No longer asleep at the directions
I have been told, on more than one occasion, that I am not the best co-pilot for road trips. This is not to say that I am not fun. It is more a commentary on my sense of direction, and perhaps my rather cavalier attitude toward becoming hopelessly lost.
Please understand, I believe becoming lost is inevitable. I believe that it will happen whether or not I have a GPS in my car, along with a MapQuest printout as backup. I believe it because it has happened to me several times.
Sometimes the printed directions are wrong. Sometimes there is a road closed that wasn’t taken into account, and there isn’t always an offered detour. That is why I invested in a GPS unit the moment they priced into my range.
Alas, they are also fallible.
Once, my GPS took me to a closed road and repeatedly admonished me to drive the highlighted route. When I attempted to program it around the roadblock, it informed me that there was absolutely no alternative route for me to follow. Apparently it wanted me to sit and wait for the Army base I was locked out of to grant me security clearances before I was permitted to watch my daughter play soccer.
Regardless of the GPS’s abilities to err, I know that I have been less than stellar as a navigator. I think it is because I trust the sense of direction of the driver more than my own. However, my husband might say it’s because I “have a tendency to sleep,” while my sister may allege that I “hold the directions out the window” or “write all over them” instead of keeping them safe. Whatever.
I have grown as a person since the last time I could accurately be depicted that way. (Read: in the past six months.) I have become better at keeping and following directions and, I’ll admit it, staying awake.
In fact, on our whirlwind trip to Illinois to look at a farming implement this past weekend, I didn’t nap the entire time. I think this deserves a special pat on the back considering the landscape did little to keep my attention. Seriously, is there anything besides extremely flat land that has been turned into cornfields out there?
Look left: cornfields. Look right: cornfields. For miles in every direction with only an occasional house dotting them. Just plopped down in the middle of the cornfield, with only a driveway leading out to the road. And where does the road take you? Past another cornfield.
I’m not joking.
One time, we attempted to use the GPS to locate food along our route and were told the nearest restaurant was 88 miles away. Granted, knowing my history with the GPS, there may have been one or two a bit closer, but with no landmarks to assist our return, we opted to stick to the highway.
A person could get lost out there, you know. Even if you’re with someone who’s paying attention.
Laura Zoeller can be reached at zoeller5@verizon.net.