The advantage of teenage kids is you can sometimes escape and do things on your own. There is a huge independent bookshop here so I had to investigate. Once we had emptied the place of books we got in the car and turned on the Satnav.
Only 15mins to home. Goody. It was telling us to drive away from where we'd come from but why should that worry us? Satnav knows best. We drove on.
And on and on and on down a lane that got narrow and steeper.
Then the Satnav screeched. We had missed a turning. Well I say a turning but it was more a slight dent in the grass heading across a field.
The Satnav then gleefully pointed out we had no way to turn back and it would now be 30mins to get home. What could we do? We drove on.
Driving over Glutton Bridge (yes really) was the nicest part of what happened next. I swear I heard banjos at one point. We went down and down then, goody, up and up.
"Welcome to Staffordshire" said the sign. But we didn't want to leave bleeding "Derbyshire" we wailed. Still no turning points.
We imagined our poor bairns starving, alone, while we went from county to county looking for a turning point.
I know. Starving? Them? Fat chance. They would be raiding my chocolate!
Now we were driving along a single track with traffic lights to stop
two cars trying to get cosy and inch past. Just as well because there
was a flimsy fence then a sheer drop. Aaaaaaalllll the way down to the
valley bottom.I told Hubby not to look to his left and keep his eyes on the road. "What do you think I was bloody doing?" He retorted. I think we were both a bit stressed by then. Well my fingertips were buried in the dashboard.
At last we reached the top.
"Well done" said the satnav. Now you have to take that teeny, weeny branch off the road and back down the cliff face (well it looked it to me) to get home.
This time we did not argue and bit our lips as we inched down in what was now monsoon weather.
At last. We made it home. Shaken, tired and hungry.
Did we get met with loving embraces? Kids wiping a tear in relief? Did we sod. We got "When's tea?"
Moral of that story? Remember the bleedin' map!
2 comments:
I don't use any navigation. I live in Mississippi and my job requires me to drive all over this state and across the river in Louisiana.
I'm not sure if it's a sound policy or if it would even help. Mississippi is almost the size of England but, there are less than 3 million people in the whole state.
I've taken wrong turns that have abruptly turned to dirt...then hunters trails...or a redneck boat ramp (a dirt road that slides into a murky bayou).
Yet, I don't think navigation would help me in these areas...I've never run into one of those google maps cars in a swamp. :0
:-) Sounds like you have had some very interesting trips. Not somewhere you want to find yourself lost or stranded!
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