This weekend we went up to Boise to celebrate Russ's grandmother's 90th birthday. We left our house about 1:00 swung by his sisters to caravan up, only to have his brother notice a big fat screw sticking out of our tire. So much for caravaning. We made it to Boise by 7:00ish without much problem thanks to books, crayons, crackers and the divinely invented portable DVD player.
After a quick stop in to say "Hi" to Russ's grandma, (The party was Saturday.) we were back in the car to head up to a cabin for the night. Russ's dad started to give him directions, while his brother programed the address of the cabin in a GPS for us to borrow. We had the GPS since Utah but if you need a GPS to get from Utah to Boise you have bigger problems in your life than just finding Boise. Russ in evidence of being a part of the the techie- generation, tuned out his father's directions and said, "Oh, we'll just follow the GPS."
The drive up the canyon was beautiful, the stars twinkled merrily in the sky. We turned off the main road to a neighborhood of cabins and only 6.4 miles to go. Exactly. Unfortunately, the road indicated by the GPS, the one we faithfully followed did not go 6.4 miles. It went about three and then there was a big sign stating "Private Property."
"Well, a cabin has to be on private property, doesn't it?" And we went on.
Interestingly, the GPS didn't measure our progress from this point on. Something about trees, high hills.. I don't know.
We drove through what at first looked like a dead end, but then we saw a small - rarely used road covered in high weeds. Well its a road. This is the direction indicated by our technological navigator into whose hands(figuratively) we had put our lives. It wasn't so much that we really thought this was the correct path, we just hoped it was, because we didn't know what we were going to do if it wasn't. We continued on a road that had obviously not been used for quite a few years. Weeds covered the road. Visions of ax murderers and aliens passed through my head. Finally we reached a river. The road went through the river. And we were done. ( I know you are just shocked that it took us this long to be done, but it did.)
We circled back around. (I should mention that Russ's wonderful sister Lisa was faithfully following us this entire time without any directions or GPS of her own. Just following us on into the night. It says a lot about her that she didn't turn ax murderer on us by the time this night was through.) And went up and down the road several times.
And then back down the canyon for cell phone reception.
After getting correct directions to the cabin from Russ's father. We headed back up, and this time it only took us three wrong turns to find the cabin. At 11:00 at night, after 2.5 hours of driving in the canyon. The only thing we can figure is that the GPS was giving us directions with road that our now currently out of service.
Needless to say, I will not be buying a GPS any time soon.
7 comments:
Oh my gosh. I just relived the entire thing in my head as I read your post. But the difference this time was that I was laughing instead of swearing!
I only have one comment: It wasn't my fault!!
Once upon a time I used GPS while attempting to find my way around the maze of highways/freeways in Texas. I can to realize that had I not had the GPS I not only wouldn't have made it to everywhere I was supposed to be but that I would probably still to this day be lost on the Texas roadways.
Moral of the story . . .
Don't give up completely on GPS. It definitely has its uses.
Glad you had a good time. :)
Why do I always miss the fun stuff? :)
It was great seeing you guys! Even though it was too short.
Oh, how fun. Just think, though, the story would have been perhaps boring without that tale to tell.
See, I want a GPS just so I can have a friendly voice in the car instead of someone yelling at me from the backseat.
I have experienced this all too often. We love/hate our GPS. I have a feeling ours has a mean streak.
Post a Comment