GPS Irony

[qos]

It seems that in inheriting a lot of my father's intelligence and rationality I also got his utter lack of a sense of direction. I get lost even when I have clearly printed instructions in front of me, and it can be a cause of significant stress. I hate being lost. Thus I was utterly delighted when my dad got me a GPS unit for my car for my birthday -- the same model he has. ;-)

The last time I got lost, I set out from the site of an appointment in Woodinville with a nice set of directions. Somehow I ended up driving through the hills of a high-end rural residential area, in the dark, in the rain, knowing that wherever I was headed wasn't where I'd intended to go. I managed to re-trace my steps back to a place with multiple street signs and tried a different route, calling my mother (whose gaming stats for "Area Knowledge" would be at the top of the scale) once I could give her street names. She confirmed that I was at last headed in the right direction -- but it clearly was not the route that my directions had laid out.

Last night I was driving south after my shopping trip and had the GPS on just for kicks. I didn't need help getting home, but it's fun to watch the route unfold. I usually take 405 south to 520, and was surprised when the GPS instructed me to get off 405 at the Monroe exit instead. I wasn't in any particular hurry, so I said, "What the heck" and followed the instructions.

The GPS ended up routing me through Woodinville, onto the exact same route I should have taken several weeks ago.

I'm going to need to check the settings on the unit. I see no advantage to driving around on dark rural highways when I could be doing a straight shot down the freeway.

But it was an amusing turn of events.

Comments

[nepthytis.livejournal.com]

Well you would need a GPS to get around in Woodinville. I'm normally very good at following directions, even in unfamiliar places, and got hopelessly lost there.

[oakmouse]

Heh. We were once passengers in a car with a GPS system that was in use to help us find a familiar San Francisco bookstore from an unfamiliar freeway loop. The GPS told us to get off the freeway one exit too late, make an illegal turn, and go to an intersection that wasn't at either end of the right block. When the driver of the car called the GPS company to tell them about the illegal turn, it turned out that they hadn't updated their maps of SF for two years.

On the other hand, it got us to within six blocks of the store, and landed us right near a parking garage that had cheap rates by SF standards, so it turned out all right. JM and I had been through the area on foot several times and had no problem triangulating our location and finding the store.

In other words, it's like the mapping program you used to get directions to the motel here in A-town: gets you there more or less, but needs to be used with care.

[unicorndelamer.livejournal.com]

Despite the little "gliches", I think I may have to put a GPS on my Christmas wish list for 2009. I've become pretty good at using directions from googlemaps, but have learned since moving here that you can't consider them "carved in stone" and there comes a point in time when you need to just ignore the directions and actually look at the signs around you.

Glad you got your GPS installed, though, and it sounds like "the gadget" is finally cooperating. Hopefully no more frustrating error messages from lj. *crosses fingers*