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| Sometimes, I turn old maps into envelopes, like these in the 365 Letters Etsy shop. |
It was an evening seminar, starting at 6 p.m. The same team had presented a similar seminar at another small town about 30 miles down the road earlier in the day.
When I arrived for the seminar, I saw two women getting out of a car in the parking lot. As I mentioned, these are small Texas towns, so it's fairly easy to spot the out-of-towners, especially those from the "big city." When I got into the meeting room, I saw that I was correct in guessing that the two women in the parking lot were the presenters. I was curious why they were just getting there. Typically, the presenters would arrive early and be all set-up before any of the guests arrived.
Immediately, the two women started explaining to everyone around them that they had been driving for four hours, trying to find the town. It had taken them four hours to drive 30 miles from one town to the other, a route that has only one turn on it.
It seems they were relying on their GPS device to tell them how to get there, and, in their words, "it kept sending them down non-existent roads."
I suspended logic and refrained from asking them how they got lost on "non-existent roads." And, they were running so far behind, there really wasn't time for them to explain how they took four hours to drive 30 miles. But, the entire incident reinforced the benefits of the seemingly obsessive habit I have of checking and re-checking maps — online and printed versions — before I take a trip. I have an old-fashioned road map in my car, and before I embark on a venture, I usually spend quite a bit of time on online map sites, checking out the various routes and then printing out my final plan. The great thing about the online maps is that I can zoom in to street-level and make sure I know every single detail about my trip.
The situation reminded me of 21st century personal communication. Sometimes, digital (email, texting, social media) is fine. Other times, a handwritten letter on paper is better. And, sometimes, a combination of the two...a computer written letter printed out on paper and sent through the mail system...works best. Choose the method that is most appropriate for each situation!
Happy letter writing!
4 comments:
You're absolutely right. Sometimes things seem better just because they are "new". But I have heard a lot of stories about people arriving late because of GPS...!
I love your combination of paper + technology, because this is exactly what I do.
Keep writing :)
This drive s me nuts! I went on a garden tour a few weeks ago with a group of friends. One lady INsISTED that we follow her GPS. We waited after each garden as she put the info in.
Meanwhile, the group that organized the tour had printed detailed directions from one stop to the next on our ticket brochure. If the brochure told us something different from GPS, the lady still insisted we follow the GPS. We ended up getting blocked in construction, backtracking & following the brochure directions (only after GPS corrected itself) to get where we were going. We wasted so much time!
Yes GPS is very helpful but why do people insist on following a machine even when the road it says to turn on is obviously not the right direction.
You've hit a pet peeve of mine today!
Hearing stories about people who have driven into bodies of water and drowned because they followed their GPS was funny, until I learned the stories were true. Have we given our common sense to technology?
If I, for some reason, didn't have my trip route planned in advance, I would have at least stopped at some point to ask for directions.
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