I Was Lost, but My GPS Found Me

Aren't those global positioning systems (GPS) great? It's so comforting to know if I have my GPS navigation system, I will never be lost. My GPS will always know exactly where I am. Unlike friends in the car who might be back seat drivers, it never nags me about going the wrong way. Like a patient teacher, GPS guides me through the confusing maze of streets and highways. My GPS will always be there for me.

My first experience with GPS was last year when I rented a car. My husband, Marty, had thrown out his back while working in Houston and I drove down to rescue him. A GPS system was a free benefit with the rental car. Driving down the same highway for three hours, the peaceful silence was abruptly broken when the GPS system advised "Continue on I-45." I jerked so hard, I nearly drove off the road. So much for being comforted.

Marty and I each got a new phone this summer that came with a built in navigation system. Our first test of the phone's GPS was on a summer vacation we took with his daughter and two grandkids to a family reunion in Illinois. Every time the kids got restless, I pulled out my phone and looked up the nearest McDonald's playground. When it was close to dinner time, I used the phone's GPS to research the nearest restaurants.

I loved my new phone. Yet for some unexplained reason, we would just be driving down the highway and the phone GPS would decide that we were out in the middle of the field. "You are now off track" it would announce. Driving down the highway for miles, the phone continued to display our position 500 feet off to the right. Watching the monitor, it appeared that we were joy riding through the fields, bent on the destruction of some poor farmer's corn crop. I guess my GPS doesn't always know "exactly" where I am.

Sometimes Marty and I decide that we will take our own route. We leave the GPS system on as a back up in case we get into trouble. We decide the route that we want and the GPS decides the route that it wants. Everything is fine until the GPS realizes that we are not taking its advice. "You are now off track" it warns. Like disobedient children we continue taking our own path. "You are now off track" it reminds again. It continues warning until it realizes the depth of our defiance. Finally, like a weary parent, it gives in. "Recalculating route." Sometimes we change our minds several times along the way. "Recalculating route" it says each time. "Oh stop nagging me!" I yell and in disgust, I turn it off.

Despite my impatience with it, the GPS system is very impartial and patient with me. It carefully directs me. "Turn left in 1.2 miles." or "Merge on to highway 121." then "Make slight right turn on to access road." or even "Follow left bend in road." However, the system seems to think that I am incapable of seeing the road ahead of me. It talks to me as if guiding a blind man. I imagine that if I were in San Francisco driving down Lombard Street, the crookedest street in the world, it would feel compelled to say "Veer left. Veer right. Veer left. Veer right..."

Often I have driven among the tall buildings downtown. I was so grateful to have my GPS to guide me through the confusion of dense traffic and one way streets. Then I realize that I haven't heard anything from my GPS system lately. I have to know which way to go. The cars are pressing all around me. I fear my turn is coming up soon. I reach over to my faithful GPS. Why isn't it advising me? I pick it up and read the display. "Your GPS signal is weak."