TeleNav still sucks ... and so does Mapquest

I have had GPS horrors before. Returning home from Pittsburgh was no exception. However, before there was the "return home", there was the "getting to" which also was eventful.

So, as my title says: In addition to TeleNav sucking, Mapquest sucks too. I suppose I'm just a glutton for punishment but printing out directions is the last thing I put on my agenda when I'm traveling. I did manage, Saturday evening, to print directions TO Pittsburgh, but I never did print the return directions. At any rate, Mapquest got me most of the way to Pittsburgh without incident, though it certainly didn't like sending me the most direct way (and I specifically tried to get it to do so). It also didn't know (or failed to inform me) that the exit I needed to take when I got to the city, was under construction, so I had to handle a detour. For those who have not visited Pittsburgh, I don't think there is a single straight avenue in the entire downtown area, and Penn Avenue seems to wrap around half the city. So let's just say that I got to see Duquesne University at 7 PM at night. Problem is, Duquesne University was nowhere where I needed to be. Fortunately, TeleNav actually helped me out of that predicament, after 45 minutes of wandering aimlessly through every backstreet in Pittsburgh known to man. So much for making good time. My bad.

Fortunately, the meeting went mostly according to plan with minimal angst. Wish my traveling had been so simple.

Then it was time to return home ... at 6 PM in the evening (yet another story*). I paid my parking bill, climbed into the company van, and went topside. Turned on my Blackberry, clicked over to TeleNav and started it up. Only to be told that the signal was too weak and I needed to move to an "open area". So essentially ... I needed to leave the city before I could use the GPS system ... that I needed to work properly so that I could leave the city in the first place. Jimminy.

So I hop on some street and it takes me to a highway, which of course at 6PM is loaded with rush hour traffic. So things start moving at a crawl. Still nothing from the GPS, signal is too weak, so I keep traveling. Eventually get to a fairly open area, pull off the highway (because I'm not programming this thing in rush hour traffic) and set up the stupid GPS. Turn it on and receive directions to HEAD BACK THE WAY I JUST CAME! Figures. So I start heading back the way I came, get told to get onto another highway, under heavy construction of course, and then exit shortly thereafter. It sends me down a road, has me DO A U-TURN, and get BACK ON THE HIGHWAY I had just been on. Sure enough, a few minutes later it's telling me to get back off the exit I had just gotten off of to turn the GPS on and get directions. Of course, TeleNav is calling it "Exit 5A" and the sign is calling it "Exit 67". At this point I'm damning every TeleNav employee to hell.

So I turn the damn thing off, keeping heading out on that highway (because it's obviously taking me out of the city) and see a sign for the airport, and I head towards it. Funnily enough, it's the road I need to take for a large portion of my trip.

Blind Luck: 1
TeleNav: 0

Of course, that wasn't my only trouble with TeleNav on the trip. The other fun part was when I had about three miles before a turn-off and TeleNav lost connection with its server and was down for 45 minutes (which means it wasn't giving me directions). If it had not been for a friend and Google Maps on their computer, I may not be here writing this. That was also oodles of fun.

I swear, I'm never going to use that damn GPS function ever again. I even went so far as to complain to our purchasing agent to buy some damn road atlases and put them in our vehicles.


*I love when your boss comes to you at 4:30 on a Friday, says he won't be going and that you're going to give his poster. Problem is, his poster session is 7 hours after you planned on checking out of your hotel and start your trek home. It's also half a dozen hours after any remotely interesting talk in your area was going occur, leaving you to sit there bored out of your skull the entire time. Oh, and when you call the hotel to extend your stay a day ... they're booked solid. Lovely. The icing on the cake comes when a whole three people in the two hour span show up at the poster to talk with you.

ASM General Meeting Blog Diary - Day Zero

Nothing doing with the American Society of Microbiology General Meeting today, but I did have to travel to Philadelphia. Man, what a trip. First, let me say that I hate Mapquest. I didn't pay attention when I printed out the directions, so I get half way and then I notice that every major city I have to go through, Mapquest has directed me around. So I have to get off one highway, get onto another, get off that one, get back onto the main one. And I have to do this three or four times. That is a pain in the tookus, especially when I'm traveling alone, the roads are crowded, and I have to now read directions and drive?

Ain't gonna happen.

Fortunately for me, I was just recently handed my BlackBerry, and it has an application called TeleNav on it.

TeleNav sucks.

Hard.

So I figure that there is no way I'm going to read directions while driving through major cities, so I pull into a rest stop, I pull out my BlackBerry, open up TeleNav and punch in the address to my hotel. TeleNav tells me to get back on the road and all is good for the first 30 miles or so. Then, as I'm approaching the first major city on my route, it directs me to a highway that I've never heard of. I figure it knows what it's doing, so I follow it. About 10 minutes later and I'm freaking downtown! I'm not on the highway, I'm on the side streets of a major city, and it's freaking packed. Kids are graduating from college and there are tons of people in the streets, which means there are a ton of cars ... and my GPS is navigating me through this crap ... constantly telling me of accidents 5 miles up the road and that I may encounter some congestion. Whiskey! Tango! Foxtrot! What are the hundred cap-n-gown wearing kiddos walking on the curb, if not congestion?!?!?!!!!11!!!

So, I finally get back to the main highway (why it needed to take me downtown to get back on the major highway I have no freaking idea), and everything proceeds smoothly until I hit the next major city, and before I know it ... I'm downtown again! Jimminy Crunchy Fishsticks! So I spend another hour and a half navigating another downtown traffic mess.

I finally make it to Philly, and I'm about 10 miles away from the hotel. What should TeleNav do? Oh, and I expected this would happen ... it freezes up on me. Now I'm on the last stretch of I-95 and I have no idea where the heck I'm going. Oy vey! The hate, it burns my brain!

Despite TeleNav's best efforts to kill me I eventually make it to my hotel, to find out that they don't have a parking garage (Yah, I guess I should have checked that ... grr). And I also find out that I left all my forms at work on my desk! Call work, the secretary faxes them to the hotel (so I can hand in my tax exemption form), and I have to pay $24/day for valet parking (I better get reimbursed for that!).

Get my crap up to the hotel room and inquire about dinner. Fortunately there was stuff down the block, and I came across a nice little Thai/Vietnamese place. Ordered some Pho (it's pronounced "Fuh" as if you're about to tell someone to do something really nasty to themselves) and it was just like I remembered it, which was excellent*. I hadn't had Pho since graduate school (some five odd years ago at this point). Reminded me of some of the not-so-good 'ol days. Heck, the best part of those days was the section of town called "Little Vietnam" with the excellent restaurants, shopping markets, and bubble tea shops.

So, while the day sucked it ended on a good note. I just might have Pho tomorrow night too. So, that was Day Zero. Tomorrow, ASM Workshop day, where I have to wake up at the buttcrack of dawn to get a bus to get to Temple University for the class, because ASM isn't offering shuttle service tomorrow to the workshops. Grrr!


*If you've never had Pho, start simple ... flank steak and brisket. You can eventually move up to the tendon and tripe.