Map Quest…Siri-ously?
Saturday we
visited my son, DIL and two crankettes.
It was my son’s birthday the week before but we couldn’t make it so we
went this week instead.
It turned
out both crankettes had a flag football game that my son was coaching. I said that I would like to see them
play. That was before I learned the game
was at 9:00 am.
To make it
worse, the game was an additional 30 minutes south of my son’s house which is
an hour from us. Why 6 and 7-year-olds
don’t play around the corner from home I don’t know.
In order to
make it to the game we had to leave by 7:00 am.
That may not seem bad to many of you morning people; you night owl, retired
people will understand.
We did not
know how to get to the field. No problem;
Mrs. C went to Map Quest and printed out directions.
I hate Map
Quest directions. They tell you stuff
like this:
Take Rt. 287 south to exit 23 17 miles
Make a rt. Onto Riddly road. 75 feet.
Turn left on Orchard Drive. 25 feet.
Make a slight left onto THE PENNSYLVANIA
TURNPIKE. 18 miles.
I wish they
could program the directions to say:
Take exit 23 off rt. 287 and follow
the signs for THE PENNSYLVANIA TURNPIKE.
Anyway, we
followed Map Quest directions until we got into Pennsylvania from NJ. The Map Quest directions were pissing me off
so I decided to use SIRI on my phone for backup. Mrs. C hates SIRI…I think she’s jealous.
Both Map
Quest and SIRI were in sync until we reached Possum Puddle Pike. MQ said
go left, SIRI said go right. We went
left and ignored SIRI’s request to “Make
a U-turn” and constant cry of “Recalculating.”
MQ took us
onto a little traveled road, under a covered bridge (this made me nervous) and
finally said to turn rt. On Pray For
Your Life Hill Road. The directions
did mention that the road is sometimes closed.
Pray For Your Life Hill Road had a sign that said, “Warning, no trucks, dangerous steep
hill…closed Dec. to April.” We
probably should have turned back and followed SIRI, but Mrs. C hates SIRI and
we were running late for a 6/7-year-olds flag football game.
Pray For Your Life Hill Road quickly narrowed to one lane. We hugged a cliff on our left, and dared not
look down at the steep drop on our right.
The road was winding upwards and you could not see around the
curves. We were both scared sh*tless
that a car might come the other way (we both missed the sign that said it was a one-way road…yes
we were going the correct direction.) At one point Mrs. C
wanted to back out (there was no way to turn back) but that scared me more than
what we were facing.
 |
| Picture from Google. The road is VERY narrow and the drop off on the right is steep and a long way down. I wouldn't even ride a bike on this road. |
After about
a mile we finally came to the end where we had the option of turning left or
right on Old Fenwick Lane. MQ directions said to turn left on Bobble Brook Rd, SIRI suggested turning right on Fenwick.
There was no Bobble Brook Rd.
There was no Bobble Brook Rd.
It was at
this point that Mrs. C tossed the MQ directions and let SIRI take over. SIRI got us to the game just before
kickoff. The trip took 2 hours. If we had driven first to my son’s and then
to the game it would have taken 1 ½ hours, all on safe, major roads. We followed MQ because Mrs. C did not want to
drive first north to eventually go south.
Next trip we
probably will not look for the “shortest route.”
Anyway, our
team won. Seven-year-old Cole caught a
pass for a TD, and ran back an interception for a TD. Six-year-old Connor made a long run for a
TD.
Seventy-year-old
Grandpa Joe aged a few years and almost pooped his pants.
Riveting journey, for the reader.... smiles. Someone warned me about Siri so I stick to routes laid out in a route book. Glad the team won, that would have been even more frustrating.
ReplyDeleteSD always prints out maps which would be fine if he didn't expect me to read them. He'd be better off with Siri most of the time. Glad the team won (and that you managed not to poop your pants).
ReplyDeletejust what you needed -- an hair-raising adventure at 7.00 in the morning! i am astounded you made the game at all, let alone on time!!!
ReplyDeleteThat was a trip designed to keep you awake and paying attention. I hope the trip back was a little less hair raising.
ReplyDeleteMapquest has often steered me wrong.
ReplyDeleteMy township has many road like that, build along ridges. I bet it was a two lane road in the beginning, and one lane is washed down the ravine.
ReplyDeleteMap Quest? Really. I didn't know people still used those old things. I guess they do.
ReplyDeleteI would have loved being in the car listening to the exchanges.
Have a fabulous day. ☺
Those GPS adventures can be far more stressful than just bad map reading in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteDoes Mrs. C ever call Siri a jerk?
ReplyDeleteWow, what an adventure. That road didn't look wide enough for 2 bikes much less a car. Sure couldn't turn around could you? MQ took me on a wild ride just once. It is an evil tool created by evil people.
ReplyDeleteMy friend gave up on GPS directions when she was told to park on the interstate and walk to the park from there. It's hard to know which one to believe when you get two of them going.
ReplyDeleteI hope your effort to make the game was appreciated, Granpa Joe.
ReplyDeleteLeave at 7:00 a.m.? I've barely gone to bed then!
ReplyDeleteI'd need to close my eyes on that road. Not while I'M driving, of course. But if Hick was driving. Then again, I've refused when he said to (shut up and) close my eyes, because I told him I want to see HOW he kills me.
I'm not too fond of SIRI either. More likely she isn't too fond of me.
ReplyDeleteYou're lucky. If I have to be at a game the next state over by 9am I have to leave the day before. Talk about no sleep!
Our GPS years ago had us on some dirt road that we figured should have been a paved one had the economy not taken a tank and the construction stopped. Glad you eventually got there relatively safe and victory was had by the players!
ReplyDeletebetty
Map Quest is about 85% reliable, at best. The other day it took us five exits past where we should have gotten off, and then lead us on surface streets to back track to our destination, which coincidentally was also to a football game. We were ten minutes late for our son's football game and just missed his run. And being new to the game, THAT was his only action of the game. And we missed it. Because of Map Quest. My husband took off the day off work to be sure he saw our son play....and Map Quest made us miss his run.
ReplyDelete