Cute story from today.....

[Dana Grant]

Those of you who know me in person know that I have absolutely no sense of direction. This is not a joke, and sometimes it is quite upsetting. People tease me about it, and that's okay with me, but sometimes it is quite unsettling. I mean, for example, I lose all sense of where I am when the lights go out to the point of not being able to get around in my own home when it's pitch black. It can be quite a handicap.

Well, today -- my daughter, who goes to college in Moberly, Missouri, called me, who lives in Tucson, AZ. She was driving to the storage unit that she rented to store her things in this summer, and she could NOT find the place.

Now, imagine me trying to tell my daughter in Missouri how to get to her storage unit. I was telling her, "now you have to go North to get there" - to which she replied "Mom, I don't know which way that is." So I had to figure out another way to help her find north, with addresses, etc.

So, it is true. The apple does not fall from the tree. Poor girl.

(and just for the record -- this girl carries a 4.0 GPA....it has nothing to do with intelligence, that's for sure!! I'm convinced it is a birth defect!!! Genetic mutation or something....LOL)

[Nelson Bradford]

She carries a 4.0?
That's FAB - too bad she doesn't carry a GPS!

[Dana Grant]

She carries a 4.0?
That's FAB - too bad she doesn't carry a GPS!

There may be one in her near future, I must say!!! ha ha ha

[Alisa Stoll]

When my brother was in seminary, he went to the airport to pick my parents up and on the way out asked them which way to turn to get back to his apartment!

My son used to have a horrible sense of direction too. The solution for him was not only a GPS but a job delivering pizza.

Alisa

[Susan Unger]

I used to have a real problem with this. This is why I carry maps in my car and study maps all the time. I don't ever want to be lost again.

I have a friend, who whilst driving, will call me me several states away to help her with her directions. Every time she has been fortunate to catch me with a map at my fingers.

[Dana Grant]

Alisa, God found the best husband for me 35 years ago, because he can visit somewhere once and never forget how to get there. I am forever thankful for his wonderful sense of direction and his memory!!! I tease him that the reason I keep him around is because he's my built-in GPS!!! ha ha

Also, Mapquest has been an outstanding source of help for me over the past few years. We're probably going to break down and buy a GPS this year -- it will probably be easy to fulfill the Christmas list this year!!

[Dana Grant]

If it is daylight, and if I have a map, I can usually get to my destination without too much trouble.

But don't put me in a new building and ask me how to get back to the parking lot. LOL

[Marsha Lynn]

If it is daylight, and if I have a map, I can usually get to my destination without too much trouble.

But don't put me in a new building and ask me how to get back to the parking lot. LOL

Well, of course not! The route from where you are back to the parking lot is completely different from the route you took to get there -- sort of a reverse image but not really. There are things to see on the way back that you couldn't possibly have seen on the way there because they were out of sight until they were behind you.

I have no innate sense of direction but I am good with maps so I tend to fall into the role of navigator in any group. Others can tell me which direction we're going but they don't know where we need to turn to get to where we're going.

I think there are several types of people:

1. Those who have a built-in compass.

2. Those who easily understand the correlation between maps and the real world.

3. Those who can remember where they have been.

4. Those who can retrace their steps even in new territory.

Only #3 applies to me. Fortunately, my husband generally does well where I don't. However, his sense of direction is strong enough that, on the rare occasion when he does get turned around, he finds it much more difficult than I do to rotate the world to match the compass.

There are also several types of navigators:

1. Those who want to know whether to turn left or right.

2. Those who want to know whether to turn north or south.

3. Those who want to know the street name/number of the road they need to take.

4. Those who want landmarks to tell them where to turn.

I love maps and want directions by street name/number. It's nice to always know which direction I'm going, but I can get by with directions that just include left and right turns in a pinch.

I don't trust GPSs to give good directions, but I do like it when they tell me where I am on the map and which direction I'm going.

Marsha
(whose genetic defect involves the part of the brain that is supposed to issue a warning about looking behind you before you back up)

[Susan Unger]

I love maps and want directions by street name/number. It's nice to always know which direction I'm going, but I can get by with directions that just include left and right turns in a pinch.

I don't trust GPSs to give good directions, but I do like it when they tell me where I am on the map and which direction I'm going.

Marsha
(whose genetic defect involves the part of the brain that is supposed to issue a warning about looking behind you before you back up)

That's interesting to hear. I think of Hoosiers as people who only give directions by north/south/east/west because all my Indiana relatives use those terms and never left or right. In Pa one has to say left/right/straight because one road could go in four different directions around the hills and valleys. Once, I was visiting family in northwest IN. We were at an aunt's country church out in the midst of the corn fields. After church, I drove my cousin and my mom back to the aunt's house. But after we left the parking lot, I couldn't remember if I was supposed to turn left or right. So I asked my cousin "Left or right?" He, being the difficult that one he was when we were teenagers, said "East." I told him "that doesn't help me. I need to know left or right." He stubbornly refused to tell me and gave me a lecture on the obviousness of how things are east or west. I told him, with irritation, "if you don't tell me left or right, we will sit here until our bones rot." At that point my mother from the back seat said "Right!" Then on the way, I was still rather unsure about which turn to me. After all, when roads [like the ones that one finds in NW Indiana, and not PA] are all mapped out in a grid fashion, all turns look alike. So, I said aloud "all these turns look alike. Where am I supposed to turn?" My mother, the Hoosier native informed me that they are all different. I said "Mom, every possible turn occurs at a corn field. Thus, the landmark for OUR turn looks like all the other possible turns." She informed me that no cornfield is like another. I thought, and still think, that she was nuts. Finally, knowing how frustrated I was getting and not interested in missing Sunday dinner, my mother took pity on me and told me when to turn.

[Cynthia Prentice]

My nieces and nephews call me Auntie Turnaround. I have no internal sense of direction but I am a great map reader and navigator.

[Wilson Deaton]

That's interesting to hear. I think of Hoosiers as people who only give directions by north/south/east/west because all my Indiana relatives use those terms and never left or right.

I always liked this technique...

First guy: "Go down to where the road jogs a bit and bear to the right. After you pass the big barn watch for the red car parked at the edge of the field. Turn right immediately after that car."

Second guy: "Well what if the car isn't parked there?"

First guy: "You're going to need to turn there anyway!"

Wilson

[Susan Unger]

I always liked this technique...

First guy: "Go down to where the road jogs a bit and bear to the right. After you pass the big barn watch for the red car parked at the edge of the field. Turn right immediately after that car."

Second guy: "Well what if the car isn't parked there?"

First guy: "You're going to need to turn there anyway!"

Wilson

That describes someone's directions for me to navigate around New York State's back country roads. The highlights were: 1) turn left at the trees, which are not a part of the woods, but are there next to the woods and 2) turn right at the road that goes over a babbling brook....but you can't see this brook from the main road. you just have to know it is there. uh huh....

Oh, and those trees? They were cut down and I never did figure out which turn it was supposed to be.

[Marsha Lynn]

That describes someone's directions for me to navigate around New York State's back country roads. The highlights were: 1) turn left at the trees, which are not a part of the woods, but are there next to the woods and 2) turn right at the road that goes over a babbling brook....but you can't see this brook from the main road. you just have to know it is there. uh huh....

Oh, and those trees? They were cut down and I never did figure out which turn it was supposed to be.

My kids laughed at me during their Olivet years because my directions to get to campus included, "Go north out of Momence for a mile or so and turn left when you get to the rocks on the right." They claimed the two or three "rocks," which are a feature in someone's landscaping, are far too small to be used for a landmark. But, still, we all turned at the rocks for years.

[Marsha Lynn]

I always liked this technique...

First guy: "Go down to where the road jogs a bit and bear to the right. After you pass the big barn watch for the red car parked at the edge of the field. Turn right immediately after that car."

Second guy: "Well what if the car isn't parked there?"

First guy: "You're going to need to turn there anyway!"

Wilson

Better than the legendary New England response to a tourist asking for directions: "You can't get there from here."

I'm reminded of that line occasionally while studying a map.

[Jim Franklin]

This in-house Geographer proposes an annual meeting of the NazNetters MapLovers Association to meet here in Boise at Bronco Stadium since I am sure it will fill up with all of you. Oh, Dana, your first set of four types of people, I ask your permission to be all four in this one person.

Sometimes I have had people ask me for directions to which I reply "You picked the right person to ask as I am a Geographer. All Geographers should be able to give the most accurate directions of how to get from HERE to THERE.

Esther has faulty sense of direction like some of you so I have to give her directions at times. So I know how some of you feel.

I would like to invite all of you to move to Boise and take one of my Community ED. Geography classes.

[Wilson Deaton]

....of how to get from HERE to THERE. ....

A classic Far Side cartoon comes to mind: A guy is scratching his head as he is talking to a guy sitting in a car looking at a map. The guy scratching his head says, "From Point B to Point A? That's a tough one. Most folks want to go the other way."

Wilson

[Gina Stevenson]

A classic Far Side cartoon comes to mind: A guy is scratching his head as he is talking to a guy sitting in a car looking at a map. The guy scratching his head says, "From Point B to Point A? That's a tough one. Most folks want to go the other way."

Wilson

Yeah, I do like Far Side. As for Dana, who started this,i can vouch for that, huh, Dana? Had I known it was that bad, and that Bert is her GPS, think I would've asked to talk to Bert!

[Susan Unger]

My kids laughed at me during their Olivet years because my directions to get to campus included, "Go north out of Momence for a mile or so and turn left when you get to the rocks on the right." They claimed the two or three "rocks," which are a feature in someone's landscaping, are far too small to be used for a landmark. But, still, we all turned at the rocks for years.

That reminds me of a ride to Olivet one year. I and two other Pennsylvanians were coming back from break. Todd, the driver, couldn't remember which turn off of 65 we were supposed to take. So instead of asking, he gave out hints to us. "Isn't this exit with the Taco John's?" If we said yes, then he'd knew it was our exit. He didn't realize that there would be more than one exit with a Taco John's. The exit he was checking out was one that I was very familiar with since family lived in the area. So when I described all the possible restaurants that exit afforded, he thought that meant that Yes, this is our exit. He exited and drove, getting even more lost. then when I announced we were driving through Beaverville he thought that was more proof that he was on the right road. He didn't realize I was being cutesy by announcing the "great metropolis of Beaverville!!!" This is what one does after being in the car for 12 hours - ya get a little silly. So when we ended up in some wildlife preservce near St. Anne on a gravel road....he finally had to admit he was lost. We made him go to the nearest house for directions. Being late at night he was scared to do so, but we reminded him that this is what happens when one doesn't ask for directions of one's car companions when it was safe and in the daylight. The woman who answered was scared too cuz no one asks for directions out where she lived. Finally she cracked the door open enough for Todd to say "we're lost!". He got directions and we finally made it home.