
I travel a lot, and I'm writing this from Stroudsburg, PA. But it's a miracle I ever got here. Usually, I rely on Mapquest for directions, print them out and go. But lately, I've been considering one of those GPS units you plug onto your dashboard. Computer guy said to get Microsoft Streets and Trips with GPS, and save a few hundred bucks. So I picked it up, and bought a convertor to power the laptop in the car.
Yesterday, I was on I-80 west, on my way here, when the woman in my computer suggested a shortcut through Hackensack (or some other NJ garden spot). She took me up a road, and every time the road turned said things like "Bear left in 2/10ths of a mile." She then took me to a traffic circle, had me turn around, go back the other way, and drive all the way back to I-80.
While she's a computer and all, my inadequate human brain could not comprehend the wisdom of having driven around darkest Jersey for an extra 30 minutes. When she told me to get off again, I looked her right in her GPS screen, and told her, "Forget it."