Getting There - 2

Story Number 1 involves the two siblings with a sense of direction, siblings two and four. This story involves the other two, the odd ones (ha) who have no sense of direction. (Maybe that explains it.) I sat in the back seat wondering how could we be related.

It was Bunco night at Linda's. Linda lives in south St. Louis, or at least that's what I call that part of town. I'll stand corrected if I take the time to determine the exact neighborhood. Anyway, it's definitely not NoCo or a part of town frequented by any of us.

Having only been to Linda's once, for Bunco, Lynn drove and as I recall, got lost then too, but being the back seat passenger, I didn't pay attention and couldn't remember how to get there. Lynn offered that we meet at her house, she would drive and plug the address into her onboard GPS. Again, I got in the back seat. Sue rode shotgun.

Lynn's GPS chose the fifty-eight-street-take-twice-the-time route. First, we got off the highway miles from the nearest logical exit. This was compounded by a miscommunication of "slight right, then left" which actually was supposed to be translated into go straight. With every turn or missed turn, the little GPS would do its darndest to reroute until Lynn was screaming at it to "Shut up, I'm turning here!" Which, of course, the little GPS didn't like and insisted we turn the opposite direction. Meanwhile, Sue is desperately tapping away at her spiffy new i-phone that also has GPS capability. At one point, we sat at an intersection with the four of them debating on left or right. I had no opinion and was just enjoying the ride and seeing where we would end up and how we got there.

After several more turns of playing Left or Right, we made it Linda's and only fifteen minutes late. Along the crowded one way street, the parking god granted us the lone empty spot directly in front of her house. Lynn's tensed shoulders had to be forced down from her earlobes and everyone enjoyed hearing how wonderful GPS systems can be.

Getting There - 1

Bud, Josh and I went to visit Warren recently and I used my GPS system. Not that I needed it because Warren gave good directions, but because those little devices fascinate me and I like to see how accurate it is. I call mine Gladys because her voice sounds like someone who is glad to give directions. She deviated slightly from Warren's directions--Gladys wanted to be more direct and we would have traveled a long gravel road straight through the county versus going through town and staying on paved roads the way Warren suggested. Gladys quickly redefined the route and she and Warren were on the same path, so to speak.

Gladys's screen shows all the roads you pass and those nearby along with whatever I choose to include such as stores, gas stations, points of interest, etc. The farther from town we drove, the blanker Gladys became--no more icons of stopping places, fewer lines of roads. We made the final turn onto a gravel road and followed it straight to Warren's house at the end. It was indeed the end. Gladys announced we reached our destination and the last white line of road disappeared as we rolled down Warren's driveway and her little screen was nothing but green.