December 10, 2015. Madison, GA. Irma

Irma is our GPS. She's been with us about four years and has been pretty reliable. We've been from coast to coast and almost border to across the border and she has only had one hissy-fit when she came close to being replaced. At the last minute, she decided to come to her senses and we reinstated her into our menagerie of electronic gadgets and Irma stayed in the family. She does insist that we get to the city center of every via point we enter in our routes, and since we travel almost totally on back roads, and not the Interstates, she does want us to get the full scenic tour down "Main Street". Most times she has a "recalculating " tantrum until we can get past the last possible dirt road back to the via point and she realizes we are going ahead and not back. We talk to her like she understands, and on we go.
Our new phones have a talking map feature, so on our recent trip to Augusta, we had Irma and the Google Maps lady ( we haven't given her a legal name yet) both giving directions to Hobby Lobby at the same time and I couldn't figure out how to silence Google Lady, so it was quite a battle for a while. We arrived without incident and we're grateful for the assistance. For over 35 years Karen and I had travelled without a cell phone, without a GPS, with only a paper map and my firm belief that I knew where we were, where we were going and how to get there. How did we ever manage that?
Karen and I have done a lot of driving around this country. I can't estimate how many miles, but it's been a lot. We started our married life with a car trip from Colorado to Washington, DC the morning after our wedding and we have been driving ever since. We have been to every state but Alaska, have been to the four corners of the United States and the Four Corners Monument where Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona meet and we continue to explore as we seek to answer God's call on our lives. Karen has done most of the actual driving. I have done most of the travel planning and navigating and we are both content to fill those roles. The technical advances have certainly made travel easier and far less stressful than it was for those early "adventures".
We are grateful for Irma and her unnamed assistant. But most of all we thank our Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus and The Holy Spirit for the ultimate plan, the ultimate destination and the freedom we have to serve where we are led. How blessed, grateful and thankful we are.

Sent from my iPad