Never Trust a GPS

I'll be the first to admit, a GPS can be a fantastic device to assist you in getting from point A to point B. There are times, however, when it can be, well, a big ol' pain in the butt.

I need to prelude this story with the days leading up to this adventure, because it was quite a week! Sean was going on his great adventure to climb Mt. Washington, so I decided to take a couple days up in New Hampshire with family and friends in various places. I probably put about 1K miles on my car in 4 days, and I am now exhausted. I started off Friday morning, drove up to Massachusetts to meet my mom for lunch. I had to stop at Ikea to pick up the card box (which was $1.99 instead of $9.99 - yay!) and hit major Cape traffic in Braintree. So I hopped off the highway, plugged the pizza shop's address into the GPS and away I went. It took me all sorts of interesting back roads, but got me where I needed to be in much shorter time than it would've taken on the highway. Oh, I should also add that Sean has the GPS programmed to Homer Simpson's voice, which I can't stand.

After a lovely lunch I went to meet a girl in Somerville for coffee before heading up to Lake Winnipesaukee. I thought it would be a quick stop and to my dismay, did not have any quarters for the parking meter. So 20 minutes later when I returned to my car, I had a nice orange-colored parking violation on my windshield. But it was a delightful $30 cup of coffee.

It took me no less than 4 hours to drive from Somerville to Concord New Hampshire, which should have been 1.5 hours tops. I did not reach the speed limit for more than a mile at a time, and I reached ***camp at 8:05, just in time for Mass. I got to see my little niece, who is now pulling herself up and standing, and it was fantastic to see so many old friends. The reason for my being there was to act as security patrol, so I strapped on my sneakers and prepared to walk camp from 11 pm to 7 am. Duringt his partol, I experienced no less than 9 skunk sightings, heard something that sounded like a wild cat fight, and a bat flew into my face at dawn as I was walking down to the beach to see the sunrise over the lake.

Here's the sunrise...taken on my camera phone.



After pulling an all-nighter, I decided to stay awake the rest of the day and join my brother, sister-in-law and niece with some friends up in Waterville Valley instead of attempting to drive to my parents' house. We stayed at the Black Bear Lodge in this adorable tourist village and I texted Sean to call me so we could meet up Sunday morning at the base of Mt. Washington. We drank beer and wine (and margaritas, oh my!) and hung out in the hot tub until I felt my eyelids drooping. I slept like a rock, had a yummy breakfast, and Sean called me to assure me that he was alive and inform me that they had gotten to the base and were now in North Conway. I told him I'd meet him at the Yankee Smokehouse in West Ossipee for lunch. Here's where the adventure begins...

I inputed Yankee Smokehouse into the GPS, and Homer informed me that it was 26 miles away and the trip would take an hour. Interesting. I took a right out of the resort, which is surrounded by glorious White Mountains, and drove about a mile down the road, where it instructed me to take a left onto Sandwich Notch Road. A little wooden sign told me that Sandwich Notch Road was established in 1801. I should have known, not even 1/4 miles into the road, that something was up. The road quickly turned to dirt, chock full of potholes, and before I knew it, I was in Backcountry USA. The road kept climbing through the woods, barely a single lane, with potholes the size of my bathtub. I'm pretty sure that this road has not been maintained since 1802. The GPS said I would be on this road for 5.5 miles. Ok, I could handle that. But no, after 5.5 miles, it intersected with another dirt road (probably also established in 1801) and I now had another 5 miles to go. Just for fun, here's a map of where I drove, terrain-view:


View Larger Map

As you can see, I drove through 3 mountains. By myself. It got to a point where Homer would direct me and I would just laugh and start talking to myself. I might have heard dueling banjos in the distance...Never again will I trust a GPS.

I made it to the smokehouse around noon and Sean and friends arrived shortly after. We had a feast and then Sean joined me en route to my parents' house for the evening. We got there and became completely useless humans piled on the couch soaking up air conditioning. We didn't even have the energy to get into the pool, which might have helped us at that point. And this morning we got on the road at 10:30, made a few stops, and got home to Connecticut around 5.

It was a fun weekend, but very exhausting. I am so grateful to be on vacation this week so I can hopefully get to the beach and do some serious relaxing. I hope you're all somewhere air conditioned, or Northern Canada, because this week will be a roaster!

Cheers!