My family and I spent this past weekend up in New Hampshire. It was my husband’s company outting, so we packed up the kids and headed up north. We stayed in the North Conway area, which is one of my favorite parts of the state.
On Saturday, we took a drive to Santa’s Village. It was about 45 minutes from the condo where we were staying and we got there right when the park opened. We spent the day there & had a blast. Since Santa’s Village is in the middle of nowhere is located deep in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the GPS was having a bit of an issue finding a satellite signal on our return trip. I was driving and Chris was in the passenger seat working on the GPS. We ended up driving past the turn that got us there that morning because honestly, I just couldn’t remember if it was the correct turn (and Chris isn’t much help when it comes to directions), so we ended up taking a different route home than the one that got us there that morning.
All was fine for a while – until Lance, my Austrailan accented Garmin, told me to take a turn that looked a little sketchy. The GPS said it was a 4.5 mile road and almost right off the bat, we see a sign that said something to this effect “This road is not treated in the winter”. Chris and I just looked at each other when we saw it, but kept going, well – because Lance told us to. After about 30 seconds or so, the road turned to dirt and narrowed to one lane. Um, ya….
Shortly after I snapped this picture, the road turned bumpy. I mean REALLY bumpy. It was like driving on the moon and I was almost certain that we were driving into a scene right out of Deliverance.
The further into the woods we drove, the more nervous I was getting. I mean, there were absolutely no signs of human life. Finally, after about another mile and a half or so, we came across a car parked on the side of the road. Chris joked that it has been there for months & that it belongs to the kids from the Blair Witch Project, but a little bit later we drove up to a sign that said we were entering the White Mountains National Forrest.
There were a few random cars parked along the side of the road, which we assumed belonged to hikers, but like the sign said, it was definitley the forrest.
All in all, the 4.5 mile road ended up taking us a good 10 to 12 minutes to travel. I’m pretty sure it was Lance’s attempt at a shortcut, but it ended up being the longest and scariest ”shortcut” ever.
I hate it when my GPS takes ‘short-cuts’!
This reminds me of a road trip my daughter planned (she is 29) Two cars her kids my little kids and off to Vermont to Ben & Jerry’s for a factory tour & Vermont Teddy Bear
Fun had all around.
The trip home I handed her the printed mapquest directions I had for the return trip. She said “oh, no,just follow me I have a GPS”
Okay so I did.
and did
and then called her asking when do we get to the highway?
nice country lanes, covered bridges and one potty stop later
she checked her GPS\
lo and behold it was on “pedestrian”!!!!!!!
Which is why I will never own a GPS.. round here we guide by landmarks, anything past that hand me a map
Turn around when possible.
Oh gosh, you could have been captured by cannibals like on the movies.
We had a really bad experience trying a new GPS app, to go from Salem to Newton. We knew the way, but wanted to try the app. It ended up routing us via the airport! I think it was trying to get us out of route 128 traffic, but it was NOT worth the extra effort. Thankfully, it was a trial version of the app, and we did not chose to buy it!
Oh My Lord. MEMORIES. I can’t blame a GPS though. Just my husband’s affinity for brown “historical” signs. About quarter mile down, it narrowed. Then half a mile down it changed to dirt. Then it started going straight up. Impossible to turn around. We met one or two trucks that were flying on the road – clearly, um, LOCALS. And the best part? We were in a rental car that happened to be a big arsed WHITE caddie with Maryland plates.
I literally thought we were going to die as we did a 52 point turn around on a skinny road that fell off the side to nothing.
No more brown sign detours.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Rich+Mountain+West+Virginia&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x884b246d3f49993d:0x23b79a12a9fc2b4d,Rich+Mountain&gl=us&ei=i2obTqvxEYXy0gGTmdSXBQ&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBgQ8gEwAA There’s a nice little map of the road we shouldn’t have been on.
You should have a chat with Lance.
Hey that looks like my road! Dirt roads are my very favorite place to be!
Gotta love N.H.! Fresh air, lots of pretty lakes, scenic drives, and the highways are much better taken care of than in Mass.