I went to visit Chicago, IL along with my wife from Holland, MI. After visiting Chicago, I was returning back home (MI). It was almost 5.00PM and it takes about 3 Hr’s to reach home from Chicago. I was using ATT 8525 and a bluetooth GPS along with IGuidance 2.1. When I tried to map the route I was not getting the GPS fix. I tried restarting GPS, restarting 8525, after every thing starts connect the GPS and try again, no matter what I do there was no GPS fix., My wife was not happy about this, and I was not giving up, It was 7.00 PM and we where still in Chicago trying to get GPS fix, we wasted almost 2 Hr’s and at last I gave up, went to a gas station took the route and reached home. Now I am using ATT FUZE, and I get almost instant gps fix, but every time I turn on the GPS , we remember that incident. Even though I get instant fix, I carry google maps route map prints .

About 30 years ago, I traveled at night (and in the rural areas of Mississippi) to a church about 40 miles away. I had never been there but I found that there were two roads to the location that were about the same distance. I took one road to get there and had no problems. However, it seemed too far so I returned on the other road. After about an hour of driving on (what I thought was a fairly straight road), I ended up just a few miles from the church! At that point, I decided to take the same route back that I had traveled to get to the church. It was so confusing but a few weeks later I looked on a map and found that I had gotten to about 5 miles from my destination when I got lost and headed BACK toward the church. I really DID need a GPS but they were not available then.

Being a geocacher means means that sometimes you follow the GPS a bit blindly, especially when the final point is not really on a road. It means I’ve ended up supposedly right by a cache but a couple of hundred meters away straight down(on a bridge once, at the edge of a very steep hill another time) or tantalizingly close but with a 30 meter across but hundreds of meters deep chasm between me and the cache. Never did get to that one.

My PDA is not phone enabled – so I’d just like to say thanks for the contest, and wish everybody good luck

I was driving to a pick up a friend in Iowa and the maps I was using with my Garmin ColorMap were way out of date. I neglected to get directions because I had my GPS. The GPS was directing me to go where roads were now highways. I got so lost, I finally called him for directions. Then (stupidly) we used the GPS to drive to our final destination. We were following a road that was a “short cut” we thought but it ended in one of those famous freeway ramps to nowhere. We gave up and went to plan B, paper maps. They worked great.

(What seems like) A Long Time Ago, in a honeymoon far, far away…(10 years, 10 months thereabouts)

My wife and I wanted to take a scenic drive down to Charleston, SC for our honeymoon. I had booked a few bed and breakfast inns along the way to and from our destination. We loaded up the car after the wedding reception and headed out. Our first B&B was near the Biltmore, and we dined at a nice cozy Italian restaurant. A great time, that is, until around 3am. I awoke to a loud “Oh, ouch!” followed by someone (my wife) becoming violently ill in the bathroom. The thump sound came from her tripping on the raised doorstep. This occurred several more times over the course of the morning. I felt fine and was sent downstairs to have a luxurious breakfast served on silver outside on the veranda, with another young couple sympathetic, albeit amused, at my predicament. My wife made a brave effort early that afternoon to accompany me to the Biltmore residence. We took the long tour, taking our time to help my wife cope with the heat, and we finished without a hitch. We stood stood with a group on the edge of the estate admiring the view. We exhaled. My wife promptly vomited. It was a tour to remember.
We finally arrived at an inn close to the Battery in Charleston, and my wife, while still a bit woozy, was able to keep food down. We ate ourselves silly and made plans to take extensive tours of Charleston. Then it happened. Barreling up from the Gulf Coast were the powerful remnants of Hurricane Earl. Charleston got hit with high winds, sheets of rain, and five tornadoes in the general vicinity. The main bridges to Charleston were closed. What to do? Sightsee, of course, after the worst was over, which we did bracing ourselves against the high winds an occasional cloudbursts. On the plus side there were few idiots like ourselves out. In truth we had a blast.
Returning homeward we headed up to a B&B in Newport, TN. In those days we relied on paper maps, and so far the maps had been pretty accurate. Rather than take the direct interstate route we decided to take the scenic route (can you say “Bad Idea”?), so we headed north as we backtracked through Asheville up I-26 to US25/70. That is, until we passed some road construction signs on the way and on a beautiful overlook, where there should have been road there was…nothing. Unless you elected to go past the abrupt “Road Closed” warning flashers and take a plunge into the Tillery Branch river. That was downright dangerous!
There’s nothing quite like backtracking in a mountainous rural area with only non-exact paper maps to guide you. Four hours of backtracking with the rural road construction to be precise, because North Carolina decided it would be fun to do all their major roadwork on the back roads I took. Nevertheless, we eventually made it home in one piece, only to find that our dog, a neurotic basenji/german shorthair pointer mix, had decided to chew up the custom-built blinds downstairs during our absence.

Somewhere I wrote a ditty about this to the tune of The Beverly Hillbillies.

The next time I take a long road trip the dog (were she still around) will get a tranquilizer, the wife some Pepto-Bismol, and I’ll take a GPS.

Breley, That may be the best/worst travel story I have ever heard.

Reminds me of the time when we were moving from Pa. to Seattle. We took the 7 days to drive cross country. At some point, I decided that it would be either fun or quicker to take a detour on the local highway rather than the Interstate. What I did not realize was that this road went straight through the Little BigHorn Mountains. It ended up being this one lane road, spiraling its way up past the snow/fog line. It was insane. As soon as we got back down safely on the other side, my wife took the quickest route to the Interstate, which we never left again.

Doug

If I hadn’t experienced it, I wouldn’t have believed it myself.

How about just yesterday I had an appointment downtown Chicago. Now, I just returned to Chicago after 20 years in the military. Before leaving home to go into the military I thought I’d NEVER forget my directions around this city.

Ok here’s my story:
I have this appointment and I thought that since gas has going up for the summer and parking downtown already cost $20 for the minimum time I’d just use our mass transit system (aka “L” train). Surely it would be a straight shot and I’ll be there in less them 20 minutes.

So I board the train look up at the designated stops on the sign and see my stop. WAHOO, just as I remembered it. Ok, so I get off the “L” at my designated stop and take the escalator to the streets. Stepping out of the “L” station onto a main downtown street and I’m thinking…. whoa this looks nothing like I remembered. Immediately I get a face flush of embarrassment because now people are walking around me as I stare and wonder where the hell am I?

Ok, so I acknowledging hat my memory is gone I suck it up and ask a passerby. Excuse me can you tell me how to get to 123 da-da-da street? Sure, the passerby says. Just go down X number of blocks, turn left and you’ll be right there.

The day started off chilly only to warm up after the sun had been out a bit. Now after my hustle down about 5 blocks and my panic (again thinking where the hell am I) I start to get some serious sweats. I look at my watch and whoa…I’m 15 minutes late …eek! I spot a parking garage and ask how do I get to 123 da-da-da street. The man looks at me and says go down 7 blocks, make a right and you’ll be right there. Now I’m exhausted and a tad bit angry with my fellow Chicago passerby.

Again I start out on my journey and make it to my final destination. I thought sure the guy I was to meet would have gone to lunch and I’d be out of gas. Lucky for me he brought his lunch and had just finished. I explained my wild goose chase and was able to conduct my business.

Wow, welcome back to Chicago!

Ok, the contest is now closed! Winners will be picked at random later on this afternoon!