Lost

Not the television show. Maps are good, but only if you look at them. A GPS is good if you have one, and Google Maps is good if you believe it and can follow directions. Looking back at the route I took to get from Somersworth to Concord, it is easy to see where I went wrong.

I thought Concord was north. more north than it was. So I traveled west, then north and ended up way north of Concord. From Rochester I followed 202A into Strafford-lovely country, not many houses. I got concerned when I started going up a mountain and there were hills around me. Concord is flat. I thought to myself- if I am climbing, I am somehow going to have to get back down again-which could take awhile. So I'll take a left-head west-and cut through the hills.

I had my trusted Blackberry with Google Mobile Maps, and it is like a GPS. Open the app and it picks up your location-then you type in an end point and get directions. Except the street (.2 miles ahead on the left)it told me to take was nowhere to be found. That' s okay, I kept driving, knowing I had traveled further than two tenths of a mile. Should I take Bow Village Road? How about the next left? So up I continued to climb, taking the next left. I was confident my left hand turn would lead me to some main road,like route 202 or rout 4 or route 9.

A mile later I was travelling into a densley wooded area and the road turned to dirt. Hmmm....this is not a good sign. I was not immediately worried because I had a full tank of gas and I was very early, with plenty of time to get to my destination. My only fear was that after 10 minutes of driving, the road would turn out to be a dead end. But the road kept going, past fields, and trees, and farms. And the I came to a clearing and passed a large body of water on my left. Finally, the road came to an end and I needed to make a choice: left or right? I chose left-and continued winding and bumping my way along. The good news was I was no longer climbing. The bad news was I had no cell phone service. And my Google Maps changed my location, but I was so far away from Concord, I could not tell if the green blinking dot was actually moving north, south, east or west. I assumed southwest, so I kept driving.

When I came to a Boy Scout Reservation and saw cars parked I thought, "This is a good sign! Civilization!" I tried a shout out- like Cash Cab- to phone a friend for a landmark-but no service. So I kept driving. I passed another body of water on the right, and when I came to the next fork in the road, I went left again, and eventually (an hour and a half later) I found my way to route 4 in Northwood. I was quite satisfied with myself that I found my way out of the woods- although if i had been hiking, I would have been In serious trouble.

How could I have got so turned around? Looking back at Google Maps from my desktop the next day, it was easy to see where I went wrong. Be careful when you rely on GPS or Google Maps. It takes some common sense and a sense of where you are in the world to navigate shortcuts.

But as usual, I try to take the good with the bad-and I ended up seeing places I had never seen before. I am now familiar with a whole new tract of land between route 202A and Route 4. And the next time I think I know where I'm going, I will look at a map BEFORE I leave. I di dget lost a few times in DC, I just didn' t tell anybody. Darn.