MCH

Two chuckles --
1. Several years ago, my DH and I were in Melbourne, Australia. On one particular walk, we were heading toward the farmer's market on St. Kilda. He had the map and was diligently following it, but we weren't getting anywhere close to the market. "Are you sure we're going the right direction?" "Yes." After a few minutes, I still wasn't convinced. Then, my geographer's brain kicked in. "Turn the map upside down and you'll see where we are relative to the market and to the sun."

He had been "navigating" via the map and the relative position of the sun to the map and to us.

You see, we were in the southern hemisphere and the sun is in the northern sky, rather than in the southern sky as it is in the northern hemisphere. Once he turned the map upside down, we retraced our steps and were able to enjoy some time at the farmer's market...eventually.

2. My DH and I returned to our hometown for a high school reunion (one of those that ends in x0). We both grew up in that town and were high school sweethearts, then college sweethearts who ultimately got married. He will freely admit that I have a phenomenal memory for details and can navigate to almost anywhere.

On this particular morning, we were headed to brunch with some classmates at the restaurant at the local general aviation airport. I knew exactly where the restaurant was and how to get there. BTW, I was driving; he was following the directions on his map application on his phone. As I was merrily making my way to the restaurant, following a route I followed numerous times to visit my aunt and uncle whose house was in the general vicinity of the airport, my DH would pepper me with alternate routes, turns, etc. In the meantime, we came to some major construction on one of the main roads. "Just let the app re-calculate the route and we'll be fine." I already had mapped out an alternate route in my head, but he just wouldn't let it go. So, sighing, I followed the directions he gave me.

We went a route that I knew would not get us to the restaurant, but...the app knows best, right? Wrong. "Turn right at the next street and that will take us to the restaurant." "This is through a neighborhood no where near the airport." "Just turn and it will be fine." I turned as instructed. Yep, we were going through a neighborhood. "Turn right at the end of the street." By then, I was rolling my eyes. I turned...onto an unpaved one-lane, pot-hole ridden road (?) through a harvested corn field...which ran parallel to the airport's runway and on the opposite side of the runway from the restaurant!

I turned the car around and followed the route I knew to the airport and the restaurant.