changed my mind.

I’m already excited about the dual heating and cooling zones in the front of the vehicle. Finally, one of us doesn’t have to freeze just because the other is running hot. I also like the fact that I can set the temperature for my side and Daisy will automatically choose heat or air conditioning based on the temperature outside. And, for the directionally challenged such as myself, having a compass in the corner of the rear-view mirror is a big bonus. Now, I just hope that Daisy will be as reliable as the Toyotas (Bonnie the Highlander, Paco the Tacoma, and Ruby the Tundra) that have come before her. She has big shoes, I meany tires, to fill.

So, is driving fun for you?

Google Maps vs. Waze

I am directionally challenged. Knowing which direction is which does not come naturally to me like it does to my husband, Kenn. I can work out directions if I know the time and can see the sun but that method isn’t particularly helpful in bumper-to-bumper rush hour traffic. In spite of my directionally challangedness my primary function during our travels over the years has been that of navigator. (Many of our biggest traveling arguments have revolved around navigation. Translation: my hubby refusing to follow the directions given.) Map apps were a life changer for people like me.

Over the years, Google Maps has been our go-to map app. Prior to our road trip in 2019 Kenn decided that we should give Waze a try. It took me a bit to get the hang of Waze, but once I did, I really liked it. There are a wide variety of voices to chose from; my favorite was Kate with her proper British accent. (I thought Cookie Monster would be cute. I was wrong. Adding “om nom nom” after everything drove me nuts so the Cookie Monster voice was in use for less than a minute.) Waze has a game-like vibe that allows you to unlock achievements by collecting “candy” for various actions. Waze showing our speed in comparison to the current speed limit was helpful even though it wasn’t enough to keep us from getting a speeding ticket in the mail from Sioux City, Iowa a couple of weeks after we got home. (insert facepalm here) I also like the capability for users to mark and unmark things such as accidents, debris in the road, etc. in real-time. In my opinion, Waze also does a much better job with pronunciations; Google Maps garbles the simplest of names much less complicated ones. The biggest problem we had with Waze was that it relied on the availability of a cell signal instead of GPS. There are a lot of places in this big, beautiful country where there is no cell service; since we were traveling through a lot of those areas, we eventually had to revert back to Google Maps in order to have reliable information.

Image courtesy of http://www.depositphotos.com

One of the biggest problems with map apps in general becomes apparent when we are towing our travel trailer. When towing we avoid interstates and big cities as much as possible. However, map apps interpret “avoid highways” as “please take me down every crappy side road possible”. We’ve had Maps try to route us down roads that specifically forbid travel trailers, fire service roads, and a road leading under a railroad track with insufficient clearance for our travel trailer – this in spite of the fact that within sight distance, less than a block away, was a road that went over the railroad tracks. So far, we’ve been able to avoid these potential fiascoes. I’m waiting for the day we make the local news in some town because we’ve brought traffic to a complete halt due to following the directions of our map app. In my opinion, what we really need is either a separate app for those of us towing or a towing option in the current apps that is smart enough to allow us to avoid interstates and those roads that aren’t travel trailer friendly. App developers, are you listening?

Have you had any harrowing experiences due to map apps?

UPDATE: Since I wrote this post I have discovered an app called CoPilot RV that I will be testing out during our trips over the next few months. I’ll let you know what I think.