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| Stuck on I-80 With No Map and No Clue |
Sometimes I’m not sure the synapses are working in the old
noggin.
Heading up to the mountains this past weekend along with
499,999 of the other folks in cars from the Bay Area who were also “sneaking
out early on a Friday” – we got stuck.
Always Prepared, was once my motto. And back in the old days
before these hand held gizmos that have completely changed my life on a basic level
around the house, but also with adventure travel and Apps for just about
anything for the outdoors just short of turning into a Swiss Army Knife
(where’s the retractable spoon on my iPhone???) – I used to plan the route
ahead, be organized, think things through, have the alien, Reynolds Wrap
looking space blanket packed “just in case.” As an outdoorsman, you were
seriously: Always Prepared.
Now I just look at my co-pilot in the car and say – can you
Google the next gas station/forest service road/where are we/how long do we
have left/what’s our elevation/how far have we gone/ can you find the blue dot/
where’s the closest In & Out Burger for some fries and a water bottle refill???
All of this while we are already driving. Because the horror of getting stuck
unprepared is less horrifying – everything is just a beep-boop-beep of a few
finger presses on the phone away – information available instantly, where,
before, it was a wide-open chasm of the unknown.
So on Friday, when 499,999 of our new BFF-cars on the road
and we all got stand-still stuck for three hours on Interstate 80 heading up
into the mountains of Lake Tahoe due to a massive, action-movie worthy overturn
of a Cement Truck, we all turned to our phones. And, our phones, in turn,
turned into worthless bricks of colorful plastic. No cell phone service
available… just endless, heart-tugging “searching…. searching…” going on. And,
therefore, no map.
Stuck on I-80, somewhere between the Donner Dinner Party and
The Last Exit Before Nowhere, we couldn’t look on a map to: a) see where we
actually were, or b) come up with a Plan B – escape routes off the highway,
alternate routes from 80 to our destination, turn-around loops if worse came to
worse. My smart phone had rendered me a total, complete, reliant, unprepared
dumb-dumb, stuck in a possibly dangerous situation.
Luckily, as I’ve been mentioning, we were with 499,999 other
friends/cars stuck in the same situation. Some more prepared than we were. And
they nicely shared their paper-maps and prepared-information.
But lesson learned, my friends. Next time I’m going retro
and turning the lazy (and lost?) -man’s gizmo to Off and bringing a tree full
of mappage… just like the good old days.
Namaste & Three Cheers. -a
The smart phone have today become the most important for everyone. We can easily found everything in our smartphones with just one click. It was really very nice written post and also interesting.
ReplyDeleteremote access
thanks, stephen! i just don't know what i'd do without mine these days. but i really, REALLY realized that i was way too reliant on it in some very important areas ----- so back to the compass and map -- remembering THE BASICS-- when heading out on these kind of adventures. (and, boy, am i going to remind myself to teach the kids this lesson as well.)
Deleteglad you enjoyed it! -a
Nowadays our generation is mostly dependent on mobile phone. We are getting dependent on it day by day. Sometimes a phone cover may be the cause of network error. I personally faced it 3-4 times. Don't use too fat or bulky cases instead get a low dense phone case or a wooden phone case. It is durable and has no network issues.
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