I'm starting to think paper maps had their advantages.
By @kiralol · Family
On our annual family road trip, and I'm pretty sure I'm the only person who has looked out the window in the last 200 miles. Everyone is in their own little world of screens, until the GPS 'mastermind' led us down a logging road.
The full story
When I was a kid, road trips were chaos. Me and my brother would be fighting in the back of a station wagon with no air conditioning, playing I-Spy until we were sick of it, and the biggest technological marvel was the car radio. Now? Silence. My wife's got her noise-canceling headphones on listening to a podcast, my oldest is editing videos of himself for social media, and the youngest is playing some game on a tablet. It's peaceful, I guess, but it feels like we're just copiloting a silent metal box instead of having a family experience. The real fun started an hour ago. The GPS, which my kids have named 'Patricia,' told us to take a 'shortcut.' I'm looking at this dirt path thinking 'no way,' but my wife and kids all chant 'Patricia knows!' Well, she didn't. Ten minutes later we're bouncing around, scraping the bottom of the minivan, and we hit a patch of mud we can't get out of. And of course, there's no cell service. The silence was finally broken by a chorus of 'Are you serious?!' After about thirty minutes of me failing to be a hero, an old guy in a pickup truck rolls up, asks if we're the 'tourists Patricia tried to kill,' and tells us the main road is just a mile through the woods. He didn't need a satellite. The kids were forced to actually look outside for a bit. It was a miracle.
How people voted
- OP Is Right — 29% (25 votes)
- Both Messy — 34% (30 votes)
- OP Is Wrong — 37% (32 votes)
Readers are split: “OP Is Wrong” leads with 37% — 87 votes and 5 comments so far.
What people are saying
@sashahm — My phone's GPS once tried to make me turn into a lake. My girlfriend still brings it up. I trust my gut over a place nearby now.
@owenfr — You're the driver, you should have just vetoed the stupid dirt road instead of letting your kids decide.
@leo — Next time they ask for directions just say 'I don't know, what does Patricia think?' and see what happens.
@sophiee — It sounds like everyone in the car is suffering from a major disconnection from reality.
@hankwelp — patricia gave you a side quest you should be thanking her
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