I am directionally challenged. In other words, I get lost - a lot. It doesn't matter how precise the directions are, I will get them turned around, upside down, or they will simply disappear. I have a drawer full of directions to the homes of friends I don't visit very often. It must be a family thing as my cousin has the same problem. We have joked about leaving a trail of bread crumbs when we leave home. We may joke about lacking a sense of direction, but it really isn't funny.
Last spring I planned a day trip to a library about two hours from home. It is said that if you do something 21 times, it becomes a habit so getting to the right town was no problem as my family lived there for several years. And since the older members of the family had staked out a claim to the E.R. of the local hospital some time ago, getting to that place was a cinch.
The problem was getting from the hospital to the library. Map Quest provided directions, listing all the streets and telling me when to turn and the distance from one turn to the next. One problem - it didn't make allowances for detours.
The first detour came about because of a house fire. The street was blocked off and a policeman politely gestured for me to stop, back up, turn around and leave. Ok, I can do that. The next street over should take me to the same street on which the library was located. Another problem - street repairs with no through traffic. By the time I had backed up and turned around again, I was hopelessly lost.
I finally got to the library, but only after humbling myself and asking directions at a dry cleaners. It's really strange - I can drive to every courthouse and cemetery in western Kentucky without a hitch, but I get lost going anywhere else. Wonder why that is?
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