My Garmin device, an Explore 2 (basic model that I mostly use for navigation and basic bike computer utilities), was several software updates and at least one map update out of date, so I did all of the upgrades yesterday. The map update disabled the current US map, and the new map installation aborted before it was completely installed. I didn't know it until I was en route to the No-Pace Ride I'd scheduled for today, and couldn't see the route, and got the message that the maps I had on the GPS (I later found they covered parts of Canada and Mexico) didn't include any of US roads smaller than the Interstate Highways (so I saw the NJ Turnpike when I crossed it, but otherwise the map was as blank as the are outside the Other Mother's house in Coraline [and if you don't know the reference, go read the book; it's worth it, despite Neil Gaiman]).
It was a non-crisis, as I know this route well enough to do it with no prompting (although I will need prompting for a ride I'm leading later this week). Still, The Excellent Wife (TEW), who was on the ride, had brought her second-best GPS as well as her primary one, and lent that to me so I had something. We DID find the route on it, and it DID have the prompts, although it didn't have all the special settings I have set up on my devices*.
*It doesn't surprise you for a minute that I have special settings on all my devices, does it?
I can never tell how many are going to come out for these No-Pace Rides. Today, I had fifteen.
We did that same route I always do for these No-Pace Rides - I can't link to today's ride page for reasons to be described shortly (that's pretty heavy-handed foreshadowing, isn't it), but you can see it at this link. Twenty-one miles, and flat.
Usually the faster folks disappear off the front, but they were better-behaved (I guess) today. We mostly stayed together around the course, including the dodgy turn at George's Road and Culver.
Shortly after that, I looked down at the GPS I'd borrowed from TEW to see a "low battery" message, and by the time we got to the stop at the McCaffreys on Southfield, the screen was blank.
Oh, well. I know the route.
And back we came on Cranbury Station Road. I had one complain that she'd be slow in the heat and falling off the back, but she and another rider got chatty, and within the bounds of safety on that road, had a social ride all the way back to the start.
I really enjoyed that the group stayed together, and people appeared to get to ride with different companions throughout the ride. Despite the heat, we had a good time, and folks made appropriate noises like they might want to come out again.
I rode home from Cranbury, and went to the internet to try to find out why the map wasn't showing on my GPS, but there was little help to find... except for a reference to making sure the correct map was enabled in Garmin Express. I launched that on my laptop, connected up the misbehaving device... and saw that the US map was not enabled! I had to download it again, but on restart thereafter, my little street at home showed on the map, and the device behaved on a short around-the-block ride.
But with all this, I'm thinking I may ask pal Rickety about his experience with a Wahoo device.
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