Evidently, as usual, I took a wrong turn somewhere. — Photo by Pat Bean
“I think what is interesting in life is all the cracks and all the flaws and all the moments that are not perfect.” — Clemence Poesy
My GPS Has It Too
I have no sense of direction. Without a familiar mountain that never moves within my sight, I will almost always turn in the opposite direction of my desired destination.
For 25 years, I got around Ogden, Utah quite well because the magnificent Wasatch Mountains never moved/ They always stood tall and proud to the east. — Photo by Pat Bean
My usual method for getting to where I want to go when I’m driving, and the one I used for the nine years in which I traveled this country full time in a small RV, is to study a map before I head out, and carefully create a written cheat sheet of where to turn right or left.
The last few years, however, I have learned to use a GPS that a thoughtful daughter gave me. But it and I don’t always communicate well.
For example, I took a friend to the airport last week at o-dark-hundred. I knew the way to the airport but used my GPS because my night vision is no longer great, and the device tells me the names of streets coming up.
As usual, because, as I said, the GPS and I don’t communicate well, the device wanted to take me to the airport on a route different from the way I wanted to go. As a result, because I thought the street the GPS wanted me to turn on was before the street I wanted to turn on, but it was after, I passed it by. OK. I’ll just follow the darn GPS directions, I decided. That would have been just fine if the GPS hadn’t told me to turn right when it should have said turn left.
These days, I live in the shadow of the Catalina Mountains, which when I’m in Tucson never move from their northern position. Above is a sunrise view from my bedroom balcony. — Photo by Pat Bean
Thankfully, after a couple more wrong turns, I got my friend to the airport on time. That’s because I always give myself plenty of time to get lost when I’m going somewhere – even when I have a GPS.
And there’s even a silver lining behind my flawed sense of direction. I’ve gotten to see a lot more of this beautiful country because of my many unintentional detours.
Bean Pat: Garden of Verse https://argumentativeoldgit.wordpress.com/2018/10/21/for-love-of-unforgotten-times-a-childs-garden-of-verses-by-robert-louis-stevenson/ I, too, read Robert Louis Stevenson as a child.
Pat Bean is a Lonely Planet Community Pathfinder. Her book, Travels with Maggie, is now up on Amazon at http://tinyurl.com/y8z7553y Currently, she is writing a book, tentatively titled Bird Droppings, which is about her late-bloomer birding adventures. You can contact her at patbean@msn.com
Thankfully I don’t have that issue. I have been called a bloodhound when it comes to directions… even in a foreign city with twisty, turning, curvy streets. I told my friends I was able to find our way back to the hotel because I could hear the Chianti calling my name. 😊 Great story Pat.
My mother, bless her, bore the same affliction. Even when she’d come to my place for dinner, she always would turn the wrong direction to go back to her apartment. She lived in that place for five years, and rarely headed off in the right direction. Loved your tale, and the memories it raised.