When ever we take a trip, I am the driver and Jeff is the navigator. This suits me just fine because I am terrible at directions. I wouldn’t know north if it came up and hit me in the face and if some one tells me to ‘turn south’, I usually give them a dumb-founded look and ask, “Would that be left or right?”
Jeff is really good at finding his way around and now with the added modern conveniences of GPS and a phone that is connected to the Internet at all times, there is no place that man can’t find.
But on the rare occasion he is not able to find his way, he will ask. Yes, that is right, he is not one of those men that fits into the stereotype that man can’t or won’t stop and ask for directions.
Well, at least he used to not fit into that stereotype.
I don’t know what happened. Maybe it was the fact that on this trip he was driving. Maybe it was all the candy and pop we ate. Maybe it was the fact that the kids were really not cooperating with the whole sit quietly and watch the movie thing. But what whatever it was, on this trip he fit perfectly in that stereotype.
While we were driving up to a family reunion, Jeff realized that the map and directions that we had been given were wrong. We had been able to get to the city where the reunion was but we could not find the cabin that we were going to stay in.
But no problem, we would just use our GPS and ‘the lady’ would just lead us to the door step. But what we did not account for was the fact that we were so far north that the phone was unable to make a connection for the GPS to work.
Jeff tried to look up a Google map but again, the connection was not strong enough to give him what he needed. He then turned to the old fashioned paper map but the city was too small to be shown in the detail we needed.
I watched him struggle and mumble under his breath about how ridiculous this was and things should just work and so on and so forth.
I tried suggesting that we call the camp ground and get directions from them but my suggestion was met with a dirty look and a growl.
“Ok, fine,” I said, “But can I at least drive to that you can concentrate on the map and not get us all in an accident?”
He gave me an exasperated look but agreed and pulled the van into a parking lot.
Once I was safely in the drivers seat, I waited for him to study the map. I listen to him mumble about how it if we turn south…. or maybe north…. I also looked back at the kids and saw them getting more and more restless with each passing minute.
Finally, Jeff said “Pull out and turn right.” Such a good man, he know I can’t turn south or north. “We need to look for Washington street, it should be about 3 miles.” he continued.
I did as I was told and drove for well over 3 miles and looked for Washington street. “I don’t think that was…”
“Yeah, I got that. Its not right. Let me just look.” He growled at me as he buried his nose in the map.
I looked in the rear view mirror. I knew that we had only moments until a full blown tantrum was going to take place by all the kids. So I did what I had to do.
I quickly turned the wheel to the right and pulled into a gas station. I jumped out of the car, ran into the store and asked the attendant for directions.
And you know what, in about 8 minutes we were there. No map, No GPS, just friendly instructions from a real person.
As I parked the car and began to get out, I looked over at Jeff and said, “There that wasn’t so bad now was it?”
Probably not the best thing to say judging from the look he gave me but I know that he is heart he was saying, “Yeah, you’re right, honey. I so should have listened to you and stopped to ask for directions.”
