I always know exactly where I am...

But I often have no idea where the rest of the world lies in relation to my location. I left Round Rock at about 3pm this afternoon headed for Colorado to visit my son,  Patrick, and his family for Thanksgiving. Usually I navigate by a loose sort of dead reckoning..., since Colorado is to the north and a bit west of Round Rock, I just point the front of the FJ somewhere in that general direction and hang on for the ride. Typically I have only a very loose time schedule, so if I see anything that looks interesting I turn that way. That means I often turn a one day trip into a three or four  day excursion!

Today I decided that I would go by a more direct route. I pulled the GPS unit from the glovebox and set it for my  Son's address in Colorado. As I suspected it would, it pointed me straight up IH35 toward Ft. Worth.  From where I live to Ft.Worth is close to 200 of the most boring miles on this planet.  Well, perhaps "boring" is not the correct word. It would be boring except for the fact that IH35 has been under construction since the first time I drove on it in 1965, and it must be one of the most heavily traveled roads in the United States. It is hard to be bored while  your life is under constant threat from 18 wheelers and other citizens who are convinced that being 10 minutes ahead of where ever they are is a life and death matter. I have the feeling that it is my death that they are rushing toward.

Regardless, we made it to Ft. Worth with nothing more than minor irritation, and following the directions from my "Aussie Girlfriend", turned west onto IH20. Now I always have to cross IH20 no matter which route I take, so I thought nothing of turning west at this point.

My GPS defaults to showing the direction that we are traveling as "up" on the screen. But I grew up on topo maps where north is up, east is right, west is left, and south is down.  About 30 minutes down IH20, I switched the GPS to that mode and noticed that we were driving SW instead of NW toward Colorado.

At the first chance, I pulled off the road and shrank the GPS screen untill I could see the entire route.  My GPS had routed us from Round Rock 200 miles north to Ft. Worth, then south and west all the way to El Paso, then north the entire length of  New Mexico, until finally to Colorado. An extra 10 hours of drive time!!!

Needless to say, that particular bit of modern technology is hereby retired and replaced by my trusty printed road atlas!