Will your GPS lead you astray?

Can you trust your GPS?

This week end, I took a quick trip to South Carolina to meet up with our buddy who runs an auction in Georgia. With our ebay business, we end up with excess stuff that has to be disposed of in some way, and our Georgia auctioneeer friend has been a good fit for this purpose, benefitting both parties.

I like the chance to hit the road once in a while. It would have been nice to have a companion, but I am also perfectly content to travel alone.
Every time I go off on the road by myself, my husband's sense of direction stays home, and boy do I miss it! He seldom gets lost or confused about where he is headed, and can easily get back to the road after a little side trip. This time, though, a GPS unit was along for the journey to send me back on my way after a detour. Anyone who has one of these will sing its praises. They are fun and useful if you are looking for a coffee shop, or museum or other points of interest.

This morning, I used it to find a coffee shop. Since last fall, I have been buying my coffee from s small batch roaster in my area, and have gotten totally spoiled with a strong fresh pot every day at home.
It took me longer to get to it than I anticipated, but a good cup of coffee is worth it to me, and finding one is not always easy to do when out of my home territory. The drive was nice; I even passed a Harris Teeter store along the way, (good grocery stores are missing in my neck of the soybean fields) and I thought that I might get back to it for some road snacks once I had a good strong dose of coffee in my cup holder. The drive took me quite a ways farther before I finally turned left into a shopping center where the shop was located.

Like I said, the drive was longer than I expected to the coffee shop, and once there, the barrista told me that I was way on the other side of town from where I started. He poured me a large cup of Sumatran and I continued on my way.
Once I was back in the drivers seat, I used the GPS again to locate a gas station, and turned left out of the shopping center to get to my next destination, guided by my faithful navigator.

To my surprise, about a half mile down the road from my coffee shop was an intersection that I had gone through on my way over, but the GPS had me turn right instead of go straight, which would have been much faster, and at least 8 miles shorter!

Did Wal Mart pay the GPS company to steer clueless drivers past its stores or something? Why on earth would this guide take me so far out of my way? It does ask if you want the fastest or shortest route, but I don't recall the scenic option.

I am puzzled. Although we have been using this unit for several months, we have learned to operate it through trial and error. There isn't much of an owners manual, except on a CD which I finally put into the computer today, but naturally my questions are not part of the instructions.

It is all a part of the adventure of life, even if the high tech leaves me puzzled.