It's not a good idea to try and read a mapquest printout while driving on the interstate at night

by teresa

Are you good at navigating around town?
What about outside your little bubble?
What is the furthest you can go from home before you start questioning turns and street signs?
My comfort zone ends about 30 minutes west of my driveway.
Now I can go to the Carolina's and back...no problem.
I guess I have driven there enough, it has become a little part of my bubble.
But, west (Suffolk area), is a road less traveled. A place I have been, yes. But it's different when somebody else drives. You don't pay attention to interstate merges and off ramps and such.
Next time, I'm paying attention.
Because guess what? Mapquest stinks!
If the place you are going to is a new development, Mapquest may not recognize it and will make up a random place for you to go instead.
I was so lost. So very, very lost.
And my wrong turns ended me up in some very not so nicey places.
You know the ones.
A rent-a-center, check cashing store and dollar general on every corner. Old 7-11 stores, that still look like the 7-11 you know and love, but have been changed to Joe's Foodmart or Cal'z cheap cigs.
Once my drive was in it's 70th minute (Mapquest had told me to expect 30) I called Lauren. I told her to go to the computer and pull up Mapquest. I then told her my where abouts (a radio shack parking lot) and she reworked my route to get me to my PTA training meeting. I would be late, but I was determined to find this place. Plus, the only way I knew to get home, was directions from the school. I was driving and she was barking orders "left mom", "now two lights up take a right". She informed me that she was reading the map this time and not the directions.
"Okay baby", whatever it takes.
At least that's what I was saying until she had me continuing down a looooong, narrow country road for 15 minutes (assuring me the whole time it was the right way). No houses, no street signs, no sign of life besides the cows and cotton fields. Then I hear her say,"uh oh". "Turn around mom, turn around now". You need to go the other way. Well duh. Once I saw the cows I figured something was up.
I was now over 90 minutes into my trip. 90 minutes of being about 2 miles from my destination most of the time. Once I turned around and backtracked I was right there. A beautiful new school, in a beautiful new neighborhood. A parking lot full of cars. People who were on time and either live in that bubble or own a gps.

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”
Robert Frost

“Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason”
Jerry Seinfeld