Saturday, July 23, 2011

Finding Walmart on the Garmin GPS

Darev2005 commented on my previous post that he was surprised that Walmart would be listed as a "place of interest".  Obviously he hasn't been to the "People of Walmart" website.  
I jest, but for those who don't have GPS, or who only use it for specific addresses, I want to explain.
We had a GPS for three years before we did anything more than type in an address.  After a couple of weeks of getting used to it, we were hooked.  I did have a problem, though, if I wanted to simply type in the name of a town without using an address, because when I went to "where to" and clicked on "address", it demanded a street address; simply putting in the city and state wasn't acceptable.    
Then one day Cliff went into a tool store and I stayed in the car and played with the Garmin.  
I found out there was a "City" heading that did not require an address.  Sweet!
Since Cliff was taking his time in the tool store, I explored further:  I selected "where to" and then chose "Points of Interest".  
Under "Points of Interest", I could choose "food and drink", so I played with that awhile.  Being in Blue Springs, there were a lot of places to choose from, but I selected "Pizza Hut".  By going one step further, I found the phone number of the local Pizza Hut:  Wonderful!  From that time on if we were on the road, I knew we could call ahead and order pizza from our car.  
I returned to "Points of Interest" and saw other options:  Fuel, Transit, Lodging, Shopping, Bank or ATM, Parking, Entertainment, Recreation, Attractions, Hospitals, Community, and Auto Services.  
By exploring all those options that day, I found out you can find the nearest Walmart under the "Shopping" heading, and city parks under the heading of "Attractions" and then "Park or Garden".  
This revolutionized our travel experiences, and we use our Garmin for these things more often nowadays than for simple directions.  It's how we found the Iowa State Parks where we camped last weekend, as well as the city park in Elkhorn where we picnicked.  Not to mention the Walmart in a nearby city.  
Perhaps everybody else knows all this stuff, but since it took me years to figure it out, I'm putting it out there for other slow learners and senior citizens.    

10 comments:

  1. That's really a cool feature because no one knows addresses in strange cities! HA HA I love the People of Walmart site. Such mindless entertainment. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I appreciated the tutorial. My husband swears by his Garmin GPS and uses it for everything. Me on the other hand find it too complicated. The thing scares me.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have never messed with ours but Ken found all that. We have used it several times to fine places to eat and so forth while on the road. Helen

    ReplyDelete
  4. Walmart is definitely a place of interest in my West Texas town. Plenty of entertaining characters and unintentional humor. We also actually have a Pizza Hut here and I'm getting hungry......

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love your new header. as for GPS I know nothing about one and no desire to know about one since my desire is not to travel over 3 miles from home in the futcher.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I have a love/hate relationship with Walmart. The people are entertaining without a doubt. It's like a 24 hour sideshow. "Step right up! See all the world's geeks and freaks and those unique, right here under one roof! And the show is completely free!" On the other hand, the crowds make me grind my teeth and the rude people with their screaming kids and those idiots who can't shop without talking on their cell phones make me really want to assault somebody.

    I really do need to get a GPS. I've seen one in action and it's just a pretty handy little gadget. The wife says I could get lost in my own pockets. Sadly, it's true.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Well Donna, we like ours too. The handheld one is handier than the one in built into the dash of our Denali. You have to have the transmission in Park in order to enter destinations. The handheld one can be played with by Marilyn whilst I drive. That way she can have high tech help getting us lost.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Jim H.6:11 AM

    Yeah, I agree w/ Darev2005. I'd like to invent a cloaking device that would prevent anyone from using a cell phone inside a Wal Mart store.

    Hey Donna, what happened to your buds over on Tractor Tales? Most of the old-timers are gone, and a new bunch is in there. Kinda miss the wit and wisdom of Fawteen and ScottyHomey.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Jim, various trolls show up on Tractor Tales and cause people to lay low at times. Scotty is on Facebook, but doesn't say much. Fawteen still reads the board, because if you rattle his cage on Tales, he will answer.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Does your GPS have a name? Our first one was named Judy, now we have a Vera. My Dad has one named Gloria. I love our GPS too except sometimes they do really stupid things like take us up alleys and then onto the main road!

    ReplyDelete

I love comments!