When making maps for your handheld, you have the option of having a map with only regional detail or a map with street detail. For long trips, you can save quite a bit of space by using regional detail for the basic trip. You can add maps with street detail for areas that you know you will need that higher degree of detail. The route I took from Boston to Villanova was 11 mg with street detail but only 6 mg with regional detail. Quite a savings of memory!
While at Villanova, we thought we would take a day trip to Gettysburg. We decided where we wanted to go, made a route on the laptop and we were flawlessly guided to our destination. What is very impressive is how perfectly the GPS unit works. It quickly logs on to the satellites and begins guiding you to your destination with a gentle voice giving you instructions. Of course the mapping software is in my opinion, second to none. DeLorme recently released their new mapping software, Street Atlas USA® 2005 Plus on DVD. This is by far their best rendition of their famous Street Atlas USA.
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With a very fast start up time for Street Atlas USA, you are greeted with a welcoming screen that allows you to read about “what’s new”, learn the basics, help topics, and online support and updates. Of course you can disable this start up screen and get back to it at any time by clicking on help.
Street Atlas USA 2005 Plus is extremely intuitive. One can easily be up and running in minutes testing out all the features, looking up places to visit and making routes that you will easily follow. One thing that I liked was the high visibility of exit numbers on highways and labeling for dual-named roads. It was a welcome addition!
As I started to plan my trip from Boston to Pennsylvania, I immediately noticed that the new roads that were in my hometown were on the map. I was impressed because they were less than a year old (of course my wife laughs at me)! Several new restaurants are in my area and all were included. It is apparent that DeLorme has made extraordinary efforts to keep the map data and the POI (points of interest) up to date. We found this very useful in finding places to eat and motels to stay in while we were on the road.