Which Way?

There are two kinds of people in this world.  Those who believe the GPS and those who don’t.

I am now in the Those Who Believe the GPS camp.  But it wasn’t always that way.

First, we have to go waaaay back.  Like 1985 way back.  For those of you who may have read one of my previous blog posts, you know that my first job out of college was as an Area Representative for Westinghouse Credit Corporation.  I was responsible for the Tri-State area (PA-NJ-DE). 

My job consisted of mainly traveling each day to the companies on my list that required inventory checks. This is pre-GPS folks, when people had to use these things called maps to figure out how to get to places with which they were unfamiliar or to which they had never been.

I had a tri-state area so that meant lots of places with which I was unfamiliar.  Maps? I had so many maps I needed a milk crate to hold them all.  State maps. County Maps. Street Maps.

I’d get my list of companies for the week.  I’d plot out which and how many companies I would visit for each day of the week.  I would then map out my trip for each day of the week. 

I would always start with the furthest away point and work my way back. Imagine the amount of time it took me to just do the mapping out of my daily route for the week? Poring over each of the maps and carefully mapping my way from point to point.  No inputting your trip points into your little hand held computer called a smartphone and having it instantaneously map out the best routes for you. Nope.  That did not yet exist.

I got very good at reading maps and route planning.  Very good.

So good that when the day that Map Quest (pre Google Maps) arrived, I was quite skeptical.  That can’t possibly do as good a job as I can.  Why do I even need that? I have maps! 

Remember when Map Quest first came out? It was only a desk top version so you had to print out the directions.  Then, years later when it and Google Maps became an app on your smart phone, some of us old schoolers still liked to print out the directions.  That transition from no printout to relying solely on your phone was as painful as an anal-retentive child going through potty training.

It took some time, but I eventually made that transition.  I can remember Ernie, who was a little ahead of me on the technology adaptation curve, asking me why I was wasting paper printing out the directions and reminding me that it wasn’t necessary. 

“I like to see where I am going,” I would answer him.  And what if something goes wrong? It’s insurance, I would think.

But make the transition to paperless directions I did.  I was still ever skeptical of the GPS at that time though.  I wasn’t alone.  My sister swore her GPS didn’t like her to make left turns, having her constantly making a few rights instead of one simple left. 

And I swore it would  take the roundabout way to get out of my neighborhood when starting out from my driveway.  Stupid GPS I would think. Why are you sending me this way?  This is not shorter!

At some point, and I can’t really quite pinpoint exactly when, I made the shift.  I became a believer.  Probably because I also became like an amnesiac after using the GPS all the time.  It’s as if it wiped my memory clear of how to get to places.  Me.  The person with 50 maps in a milk crate in the trunk of her car. 

I use the GPS pretty much all the time now even when I know where I am going.  I wasn’t always that way.  But Ernie (remember, more tech adaptive) convinced me that it was helpful because it would alert you to traffic problems and it will reroute to save you being stuck in traffic. 

Hello.  Does it get any better than that? I can remember having to put on KYW on the radio at home before traveling anywhere to find out what the traffic was like.  Does KYW even do those traffic reports anymore? Is it still Traffic on the Twos? Some of you may be like, ‘What’s a radio?' You mean Spotify?’

Now? I can’t even imagine life without GPS. In fact, we have two we use.  Waze and Google Maps.  We don’t even rely on just one.  We like to check both.  Kind of keeping them honest.  If both Waze and Google are sending you the same way you can be absolutely, positively sure that that is the best way to go.  If they don’t send you the same way, well, that’s a decision point to which you have come and only you can decide which is more trustworthy.

And god forbid you lose a signal and your GPS is suddenly not working.  I have had that happen to me once or twice and the shear panic is not something I ever want to experience again.

It was like flying blind, or, in this case, driving blind, would be the more appropriate reference.

The amygdala kicks into high gear triggering the fight, flight, or freeze response.  All of which is extremely unhelpful when behind the steering wheel of a 2 ton vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed.  All reasonable thought and logic flee your brain and you are caught in some vortex that you are certain will land you god knows where, but wherever it is, it would have the word ‘lost’ attached to it.  Nothing good ever comes from being lost. I have read Bonfire of the Vanities.

So, while it has taken many years and a bit of a journey (literally and figuratively), I am firmly in the camp of those who believe the GPS. 

But, take note.  This should never be to such a degree as you ignore all of your instincts and basic logic. To wit, do not do a Michael Scott when following the GPS:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=agiacC26ts8&si=_BiHMWbjQ4_xT2Eh

 Other than that?  Happy driving, y’all.