Wednesday, September 29, 2010

The Traveling Blogger

I came to Los Angeles with a friend who needed to attend a conference (just in time for a record-setting heatwave so that was grand too). I had a couple of things to take care of so it sounded like a great idea in the planning stages. She has a GPS unit for which she downloaded a map update so the nice lady who talks you through traffic and freeway nightmares had the latest information. If you deviate from her kindly instructions, she'll say "Recalculating" and you're on your way again. But the GPS lady takes special pleasure from confusing me if I'm driving alone. Or maybe she gets confused. In any event, both mornings I've dropped off my friend at her conference in Century City and tried to make it back to our hotel--I've gotten trapped on the same cloverleaf both times. Around and around I go while the soothing voice in the unit stuck to the windshield with a suction cup says, "turn right, then turn right." I keep seeing the same street signs--Avenue of the Stars, Olympic Blvd. West, Galaxy, "turn right, then turn right." And I'm trying to travel only a half-mile! My response to her wasn't as soothing and polite.

Finally, after the third time I purposely ventured down to Santa Monica Blvd. and made a few right turns till I got into a dead-end cul-de-sac kind of thing that Fox shares with their neighbors across the street. I thought it might break whatever loop she might have gotten herself (and me) stuck in. "Recalculating." It seemed to have done the trick. After she regathered her wits, I got better directions and saw my hotel in the distance.

Disneyland is the next big destination--I'll be interested to see how that goes.

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