So here’s a tip for you – thank me later…or don’t thank me at all – but this could, and likely will, happen to you at some point if you are an avid road cyclist.
DON’T RELY COMPLETELY ON YOUR ELECTRONIC DOO-DAD FOR YOUR ROUTE. You should always (this doesn’t mean sometime) have a printed map or turn by turn directions for a route that you are planning to ride and one that you are not intimately familiar with (Howdy MN!). I am guilty of it – evidenced in a ride today.
Trust me when I tell you that electronics, like many women, simply don’t function like you expect them to in temperature extremes! The high temps are quite obvious; I don’t think that anyone expects their computer to operate correctly outside in temperatures around 150F – nor should anyone expect a computer to operate in temperatures below freezing. Did I mention that a Smartphone (like an iPhone) will turn itself off at temperature extremes (like most computers) – but only after giving you a brief glimpse of what you were trying to look up so that you get good and frustrated <deleted expletive>.
So here’s the real tip:
If you are going to use a Smartphone to map route that you are unfamiliar with, be sure to print a small map or set of directions to carry with you – just in case (it may not be temperatures – Cheesy can tell you that iPhones will not give you a map in a Big Gulp cup filled with water…or in the ocean or bay. On the other hand, you could always just choose to ride with someone responsible like Cheesy in the hopes that he will share his map with you – today he did…tomorrow he might not!