disaster journey home w w u have done...

[Sarah510]

So, coming back from campsite yesterday, the battery in my phone was low-ish but I wasn't too worried as I had bought a solar charger, which worked perfectly on the drive down, and I was able to charge my phone as I was driving. 2 kids and a dog in the back (just FYI!)

Couldn't get solar charger to work :( Battery getting lower and lower. I tried to get the directions into my memory, but the last bit of the journey is all motorways and junctions, and always rely on google maps to get me home - only lived in the area a few months. Soooo, phone dies about an hour from home. Tried to find the way on the motorway but came off at wrong exit, ended up so lost, miles away from home. Thougth could I charge my phone in mcdonalds - found one, but they said it wasn't allowed (understandably). Went to a petrol station to buy a map - didn't have any. Asked lots of people, nobody knew. Finally found a sign to a town that I've visited a few times, so went there, Its about 10 miles from home. It was pitch dark by now and we'd been travelling for more than 6 hours, so very fraught in the car. I thought I recognised the 'road home', but went wrong somewhere. Finally stopped at another petrol station, no maps again, but asked the lady, and thank god she knew my town. If it wasn't for her I think I'd still be driving round. I learned my lesson anyway. Never ever go out without a map, or backup written directions. I felt so guilty for my poor kids, I feel like I let them down. (and they think that too, rightly so as it was idiotic). I do have a sat nav in the car but it just stopped working one day, for no reason, so I always just use my phone now. Anyway, I dont' think I'm even going to tell my friends/family as I'm so embarrassed at putting us all at risk like that, and putting us through it. A 3.5 hour journey took more than 7 hours :( Voting: UANBU - ok to rely on technology. UABU - always have a map in the car!!!!

OP it’s juts a mistake, a funny story. Your took your kids camping single handedly? You are a super hero and don’t let them forget it. Why the self blame, what risk... a numb bum? There is no problem juts embrace the daftness. I took my dd and ds on a walk where we went four hours out of our way! They were starving and thirsty and we all still laugh about it.

To not be able to find your way home from a town 10 miles away is not going to be good for your confidence.

Sat navs are great for getting to new places, but you shouldn’t be this reliant on them, or even on a map, to get yourself home.

I’d highly recommend getting in some driving practice in a 20-30 mile radius around your home, getting to know the roads, the signage and the notable landmarks. Do it with no sat nav.

It’ll do wonders for your confidence in managing without sat nav.

I’m sorry, after a few months you should be able to find your way home without a map using just road signs and basic geographic knowledge!

Always have a map.
Always check the route before I travel online and on map.
Always print out the 'google maps' bit for once off main roads.

Awwww I do feel for you, after I tried to navigate round a new city years ago and was panicking trying to find cafes to charge my phone, I got a mobile charger. They're much cheaper now than there were then too.

I'm so paranoid about this I have a few 😂 plus using your phone for satnav drains the battery. Years from now maybe you'll look back on this memory fondly

I think two things op, get a usb charger for your phone, you can pick them up in most petrol stations and then replace the sat nav when funds allow.

Not sure why you didn’t just get a phone charger though?

I do think sat navs have impeded our ability to think logically.

If you are heading towards Newcastle and you are meant to be going to Birmingham then you know you need to turn round as you have definitely gone wrong. You don’t need a sat nav to tell you that you have gone wrong

@Sarah510
Paper maps, always!
My DS {a driver now} got annoyed when his GF was driving, we got lost, and I said ''Follow the Sun'' { Which sets in the West where we were going..The sun behind us showed we were going the wrong way :)

Now, they tease me with ''Follow the Sun''.

But the most fraught trip with DS was on the M5.......
It was basically stationary. For hours.
It was hot, and DS needed a wee.
Others in the car were making ''pssssssssssssss....Ahhhhhhhhhhhh'' noises that soon wore thin.
DS would NOT get out and wee on the Hard Shoulder, ''in case the traffic started moving''

He was in agony with needing the wee, and refused a proffered water bottle ''Because Mum is in the car''...and he didn't want me to see

I'd have averted my eyes.

Then , about 4 hours later , we took a wrong turning, and DS was in a real shouty temper, and his GF was sobbing by now.

It was horrible. M5 is a beast and famous for really bad delays.

DS eventually got home, rushed upstairs to the loo, and was wee-ing for about three minutes solid {sounded like a horse}.

A memorable trip, as yours will be 😂

Most cars have sat nav built in too don't they? I can't remember the last car I had that didn't!

If you are new to the area the more you drive the more you get to know. I could navigate home from most major localism cities, saying that I miss my motorway turning yesterday 🤣

Don't beat yourself up. I once got us lost by missing a turn on the London S.Circular. As we got deeper and deeper into darkest suburbia and the dc started complaining, I handed one of them the A to Z and said, 'You do Geography at school. You get us home.' V educational.

Re maps, I absolutely do not recommend trying to get from North to West Cornwall using an Ordnance Survey map. It took up half the windscreen.

I generally have a paper map, however, what i also do is have a good look on a map online before I travel so I have a good idea of where I am going and can usually navigate from that in my head plus road signs.

DH and I both guilty in the pre satnav etc days, of printing off directions for the journey to somewhere but doing it for the return.

We both seem to have good homing instincts though and only really made one proper mistake but that was in Holland in a thunderstoms and we just needed to get off the road to re appraise our options.

You all got back safe from your adventure OP, just chalk it up to experience and a shared adventure.

@MyCatHatesEverybody

You feel guilty for your kids? Are you nuts?! You're setting them up for a life of unnecessary drama (or being overly harsh on themselves) if you all think like that.

The message??don't be dramatic... No one let anyone down... You're teaching your kids that people can't make mistakes... You didn't put them at risk ffs....

Blimey OP, you just got lost, you didn’t hurt anyone.
I am old school and write out/print directions. Don’t like satnav and the like. I also use a road atlas.

You let your kids down because they had to travel in a car for 7 hours instead of 3.5? What? They need to get over it and so do you. People make mistakes, no-one's perfect. You need to raise children who thank you for the holiday, not guilt trip you because a solar charger didn't work...

Something like this happened to me once on the way home from work at 11pm after moving house and the junction I had been using the first few times was closed. Nothing as bad as your experience but doubled a 30 min journey and I pulled over at one point and cried.

It wasn't your fault. Its OK to feel awful about it but try not to be hard on yourself. You're all safe. You will recover from the ordeal.

Maybe do something fun to take your mind off it?

..I also look on Google Earth at any big/complicated/not-obvious junctions beforehand.

Solar charger... no other reliable options to charge your phone in the car? Cigarette lighter or USB port? Presumably you have one as you had a sat nav that previously ran in the car?

Garages and many supermarkets will stock them if you need an alternative charging device at short notice.

Lesson learnt, dont make the same mistake again.

Single parent here
Organised up to my eyeballs
As when shit hits fan, it really does as a single parent.

So car charger (x2)
Plus an on the go charger in my bag
Plus I get familiar with routes before heading out

I would have found a Shop and brought a car charger in your shoes (garage usually have)

Paper maps all the way.
Carrington Bowles' Post Chaise maps from 1780's are remarkably accurate for 'A' roads. They show turnoffs, too.
Lots of UK roads follow old Coaching roads anyway...Some pubs are still there!

They give mile by mile landmarks too.

OP, I have a terrible sense of direction and it has resulted in some horrible, scary scenarios that are very stressful, and add to the overall stress of a situation. Journeys to new places are stressful and challenging for me in a way people who don't have this problem really don't get. That's whether I am on foot or in a car btw.

That said, I don't think I could be lost an hour from home!

What is odd about your post is that an hour from home you seem to not have had a clue where you were. Or for the following 4 or 5 hours

Were there no road signs that could take you somewhere you knew how to get back from?

Am I the only one dying to know where OP lives? In a town that nobody an hour away from it has heard of

Brigadoon perhaps...

In addition to above
I would have made the best of it
Stopped for a Macdonald’s, which children would have been very excited about

Most cars have sat nav built in too don't they? I can't remember the last car I had that didn't!

I just bought my car, it's new to me but it's 10 years old and indeed does not come with built in satnav. It's all I could afford

Page from Post Chaise map book.

I really don't mean to make you feel worse than you do, ive had a similar experience where ive ran out of battery on a big journey. I really do think that the reliance on technology is taking away common sense. Surely you must know big landmarks and can navigate home from that, for example head for the nearest city, then towns. Its bizarre to be a driver and have complete lack of direction and surroundings. I too have recently moved to a new place and I may not know the shortest route home but I could hazard a guess at knowing the next town along and work it out that way.

I think you should have a practise of the surrounding areas without sat nav/phone on to try and take in surroundings. At least work out your way home from the nearest motorway junction. Invest in a car charger or portable charger for emergencies.