Lost in LA

We had a great time this weekend at Knott's Berry Farm. More on that later. This post is dedicated to my wish for the admonishment of the programmers and/or code writers at Google Maps.

Before we left Arizona, Q printed out driving directions that took us from our house to the Knotts Berry Farm Resort Hotel. At least they were supposed to.

Let me preface this rant with another rant. Maybe I'm just spoiled by the Phoenix-area's properly marked and well-lit freeway system. But the freeways in SoCal are VERY poorly lit. The fact that it was pouring rain didn't help matters, either. Perhaps the highway department could divert a few dollars from the Call Box budget (does anyone really use those things?) to fund some much needed freeway lighting.

Anyway, I was driving while Q navigated (our car isn't new enough to have one of those newfangled in-dash GPS models). He read the directions by the light of his cell phone.

Q instructed me to exit the freeway at Carmenita Road, which I did. He also had me make a few other turns onto side streets that--according to the Google directions--should have led us to the hotel. Instead, we were driving in circles around a big-box shopping district.

We were clearly lost. Not only that, but we were in the wrong city (Cerritos) AND the wrong county (Los Angeles).

I pulled into a Mens Warehouse parking lot as Q called the hotel. After being kept on hold for eons, I got impatient and resumed driving. Q eventually got ahold of a live human, who told him we should "go back to Beach Boulevard". That's a fine suggestion, considering that WE WERE NEVER THERE!

Q decided to refer to a faintly printed map that came out with the instructions. Problem was, without the aid of the sun, we had both lost all sense of direction. Our Cloud Car doesn't have a digital compass either. Apparently dem things are fer da fancy people! :-P

I drove until we found a street that was on the map: Orangethorpe. I think I made a few other random turns before we began to see signs for Orange County, Buena Park, Knotts Berry Farm, and the hotel.

We eventually made it to the hotel safely, and everything was good in the world. Although, I can't help but wonder if Google's faltering stock value has less to do with the economy and more to do with the crappy driving directions they dispense.