Funny things that really happen RV'ing

When we were younger we did car rallyes .
From that we learned good directions .
Nobody , so far has mentioned that procedure .
" Turn RIGHT onto McGuire road , maintain 40 mph average ."
"Turn left onto S. West street , maintain 35 mph. "
"Take the first Right after the Wishing Well , maintain 35 mph ."
Part of the trick was that when you were looking for McGuire road you came upon McCook road first and turned too early .
Then you never would come to S. West street and eventually had to double back .
And then over speed trying to get back on time.
From rallyes you can learn how to follow directions much better .
A minor mistake puts you out of the game .

Here is a URL for a landmark for directions in GA. Sky

Big Chicken

WeBeFulltimers wrote:
"You should have bought a squirrel!" :E

Well played!

I had a friend who lived in rural Saskatchewan who gave directions based on the neighbour's pets. "turn right at the big yellow dog..."

"You should have bought a squirrel!" :E

This reminds me of the time I owned a full service gas station.

Customer pulls up to the full service lane and I go out and start pumping her gas and cleaning her windshield (remember those days?) and she says to me, "This is going to sound silly. But can you tell me where the windshield washer is on this car, it's a rental?" I said sure and I reached inside and pushed the button on the end of the turn signal lever to show her. She thanked me and then said, "Now can you please tell us where we are?" My reply, your in the state of Florida. She laughed and said I known that. I said, well you didn't know where the windshield washer was, so I couldn't be sure you knew you were in Florida. She and I both had a good laugh with that one.

I have an excellent sense of direction--I learned at the feet of the master. My dad could find his way anywhere and never looked at a map. My mother, OTOH, would pore over a map and then promptly turn the car down into the red light district.:B So I was really taken by surprise when I realized that my DH couldn't find his way across the street without the help of a blind boy scout. His family never traveled, so there was no reason to read maps. The first trip we ever took was to see my extended family in VA. We were driving from AL. We drove all day and finally got to the other side of Atlanta, when DH turned to me and said, "Just where is Virginia, exactly?" :S Yep, he had looked at the map. Couldn't understand a thing. He was a good sport about it--we had another 14 hours to go. It musta been love.

Now, when we go anywhere, he is nearly always the driver. I'm the navigator. I'm the one who keeps up with which exit to take and how to find the Starbucks at the other side of the mall. The conversation goes something like this
DH: Where do I turn? Here?
Me: No, exit 242. It's about 6 more miles.
DH: (still driving along) Is this the turn?
Me: No, exit 242. It's about 4 more miles. I'll tell you where to turn.
DH:(still driving along) Did you remember to turn off the heater and lock the back door? Cuz I don't remember if I did it.
Me: This is your exit, you need to turn here
DH drives on...."It's the next exit, right?"...
Me: !%$#@

The only times I get really lost is when a local person tells me directions. LOL!!! I do a lot of guiding in the MTN's ATV riding. I live 50 miles away. The locals give those directions that include the words "About, this far, used to be, 2nd big trail, and a host of others. They get me lost every time. I normally do not ask any more. LOL!!

There is one county nearby that drives me nuts when I'm trying to find a customer's address. I believe the county engineers will be condemned to an eternity trying to find addresses.

They apparently do not believe in:
- Ascending or descending street (house) numbers. Some streets they are random.
- When they are ascending / descending, there is no notion of keeping the left and right sides in synch, e.g., 201, 230, 207, 244, 209, 250, 213, 217, ...
- There is not a notion that odd numbers are on one side, even on the others. I once got directions that he was the only even numbered house on that side of the street. Which mean he was 550 and sat right between 545 and 567 (on the same side of the street)
- It's OK to have the same street name in different places in the same city.
= It's OK to change the street name in the middle of nowhere for no reason
- You don't have to put both street names on the street sign. Don't you know that the crossing street is the main drag?
- Most old street names are hypenated with places that don't exist any more, e.g., Springfield-Bedford Rd, Springfield-Buxton Rd., Buxton-Farmersville Rd., Bedford-Buxton, etc.
- Most new street names are a jumble of the same handful of names within a subdivision. Turn right on Deer View, left on Wood Trail, Right on Trail View, left on Deer Trail, left on Wood View.

But I think worst I ever had was Pittsburgh when I lived there. You'll frequently come across a road sign like:

30W ^ 30E >
22S << 22N ^
18W > 18E >
52S ^ 17N ^
17S << 72E >

Besides nearly having to stop to read it all, invariably, you want 52N and have no idea which way that is, left, right, forward, back.

Executive wrote:
Consider Pacific Coast Highway in Newport Beach California. You have NORTH PCH AND SOUTH PCH...the whole highway runs EAST AND WEST...:S...just sayin.....Dennis

Drive thru DFW area where the sign reads I35 West South, along with the other variations I.e. I35 East North

PawPaw_n_Gram wrote:

The DW can't know east from south without a compass. The DD can't even with a compass - as least her daughter can.

This a more pervasive situation than might be thought. In college (OK, it was 42 years ago) I conducted a study within another study which consisted of approaching a measured broad cross-section of people and simply asking them to point north with the sun clearly visible. 63% of them got it wrong and I allowed a 50 degree arc to count it right. I'm guessing that today with GPS, etc. it's likely a higher percentage.