Why I don't ask for directions.

I have never been lost! True, I have sometimes not known exactly where I was, but because I have always known how to get back to my starting point, thus my claim. I can navigate with a compass, by sun or stars, and I know how to find and use landmarks. If I have a compass and map, I can find my way to just about anywhere I want to go.

Whether I'm in a car or on a bike, I don't ask for directions. I'm one of those people that find it impossible to listen to somebody describing how to go to a certain location. Landmarks that they use are most likely to be something I would ignore, how often do you hear "Go down the road past the gas station and turn right. After a mile or two, you should see a cemetery. Turn left there. If you see another gas station you went to far!" Rarely do they say "Turn right on Oak Street. After a mile or so, turn left on Elm." In either case, I probably could have found it myself by following the mental map I prepared before I left.

I know some people that would rather stop and ask for directions, even when they have a map with the route highlighted! These are the same kind of people that lose track of their parked car at the local mall. When they ask me for directions, I have been known to send them on a course that circles their destination but still gets them there.

I like to explore places. If somebody tells me there is only one way to a place, I'll search for at least 2 more ways to get there just to make the trip more interesting. I use 9 variations on the routes I drive to and from work, so that even when I get stuck in traffic I'm not always looking at the SOS. The World Wide Web has brought about more than a few neat mapping guides. By consulting the guides, you can get door to door directions to most locations in the major US cities, some aerial photographs, and some excellent localized trail maps. I'll provide my mapping links at the end of this article.

Map reading is either taught very poorly or else is considered unnecessary by educators. Most of the poor performance of American students on geography tests is due to misreading maps. Not only do we handicap our children when we fail to teach them how to read maps, we also have to teach them how a set directions can be visualized on the map and then followed more easily.

My son hit that point home one day during his summer break. He planned to go to a friend's house by bike. He waved a piece of paper that he felt had good directions to the place and took off. His friend called an hour later, asking where my son was. Had I answered the phone, I would have asked for the address my oldest son was looking for, but I didn't (aren't younger brothers nice). The boy called an hour after that and yet again half an hour later all always asking when my oldest boy would get there, finally giving up on that notion.

When my oldest son arrived home looking exhausted and tired, I took a glance at his directions. It was just a series of left and right turns and since no end address was given it would have been a miracle if he had found the place. There was a single landmark referenced and no road names or distances were on the paper. the most useful thing about that, my son now asks for the address he is going to and looks up his own set of directions or maps the route over the net. I hope he does the same when he uses the car!

Here are the links as promised!

Mapquest
DeLorme's Cyber Router
Vicinity's MapBlast
Tiger Map Browser

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