I grew up with a brother who sometimes wanted to tell me things I didn’t want to hear. In a sing-songy voice I would declare, “I’m not listening.” I could hear that tone of voice today.
I was driving west on I-10 towards Quartzsite when I saw the sign reminding me there is a shortcut route to Parker–my ultimate destination. Thinking quickly I realized it had not been long enough since breakfast to be hungry for lunch so my primary reason for going through Quartzsite had ceased to exist. If I was ever going to check out this shortcut, today could be the day.
So I took the off ramp at Wickenburg where the sign said, “to AZ 72.” And discovered there was a large pull off area right beside the ramp. The perfect place to tell my GPS I had changed my mind about my next destination. I now wanted to go directly to Parker.
And Jack, the voice in my GPS, apparently thought, “Fine. I’ll take her to Parker. By way of Quartzsite!”
Because his next command was to turn left then right which would have put me right back on I-10.
So I thought, “I’m not listening,” and turned right.
Then I came to a roundabout. Jack said go 3/4 the way around and take Hwy 60 back to I-10.
So I ignored him again and went only half way around to continue on my way towards AZ 72.
When I got to 72 Jack wanted me to turn right since that was now the shortest way back to I-10. But Parker was to the left so again thinking to myself, “I’m not listening,” I turned left.
Eventually, I came to the intersection of AZ 72 and AZ 95. AZ 95 is the route I usually take between Quartzsite and Parker. I almost expected Jack to tell me to turn left back towards I-10. But, he didn’t. He finally acknowledged me as boss and let me continue on to Parker.
BTW, the shortcut is probably not the best route to take so maybe Jack was right after all. Don’t tell my brother, OK?
TTYL,
Linda
HAHaaaaaa …. oh boy! have I done the same thing …. BUT you got there … I can’t hear Siri so I just have to look at the arrows and I get REROUTING … a lot…
We often ignore ole whatshername also. Sometimes it’s a good thing, others not so much. But at least now you know what that route is like.
Sounds like Jack has a real attitude. Good thing his name’s not HAL.
Too funny. Whenever I ignore Hallie (mine has a female voice – go figure) I end up somewhere I didn’t want to go.
Our GPS drives us nuts when it insists we make a u-turn and go back. We turned off the u-turn but still tries to get us back on the route it wants to take. You would think after five minutes of not listening to it, the dumb thing would get the message.
I was using Siri for the first time when I was driving my new (to me) coach from Gainesville, FL, to Houston, TX, and it took me up to I10 when I had planned to stay on US98 into Pensacola. The next time she tried something like that I ignored her and followed my pre-planned route. She got the message more quickly. I don’t know what criteria the programmers use on these routing instructions but you (the user) have to be willing to ignore some advice. 🙂
LOLOL! I know exactly that tone of voice.
I imagine jack was thinking … god. get me out of this box. this woman is hopeless! LOLOL.
That was funny because it was so familiar. Our “Jackie” often tells us to go places we don’t want to go either. We’re used to ignoring her.
WE ignore our GPS so often that we keep expecting him to say, “If you aren’t going to follow my directions why do you wake me up and force me to go through this hell?”
It does seem, however, that there are places the GPS seems determined to take us free spirits even if we don’t want to go there!
I do second the comment that at least you know what the route is like now.
Safe travels.
Cheers,
Peter
A retired photographer looks at life from behind an RV steering wheel.
Life Unscripted