Yesterday, I drove my mother to the airport for her vacation trip to Portugal. I drove her car there and back, a round trip of 70 miles on the fast expressway. The journey there was relatively simple with my mother’s guidance. However, the return journey turned out to be a challenge.

Everyone was driving so fast (70 MPH), so I decided I would hang out in the rightmost lane and go a bit slower. Unfortunately, I realized too late that I was on a Right turn-only exit off of the highway much too early.

I ended up stuck in Briercreek, just outside of a subdivision, and lost inside a shopping area. It took me twenty minutes to finally figure out how to get back to the highway. Not only had I never been to that part of the state, but I also had a clamshell-styled feature phone that could not use apps. I had no map to base my decisions on or a robotic voice to guide me to the highway entrance.

It was a game of eliminations. I managed to drive all the way outside of the shopping area and out into the suburbs where I turned around and backtracked my route. I made several wrong turns until finally, I began to see intersections that looked vaguely familiar.

I’m not sure when it happened, but I realized that the exit from the expressway should also be close to the entrance back onto it. Once I understood that I was able to make my way back to the exit but from the other side of the road. Sure enough, I could see the big blue sign marking the entrance to the 540 highway.

After I got back on I had no qualms with “going fast,” and I kept to the center lane the rest of the way home. It took me two hours to get home instead of one.

When I get my car, later this year, I will get one with onboard navigation. I swear this will never happen again.

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Car Adventures (part2)