The set-up:

It’s 1:30pm.  I’m out at Tanasbourne- Sunset Highway and 185th Ave.  Just finished my errands, although when I went to exchange my DVD player at Target, this particular location was out of replacements….so they called the Hillsboro Target and placed one on hold for me.  I would go pick it up tomorrow.

I have to be home at 2:00 because it’s early release day at the elementary school.  I know I can make it home from Sunset Highway in time, with time to spare even.  But then I get a wild hair….

Can I make it to the Hillsboro Target, run in and grab the DVD player, and make it home in under 30 minutes?

I decide to risk it.  I’m going for it.  I can make it, I know I can!  It’ll be tight though…

But after my second loooooong red light, I decide I better consult with my all-knowing phone.  (OK, we do have a Garmin GPS, but we don’t keep it in the car.  My phone, on the other hand, is almost always with me.  And if the GPS feature is available, why not use it whenever possible?)

First off, the map feature shows me (via red, green or yellow) if the main roads in the area are traveling at normal speed, slower speed, or jammed.  I check the surrounding area and it’s all green.  WHEW.

So I have the GPS locate me and I turn on the Navigation feature and point to the Hillsboro Target.  13 minutes it tells me.  I look at the alternate routes, they are all longer by 2-3 minutes.  OK- 13 minutes.  I can do that!

Then I start thinking….13 minutes there, 4 minutes in the store if I’m lucky, probably another 13 minutes home….I’d better check.  So at the next red light that’s what I do….ask my phone to navigate between the Hillsboro Target and Home.  Yep.  13 minutes it says.

And it was!

And I was surprised to learn that taking the backroads (River Road to Rosedale) is actually more minutes than staying on the main road.  As it was, I was lucky that I didn’t have to stop at any red lights, so I actually made it home in under 10 minutes.  I had time to spare.

WHEW!

I love my phone.  I liked that I was able to run my time-crunched plan by someone else, and get their take on it, even if it is just a GPS Navigation system giving me the number of miles and total minutes from Point A to Point B.