Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Recalculating & a Little Mayhem


Not much of an adventurer, I haven’t driven north of Dayton, Ohio via Interstate 75 in many years. Anytime some obligation forces us to travel that direction, it makes more sense to bypass the city.

Yesterday, however, was a different story as SO and I took a little road trip to buy cat litter. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? I mean, surely we could get non-clumping Tidy Cats almost anywhere.

But we save money buying huge bags at a members-only warehouse club store. Ordering and paying online means a quick trip with easy pickup, too. I don’t even have to get out of the car until the bags are wheeled over for me to load. (SO has a bad back) Alas, our local Sam’s Club didn’t have the litter in stock, or so the website indicated. Had I known this right away, my suggestion would have been to try the local sister store, Walmart.

Without consulting me, my dear partner went ahead and ordered from another Sam’s Club. Told this one was in Fairborn, I decided to make lemonade out of lemons, proposing lunch at a rather interesting place we visited many months ago after visiting the Wright-Patterson Air Force Museum. Not a chain restaurant, a nice change of pace, the Wandering Griffin is also a microbrewery.

Fortunately, I talked him into both shopping ahead of eating and firing up the navigation system before I backed out of the driveway. As it turned out, my plan to traverse the usual route around the city would have taken us far out of our way, as would dining in Fairborn.

It was interesting to see parts of Old North Dayton again, if only from the freeway. Little had changed that I could tell except for one important thing, the very Interstate, a long construction project making the road a bit safer.

At least I extracted a promise to dine at an old downtown favorite called Thai 9 in the historic Oregon District. Requested super spicy, their massaman curry with tofu is wonderful. SO appreciates the sushi menu. Heading south after a long wait at the understaffed Sam’s Club, I once again engaged the nav system.

That turned out to be a mistake. One thing wise engineers changed was moving the Third Street ramp from a left lane exit to the more logical right hand side. I almost missed it, our map system out of date.

Oops. Oh, well. It’s not the first time we have been mislead. One time our old portable Magellan told us we’d reached our destination when I pulled into a cemetery instead of our Indianapolis motel. I am happy to say we made our way to the Marilyn Manson concert okay that night; we just couldn’t find our car afterward.

Hey, it wasn’t our fault the venue directors herded everyone out of one entrance, confusing our sense of direction. We walked the huge lot for at least two hours before someone with a golf cart rounded up us and some other unfortunates. Apparently, folks getting lost happened on a regular basis there. I wonder if they have since changed their silly practice?

Yesterday I saw the exit sign in time and safely changed lanes. Perhaps we should have used his smart phone for the hour round trip. Either way, I am grateful for GPS.


Have you ever wandered around lost for hours at a time?

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12 comments:

  1. Being lost is okay if you're with someone you love. It's more tolerable anyway. Yes I've been lost and it's frustrating.

    Have a fabulous day, my friend. ♥

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    1. That is very true, though we tend to get frustrated with each *other*. ~shakes head. Hope your day is great, too, my dear.

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  2. Not for hours, but when I'm lost it feels like hours! My GPS isn't updated either, and has taken me weird places. It was supposed to be going to a Motel 6 once and said we had "arrived" in a sketchy residential area! I requested a GPS when renting a car in Puerto Rico, but it didn't have one. The flight got in at midnight, so it was a bit frightening trying to find our apartment, let alone the town in the dark without one, with the rental employees speaking Spanish! Thank goodness for the Internet research beforehand, I like to see what things look like. So, I recognized some landmarks. I did drive up a one-way street the wrong way, but it was deserted so that was okay! I just headed downhill, figuring I'd hit the beach eventually. I am proud of myself though, that is the bravest thing I've ever done... not the driving, but that is certainly part of it, I mean the entire trip. I hate trying to find my car in a large lot, I always lose it! I hit the lock button a lot to let me know how "off" I am.
    Did you have a nice lunch at least?

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    1. Oh, wow! I'm impressed, too, about your trip. I haven't left the country since high school. ~sigh~ Thanks for the great comment. And lunch was fantastic!

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  3. Can you update your GPS? It would seem like something they should do, considering how road work changes things.

    I don't get lost. If I'm in an area I know even if I'm not in the specific spots I know well, I can always find my way out again. And when I'm where I don't know, I follow the maps. (I inherited the doesn't-get-lost gene. I think both my parents have it.)

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    1. We can update. It's expensive though. ~sigh~ I have a pretty good sense of direction, inherited from Dad. Still, there have been epic failures. It's been so long now I don't know which of us was driving, but SO and I headed the wrong direction after trading off drivings on our way to a vacation destination in the middle of the night. We must have added two hours to a twelve hour trip. Oops.

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  4. My Mom and I have gotten lost a lot over the years. I bought her a GPS years ago at Macy's and it is quite defective. Instead of Street it says saint and for Drive it says Doctor- at least we get a chcukle.

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    1. Wow! That's bizarre about the GPS! My late mother and I were headed toward our old home town decades ago and ended up going way past it somehow. My father did most of the driving their entire married life, much like I've done since the day I got my license. ~grin~ Be well!

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  5. The All State commercials are hilarious! I don't have GPS but I know its hard to unlearn exit positions, changing from left lane to right lane exits for a southbound freeway entry. Glad you made it. Nice the golf cart guy rounded up lost concert exiters too.

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    1. We like those ads too, though we dropped the expensive insurance. ~nods~ Thanks for the kind word. It was awesome to be rescued that night. We were already exhausted after a long day of rocking out in the sun. Memories...

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  6. I don't have a nav system in our car. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing after reading your post.

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    1. Hahahaha... Sometimes technology is not our friend.

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