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!!!!

When sat Navs were new my husband drove us from Kent to Yorkshire without using motorways, just to see what route it took , its lets just say it's never been repeated .

Sucks to get lost but you know to be better prepared in future in terms of chargers, road map in the car and maybe look up the route online beforehand. I like to have a “visual” in my head before I set off and a couple of post it notes of main roads/towns that we should be looking out for.

Tell your kids to give their head a wobble too.

OP, sympathy. They'll look back on it as an adventure. I spent what felt like weeks of my childhood in baking cars on german autobahns while my uncle missed the turning time after time. Fond memories of it now and I love that uncle best of all.

Be glad you're not married to my DH. He refuses to trust sat nav and will be parked up, nose in a map book while we are all chorusing the Google map instructions on our phones.

You got them home safe. You're all fine. Laugh about it when you are ready. But also, buy a road atlas and keep it in the car.

I have a uk map in the car, hardly ever use it any more, but it's there in case of emergency. You can usually buy the car lighter socket USB plug things in service stations and places like big supermarkets, WH Smiths. I've bought them a couple of times on journeys when dh has annoyingly taken mine for his work car. I'm a bit of a belt and braces type person so I usually write down the major road numbers and junctions on a bit of paper and blutack it to the dashboard as well!

Well done for getting home and don't feel bad. IME kids turn these kinds of things into legendary fun memories - much more so than the actual fun things you put effort and money into planning for them!

I recently took my nephews in a tour of a semi local building site. 🙄😁😂

Was meant to take the first exit on a roundabout but a new one had been added which I didn't know about. Took the first exit which took me onto a road that eventually turned into a building site. Had to turn around in front of lots of bemused builders.

I can imagine the stress in the heat!! But you did it, you used your head and stopped to try different things and ask people and that got you home so we’ll done, that’s what problem solving is.
Lesson learned so always write down the roads and junctions you need. I don’t have a say nav and don’t want to use my phone so I route find before I leave and print it out or just jot down the directions then reverse them on way back.

i hate to say it, but i don't think i'd have got lost like that in the first place. being in my 50s, i learnt to get my self about way before satnavs, so i look at the road and any landmarks (that help me on future journeys) in a way my adult children don't. i think you got yourself in a flap and made it all worse than it needed to be, the kids won't have helped. you should have got a plug in USB charger and a cable if you needed it so you could access your phone again.

Being old, and old-school, I always keep a UK road atlas in the car.

I find phone/satnavs very distracting, useless in the event of a diversion and don't like clutter obscuring my windscreen, plus I always have old cars with no USB and ime the cigarette lighter is usually one of the first fuses to go (odd, really, considering it's the least use).

If I'm going somewhere I've never been before, I use AA autoroute and write the most significant directions on a sheet of A4, in black marker pen, in big letters, so I can just glance at it if I need to refresh my memory.

I love maps, and I like to take the route that's the shortest distance, even if not necessarily quicker, as I love driving on rural roads. On holiday, I don't feel like I'm really away until I've navigated DP down a road so little used that it has grass growing down the middle!

Even having a map isn't always useful. We drove to Brussels once when on holiday, easy peasy getting in, getting out was a different matter as our maps had French place names and the road signs were in Flemish. Wound up throwing the map at the driver and breaking down in tears due to navigational difficulties 😂

Was meant to take the first exit on a roundabout but a new one had been added which I didn't know about. Took the first exit which took me onto a road that eventually turned into a building site. Had to turn around in front of lots of bemused builders

Lol.

A few months ago, I had to visit an NHS building for work. The person I was meeting told me it was easy to find and was signposted from a major roundabout nearby, that I was very familiar with.

The signpost was to the hospital. The building was on the hospital campus, but not accessible by car from the main part of the (huge) site. I googled the name of the centre, and got the postcode. I put the postcode into google maps, followed the map, which took me to a dead end.

Eventually, some very helpful teens gave me excellent directions, and explained that the new housing estate just being built wasn't on google maps yet, and had cut off the road that previously led to the unit I was visiting.

Can only smile at the being old this wouldn’t have happened to me. As someone also old I can remember that I did get lost all the damn time!

Not all charger points are accessible though. Mine is in the boot! I don’t have the cigarette lighter but in the front at all. Only in the boot so would have to stop and charge it enough to then have the sat nav in.

I brought my car brand new and when it came the part where the cigarette lighter is in the front centre console is capped off

I would have brought a power bank. Although they can be very expensive at service stations.

I am rather puzzled that you didn't know the way home from only ten miles away from your house. I think that I could find my way to a main road that I recognised from anywhere in a twenty mile radius!

@Clive222

YABU to rely on phone or sat nav. We may well have neither after Brexit.

Eh?

I did this once but without kids. I sort of spiralled around my town and kept missing the way home but getting closer by the mile.

It's one of those things. Sort your charger, get a map in the car and it need never happen again.

Cant believe you really didnt know which way to go, 10 miles from home.

You really do need to be better prepared

When our resignation from the EU becomes effective, ordinary citizens will still be able to use Satnav.

However, the encrypted access for use in time of war will only be available to members and authorised users. That's why EU built one rather than relying on US, which has become an unreliable ally.

You may no longer be able to launch accurate cruise missiles, but I doubt that will matter.

Sorry but how do you not know your nearest major roads to your house. Even if I'd just moved in I'd know what towns and where roughly in the country I lived

Well that’s a relief. I guess we’ll appreciate inaccurate cruise missiles if they’re heading for the UK.

I really find it very hard to believe that you were incapable of finding your way home from only an hour away / 10 miles away . I can understand someone getting lost going somewhere they’ve never been or only been once but that close to home 🤔.

I don't think you need a map or technology- I think you need to learn which motorway junction is closest to your home and where the local towns are in relation to your home. If you have a rough idea of the local area it shouldn't be too hard to find your way home.

I always have a quick look at what junction I need to get off the motor wherever I'm going, even if sat nav and phone are all good.

I'm surprised petrol stations don't sell maps anymore though.

I'm belt and braces approach for unusual journeys but due to road closures and diversion found myself completely lost and disoriented when directed down single track farm roads where signs just led nowhere on a routine local journey (we live in the sticks) when i had left home without my usual tech and printout backups. I assumed i knew where i was going and how to get back. DS2 came to the rescue by using electricity pylons and the position of the sun to navigate travel in a south westerly direction until the landscape became familiar.

Sorry posted too soon , if you’re homing skills are really that poor I doubt you’ve got the capability to read a map so I’d buy a car charger for the phone or a new satnav .

This is the sort of holiday story that gets passed down the generations so whilst it might feel a bit too raw now, this will be something to laugh about in the future! My dad was forever taking 'short cuts' which ended up far, far longer routes.

How bizarre that you and your children feel you’ve let you and them down! No offence OP but that’s just silly and dramatic. It was a mistake, move on and get over it. Your children sound odd!

It is a little bit odd that you couldn’t have followed road signs to a town, city etc nearby but at least you’ll know for next time fo always be prepared.