Weddings bring us together
Ah, weddings. Love in the air, food in abundance, good music, and old friends. It's easy to love weddings. It's not so easy to find your way cross-country to a wedding. Unless of course you have a helper by the name of Garmin. Full name: Garmin StreetPilot c330 portable car navigation system. But I'll just call "him" the c330 today. "He" was, essentially, my date to my good friend's wedding.
 Meet the Garmin c330. Small, light, bright, and fun to use. |
A short while ago, I had to go down to Charleston, S.C. to attend the wedding of my long-time friend, Larissa, who is the only person I've kept in touch with from my high school. Apparently, I'm the only person she's kept in touch with, too, so I was considered a pretty "special" guest. In other words, I had to be there. After a small airline snafu, it looked as though I would be driving the eight hours down to South Carolina. I'd never been to Charleston, and hadn't attempted a road trip that long by myself for many a year. The last two times I'd tried getting someplace new, I'd used a printout from an online route-maker. One time I ran into construction (and a dizzying detour); the other time, the directions were just completely unclear. Both times I got lost, and the fear, frustration, and anxiety that goes along with getting lost I haven't forgotten.
This time, I wasn't taking any chances. I had to find my way to the hotel, then to the rehearsal dinner, to the shopping district, the church, the reception, and a friend's house just outside of town — not to mention all the stops along the way. That's a lot of map printouts, and more route calculation mistakes than I care to think about. Enter the c330.
Navigation in the blink of an eye
I picked up the c330 from one of the product buyers here at Crutchfield who had been doing some preliminary test-drives with it. He first gave me the unit and its mounting hardware. The c330 comes with a very sturdy suction-cup windshield bracket that quickly attaches to your windshield. It makes viewing, reaching, and using the unit very easy from the driver's seat. Then he started rummaging for the manual. But by the time he found it a minute later, I'd already found my way through the menus and calculated a route to my hotel in Charleston. Piece of cake. I had never used a navigation device before, and had heard horror stories about cumbersome, clunky boxes with ironically unnavigable menus. Boy, navigation systems have come a long way.
 The c330 comes with a secure-fitting windshield mount, built-in speakers, built-in rechargeable battery, built-in maps, and a power cord. |
The unexpected fun-factor
It's difficult to avoid toying with the c330, despite its greater worth as a navigation tool. The display is cheerfully bright, and the icons are cartoonishly cute. The touchscreen is highly responsive and commands are lightning-fast. You can choose in which accent or language you want to listen to the voice prompts, too. I enjoyed listening to the British accent, though I could have chosen the American accent, or, if I was feeling really brave, Norsk or Suomi. If you just like maps, like me, well, you have an endless supply of nerdy enthrallment. It can be equally fun to see how many features you can access without cracking the owner's manual. You might be surprised how far you get.
