Recently we traveled around Swtizerland and had no internet. This was annoying in the sense that it made it hard to share pictures and what not, but the way that it affected me, which I didn’t quite expect, was in its effect on our directions.
I have navigated plenty without maps, in fact my family was quite late to the GPS or navigation software game. I navigated plenty with just printed our directions or mapquest AND even plain old maps. I am one of those people who can read a map, it may not be fast, but it is a skill I have.
I won’t be one of those generations who cannot read a map at all. Maybe the next one after me is, probably, but I am not. I do have that skill. +5 Mapreading.
Even though, this was not reading a map, which I know I can do. This was reading a bunch of printed directions with a very large overview map, when we needed step by step little maps, which I would do in the older times.
Even more so, none of the roads wanted to tell us their names, actually. The street signs were almost nonexistent and when they were there, they were small and non reflective. Furthermore, the directions were in a format I was not used to and even had the same direction written twice and with U-turns, which had to be a mistake.
This made me very upset, because I know, with a certainty, that I can read maps and be a navigator. I’ve done that most of my childhood and I know I posses the skills. When we were in traffic, we could navigate ourselves around.
But it also made me realize how flimsy that piece of paper was, because as soon as we were off it, I had no flippin clue how to get around or what to do. I just threw up my hands and said, “I don’t know how to get us there” and “well god only knows what road this is”.
Of course modern gps’ know what the road names are, but to us without those, we don’t.
What am I trying to say?
Things seem so easy and concrete, plugging things into a GPS, but when they fall through and you go to your back up, it is revealed that even that is flimsy too. So what do we rely on? Should I get a compass and try to do that?
I’m not sure what to end this with. maybe it’s just a food for thought.
How do you get around?
Just as a backup plan, ask someone? Better yet, ask several people, because some of the answers you might get are totally wrong. (People make mistakes under the pressure of giving directions.)
Note: I apologize for suggesting this, despite my long-standing membership in the gender that never asks for directions.