I know that I am not the only person in the developed world who is not good with technological gadgets. When I had expressed concern about the driving portion of my trip – it was not so much about the actual driving, although I would truly prefer not to have to cope with the “other side of the road” aspect. The core issue is navigating in very unfamiliar territory while simultaneously dealing with that. I had already mentioned that the breezy, “Oh they have GPS” did not fill me with comfort and that came all too true yesterday. For reasons that I don’t understand, there was an amazing amount of delay and almost disorganization at the rental car company, then a mishap that I won’t get into until I’ve had some time to mentally process it. Anyway, the upshot of it is that the GPS system is one of the dashboard ones and the attendant whipped through it so quickly that it was obvious I would need more time to work with it. I actually had written instructions that I had taken from the computer before I left home and they seemed relatively straightforward. Okay, I thought. I’ll use them, get to the place, play with the GPS when I get there and have it ready for the next leg of the trip this afternoon.

I managed with the assistance of most drivers being able to pass me as they no doubt had unkind things to either say or at least think about my being on the road. The one turn I missed was frustrating, but I used the old-fashioned method of stopping and asked for directions which worked. Okay, I get settled into the room, discover that the instructions for the GPS are, shall we say, minimal, but I was ready to give it a shot. This is when I discovered that you need an actual street address to put in. As it turns out, the next hotel where I will be staying doesn’t have a street address that is either posted on their website or known to the woman whom I called. We had a bit of a discussion about that. Once again, I had run off instructions from the computer before leaving home and between those and what she told me I think I can manage. In her cheerful way, it was, “Well, get close now and then we can help you find your way.” We’ll see how that goes.