Everyday Adventures

So I'm taking a cue from Jennasaurus and posting about an everyday sort of adventure that happened to me today (this is what happens when I'm at the office, waiting for a meeting that doesn't start for at least two hours but which we are already completely prepared for...I write silly blogs)

So a few days ago one of my roommates, Sarah, asked me if I worked near the airport because she had a flight that was leaving at 9:30 in the morning and wasn't sure about taking the bus.  Now, I had never driven to the airport before, but I knew it was in the general direction of my office, just further away.  So this morning I drove her to the airport, which was pretty straightforward.  It looked something like this:

 

(A is where I started, B is the airport)

The real adventure started after I left the airport.  My route should have gone something like this:

 

And mostly, it did.  Everything was going beautifully until I got on the exit for where the office is.

Now, here's the thing about driving and me: I have a terrible sense of direction.  If I haven't driven somewhere at least 3 times (and that's driven, it doesn't work if I'm just riding in the car) I can't remember how to get there.  I'm also not good at making logical conclusions based on driving in places I should be familiar with, aka which way I should go when I exit from the opposite direction.  So almost as soon as I exited, I got in a line of cars.  I saw one sign (for the line of cars I was in, on the left) that said "Crafton".  I saw one on the right (which had no cars in it) which said "Green Tree".  Now, I knew that Green Tree is where we tell everybody our office is, so I got into the right lane and turned.  I immediately realized that I had just turned the wrong way, since at least I am observant enough to recognize landmarks I drive by on a regular basis.  Unfortunately, I was driving the wrong way past those landmarks, and that stretch of road has several lanes and is very busy, so there are not many good places to turn around.  At some point (after several failed attempts to turn around) I realized that I could turn onto a road that I usually take on my way home from work, so I logically assumed I could just take the same route, but backwards.

One critically important wrong turn later, I learned to my chagrin that apparently I couldn't.

I think I turned too early, or wasn't thinking clearly, but in any case I found myself on the parkway (which is what everyone around here calls the combination of highways and interstates that meld and run through the city) going the WRONG WAY.  I took the first exit intending to just turn around and find a way to get on the parkway going the correct way, but then I couldn't a way back to the parkway or a particularly good place to pull over.  At this point, I was just waiting for an opportunity to pull out my GPS, which probably would have saved me a lot of trouble if I had just used it in the first place.  When I finally found a place to pull over and plugged in the address, I noticed that the sign for the street in front of me: Mansfield Ave.

That's right, everyone.  After driving in some kind of crazy road tornado (this is Pittsburgh, after all) I somehow managed to end up where I needed to be...even if I was coming from the wrong direction.

 

Morals of the story:

1. Don't offer to give anyone a ride to the airport, ever
2. If you have a GPS, there is probably a good reason.  USE IT.

Despite the rocky start, today is not all bad: I get to sew dinosaurs with a bunch of my friends/roommates (who will be knitting or crocheting, mostly) tonight.  We're trying to host a weekly Stitch 'n Bitch at our apartment, and I've heard rumors that ice cream will be involved.  Now if only this meeting would just start and then be done so I can go home....