In 1996 Linda bought me a DeLorme GPS system with an Earthmate receiver and Street Atlas mapping software. I installed the software and connected the receiver to my laptop computer and it found satellites in the sky and pinpointed our house's location. A few days later we drove to the Kentucky State Fairgrounds with the system tracking us the entire trip. I was hooked.

The Earthmate receiver ate four AAA batteries in a few hours so I bought an adapter cable that supplied power from the laptop. As long as the computer's battery held power the DeLorme worked great and guided us along our way.

Every two years I upgraded the software to keep up with new roads and to get new features for route planning. In 1999 we started traveling fulltime and the DeLorme always went with us. But we noticed when DeLorme added new features some of the old features would not work and the software got more complicated.

In 2003 we decided to upgrade the software to Street Atlas USA 2003 and the Earthmate receiver to their new small USB port connected unit. We went one step further than most people who upgrade - we drove to the DeLorme headquarters in Yarmouth, Maine and parked in their parking lot. After doing the installation on the laptop in their parking lot Linda (the navigator) had several questions and comments so she found a technician and he gave her over an hour of personal instruction on its usage.

The new receiver took forever to find and connect to satellites and often hung up the computer. The worse problem was losing the satellites just when we need navigation the most such as getting off a main highway and trying to find a back roads campground. On a return trip through Yarmouth we again stopped at DeLorme and a technician tested our Earthmate and found it to be marginal. The nice people at DeLorme not only replaced the Earthmate, they exchange our 2003 software version for their new 2004 version free.

We left Maine happy campers but soon realized the new hardware and software had major problems too. It still had trouble finding satellites and lost them often. The software was user unfriendly and hung up the computer about once an hour causing a reboot. The DeLorme GPS system was so unreliable we ceased using it on our 7,000 mile trip to the Pacific and back across the country last year.

The last three versions of DeLorme's Street Atlas had major problems and the last two Earthmates were unreliable. We tried two laptops and they failed the same way. We wanted a GPS tracking and mapping system but I'm sure DeLorme has been the cause of many divorces.

Last November I spent a full week researching GPS units on the internet and talked to many users. We wanted a small fully self-contained unit that did not require cables hooked to a laptop. The unit had to be small enough to swap from motorhome to Honda CR-V and to take hiking. It had to have detailed software and a rechargeable battery that lasts at least eight hours.

The GPS unit we selected was a Garmin Quest which we bought on the internet for $475 and we now realize it was the best money we have ever spent. The display is small at 2.2" (can fit in a shirt pocket) but the display is very easy to read as it is high resolution, transflective TFT (160 x 240 pixels) with backlighting. The batteries are advertised to last twenty hours and I can not attest to that, but I have used it eight hours and the battery still showed full strength. The unit weighs only 5.5 ounces.

It comes with base maps (major highways) of North America and MapSource City Select, an excellent mapping software. The software is loaded in a computer and we select which parts of the map we want to upload to the Garmin Quest. (The entire process to select and upload takes about five minutes.) The Quest holds several states of maps.

The more we use the Quest the more we are impressed. It locks on satellites in seconds and never loses the signal and accuracy runs from seven to thirty feet. When we arrive at a campground we set it as the "Home" location and no matter where we travel we press one button and it immediately routes us "home." Want to find Wal*Mart? Type in Walmart and the Quest will display all Wal*Marts from the nearest to the furthest and pressing one more button will route us from our present location to the Wal*Mart we select. If we miss a turn and get one-tenth mile off route it will notify us and reroute us back on course.

Another feature we love is if there are two turns near each other the Quest tells us where to turn and which lane to get in for the next turn. (Yes, it talks) While it is talking it displays the intersection with arrows showing the turns and lanes.

Along with the map we can select the displays we want including altitude, miles per hour, average speed, miles to next turn, time to next turn, time of arrival at destination, plus, dozens of other facts and displays.

For those who like a large screen while driving the Quest can be connected to a laptop computer, but the Quest's display is so detailed and bright we have never used a laptop. The Quest comes with an AC battery charger and a 12 volt adapter with a speaker and suction cup mounting bracket.

If you want a small GPS unit that works better than advertised we suggest you buy a Garmin Quest.