Update Your Map

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of NAVTEQ. All opinions are 100% mine.

I have to admit that I am not the best at keeping my car up to snuff. My sister is so hands on with that kind of thing. She changes her own oil, flushes her own transmission, and last weekend I watched her change her brake pads.

I will tell ya what I am good at though. I keep my GPS up to date. A lot of people don't consider updating their GPS to be a part of their car's upkeep routine. True, it doesn't tune up the vehicle itself, but regularly maintaining your GPS is important, and updating it when you work on your car, change your oil, or tune up, is a great way to work it into your routine. http://socialspark.com/metrics/click/post?slot_id=317662&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.updateyourmap.com

I can attest to how important it is to keep your GPS up to date. There have been several new roads and businesses that have opened up since I first got my GPS. If I was looking for Hawkinson Meadows Park on a system that hadn't been updated since I got mine, it wouldn't know what I was talking about. That's because Hawkinson Meadows Park wasn't built until last Summer. Ask a GPS from the Christmas before that to get you there and it won't know where to send you. That could mean you would miss out on the little league game you were trying to make at the baseball diamond there, or you could miss out on the play date with your niece at the playground area. Both are things I have used my GPS to get me to this park for! I can never remember which turn to take to get there, and why risk being late! If I hadn't updated my GPS from when I got it, I wouldn't have had it there for me when I needed it.

A new grocery store has opened up in a near by neighborhood. It is equally as far as the one I was going to before, just in another direction. The prices are the same and it would seem that I don't have a real reason to go to one over the other... ah, but I do. Looks like a lot of people haven't been to http://socialspark.com/metrics/click/post?slot_id=317662&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.updateyourmap.com to update their GPS, because they don't even know this grocery store is here! This place has less than half the traffic as the old place. I can get in and find a great parking space. I have never parked more that 3 spaces from the door any time that I have gone. I have never waited in line behind more that one person. The place is new, so its clean. The staff is new, so they are all friendly and in love with their jobs. Everything about it is so nice and neat, and I especially love that I don't have to fight any crowds. Notice that I didn't name the grocery store or the neighborhood. That's because I am keeping this little gem to myself, so unless you update your map - you won't know!

I can't tell ya how many times I have driven past a Walgreens and thought, "when did that get here?" Those things are springing up everywhere. Unless they are on a route you drive everyday, you might miss one opening up near you. That means that you could drive out of your way if you find yourself in need of a pharmacy while you are out and about. Now, I don't know about you, but I cannot afford to waste gas! Having an updated map will allow you to more effectively plan out your daily trips around town running errands. This can save you big bucks in gas by eliminating back tracking.

My mom is notorious for the back track. We always joke that she drives in figure 8's. She has a real aversion to technology. My dad has an updated GPS and he is so much more time efficient. He can plan his errands out by plotting out his course on his GPS. It saves him money in gas and time. He can line up all of his errands and hit them all on a single trip on the way home from work. He also changes his own brake pads. So, I guess my sister gets a little from him and so do I!