I’m a planner. Always have been; always will be. So when my husband and I were taking a vacation to the lovely city of Savannah. I had my proverbial “ducks in a row”. Or so I thought.
We had a cute little apartment rented right in the historical district. Parking was provided so we didn’t have to worry about that. I went to my favorite mapping website and got directions to the place. Most folks who use a mapping website know that they are great for getting you close to where you want to be. Occasionally though, that last block or two may be either a tad sketchy or actually wrong. We had been to Savannah before and were considering a permanent move there, so we had a pretty good idea of where this house was. What could go wrong?
My husband is the driver. I am the navigator. Expectations are that the navigator will provide clear and prompt directions. If expectations are not met, it gets ugly fast. We got to Savannah, no problem. We got to the appropriate street, no problem, now to find the building, problem. We drive back and forth. There is traffic. Most buildings don’t have numbers on them. Husband is getting crankier by the minute. The threat is made that we will turn around and go back home. (Given that we have just driven twelve hours, this is not a good thing.)
Looking ahead there is a fire station, with a group of firefighters sitting in front of the building. Help at last! My husband pulls in and I ask, ‘where is house number 13?’ Remember, we are on the correct street already. I little hemming and a little hawing later we get the information that it is maybe a block or two back on the other side of the street. This is a bit weird, because normally even house numbers are on one side of the street and odd ones on the other, but we try the suggestion. No luck.
Finally we resort to the big guns and figure out the new GPS system. (Yes, you are right, we should have done that earlier, but it was new and we hadn’t played with it yet.) We found the apartment. It was right next door to the fire station. I am laughing now, but…….
Here is my question. Why would the firefighters have misdirected us?
- They really didn’t know where building #13 was.
- They wanted to mess with the stupid tourists.
- They thought this crazy woman was messing with them, since the address was right next door.
- Other.
P.S. We had a great vacation in Savannah and as you can see by my name, we are now local.
tybeetabby 