A quick informal update: I'm en route to visit family, risking all for my first solo automobile adventure in more than 10 years. The how, why, and wherefore is a story all its own.
Today, however, I want to give a big shout-out to CoPilot Live, sponsors of TBEX '10. During the conference, I was the lucky winner of their GPS mapping product for smartphones.
Before I hit the road yesterday, I installed the app on my iPhone 4 and downloaded maps for Illinois, where my travels are focused, as well as maps for contiguous states Indiana and Kentucky, where my wanderlust may take me.
Two weeks ago, when I was in the car with my husband on the same route I'm now traveling alone, I was kicking myself for not having downloaded CoPilot Live before we set out. With two iPhones and a Blackberry between us, we were pretty much SOL without data service in the rural areas we visited.
On the first leg of my drive yesterday, CoPilot Live worked in the background to keep me on track while I listened to Alexander McCall Smith's latest serial novel, Corduroy Mansions on Audible.com. Granted, the route was pretty simple at that stage, a straight shot south through farms and small towns on Illinois Route 47 and I-57.
The real test comes today, as I head further south into the hills and hollers of the Shawnee National Forest, where I expect patchy cell service and long stretches without cellular data. The beauty of CoPilot Live is that maps are resident on the iPhone and work with the GPS independently of cell data availability.
My poor directional sense is legendary, but I have high hopes of finding my cousins' rural homes on the first try.
CoPilot Live 8 is available for the iPhone, iPad, Android, and Windows Mobile devices. A desktop management program runs under Windows only.
The iPhone app starts at $19.99, but there is a free 30-day trial so you can test the product thoroughly before you commit.
