Eco-friendly is a GPS navigation system

I have lived in the Portland Metropolitan area all my life.  It could be told that I know my way around and that I even impress some folks with my knowledge of shortcuts.  But as it turns out, at times I get lost.  I get lost a lot.  I reach an unfamiliar neighborhood toward the end of a sunless day and every turn I make I get more and more turned around.

Now, I'm not necessarily a techno-phobe, but I had played with GPS navigation systems before and I found them more burdensome and frustrating than getting lost was and so I went for years printing out maps with step by step instructions to my appointments and comparable properties.

At the end of 2005 I bought a TomTom (this was prior to the super cute ‘Steve Steve' etc. commercials that came out).  How on earth did I ever do this job without one?  I must save a gallon+ of gas and reams of paper a week with this gadget. 

I'm sure that there are other GPS systems out there that have similar attributes to the TomTom, but this is the one I know and love and so I'm going to rave about some of my favorite features for a moment. 

• Touch screen navigation - This is so easy while on the road.  You never have to take the TomTom out of it's charger cradle
• Voice options - If I get tired of the guy from Australia telling me where to go, I can change to the English girl or change languages all together (it seems silly, but when you hear this person's voice more than anyone else's throughout the day, it is a nice option)
• Long battery life - Although my model isn't designed to be a handheld, if I take a different car on inspections, I don't need the charger.  I have yet to loose a charge after having it on for hours.
• 3-D View - This is what I felt was missing in other GPS systems that I had seen.  The voice commands in addition to the 3-D View of where you are and where you should be going is a perfect combination.
• Customer Service - My poor TomTom took a nasty spill and the company replaced it with no questions asked.

For more information, check out the specks here: http://www.tomtom.com/ 

Please note that I am not affiliated with TomTom in any way, I just simply found a product that I like....