Directions by Phone? Have a Backup!
There are several popular phone information services available, you can dial up and get all kinds of information on news, weather, sports, even point to point directions. We use “Tell Me” and the other day had the need to get directions. A quick dial up, and after providing “where we are,” and “where we want to go” information, in just a few minutes we had point-to-point driving directions.
Point-to-point equals lost in the big city.
It started out easily enough, but pretty soon we were in the midst of looking for “turn left on local road.” What’s a “local road”? Apparently to the Tell Me system, a local road may just be the road you’re presently on, after it makes a slight curve and continues. Or maybe not. In any event, within minutes we were thoroughly lost. Happily the wife’s inate sense of direction and sensibility eventually got us to where we were headed, although the “directions” we got from Tell Me took us way out of the way.
We’ve had similar incidents–but not near so dramatic–using computer software mapping. Had we made a left turn where indicated, we would’ve wound up in the woods in the Puget Sound back country, rather than on the road that was supposedly there.
All in all, we’ve found it’s best to take computer aided directions with a large dose of sodium chloride. Trouble is, where do you turn? Used to be you could ask for directions at the corner gas station. Nowadays the counter person there “ain’t from around here,” and of course, there aren’t always corner gas stations out in the boondocks. We have had success getting directions by dropping into a fire department and asking–when we can find one.
Our experiences lead us to believe that when you’re going someplace you ain’t been to before, be sure to add plenty of extra time to turn into your own “lost and found” section.
photo: psd on flickr.com
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Leave a Reply