No sense of direction

[Brett]

I - 95 starts in the state of Maine and end in the state of Florida.

I've been on every mile of that road .... not all on one trip

 

[DaveNV]

Oh, and Starbucks made it OK to spend $5 for a cup of coffee. (remember bottomless $.10 cent cups?

Thinking of those old 'named' highways. On I-80 between Laramie and Cheyenne Wyoming, on top of a pass is a giant bust of Abraham Lincoln:
View attachment 18190
I'd been trucking past there for years, and wondered WHY?

Well, it's because this spot is the highest place in elevation from coast to coast (I-80 runs seamlessly between San Francisco and New York City) on the LINCOLN Highway. U.S.-30 before the interstate.

Jim

I've also driven that stretch of freeway, several times. I didn't know/remember about the Lincoln statue. I was more focused on getting to Little America, Wyoming, just so I could say I'd been there. (Not to be confused with Wall Drug, South Dakota - I've also been there.)

Dave

 

[am1]

I am pretty good and wife is not. I do struggle a little here with Cardinal direction here as the Atlantic is to the north and Pacific to the south. The sun/moon help.

 

[geekette]

It is hard for me to imagine someone with no sense of direction, but I know it exists. Years ago I was at an all day meeting. One of the participants was a very intelligent woman, a well respected university French professor, who said that she had no sense of direction. At noon, we needed to leave the room, turn left in the hallway and then turn right down a long hallway that led to a cafeteria. While this might not sound complicated, we had to lead her back to the room because she had no idea of to find her way back.

This was the first I became aware of this, but learned that there is an abnormality that leaves people with no sense of direction. The people are not at all unintelligent, just facing an unusual abnormality.

I had this same problem in a doctor's office about a year ago. Had never been in that facility, had to stop between waiting room and exam room to be weighed, then somewhere else to have my blood drawn.

When doc was done with me, said to be sure to stop by Check Out. Ok!

I exit my room and there are no signs anywhere. No overheard Exit, no signs on walls. Nothing. I had no idea what direction I had come from. Time had elapsed, I hadn't paid attention. Hadn't realized I would need to!

I didn't know what to do and was terribly embarrassed, didn' t think it would be cool to wonder hallways. so I just sat in the exam room with the door open until someone wondered why I was still there. "I don't know how to get out" was met with big confusion and a look like "what is wrong with you?" because of course, they are there all day and every day and how could anybody get lost? I must be a complete idiot.

The next time I visited that doc, a few months later, signs were everywhere, including one indicating where the heck Check Out was. I had never found that on previous trip, and had forgotten all about it by the time I got out of the hallway maze.

They had called me after that first appt with admonishment that I had not checked out. I told them I had no idea where check out was, I had no idea where to go, by the time I made it out of the maze, I was relieved to see the building exit. So she told me where check out was, which I still didn't understand, don't recall passing by anything like she described ...

For me, if you want me to know where I'm going, you better tell me or add signage.

 

[geekette]

I've never had any problem with maps, have carried an atlas in my car for years. I do like to get updated state maps from rest areas since I keep atlases until they fall apart so they don't have new roads. There are some long road trips that I haven't needed directions to for years. The 1100 miles to my sis' house (including new interstate as of the past few years) and the 10 hr drive Southeast to where my brother used to live. I remember the big slow-your-butt-down curve around I-40 or 640 near (towards?) Asheville headed south. Once I've been, I can remember.

There are times when I have to point my person north to think about , will this be a right or left turn? Never any compass training, I have no clue on those, I'll leave it to boyscouts.

The way I look at it, we can't all have the same level of smarts in everything. This is just one area I am deficient in, but have managed to cope.

 

[stmartinfan]

I was always the navigator for driving trips, including all over Europe. Kind of miss that challenge and the feeling of success when I got us somewhere, now that we rely on GPS.

One of the issues for me in Europe was that freeway entrances didn't say the route number and direction, like the “Interstate 35 North”, that you see in the US, but the name of the next large city in each direction. If I was heading to a smaller town, my geography knowledge wasn't strong enough to know which city was in the direction I wanted to go.

 

[AnnaS]

I am okay/decent.

I do have two sisters who are really directionally challenged. They have each come to my house at least a hundred times. The only way they won't get lost going back to where they came from is to make a U Turn and drive back the same exact way

 

[dioxide45]

I have a pretty good sense of direction and can find the way around. My problem is when providing directions, I may say "turn right up here" when I really mean left. Must be some form of dyslexia.

 

[queenofthehive]

I have a DS who, at age 3 while sitting in his car seat in the back, would tell me when I took a wrong turn. He gets his sense of direction from his father....

My daughter was the same way at that age. She always know when we were going to Auntie Carmen’s house. Lol - sweet memories

 

[VacationForever]

I have no sense of direction and I still use GPS to get to Costco and everywhere else when I am driving on my own.

 

[DaveNV]

I have no sense of direction and I still use GPS to get to Costco and everywhere else when I am driving on my own.

I'm shocked! I thought everyone knew how to get to Costco, even blindfolded. It's kind of the law!

Dave

 

[Wyominguy]

My wife finally admitted to me a few years ago that she gets lost when returning to our seats in a restaurant after visiting the restroom. In defending her terrible lack of direction (fortunately I have a great one. I guess that is why we are still married after 45+ years.) all she could say was that "our son, Michael is the same." I then called my son in Ohio and asked him what direction he was facing. After stammering he said, "Ah, Ah, oh crap!" Now that was funny!!

Neil

 

[rapmarks]

My sisters were trying to walk from my one sisters house to mine. It is a half mile if you turn left out of driveway and two miles if you turn right. Guess which way they turned.

 

[Old Hickory]

I have a pretty good sense of direction and can find the way around. My problem is when providing directions, I may say "turn right up here" when I really mean left. Must be some form of dyslexia.

Next right or this right?

 

[geekette]

Next right or this right?

Ugh! Ex and I had endless discussions on this as to whether Next Weekend is the next occurring Saturday, or the one after that....

 

[DaveNV]

"Turn right here. Left."
"Turn left here, right?"
"This is the right turn here. Now, go left!"



Dave

 

[Talent312]

... When doc was done with me, said to be sure to stop by Check Out. Ok!...I exit my room and there are no signs anywhere. No overheard Exit, no signs on walls. Nothing. I had no idea what direction I had come from. Time had elapsed, I hadn't paid attention. Hadn't realized I would need to!...I didn't know what to do and was terribly embarrassed, didn' t think it would be cool to wonder hallways....

Some of these offices need to post a floor plan with a '"you are here" dot.

Once, I waited in an exam room for an hour. Fed up, I walked into the hall. But no one was around and I no idea which way to go, so I wandered around until I found some peep and loudly announced I was leaving, if I could be directed to the exit. Suddenly, a PA appeared who offered to see me immediately.
.

 

[VacationForever]

My husband said to me... Go East, Go North, whatever... and I asked so do I turn left or right? He said look at the compass on the mirror. I said please just make it simple, do I turn left or right?

 

[geist1223]

Tie a Ribbon on their left wrist.

 

[clifffaith]

I was always the navigator for driving trips, including all over Europe. Kind of miss that challenge and the feeling of success when I got us somewhere, now that we rely on GPS.

One of the issues for me in Europe was that freeway entrances didn't say the route number and direction, like the “Interstate 35 North”, that you see in the US, but the name of the next large city in each direction. If I was heading to a smaller town, my geography knowledge wasn't strong enough to know which city was in the direction I wanted to go.

That drove us crazy in Southern England. Had no idea if the town we were looking for was on the way to Folkstone or on the way to the other roundabout choice.

 

[Icc5]

We live in Cupertino,Ca. and we're meeting some relatives in the Napa area and had my brother n law with us. We ended up staying in Napa pretty late and it was pretty crowded on the road so we started following the brother n laws directions to get to the timeshare in Windsor. He used to go to Napa with his wife all the time. He gave some directions that weren't working out. It turned out he had brought 2 maps with him that were old before different streets either weren't called by the same name or weren't there anymore. This was in 2018 and we found out his maps were from 1982 and 1987. Turned on my phones mapping and about 40 minutes later we made it to the timeshare.
Bart

 

[CanuckTravlr]

I've been on every mile of that road .... not all on one trip

Me, too. Also not in one trip. But in addition to I-95, I can say the same about I-75 and the full length of the series of highways skirting the Pacific coast from Vancouver to San Diego, including the Pacific Coast Highway itself in California, though again not in one trip. Road trips are great!!

While I am fortunate to have a very good sense of direction, I am also a long-time fan and user of paper maps. It is an old habit from my Boy Scout days. I still carry paper maps on long road trips. I find them better for overall orientation and reference than the built-in GPS in our cars. The GPS is great for local guidance and point-to-point travel, or warning of traffic issues and calculating alternate routes quickly.

I am one of those lucky people that if I have been there once, I can usually find my way back again. The first time I visited Venice and we decided to take a "short-cut" back to our hotel after dinner, that skill came in very handy to keep us from getting lost in the maze of alleys.

 

[Luanne]

To either of my daughters. "It's on your right, you know where your right hand is". After seeing them point left, we'd say "No, your OTHER right".