I'm off to New Haven for a conference in honor of the 10th anniversary of the Yale Information Society Project. I was very involved in the early days — I think I spoke at the first three or four conferences, but have been less involved recently.
The folks at the Yale ISP were kind enough to recently to make me an 'Affiliated Fellow' of the Yale ISP, so I hope to be involved more in the future.
I like to going to Yale events, as they are both substantive and nostalgic for me (Yale '82, Yale Law '87)…but I HATE the journey. Flying into New Haven is expensive and usually involves a long layover in Philly followed by a wind-up plane. Flying into Hartford gets you an easy drive…but the two direct planes a day are too early and too late, and why change planes just to drive afterward?
Flying into New York is quickest and cheapest…but then there's the land portion. CT Limo is so appalling that I vowed never to use it again after last time. And the time before. And the time before that. So this time I'm going to drive.
The trouble with driving is that I get lost. Easily. I was never the most directionally intuitive driver, and I've gotten softer from years of being married to a very reliable navigator. I don't own a GPS, although I'm thinking about it. I've asked for one in the rental car as a sort of, well, test drive, to see how I like it. (The other trouble is that I'm landing at 3pm, and will hit the Friday afternoon rush more than likely, but there's not a lot I can do about that.)
You will love GPS. Try to get a Garmin one. They have touchscreen and are very intuitive. The problem with a competitor, Neverlost in Hertz (I think a Magellan), is its button-based menu system which probably is fine for experienced users but seemed odd to me in a rental. That may wear you down on the whole GPS experience. It’d be fine for this trip, and you really will be glad you use it, but it may scare you off buying one and it should not since easy to use models are out there. You travel enough that you should own an easily portable one, such as the Garmin Nuvi 200, for like $150 at WalMart. You will not believe you did not own one before.
Or better yet a Garmin nuvi 250 for only $130 from Amazon…better just because it includes Canada and AK (the nuvi 200 and 200W are lower 48) just in case you visit Gov. Palin or Sen. Stevens. I bought the non-portable equivalent of this model 2 years ago for over $800. These basic units do all you would need and are amazing.
http://www.amazon.com/Garmin-250-3-5-Inch-Portable-Navigator/dp/B001ADUCTU/ref=dp_cp_ob_e_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1226676866&sr=1-7
I’ve always carried maps in any car that I drive for any length of time, and I’m lucky that I always seem to know know which way to turn to face north. I buy new Rand McNally atlases every other year, and I even learned how to navigate by triangulation (I was in the navy). Having said that, a portable GPS is nice to have, and I sometimes carry mine in the car and use it while driving. I am not afraid to stop and ask for directions if my maps don’t have the answers. How do you get around Miami without maps and a GPS? My wife’s new car has a GPS map, but she barely knows how to use it. I note, however, that when I got in the car the other day, the map screen was on. Maybe she is learning how to use the GPS.
Why not fly to Newark and then take the train? It’s all connected and really easy. (Take monorail from EWR to airport station. Hop on next New Jersey transit train – fairly frequent – to Newark or NY Penn Station. Then change to Amtrak or maybe even Metro North. No car needed and scheduling probably fairly flexible.)
I found the best way to use a GPS is to turn the volume all the way down. Then I can glance at it when I need guidance, and not be interrupted otherwise. This is pretty useful when I more or less know the general direction I’m headed, but can use occasional help on the details.
I’m staying some ways out of town, everything convenient was booked for Parents Weekend, so the train option seemed less attractive as I still had to get from the station to the hotel.
But the drive was so horrible — the plane was very late and I got the full rush, in the rain, making a 1.5 hour journey more like a 3.5 hour journey — that the train is looking better for next time.
The GPS, however, performed pretty well.
You are like a magnet for airplane inconveniences. You should come with a warning sign for other passengers to opt off.