Tag: rv

The Untimely Passing of NAVI, Our Garmin RV GPS

It is with a broken heart—and a slightly raised eyebrow—that I must announce that on March 6th, 2026, NAVI, our beloved Garmin RV GPS, passed away unexpectedly. This was the newest GPS I’ve ever purchased, which somehow makes the loss sting even more. I have ten‑year‑old units still operating like crusty old Marines, but the young one? Gone too soon.

I’m saddened, yes. But if I’m being honest, I’m also annoyed. And disappointed. And maybe just a little betrayed.

I’ve owned Garmin units since the days when the screen looked like a tiny cathode‑ray tube television—the old StreetPilot series with a display roughly the size of a postage stamp. From there I graduated through the nüvi era, collecting them like Pokémon, each one promising to be “the one” that would finally get me from Point A to Point B without drama.

Anyone who ever owned an early Garmin will still twitch involuntarily at the memory of the dreaded voice intoning, “Recalculating…”
And then there were the loops. Oh, the loops. The endless, hopeless, maddening loops where it would try to recalculate, fail, try again, fail again, and eventually give up entirely—usually at the worst possible moment. The only solution was the classic Garmin reboot ritual: pull over, shut it off, turn it back on, and hope the satellites were feeling generous that day.

And yet, despite all the cursing, I kept buying the next one. New features. New promises. New hope. Garmin was the toxic relationship I just couldn’t quit.

Then, about eight years ago, when we started our RV lifestyle, Garmin introduced the RV‑specific units. Finally—something designed to keep us from wedging our home under a 12‑foot bridge or being routed down a goat path masquerading as a county road. We’ve had our share of “adventures,” but I can only imagine the chaos we would’ve endured without that extra layer of protection.

So yes, it has always been a love/hate relationship. But watching RVers on YouTube navigate the country using Apple Maps or Google Maps on their phones made our Garmin feel like the best thing since sliced bread. Our RV Garmin let me enter our height, length, and weight so it could steer us clear of low clearances and questionable bridges—things Google Maps doesn’t even pretend to care about.

Which brings us back to NAVI.

NAVI was supposed to be the chosen one. The upgrade. The reliable partner. The fresh‑out‑of‑the‑box prodigy destined to guide us safely across America.

Instead, NAVI has left us far too soon, leaving behind only a blank screen, a faint smell of disappointment, and a long list of routes that will now forever remain uncalculated.

A Mock Eulogy for NAVI

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to mourn the loss of NAVI, who served bravely, if not always accurately, in the line of duty.

NAVI was born in a factory somewhere far away, shipped lovingly in a cardboard box, and adopted into our RV with high hopes and unrealistic expectations. NAVI promised to guide us, protect us, and keep us from becoming a YouTube cautionary tale titled “RVers Attempt Low Bridge—Instant Regret.”

NAVI tried. Truly.
But like a gifted child who peaked in kindergarten, NAVI struggled under the weight of its own potential.

It leaves behind:

  • A power cable that still works
  • A suction cup mount that never really did
  • And two RVers who now must face the terrifying prospect of choosing a replacement

May NAVI’s circuits rest cool and its firmware finally find peace.

Amen.

The Moral of the Story: Technology Is a Frenemy

If there’s a lesson in all this, it’s that technology is both our greatest helper and our most unpredictable saboteur. It promises convenience, safety, and simplicity—right up until the moment it decides to give up, glitch out, or die quietly in the middle of a perfectly good travel day.

We rely on it. We curse at it. We replace it.
And then, inevitably, we trust the next shiny device all over again.

Because in the end, technology is like a mischievous travel companion:
You can’t live without it, but you probably shouldn’t trust it with your life.

Rest in peace, NAVI.
Your successor has big shoes to fill—and hopefully a longer lifespan.

Day 3079

Fall 2024

Day 2574

Today’s objective was to be packed up and ready to roll by 10:00, and I have always said it is great to have objectives! Needless to say we failed to meet our objective, but we did give it one hell of a go. And if it had not been for a small wiring issue with Ruby we would have met our objective, but when you stop and consider that today was the first time that Ruby has hooked up with Thunder I guess a few little issues could be expected. Remember that Ruby had a new towbar connection, a transferred supplementary brake system, then has been wired to mirror the lights of Thunder, all completed this summer but never tested until today.

But lets look back over the last week with what has been happening, a week ago was the closing day at LHR (Lake Huron Resort), and the day seemed to go along well, with only a few people picking the last day to close and winterize their trailers, and other than a couple of slide-out issues and one roofing company all went well. We managed to get all of the final pump-outs done on the south side of the park by 5:00 o’clock and by 5:30 we had washed out the honey wagon for the end of the year. We had already been changing the oil in most of the small motors like lawn movers and such and winterized everything that needed to be winterized like the power washer. So we are in good shape to start the winterizing of the park which should start in earnest tomorrow morning.

Tuesday morning and we made a run at getting the remaining customer trailers on our winterizing list completed, and while we did not complete the whole list we knocked off about twenty units, getting us down to just single digits left. It was a cool day with periods of drizzle followed by sunshine, but not enough rain to effect our procedure. Tuesday is normally the day that we shut the water off to the park but Richard decided to be kind to the work-campers and postpone the water shut down until Thursday.

Because we didn’t have enough going on this week already, we have purchased a Lazy-Boy power reclining loveseat to replace our jackknife couch which was part of the original coach furniture. it had never been comfortable and we have been looking to replace it for a long time. But today we had to rent a U-Haul trailer and drive to Listowel to pick it up, then unload it and wrangle it into the coach. We have also decided to get rid of the recliner that I have used for the last seven years, to better accommodate the new position of the television. So at the end of the evening there was a jackknife couch on one side of the coach and a relining love seat on the other, removal of the jackknife looks to be a little more complicated.

Wednesday morning we completed our winterizations of trailers and then spent time preparing some of the open park sites for incoming trailers, the shop was cleaned and we tried to make good use of the empty garbage bins. Later that afternoon Miss Laurie & I headed to Stratford for dinner with Matt & Sarah, the first time we had gotten together this year, it was a lovely evening and it was great to catch up this years events and to compare plans for the winter. The drive back from Stratford was our first real test of the headlamps that we had installed on Ruby to replace the old rusted factory headlamps, and I was pleased with the increased visibility. Because the back of Ruby was partially loaded to travel the headlamp alignment seemed a touch high.

Thursday morning and we have shut the water off to the park, today we drain the cold water pressure tanks and the hot water tank, and then we are able to pressurize the water system. We use a pair of air compressors to built up 40 psi of air in the storage tanks, then we pressurize the park waterlines in the park and walk the park draining the water from every water tap on every post. This a long slow process as we run each tap until we get only air, then move to the next post and water tap, and after we have touched every tap we repeat the procedure a second and third time. This is a very critical part of the winterizing as water left in a water line or tap will freeze and break, which would be expensive and time consuming to repair in the spring. Today we completed the northside of the park, and I have more than doubled my daily step count.

We enjoyed dinner with Rich & Bonnie this evening, the end of a multiple year working arrangement, they have became good friends and we will continue to stay in touch as time moves on. We have enjoyed our time at LHR (Lake Huron Resort) and as I have said multiple times, 80% of the people are wonderful, but that leaves 20% of the people that are maybe not so wonderful. The issue is that that the 20% of the people consumed 80% of our time and effort, which is why we say that we are just peopled out and need a break.

Friday morning and we are back at winterizing the south side of the park, but we are having an issue with pressure (actually the lack of pressure), which means that we have a leak that we have to address before we can complete our task. The water line on the east row has a leak near site 218 which we need to expose and repair before we can flush the waterlines, this leak was from corrosion and with the replacement of some fittings we were able to build pressure allowing us to complete our winterizing of the south side water system. We shuffled some trailers into sites for the winter, and completed the winterization of the swimming pool, laundry equipment, and washrooms. The pool building was closed up for the winter and we completed a final check of multiple areas of the park, And I headed back to the coach to continue our packing process, and an early evening.

Saturday and it is packing day, the basement of the coach is loaded up, the freshly cleaned barbeque, our beaver mascot, camp chairs and the like. It is like a big game of Tetris every time we pack, I’m also packing the back of Ruby for the first time which is taking some time. But by the end of the day, I’m feeling pretty good about the process and today is the day to remove the jackknife couch. This piece of furniture was built y the coach manufacturer and when we got right to it was not as difficult as expected, the removal of a few bolts it came apart in four main pieces, and after seeing how it was constructed it was no wonder it was so bad to sit or sleep on,

Sunday and our final push to complete the disassemble of the site, loading of Ruby and putting my tools into the basement except the ones I needed to place the Lazy-Boy recliner into its position on the slide out platform. because it is larger that the original jackknife it is going to take some planning to make it work, but the added comfort will make it all worth while. Richard gave me the time I needed to get this all handled, and by three o’clock we were headed to Woodstock for by brother Scott’s 60th birthday and to see my family before heading off for the winter, Ruby is fully packed other that roof and bike racks but that is part of my Monday morning tasks. We returned to the coach by 9:30 and decided to turn in early in anticipation of our first fall travel day.

Monday morning, roof rack on Ruby, kayaks on the roof rack, the bike rack with our old bikes on Ruby’s trailer hitch and we are ready to crank up Thunder and proceed to move from our site, a dump of the tanks and we are ready to attach Ruby to the back of Thunder for the first time. And as simple as it sounds remember this is a new tow bar setup, new wiring, new supplementary brake mounts, and none of this had been tried or tested. And as in true life there were a few issues, The towbar attached perfect, the brake system attached properly, but during the light check I was having some issues, nothing serious but it appeared to be an issue with the convertor on the coach. Thunder uses a system where the turn signal bulbs are separate from the brake light bulbs, while Ruby uses the same bulb for brake and turn signal, I will discover later that it was a frayed wire causing the issue, but that will be the next blog.

Oh ya we pulled out of LHR (Lake Huron Resort) just a few moments late.