Trusting GeoSync

I spent the weekend visiting my son and his family. He needed a lift Monday morning, to the airport in Orlando, to begin his work week. I volunteered to take him. I was going to head home anyway, and though out of my way, I was happy for the extra visit time, along with a road buddy for part of my journey.

I travel all over Florida without much trouble, but I don’t spend much time in Orlando and I’m uneasy finding my way home from there. I often joke that the Florida peninsula is narrow. All I have to do, should I get lost, is drive into the setting sun. When I run into water, turn south. But I didn’t want to be lost, so to help me find my way home I enlisted the help of GPS. This is a technological tool I’m unfamiliar with and have a hard time putting faith in. I prefer a map. You know the kind, made of paper, impossible to fold back up the way you found it. You use to be able to pick one up at any gas station. Now you most likely have seen them in museums. GPS it is!

I practiced at Ben’s house with the app on my phone. I was assured, by the under 35 crowd, I had done everything correctly. I was nervously confident. Can you even be that?

I find that when I’m nervous there isn’t a restroom that I don’t think I desperately need. I passed the first rest stop on I-4, convincing myself it was just nerves. That was my first mistake! Nervous or not, if your body says you need a restroom, you do. Trust it not to lie to you!

I’ve taken this route home once before, but my husband, Kim, was with me. If we got lost, we were lost together. This time I was alone, so the stakes were higher. This pleasant, confident voice told me to exit I-4. “Really? I’m not sure this looks right”, but did as I was told. Things began to look familiar, and it wasn’t long before I knew for sure I was heading in the right direction, on the right road.

Now I was wishing I had stopped at that rest area, because I was in the middle of a whole lot of nothing. Not Texas sized nothing, but still nothing. That nice voice said something about following this road for 23 miles, so I figured I’d find something. Instead, what I found were directions to make another turn and drive for another 30 miles of nothing. I know what you’re thinking. “Florida is the 4th most populated state in the country! How could there be nothing?” Well, have you ever flown over Florida at night? There are lights outlining the coasts and in the middle of the state….nothing! That’s where I was! One small town after another, lucky to have a gas station that looked like it needed updating 30 years ago. Finally, a McDonald’s! An oasis in the middle of a desert! Lest I give you the wrong impression, this middle part of the state is actually quite beautiful with orange groves, sod farms, palm tree plantations, and cattle ranches, but public restrooms…barren!

Following a pit stop I was on the road again. One more tricky turn and I would know the rest of my way without GeoSync guidance. When I needed it most, though, the friendly voice on my phone calmly announced, “GPS signal lost”. “Are you kidding!!!??? Now? Seriously!?” I’m yelling at this unruffled, nameless woman, who can’t hear me, and from the tone of her casually repeated announcement, doesn’t really care! I pull over!

I attempt to re-establish my lost signal. At least the google map didn’t disappear, but the road I’m looking for is pretty small and doesn’t show up! I decide to continue driving, confident that the last time I came this way the GPS link was good, and would be again before it was too late. That would be my second mistake. You remember the first. When I got to Arcadia I knew I had gone a bit too far. Pulling over, I consult the map again. I was able to determine, the old-fashioned way, where I was in relationship to where I needed to be, then trace my steps backwards a couple of miles, make a course correction, and regain the appropriate road. As soon as I turned around that cheery voice showed up once again to tell me where to turn, as though she hadn’t bailed on me earlier! “Never mind! I’ll figure it out myself! Oh that’s right! I already did!” I was being snarky…with a phone app!

Ben is a pilot. When I asked him if he ever gets lost up there in the sky he said, “No. We have GPS.” I narrowed my eyes, “I hope you have a map to go with that, otherwise when you least expect it, and most need it, you’ll get a sweet voice that says, ‘GPS signal is lost’!”