SoCal November 2006, Preview

back to Pictures

IMG_6710.jpg (173kb) IMG_6712.jpg (222kb) IMG_6749.jpg (119kb) IMG_6773.jpg (204kb) IMG_6831.jpg (257kb)
IMG_6844.jpg (227kb) IMG_6867.jpg (106kb) IMG_6897.jpg (236kb) IMG_6898.jpg (245kb) IMG_6990.jpg (242kb)
IMG_7001.jpg (270kb)        

In early November 2006 we made a short trip to Southern California.  We visited La Jolla near San Diego and Disneyland in Anaheim.  The pictures above are a sampling of the trip, with more posted in the protected part of the website.

Even though the trip was over 400 miles one way, we decided to drive.  As usual, we used navigation software together with a GPS received to find our way through the maze of Los Angeles freeways.  On this trip, we used the DeLorme Street Atlas USA Plus software running on Bart’s PDA, the Dell Axim x51v, coupled to a GPS receiver via a Bluetooth interface.  The GPS was a Garmin GPS-10.  Incidentally, there is another version of the DeLorme software available, the DeLorme Street Atlas USA (without the Plus).

The DeLorme Street Atlas mapping software is a very good product overall, with lots of fun things that can be done in a very reasonably priced software package.  My only quibble with the software is that the maps are not entirely up-to-date.  Or, perhaps, it’s not so much the maps not being up-to-date, as some issues with the way that address searches are correlated to the maps.  Nevertheless, the DeLorme Street Atlas USA Plus mapping software is very useful for auto navigation, and is the highest value proposition available.

Here are some features of DeLorme Street Atlas USA:

  • The Plus version contains everything in the regular version plus extensive data import capability, 120 million U.S. and Canadian phone listings, and higher-end print and draw tools
  • Unlike other mapping products that license from the same restrictive mapping sources, DeLorme updates, manages, and produces its own maps and 4 million places of interest
  • Innovative GPS features: voice commands, spoken directions, automatic back-on-track re-routing with off-route distance settings, mobile map colors, and much more.

Both the DeLorme Street Atlas USA street map software and DeLorme Street Atlas USA Plus street map software are available from our little online store, at www.software-maps.com, where you can find many map software products.
If you have a Garmin GPS receiver, especially one of the type that can be easily attached to a windshield of a car, then there is a compelling alternative to the DeLorme Street Atlas products. It is the Garmin MapSource City Navigator North America NT 2011. It is designed specifically for Garmin's vehicle GPS devices. The Garmin MapSource City Navigator North America 2011 also boasts detailed information on highways, interstates, business roads, and residential roads, with such attributes as turn restrictions, roundabout guidance, speed categories, and other navigation details. In addition, the Garmin MapSource City Navigator North America 2011 offers automatic routing, so you can easily generate point-to-point routes in MapSource (on your PC) or on the compatible receivers. And thanks to the trip and waypoint management feature, you can also transfer waypoints, routes, and tracks between your Garmin GPS and PC.