Getting Lost: How We Cope While Road Tripping

Photo courtesy of Thinkstock

I’ll be the first to admit that I get lost often, and it sucks. Even with a GPS I seem to still be directionally challenged at times. It can be a frustrating experience, but it’s really all in what you make of it. Today I wanted to share some stories of what’s happened to us when we get lost while road tripping:

People sing to us:

While on a road trip through the south, we were on a hunt to find delicious barbecue sauce. We were looking for Uncle Lou’s Fried Chicken in Memphis and found ourselves driving in circles. We stopped at a gas station to ask for directions, and the lady at the gas station actually sang the driving direction to us, which livened up our day.

They let us spend the night:

While road tripping Newfoundland, we not only got lost, but we also got our rental truck stuck! We had spent the day exploring small towns south of St John’s and were several hours from our hotel.

We were finally able to flag someone down to help us: a doctor making house calls. The doctor just happened to have a truck with a wench, and an empty basement suite. He let us spend the night at his place so we’d get a good night sleep, and be ready for more exploring in the morning. We heard some great stories from the doctor about life in Newfoundland, and were even given some great travel tips of must see attractions, and best places to spot icebergs.

We get laughed at:

We got lost in the Redwood forest while coming back from a road trip to San Diego. After several hours of driving in the forest with no signal for our GPS, we finally decided to pull over at a gas station that we found and sleep until morning when the gas station opened. We woke up to a man knocking on our window, laughing; “Did you have a good sleep?”

We find delicious food!:

Yet another gas station experience for us. We pulled into a gas station somewhere in Alabama to ask for directions. There just happened to be a bbq hut outside the gas station. We’re adventurous people, and you really can’t go wrong with bbq in Alabama. We had the best brisket sandwich from this gas station hut! It was well worth getting lost for.

We get mad:

This we can’t help. It’s extremely frustrating, and often a waste of time for us. As frustrating as this experience is, I like to look on the bright side of things. We’ve had some amazing adventures from getting lost on the road, and half the fun of road tripping is the wealth of adventures and stories that you get from a road trip.

Remember to travel with a backup plan, in case you get lost and end up on the wrong interstate heading in a different direction, and make sure to leave room in your road trip schedule for exploring and unexpected instances.

How do you cope with getting lost while road tripping?