Where are we?

Last week when Barb and I were in Branson, MO to ring in the New Year with our friends Alan and Linda Hall of Sioux Falls, we bought a global positioning system (GPS). This is another one of those devices that makes life so much easier.
My first real experience with a GPS was riding home from El Paso, TX to South Dakota with Paul Patton of Mitchell. We left early one morning before Thanksgiving 2008 on the 20-hour drive, arriving very late that same evening (or very early the next morning). Paul is a commercial trucker, so he had two GPS systems up and running in his minivan. I marveled as much at watching the little arrow lead us down a bird's-eye-view of the road we were on, with a pleasant female voice alerting us when we were due to turn in another direction.
Nowadays, built-in GPS devices are becoming standard equipment on new cars, but they didn't exist back when our 1999 Toyota Camry was built. So when we were in Branson we took advantage of Alan's business savvy and GPS knowledge to buy our own GPS. Upon leaving Branson, we programmed our home address into the system and let it guide us home with no problems. This unit even has a red-light indicator to alert drivers when they're approaching an intersection under red-light camera surveillance.
With this unit you can even "buy" celebrity's voices. James Bond, Mr. T, Bert & Ernie, Homer Simpson,Bugs Bunny.... My GPS web site lists 99 voices (some in foreign languages) you can purchase to guide you to your destination.
But a few weeks earlier, in our travels to Germantown, TN on the outskirts of Memphis, we used the GPS on Barb's smart phone to guide us to the local mall. It's amazing that our location can be mapped and pinpointed from almost anywhere on earth. You wanna hide from someone? Better leave your 'smart phone' behind.
Hmmm... this even seems to put MapQuest -- most recently our trusted traveling companion and map reader -- out of business, although it still comes in handy when you're planning a trip. Who needs AAA?
We still carry an atlas and a few maps in the car. When I was young, mom and dad would check maps and watch signs so we didn't miss our turn. No "fail-safe" method here. Just lots of poring over maps.
What would Dad think of this GPS? I doubt he would put the maps away. There's something almost comforting about unfolding a map and plotting your own way.