THE ROAD LESS TRAVELLED

Wowee!  This gal has finally entered the 21^st century.

I have a new friend.  I don’t know her face, but I know her voice and now, thanks to her cleverness, I can travel from point A to point B in any direction, in any town, in any state, maybe in any country, I haven’t tried this, as if I knew the route by heart.  Who would have guessed?   Well, I realize that much of the world has been using GPS for some time but I was not one of them until today.  Of course, I didn’t have a phone than could do this for me until now.

I admit, I did  plug directions into my phone a couple of times during my recent drive from Vermont to Florida.  But it was only an half-hearted attempt, I didn’t trust the technology and I thought I knew where I was going.  So, even when she told me what to do, I didn’t believe her because what she was telling me did not appear to match the route I had marked on my large print map.

I paid dearly for my mistrust. Upon arriving at the toll booth and inquiring how far it was to where I thought I was going when I pulled off the interstate, I was informed that, sadly, I had missed the exit and would have to turn around, get back on the toll road and return from whence I had come to exit at the proper place.  Presumably, this was where she had tried to get me to get off the freeway the first time but, as it was raining so hard the first time, I could not really see where I was at the time, only that I was not where I thought the map said I should be so I ignored her instructions with certitude that I knew what I was doing.   To my credit, the route I wanted might have been clearly marked and, had I been able to see it, I might have had that secondary confirmation and agreed to go where the voice was telling me to go. But I couldn’t and so I didn’t.

I learned my lesson well.  Today, I climbed into my car to navigate my way to two different physician’s offices in Winter Haven with nothing but a piece of paper with the two addresses, and my phone in hand.  Well, to be honest, I did take my computer along just in case – earlier I had done screen shots of Bing map directions to my two destinations.   One can never be too careful, I think, and reflect upon my mold infestation and note with chagrin that, in protecting my home, I had not been careful enough.

After two flawless trips to my medical destinations, I decided to find a bike shop where I could get help putting my tire back on my bicycle; it wasn’t fitting properly when I tried on my own.

Used Google search on my phone to find a shop, plugged in the address, and off I went.  When I arrived, and my phone voice chirped you have arrived there was no sign of the bike shop, of any shop, in fact.  I was in an alley between two rows of shops.  It was 4^th St but not 4^th St SW.  I went back to where I had come from, turned left, half a block later, there is was, the front of the store.  So when she told me I had arrived, I had… arrived at the back door!

Who is she, that voice?    I can’t help but wonder.  Presumably she exists only betwixt and between the key strokes of the program that created her.   But this doesn’t mean that she shouldn’t have a name.  I have decided to call her Saira, which means “traveler” in Urdu.

Saira is now my newfound friend, my transportation mentor and travelling companion. Yep, she goes wherever I go.    I won’t leave home without her now.