#fun with navigation

I saw the sign in the photo and before I even scrolled down my first thought was "I'm so sorry"

archifist replied to your photo “Moving along toward a couple of days of museums and such, out of the...”

Also I highly suggest not driving in DC proper-all these one way roads that don't have corresponding one way roads in the opposite direction, people making right turns from the left lane, etc

archifist reblogged your photo and added:

It’s because the DC area has a large itinerant...

Ha ha the driving hasn’t been too horribly bad, though we did cross the potomac, immediately get flown over by a helicopter, then wind up stuck in three lanes merging to a stop sign, where a flock of geese shit upon us. It was kind of amazing. Then we went to the wrong address and had to turn around and drive MORE through MORE of people-are-double-parked-in-the-left-lane, can’t-turn-right-from-the-right-lane-because-of-pedestrians, nobody ever signals, etc.

BUT we dropped the car off to get valet parked at the hotel, and we’re not gonna see that thing for three days. Forget it. 

(We did get to see a lot of neat stuff though, while sitting in traffic, so.

I had been wondering-- around Albany, you see a green VT license plate and figure that person’s going to drive like a maniac, or an MA license plate and figure that asshole’s never going to signal, so I was watching MD and VA and DC license plates whip by (and we got cut off by a NJ one!) and trying to guess who the assholes were. Spoiler alert: everyone.

But, it wasn’t bad; traffic is crazy because of holidays, but less heavy than normal, I think.

I guess my poor sister has to contend with metro Baltimore traffic on her commute, but she’s a big girl. It’s not quite as Legendarily Bad as DC itself, at least. 

In suburban MD they don’t believe in having shoulders on their roads. It’s just, white lineMAILBOX all the way down. I can’t believe anyone has any wing mirrors left. 

I have driven exactly 0 on this trip, which suits me JUST FINE. I drive plenty in my daily life, and we’re in Dude’s car, which is a recent Mazda with beeps and lights and choosing how fast you ought to go and such, and seems precisely calculated to infuriate the FUCK out of me, so I’m happy to be a passenger/backup navigator.

The Google Maps lady has a higher and faster voice than the car’s built-in GPS. I like her better for in-city driving.

Oh my god I haven’t written up onto Tumblr yet how the fucking in-car navigation system routed us through A MALL PARKING LOT in PA rather than taking the highway around a bend. It was unreal and hilarious. Maybe I did. Still.

We previewed how it wants us to go home and it is telling us that the easiest way to get back to Buffalo from DC is to go through the back roads in ski country where they just shattered records for snowfall in a 30-hour period with over 5 feet. (that link is for Erie PA but they got it all the way up the Tug Hill Plateau so...)