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We’ve traveled a lot but we’ve never used GPS. There was always an additional charge for it when renting a car, and, quite honestly, I’m a map-person, I love maps, and I’m also a great navigator (aka nagrivator).

The car we are currently renting came with GPS, it was a free upgrade and we were stuck with it. We didn’t use it at all, until we were lost someplace in the Italian Dolomites (Alps). The GPS Lady saved us and we made it safely to our hotel in time for dinner. Whew!

From that point on we’ve used it constantly. The GPS Lady has become somewhat of a traveling companion. Irritating a solid 10% of the time, but quite pleasurable 90%. However, those percentages are rapidly changing. Did we make her mad? Did she drink too much vino? Or is she just bored with her day to day in-dash existence?

Some notes:

• She’s very polite. Never swears. Takes criticism with grace.
• We originally thought she was British, but later decided she was Russian – she’s definitely not Italian.
• When she says LOAD, she really means ROAD (this is important).
• She loses her mind when you’re driving in a tunnel. The longer the tunnel, the crazier she gets. If in a tunnel, don’t listen to a word she says; ignore her instructions to make a u-turn or any turn for that matter.
• She falls asleep at the most inappropriate times, and then wakes up with a flurry of instructions. Always scares the hell out of us!
• She enjoys roadside breaks as much as we do, but suggests them at the silliest moments, usually just as we are leaving an auto-café (having just finished our espressos). “Hello? GPS Lady? Having trouble going back to work, are you?”
• We’re happy to call the GPS Lady our friend and we’ll miss her after our trip concludes.

Meanwhile, enjoy a few of our travel photos below.

PS: We're very lucky that Happy Mango takes us to Italy on a buying trip, and soon you'll see some wonderful new items which will be available on our webstore ... stay tuned!