This is a public service announcement. If you use Google Maps, don’t say yes to the Beta test.
Well, unless you like unexpected adventures.
A few years ago when my mother and I would go off on a journey — before the days when Google Maps would tell you exactly where to go next — and we made a small error or missed a turn or exit, she would call it an adventure. Not a mistake. No one’s lost. We’re just having an adventure.
Last week when I when down to Kansas, I managed to have a couple of adventures — in the middle of Kansas City at about 3 p.m. on a Friday and then again at St. Joseph at 6 p.m. on Sunday.
I enjoy a good adventure, I really do. But Friday traffic in Kansas City is just not the place for your GPS to suddenly decide to go insane.
I’ll back up a bit. Usually when I go to Kansas, I go down through Bedford and Maryville. It’s a little shorter than going across to I-35 and the roads are pretty nice the whole way there. So I know that route pretty well — except if I’m not paying attention and miss the turn for Highway 2, but you’ll have to go read my December column to hear about that adventure.
Well, this time, I needed to go to Osceola first. As I headed south from Osceola and started to get close to Kansas City, I turned on my Google Maps so I could take the fastest route, and it asked me if I’d like to use the new Beta version.
This was my first mistake. The Beta version turns on your Google assistant. No problem, right? I can ask it where the cheapest place to get gas is or a for a good place to stop for dinner.
Nope.
I swear it must have been listening to the radio or something because I didn’t say anything and suddenly my phone is taking pictures of my dashboard, popping up apps to text people, minimizing my map and then going blank. And of course, the pièce de résistance — it decides that I don’t want to use any highways — in Kansas City. At 3 p.m. On a Friday.
It kept telling me to make strange exits and I kept telling it no. I just want to know what version of 35 to take — 235, 635, 435, 9035, not to mention the east, west, north, south combinations.
I ended up stopping for gas and thought I had it fixed, but it was a stubborn little thing and as soon as I was on the road, it reset itself back to no highways. Luckily, I have been through Kansas City enough times to figure out where I needed to go, but it was certainly not the fastest route. I’m pretty sure I saw parts of the city I’d never seen and would not want to drive through if it wasn’t light outside.
Quite an adventure.
So what’s the point of all this — besides just taking the opportunity to tell you how much “fun” I had on my trip?
It’s about attitude. I’ll have to admit I got pretty frustrated and the thought of finding out what happens to a cell phone when it goes out the window at 80 miles an hour did occur to me. But the fact is, it could have worse.
Those times my mother and I went on adventures, nobody got mad or threw a fit or blamed anyone. We just made a course correction and went about our day having seen a little bit of a place we’d never been before.
There’s a Robert Frost poem you’ve probably heard at least parts of — “The Road Not Taken.” It’s about making different choices instead of following along the path that everyone else takes and finding your own way.
Good advice sometimes. If you always make your choice based on the fastest route or the easiest one, you may miss out on some pretty great adventures. Maybe you’ll find a little diner no one’s heard of with the best frittatas or discover a new career path that makes you happier than your previous job. A chance encounter might be how you meet your best friend or soul mate.
A fresh view might be just what you need to simply relax a little and actually enjoy the scenery that you can’t see when you are hurtling down the freeway at 90 mph. (Not me, I would never — but there are some places in Nebraska where the speed limit is 80, just sayin’.)
So take the road not taken next time, whether it’s a physical road or a different choice you make. Try that new white cheese sauce, say hello to the person in line with you at the grocery store, order something different on your pizza — just not pineapple, please — stop at that little road marker that tells you a little something about the history of the area, or look up a new website instead of scrolling mindlessly though the same old thing — I highly recommend a virtual tour of a museum, the Louvre and the Smithsonian have excellent online tours.
Take the road not taken. Stay open to the possibilities of something new. It might make “all the difference.”
It might just matter.
P.S. Over the weekend I thought I had it fixed, but when I turned Google Maps on to remind me what exit to take on my way home through St. Joe, it betrayed me again. I still haven’t figured out how you can make a right hand turn off of I-29 north and end up going south, but that’s where it took me.
Sometimes following the same path you always take matters too. Just make your own decision, don’t let Google Maps or any one else make it for you. That’s what really matters.
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Let me know what matters to you at rsmith@crestonnews.com, 641-782-2141 ext. 6433, or c/o Creston News Advertiser, 503 W. Adams St., Creston, Iowa 50801.