I’ve mentioned this briefly before, but when people first move here, driving around can be confusing. Everyone assumes with GPS tech, you just pop an address in and be all set. In some cases, that is correct. The first thing though is there are two sets of street designations; one is the county and the other is the municipal. Since we are south of the main part of the County, their numbering is quite different. For example, NE 8th Street is the local designation and SW 312th is the county. That also happens to be Campbell Drive, so when you get an address from someone, it will depend on which numbering system they are accustomed to using. Now, let’s say you are given the county number which is what most of the GPS systems are programmed with. You are going along and suddenly the street deadends into a field. This is because we still have a lot of agricultural lands and the street may very well pick up again on the other side of the large multi-acre field. The GPS system doesn’t realize that more-or-less straight line doesn’t actually exist as a road.

The other problem is you may have a  19th Ave, 19th Drive, 19th Place, 19th Street,19th Terrace and 19th Road. This is why when someone gives you an address, you have to be certain of the full address. If you are casually told, “Oh, we’re on 19th”, you’re likely to be in the wrong place. As you can imagine, delivery people can become quite frustrated.

Trying to manage all this in the dark is especially challenging and there are stories to be told by even people who have lived here for a while. In the agricultural community, streetlights tends to be limited and you often cannot read a street sign without literally getting out of the vehicle and using a flashlight. These are all things you get used to, but it does take time.