Spot arrives

Well, I was going to go to Utah this weekend; but, everyone talked me out of it.  They tell me it's hot out.  When someone that has spent their whole life in the low desert tells you it's hot, it's time to pay attention.  If I were in some local in a foreign land told me not to go, for whatever reason, I'd definitely reconsider.  The story is that the best and only reasonable way to get to where I'm going is a disaster on a Friday night.  They thought I would be uncomfortable in the 107 degree air, 150 degree pavement while I sat in traffic that wasn't moving.  Well, I can see their point.  They suggested that I wait until October, when the temperature is more reasonable.  Point taken, I'm going to wait.

That said, I got out in the 107 degree air and purchased Spot.  Spot isn't a puppy, it's a GPS locator.  People can track me if I want them to.  I can also push the distress button and summon emergency services.  This could come in handy if I'm in an accident on some isolated road and I don't have cell service.  It also has a help button, that I can configure with a message and gets sent to the email address of my choosing.  Chances are, I would configure this to tell someone I need BMW roadside assistance...again, if I couldn't use my cell phone.  Unfortunately, there's no way for someone to communicate back with me.

So, spot is home now, strapped to my deck.  It's been there for the last hour or so.  Here's the map I have so far.  Spot started getting more accurate from it's first point; but, seems to have lost it's way after 4.  I'm actually somewhere between points 3 and 6.  This makes me wonder whether or not the emergency services folks get a more accurate display of Spot's location.  I suppose that if they looked at this map and took out the stray points they would be pretty darn close to where I actually am.

Go spot go!