Here I am driving around with a new representative; someone who is not very familiar with the latest technology such as a GPS; she organized appointments with clients and I was to drive her around as she learned the products we represented.
I remember the days when I first started traveling around the country and I needed paper maps to get from point A to point B; it was not conducive to drive with the map displayed on the front seat in order to find out where I was and where I was ultimately going to be. The maps unfolded and then it was impossible to fold them back up again the same way, creating different creases on the paper and finally tossing them out to the back seat where they sat until the vehicle was sold to another party.
Those were the days when we could see the road ahead for miles and miles on the paper map without even thinking about it. Now, with the implementation of the Global Positioning System known to everyone as the GPS, we are able to listen to a foreign voice coming from above telling us exactly where we are and when the next turn is going to be. Sometimes it takes us to a road not inhabitable by humans, but what the heck, it’s better than the paper map displayed on the front seat as we drive. However, the constant directions and the recalculating can be so annoying.
I’ve had the GPS installed in my vehicle for many years as I traveled through the neighboring states and needed a navigational system I could rely on. This time, the rep I was to train was not familiar with the voice or the directions I was receiving from outer space and she wanted to make sure I was going in the right direction.
First, she called her office to find out if we were going on the right highway because she was unfamiliar with the road. She asked me to pull over on this very busy highway to make sure someone gave her the correct directions to the place we were going. I emphasized the GPS was able to take us there on a more direct route than her usual way, but she was having nothing to do with it.
After several minutes, and a heated discussion with the person on the phone asking for correct directions on how to arrive on a timely manner, she then gave me those directions verbally. I stopped all discussions, turned off the GPS and allowed her to give me verbal directions to our final destination.
We traveled without incident as she was rattling off what roads to turn on, right or left north or south, etc. When we crossed the state line into the neighboring state, I mentioned we may have taken a wrong road; she looked at me with wide eyes and then she panicked. She asked me to stop at the Welcome Center as she needed a paper map to see where we were. All I had to do was turned on the GPS and we would have found our way, but she was adamant to see it on the map.
We got back on the road as she was looking at the map, asking me to see for myself where we were located and where we were supposed to be heading, but at this point I was not amused any longer and all I did was drive as she pointed out the many highways we were passing. I ignored her comments as best I could.
Of course, once we arrived, she blamed me for the one-hour delay in arriving and looked at me asking for an apology for the delay. She is still waiting. Why is it always my fault?
