One Stray Pea

That title is only funny for the people who have ever watched Dora the Explorer, I have little nieces, stop hating.

I like to believe that I have a good sense of direction. I can mentally visualize major landmarks and then I can keep track of where I am in relation to those things, thus allowing me to know north, south, east & west. My husband on the other hand, lost ball in high weeds. I’m really surprised he can find our house some days. I’ll also be living on the porch after he reads this paragraph.

Despite my fantastical directional skillz, I am a horrible navigator. It’s not because I will get you lost (trust me, even if you don’t know where you’re at, I do), but because I don’t follow directions well. If you hand me directions and I’m familiar with the area, I’ll change something. If you hand me a map as well, I start figuring out better ways to go. I believe it’s because I’m Generation X, I can’t follow directions because it’s like the man (or map) is just keeping me down.

So, there we were, had just picked up our rental car and we were preparing to make the drive from Los Angeles to San Diego. My husband commented about the interstate taking us down the coast, but I begged to differ, of course, because I noticed that while on the Google map it appeared the I-5 ran down the coast, what we really wanted to be driving along was Pacific Coast Highway. So there I am with a crude map via Google and a gen-X bright idea…it was time to rage against the machine (map). It started with me picking a random highway exit, which was followed by me deciding to turn right, because I knew that the ocean was to the right. But at that point was I lost, and after a brief trip north we turned around and were headed in the right direction. I think going the wrong way is just part of being a stray pea…

Filed under: Vacation on August 2nd, 2007