My neighbors Parker and Patty are always telling me how proud they are to be a part of Port O Connor, Texas. They say it is a great community and so friendly.
Recently they drove to the Rocky Mountains for a week of fishing, hiking and fun. Their grandson saw Parker studying the road atlas and mapping out their trip. He called his grandpa old fashioned and told him to just use the GPS system on his phone to navigate. So, Parker tried it. He studied the GPS function, practiced the steps, and then carefully typed in his points of departure and arrival. He selected the driving route function and waited for the phone’s reply. Quickly, the navigation program drew out a route, calculated miles and provided a small diagram of the driving directions. It all looked pretty good, and favorably compared to Parker’s pen and paper route, so they decided to try it. They made it fine to their first stopover and liked the route the GPS provided, but on the second day things went a little differently.
In the foothills, they were routed about 17 miles off of Highway 10, down a county road, over a rough FM connection and back onto Highway 10 about 12 or so miles from where they exited. Parker grumbled but thought maybe he misread or miscalculated, so they continued the GPS route. Higher in the mountains, while traveling on a major state highway, they were directed to exit again. Parker paused, zoomed in on the exit route, looked at his trusty road atlas and laughed out loud. Patty asked him what was so funny. He replied that the crazy GPS guide was exiting them 74 miles out of the way, off course through gullies and across small roads and rough terrain only to re-enter the major state highway practically on top of where they started. They both knew that such a detour could mean a couple hours driving on twisty mountain roads. They laughed, reset the cruise control and continued on the road atlas route to their destination.
Coming home Parker and Patty turned on the GPS and consulted it occasionally, but did not veer far from the tried and true method of mapping and planning the shortest route home. Parker shared the story with his grandson. Their grandson was sure they had somehow muddled the use of GPS technology. Parker smiled and said gadgets are great and technology is terrific but 75 miles is still 75 miles and you just can’t replace good old common sense. Then Parker told his grandson that he hoped whatever roads he travels he remembers to take common sense along. It will never be a phone function or a computer program, but will always be useful in getting where you want to go in life. That’s a grandparent lesson for you.
