Better than any GPS

[susandennis]

Years and years ago, I lived in small town North Carolina and my parents lived in another small town North Carolina. (Ok, for anyone who knows North Carolina, I lived in Southern Pines and my parents lived in Valdese.) Going from either home to anyplace - even the grocery store - meant using unmarked country roads.

I learned early on that if ever you were lost, to get to a place you knew, and so would be unlost, simply follow the car in front of you. It works virtually all of the time. It does, trust me.

There is a bit of town here in Seattle (Rainier Ave. at McClellan) that is just over the hill from where we live. There is a long way to get there and an over-Beacon-Hill kind of short cut. Several weeks ago after one of our Costco runs, my neighbors Ann and Ron wanted to go to a grocery story there and wanted to learn the short cut.

It's easy but it's winds around a bit so I kept telling them that if they got lost when they tried it to follow the car in front of them. They laughed. When we finished grocery shopping I made them go home via the short cut and the only hint I gave them was 'follow the car in front of you'. They made it fine.

Just now they dropped by to tell me that they had just come home via the short cut all by themselves and they had done it how? By following the car in front of them!!

I have converts.

Comments

[yesthatjill.livejournal.com]

Funny: my high school roommate was from Valdese. And my grandmother lived just outside Southern Pines for twenty years.

[susandennis]

Wild. My parents probably knew your high school roommate's family.

Back then Southern Pines was a very small town surrounded by a whole bunch of other very small towns - all connected by a blanket of pine needles and pine cones.

[qnetter]

It's amazing how many people I've spoken to lately who divide Rainier up into "above McClellan" and "below McClellan."

I can't figure out why.

[susandennis]

It's a natural divide to me. Gennessee (or however you spell it) is too far down and anything else is too close in.

[qnetter]

I'm surprised, for instance, that it isn't where MLK crosses -- since it's at least as major a street.

[susandennis]

fair point.

[artisanal_xara]

I don't rely on this technique all the time, but in a pinch, it's far better than the alternative of guessing which way to go. Unless you accidentally end up in football game traffic or something.

[seekerval.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. "Follow that car. They know where we're going." Has long been a standard solution in our road trips. Love to hear others use the same method. ;~}