The first thing I noticed when I got off the plane in Halifax was the smell of the salt air. I got my rental car and headed off to my AirBnB in Grand Lake. I used my phone Google Maps to find it. The roads were very winding and hilly and it took me longer than the 12 minutes from the airport that they said it would The accommodations were very good and I was tired from a long day of travelling so I fell asleep quickly and slept hard. I woke up about 5:30 AM and decided to hit the road for the 3-hour drive to Prince Edward Island.
When I picked up the car I saw it had some kind of navigation system, but I was too tired to figure it out. Now that it was morning, so I thought I could sort it out. I had to download an App to talk to the car's system. OK, fine. But it wouldn't connect. Weird. OK, fine, I will just continue with my phone Maps. I got partway down the road when my GPS signal got lost. OH CRAP! I knew I was coming up on an important intersection and I had NO way of knowing which way to turn. I was panicking! Luckily, I saw a Tim Horton's just past the intersection so I decided to pull in there, have some breakfast, calm down, and sort everything out. Before entering the restaurant, I thought I would try connecting to the car's system again. My phone flickered then shut itself off. Not just the screen off, but shut OFF. I tried pushing the ON button. Nothing. I remembered this happened to me once before and I had to push and hold the on/off button and the volume down button simultaneously for several seconds. Nothing. Oh, double crap! Now I not only have no navigation system on the car, I have nothing! All my reservations were in the phone, all my Maps were downloaded (in case of bad GPS – I guess that didn't work so well for me), my flights were in my phone, my LIFE is in that phone! PANIC!!
I went into the restaurant and ordered breakfast. I needed to calm down and figure this out. I saw two middle-aged men sitting at a nearby table, both on their cell phones. It is amazing how brave one can be in a crisis situation. I went over, apologized for interrupting their coffee and asked (almost demanded) them to Google how to troubleshoot my phone. Jerry scooted over for me to sit down while Brian offered sympathy over my dilemma. Jerry Googled the problem. It said to push and hold the on/off button and the volume down button simultaneously for several seconds. I said I already tried that. Rather than simply handing the phone back and shooing me away, he took my phone in his left hand and continued to hold the buttons, while continuing to Google search with his right hand on his own phone. While he was doing his search they were both giving me very detailed instructions on how to get to PEI. They even told me where to find a Superstore in Truro, where I could buy a new phone, if necessary. After about 2 minutes of holding the buttons down, my phone vibrated to life! 2 minutes! That is a lot longer than the 10-15 seconds the troubleshooting recommended. I was so happy I hugged them both! They were a very good first impression on the friendliness I was to encounter on the rest of my trip. Thank you, Jerry and Brian.
I was in a much better mood. My stomach was full and my phone was working again. I got back in the car and decided to try again at syncing the phone App to the car. I uninstalled the first download, reinstalled it and Voila it connected. Maybe it just needed a reboot. Off I go. I now know which road to take, because of Brian and Jerry's earlier directions, but as I am turning I notice the car is not talking to me. The map is showing nicely, but no voice commands. Geez! That doesn't help much when navigating through a town. I can't keep looking down at the map! An hour and a half up the road, I had to stop for a bathroom break, so I took the opportunity to fiddle with the App more. In the end, I disconnected the Bluetooth and then it worked. And here I thought it was the Bluetooth that allowed the phone to talk to me through the car's nav system. (??) Whatever the issues were earlier, everything was now working perfectly and I was on my merry way. (It did stop working again a few days later. I stopped for a lunch break and when I got back to the car it was the same issue. I had to uninstall then reinstall everything again. But this time I was calmer.)
