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CEE’S DIRECTIONAL CHALLENGE TO THE DIRECTIONALLY CHALLENGED

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Cee’s Which Way Photo Challenge – March 9, 2018

Emergency!

I am directionally challenged and never know which way I’m supposed to be going. There’s a certain futility to my progress through the roads of the world. I can read a map — fortunately — but most maps don’t show small, local roads, so once I’m off the main highway, I’m lost again.

I think it was Beacon Street, but I could be wrong.

Highways — the only way I am sure we’ll get at least partway there.

It doesn’t stop us from traveling, but it does make us stop and worry. It used to be that the GPS would always get us there … but that was before they started sending us through dirt roads in woods, back roads leading to collapsed bridges or that other road in Boston that has the same name but isn’t where the hospital is located.

Paths by the canal — I don’t get lost here!

Or to the wrong building of the same hospital. And as often as not, down a one-way street, the wrong way.

In the tunnel

I print out directions. I bring the GPS on the theory it might actually help — but it rarely does. And we get there — maybe half the time.

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Categories: #Photography, Boston, New England, Roads

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20 replies

  1. Cee Neuner
    03/11/2018 • 12:42

    Happy Birthday Marilyn!!!!! 😀 😀 Wonderful which ways for this week.

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  2. swo8Leslie
    03/10/2018 • 13:22

    I love a good old fashioned map. BTW Garry is looking very dapper there.
    Leslie

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  3. BeckyB
    03/10/2018 • 02:25

    Printed maps in the US seem so poor compared to our British ones. Drives me crazy or at least around in circles when we are in USA!

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    • Marilyn Armstrong
      03/10/2018 • 13:21

      We used to have great maps. When I was first married, in 1965, my first husband — who was even more lost than me — and I navigated half the country using maps. If I have a decent map, I can get to anywhere from anywhere else. The GPS’s are not very good. They work well in suburbs, but get lost in cities or deep country. In the city, they suffer from too many signals from too many cameras and stations — and they go dead in the tunnels. Boston has a lot of underground roads, so you come out of the tunnel and your GPS doesn’t know where you are and by the time it finds a signal, you’ve had to move on because there is a lot of traffic. You can’t just sit there waiting for a signal on your GPS.

      In the boonies, they can’t find ANY signal and send you on roads that haven’t been in use in a hundred years — you know, big trees growing in the middle?

      I think we’ve gone into “overkill” mode on the GPS. They worked better with fewer incoming signals, though they have never done well in the country. Meanwhile, our maps show major and larger secondary roads and none of the small local roads.

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      • BeckyB
        03/10/2018 • 14:12

        Agree on the GPS, my car hates it. Thank goodness here in Portugal and the UK our maps are still ok – but for how much longer?

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        • Marilyn Armstrong
          03/10/2018 • 16:55

          Someone will decide the roads need to be “fixed.” After which no one will know where they are going again. Ever. That’s what’ happened in Boston. Before “the big dig,” I could find my way around. Now? NO idea.

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  4. Fandango
    03/10/2018 • 01:01

    I use Google Maps on my iPhone and it’s great. The only time it gets confused is when I’m in a large city in the midst of tall buildings. But even then, it recovers from its momentary confusion pretty quickly. Hopefully before it has directed me to take too many wrong turns.

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    • Marilyn Armstrong
      03/10/2018 • 13:41

      The maps on the GPS and on the phone are OK as long as you are in a place where they are OK. Where they are NOT okay is Boston, where there are so many signal towers, they GPS doesn’t know whether we are in the Charles River, one of the two river roads, or somewhere nearby. On top of that, our Boston roads go underground, bypassing other roads and sometimes, buildings, so you get out of the tunnels and your GPS is totally lost. You can’t just sit there and wait for your signal to return, either. This is seriously heavy traffic and you have to move. NOR is there a place you can pull over. This is like driving in NY. Exactly like it, but the roads are even smaller and more crowded. So the GPS in Boston is almost a joke. I print directions on paper and follow them. And I read them in advance to make sure they are taking me where I want to really go. We have multiple streets named Boylston and Lexington and Charles and they aren’t even in the same parts of town.

      Liked by 1 person

  5. angloswiss
    03/10/2018 • 00:49

    I sympathize. They cannot leave the roads in peace, and each time we go somewhere there is a detour. The GPS is a book with Seven locks for me and I now let Mr. Swiss get on with it.

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