(Thank you, The Things We Think, Say and Do, for blogging about this Biggest GPS Fail Ever).
Picture this. A 67 year old woman starts to drive from her home in Belgium, intending to pick up her friend at a train station, some 38 (or maybe 43) miles away, also in Belgium. She programs her GPS and off she goes.
Following her GPS, she drives.....and drives....and drives....
Across borders. Into countries where different languages are spoken. She notices the languages of the traffic signs are changing, but "she was distracted". Hours pass.
Needless to say, she wasn't in Belgium anymore. Or in Germany, or Austria, or the Czech Republic, or.... She travels some 900 miles before she realizes Something Is Seriously Wrong. By that time she is in Croatia.
So, what does she do? Casually, she drives back home, in time to stop a major manhunt for her.
My fellow blogger at The Things We Think, Say and Do described it so humorously, you have to read his description. Don't take my word for it.
I have never been off the North American continent. But, I thought about it this way: if I got into my car and started to drive 900 miles from my home in upstate New York, I would end up (going west) in Iowa. Heading north, I would be in Canada somewhere in the Great White North. South, I would arrive somewhere in South Carolina (and since they are having record warm weather there right now, that sounds like a pretty good idea.) East, I would be swimming in the Atlantic Ocean.
How could I not realize that I had gone slightly more than 43 miles?
Someone, please tell me this is a hoax. Or that this was an early release of a BBC April Fools production.
And if this woman offers to pick you up at the train station....don't accept her offer.
Monday, January 14, 2013
8 comments:
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You are too funny...if this is true she is more than directionally challenged she needs GPS for (not intelligent people) LOL!
ReplyDeleteI still think this has to be a hoax. Unbelievable.
DeleteWow. I guess this is why I don't have GPS. Maybe we should trust our instincts a little bit more. I think my first clue would have been when I had to stop for gas. 43 miles? My car better get better gas mileage than that.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a GPS either and I think now I know why. If we become that dependent on our electronics - she would have drove off a cliff if her GPS had told her to.
DeleteThat's insane! How could she not realize that? People do some crazy things!
ReplyDeleteMaybe she was a little too focused on her electronics and common sense left the building?
DeleteGoodness, how funny! I do have a GPS, but mainly so that I don't miss a turn because I got distracted. I find it allows me to spend more time paying attention to other drivers and less time trying to read road signs. Generally by the time I'm close enough to read the sign, it's too late to turn, or change lanes, or whatever I need to do to make it happen.
ReplyDeleteHa! Thanks for this Bookworm, very kind of you. Listen, you're not going to believe this but there was a similar story yesterday, in France. It appears that 5 Asian women flew into Roissy from LAX tnd hired a car to drive to Lourdes, on a sort of pilgramage I imagine. So they punched 'Lourdes' into their GPS and arrived in...Lourdes. 'So what?' you may ask.
ReplyDeleteWell, it wasn't the Lourdes in the south of France, it was the tiny hamlet of Lourdes up north in the Finistere region, 800 kilometers away!
They say things come in threes, so let's see what today's press comes up with. :)