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!!!!

Don't worry too much. You and they will get over it! My childhood was essentially one lost drive around southern France with my parents arguing over a paper map - and I actually hold those memories as some of my fondest.

I think you’re being really hard on yourself OP! Nothing disastrous happened. Yes it was a longer journey but no-one was sick or needed to be home urgently. I would be setting my DC straight right away with regards to them thinking you’ve let them down. Tbh if it was our family we’d be laughing and making an adventure out of it. No one would be feeling let down. It’s just an “oops, that went wrong!” moment. Stop beating yourself up.

Like others, I would have just stopped at the service area and got one of those chargers that charge through the cigarette lighter. I don't have a map, I just rely on satnav.

Were there no signs on the motorway? Once I was in a strange city and the satnav sent us on a weird route that meant we were just going round in circles, but luckily I spotted a sign for our road, so I was ok.

This absolutely baffles me. How do you not know where you live? Can’t you read road signs?

Yab completely U.

I’m worried for the generation that can’t get anywhere without their phone telling them exactly where to go.

DH and I are (US) RVers who typically do trips of 6000+ miles and drive between 450-600 miles per day. We always take a good road atlas, plug-in car phone chargers, a portable (non-solar) charger, and a long distance calling card (if you can find a phone booth). We also normally jot down a note of our route for the day on a piece of paper. So between the phone GPS, the atlas, and written instructions so far we've never gotten truly lost. We've taken a few wrong turns, but never 'scary lost'.

A good hint if you get lost and no one can give you directions is to ask for the nearest police station. Just about everyone knows where the nearest police station is. And someone at the station will be able to give you directions.

I’m worried for the generation that can’t get anywhere without their phone telling them exactly where to go.

I hear you! That's why we made sure that both our sons can read a map and navigate from it. You'd be amazed at the number of their friends who can't or who can only navigate on major interstate (as in, "IDK, just follow that red line").

Also - that post chaise map is actually perfect, isn't it?

Quite a few comments about how can people not know where they live from a few miles away. My husband is dyslexic and the biggest impact of it for him is with directions and orientation. We've lived in the same house for 7 years and he still struggles to navigate to the supermarket which is less than a mile away. It didn't really occur to me that this was a thing some people struggled with until I met DH.

@AcrossthePond55

DH and I are (US) RVers who typically do trips of 6000+ miles and drive between 450-600 miles per day. We always take a good road atlas, plug-in car phone chargers, a portable (non-solar) charger, and a long distance calling card (if you can find a phone booth). We also normally jot down a note of our route for the day on a piece of paper. So between the phone GPS, the atlas, and written instructions so far we've never gotten truly lost. We've taken a few wrong turns, but never 'scary lost'.

A good hint if you get lost and no one can give you directions is to ask for the nearest police station. Just about everyone knows where the nearest police station is. And someone at the station will be able to give you directions.

Aye but the US is mostly empty...:o

We were once in the US driving from Rhode Island up to a military base about 4 hours north.

In their wisdom, my BiL and family drove their SUV with all their family and the map and the mobile phones while we followed in my SIL's old volvo with no map no phone etc, we'd never even been in the US before and had no idea what the place we were going to was even called.

Inevitably we lost them in the 6 lanes of traffic (or felt like it) going past Boston, managed to pull over at a roadside place after just driving North for a few hours, found them waiting there, only for them to say "great you're here" and then shoot of again! Thankfully we managed to keep them in sight for the rest of the journey.

Afraid I'm joining the possible patronising crowd. I don't know how anyone can't get home from a 10 mile radius from home. And how you can come off at the wrong junction of a motorway (unless its an accident and you get straight on)

Do people not know the basic geography of where they live?

I think the problem is that a lot of younger people have never really looked at a map so name no idea where places are in relation to each other. God help most

This happened to me once but 3 hours from home. I just headed in the general direction, following signs to cities/ town that were broadly in my area, until I saw signs for my nearest motorway.

My dad was forever taking 'short cuts' which ended up far, far longer routes.

That's "taking the scenic route" in our family. Though most journeys had contingency time built in, and it meant we learnt more about the area we were in, and how places related to each other.

In fact, what I used to do when moving to a new place was pack a map and then just head off in no particular direction and only look at the map if I couldn't see an obvious way home. It really helped me get to know the area - and where I currently live, means I'm pretty good at avoiding stuck traffic on the main road as I have been down most of the back roads at some point, and have a good sense of where the different villages are in relation to each other. I can't imagine getting very lost within 10 miles if home though gaining this knowledge has meant rare occasions of turning round in a farm gateway.

I would never want to rely on sat nav 100% - it can be wrong, signal can fail, as can the battery. It's most useful for navigating in unknown towns and one-way systems and finding carparks. But a map gives you a better sense of the overall route and where things are in relation to each other.

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

Do you still have your satnav? It probably just needs updating. You can do this on your laptop, just google the make for details, connect the satnav up with a mini usb connector and bob's your uncle!

Well done for getting home, it is scary and you start to think you have entered the twilight zone where nothing looks familiar.

Maps and roadsigns have done me fine for 57 years of driving. Never used a satnav, never had a car with one. Plan the route in advance if it's a long journey and note it down. AA routeplanner is useful. As has been said, some people rely on technology an are lost (literally) without it. (Ok, I exempt people who for some genuine reason can't manage maps, but they are surely a minority.)

Ok for all the people saying get an in car charger, I didn't think my car could have one, but it must do if everyone is saying it!!! I honestly never thought of it, though my dd aged 16 said the car is too old. It didn't have a sat nav, just the previous owner had installed one. That would have been such a relief if I'd known that!!!!

Just had a good oul look at the map and realise something I never knew before - there is a motorway near us, called MX, and then there's one called MX Toll - I always thought they were the same road, but one part had the toll on it - Last night I couldn't find the toll as I know that is quite near where I need to get off - but looking at the map now, MX shoots off in a totally different direction. The motorway seems to separate and one part stays as MX and the other is called M Toll. And the junctions on that one are called Tx whereas the junctions on MX are called Jx - makes sense why I couldn't find our Tx exit:)

I suppose maybe i'ts a bit more than 10 miles to the nearest motorway, maybe 20 miles, and I have been on it a good few times, but I actually avoid it if I can as it is really scary. It's like spaghetti junction, there are roundabouts joining up to roundabouts, and under ones and over ones, and they all have about 6-7 exits and it's really hard to get in the right lane! Ive nearly had an accident so many times. When we were going I was glad we left early Sunday morn so I could navigate getting onto the motorway with nobody beeping me!!!!

DS is actually my navigator - h'es very good at directions. For the journey out I wrote them all out. But we used that piece of paper for the campfire.. ha ha. I did pull over on the way back to write down the last part of the journey but of course couldn't find a pen. .. I know, pathetic!!!!! I guess I thought I would be able to wing it. The problem was when I came off at the wrong exit I couldn't get back onto the motorway, I couldn't find how to get back onto it, it wasn't easy like just coming off, and crossing over a bridge or something and going back the other way. There were all these linking roundabouts! We did find our town on a few sign posts but when I followed them there was never another sign!

Yeah you're right, I know dd was pissed off as she said I should have written them out. I did write out the journey there, but lost patience with writing out the return journey. Then campsite had no signal, when we left the campsite we were driving for ages suntil we found one! I did know the main towns I needed and road numbers, but remembered the last one as AXX when it was actually AXY so that confused me!!!

Yeah hopefully a funny memory in time!!!!!

P.S. I rarely use a mobile phone, either.

Op

Did you 16 year old DD not have a phone on her?!

If your car is not new enough to have a USB port, you can get a car charger with a cigarette lighter connection, although your DD probably doesn't know what a car cigarette lighter is or where to find it in the car, given that hardly anyone smokes anymore.

They sell these at petrol stations, supermarkets, all over the place. Or you can get an adaptor that you can plug a normal USB cable into.

I assume that you didn't have the 16 YO in the car with you, or else she could have done the directions for you with her phone?

Oh, well. You live and learn. It's a good idea to learn your local roads, just in case of emergencies. I live abroad and we often have earthquakes and typhoons here. In case of earthquakes, the phone networks often go down, so I need to now how to get home. Even if it's not likely where you live you can still get caught out by bad storms or blizzards or whatever.

I'd have bought a map or car charger. Teach the kids map reading skills and learn where you are on the map.

Although some cars don't have fag lighters and ashtrays (as a non-smoker I remove them, if present) the ones that don't will usually have a charger socket somewhere. I have one hidden in the glovebox, where I suppose you could put a phone out of sight of thieves, and there is another for the back-seat passengers in the centre. Charger sockets may have a dust-cap.

You can often get a huge road atlas at places like Aldi for a couple of pounds, useful for plotting a route or looking to see what's near you when away from home. Sometimes the satnav will take you on a long route via ring-roads or one way streets when the place you need is quite near.

I had the simplest version of a car and had to have the cigarette lighter thing put in! It was £30 6 years back in London.

The usb is where the radio is so if you have an old radio then you might not have the usb.
I installed a newer radio, which came with usb port.

I think I got one of these with my phone, or I might have bought it as an accessory. Plugs into a faglighter or accessory outlet. You can get a cable in various lengths. You can get them with two outlets or one. Iphone are (were?) non-standard connectors.

For the price, probably best to get from from a reputable phone dealer, some of the cheap imports are not made to a good standard.

@bumblingbovine49

I agree. Unfortunately I think all these electronic "crutches" are making us lazy and stupid. We're becoming far too reliant on them.

I am afraid I don't agree at all. I have been driving for almost 40 years so well remember using maps. My sense of direction has always been absolutely apalling and really really struggle to work out what is in which direction even when I have done a journey many many times before. Using maps and paper over a period of 20years (aged 15-35) until sat navs became available did not improve my skills to any usable level

Before sat navs and Google maps, the op's story is one I repeated quite often. I regularly got lost, despite having a map and always planning the route and writing out the directions in a very simple bullet format for myself (Eg 1) head north on A5, 2) take exit 5 to A& on xx roundabout) so that I could imprint them in my mempory . Also I could glance at them on the passenger seat while driving (and yes I did end up doing that sometimes). I also regularly had to stop to check the way and turn around. My ex husband found my lack of direction and ability to get lost when on my own endlessly amusing

Sat navs and Google maps have been a wonderful invention for me and have improved my life immeasurably. I still get lost occasionally but much much less often. I also don't have to spend an hour working out a route and writing down detailed instructions before practically any non-local journey, which I always had to do before.

I never went anywhere without my London A to Z in my pocket/handbag and had to use it regularly. Despite living in my local area all my life until 35 could not direct peoiple to any road more than 1-2 streets away without a map .

So for me sat navs and Google maps are a bit like my glasses, they help me to get to where a lot of other people are normally.

Absolutely agree with you. Some people (myself include) just don't have great spatial intelligence