Any get lost really easily?

[sbebenelli]

I'm just curious if anyone else easily gets lost easily like I do.

I have no since of direction. I can easily get lost in buildings like doctor offices or hospitals if I'm not careful. Up until the navigation units came out I could barley drive out of town because i would get lost. I apparently got this from my mom because she is the same way. We live in a small town with less than 30,000 and she has never driven out of town by herself.

4-5 years ago I bought a navigation unit and that changed my life. It allowed me to go places I would never have gone. I know car navigation units are common and cheap now but when i bought mine it cost $1000.

This was such a problem for me that I can say it was an issue and some of the cause of my divorce with my first wife because i didn't want to travel at all. That and she was crazy.

I just bought a new GPS to replace my old one. It's amazing how technology changes. It's so much smaller and portable, gets signal inside my house (old one had a button to push if inside because it couldn't get signal inside), says the streets names, and cost $250 compared to $1000. My old one is now bringing $125-$150 on eBay. :laughing:

 

[TigerhawkT3]

Me too. A GPS helps so much!

I biked to school every day in my freshman year of high school, and the summer afterward, I joined a gym across the street from it. One day, I tried going to the gym by myself, and I got lost on the way home.

After going to the same dentist for about 15-20 years, I tried going by myself. I thought, "I don't think I need my GPS, since I have a Yahoo! map and it should be easy anyway." I arrived an hour and a half late (due to getting lost, I should mention), made another appointment, and got lost again on the way back.

I could go on...

 

[raggie33]

one time i left a flea market it was like 15 miles from my house.i get on the interstate i drive and drive and drive im like where the hell is my exit then i see a sign welcoime to alabama i drove like 100 miles the wrong way lol.i dont drive no more

 

[jzmtl]

Nope, I have good sense of direction and can navigate streets and flea markets fairly well. As long as I have a map of the area I'm good.

Although a GPS would be a neat addition, but

 

[PhotonWrangler]

I've had a lot of dumb luck when visiting new cities; I don't know why. Maybe it's a general sense of which dsirection I need to go compared to the direction of the sun in the sky. I can get turned around inside of a building though, especially if there are no windows and I lose my sense of which way is north.

 

[ABTOMAT]

I usually can find my way around pretty well, espcially reading a map. Today I was off my game. Missed a well-marked highway turnoff and ended up in the sidestreets of a city two towns away.

 

[UncleFester]

I have a fair sense of direction. but it turns out that I navigate by remembering turns and ded reckoning (yes it's spelled ded, short for deduced). If I get in a town or part of town that has curved streets that intertwine. I get lost very easily. Where I live the streets are in a grid... no problem
The gal I used to ride horses with had an exceptional sense of direction. Not only that, she could read the land and tell where trails would meet up... even though she had never been there before. Wow.

 

[Monocrom]

I drive more by landmarks and memorizing routes to places I need to go. I'm one of those guys who goes out the night before starting a new job.... Just so I know how to get there and back.

Also, back-tracking is a good friend of mine.

 

[mossyoak]

i have a really great sense of direction. its weird almost like i have a compass in my head. I have lived in chattanooga for my whole life, except for 4 years in academy, but now that im back in town for college alot of my friends moved here for school as well, and im always getting phone calls in the middle of the night asking how to get some place and i can provide directions turn by turn for practically anywhere. its like im tomtom.

 

[65535]

Today I think I ended up in Orange after going to Fountain Valley from Irvine, I knew where I was but didn't know where I was going so I gave up and returned to pick my friend up for dinner. I was TRYING to go to plaza cutlery at south coast plaza to check out the M6.

 

[paulr]

I have terrible sense of direction but am ok with maps. When I'm in a strange town I try to follow the habit of buying a map immediately. So I have a lot of maps in my car, in a big zipper pouch the size of a small briefcase.

 

[jtr1962]

My sense of direction is pretty good on a bicycle but medium when directing someone driving a car. Maybe the isolation from the elements in a car has something to do with it. If I'm lost on a bike I'll often pick up on subtle things like smells or wind direction to get back on track. That isn't possible in the enclosed passenger cabin of a car.

I'm usually also decent at finding my way around buildings. Again, I tend to pick up on clues like noises from elevator shafts or machinery rooms, temperature variations, etc. I really think most of finding your way around is paying attention to your environment. I'm sure humans have some vestige of the internal compass birds or other animals use to navigate. It's simply a matter of tuning into it. Ironically, in the case of not getting lost I find thinking too much is your enemy. Often your first gut sense of which direction to go is correct but your brain might tell you otherwise.

I've known some people with terrible sense of direction. I've actually heard of people actually needing a GPS to walk two blocks to from home to the store.

 

[Secur1]

Well personally, i am one of those ppl that just don't get lost
I think in straight lines and always manage to keep a rough reference of where i am in conjunction to a major road/highway, which is the complete opposite to my gf who manages to get lost every single time she goes anywhere she hasn't been before.... She even managed to get lost 3 times coming to my place, even tho we had driven here 3-4 times together in the past and it's relatively easy to find ( i live next to a soccer stadium).

 

[Russianesq]

GPS changed my life.

Sometimes, I even take my Tom Tom unit while walking around.

When u get out of a subway in NYC it can be very confusing where exactly you are. Turn the unit on and its off I go.

 

[savumaki]

I can be hunting in the north country 10 miles from the nearest road with only a compass and basic map and not get lost; but put me in the middle of a large city (especially the old ones) and I would very quickly be buying a GPS, maybe two.

 

[Valolammas]

I can be hunting in the north country 10 miles from the nearest road with only a compass and basic map and not get lost; but put me in the middle of a large city (especially the old ones) and I would very quickly be buying a GPS, maybe two.

I'm pretty much the opposite. I don't see how anyone can get lost in a city, where landmarks abound and streets have names. In the woods, I can manage if I have a map, but without one, I'll probably get lost.

My wife, on the other hand, has a really good sense of direction in the wilds. We can walk around for hours in forests we've never been in before, and I will have no idea where we are, but she'll just point "our car is about a kilometer that way", and she will be right. I don't know how she does it. She has, however, got lost in strange supermarkets a couple of times.

Btw, is that savumaki as in "smoke hill"? At first I thought it was Japanese, but I think I've seen you post sometime about knowing some Finnish.

 

[Diesel_Bomber]

I can be hunting in the north country 10 miles from the nearest road with only a compass and basic map and not get lost; but put me in the middle of a large city (especially the old ones) and I would very quickly be buying a GPS, maybe two.

Ditto for me! Walking or driving out in the country/woods with a topo map and a compass(if I've never been there before), and I'm fine. Walking around in the mall or in a building, and I'm good. Put me in the city and I get turned around fast. 90% of the time I use my GPS is in the city. Unspeakably glad that I don't LIVE in the city.

:buddies:

 

[Burgess]

City, country, woods, indoors or outdoors,


I have no trouble at all getting Lost.


(wink !)

_

 

[Bonez]

I firmly believe that GPS was invented just for me:candle:

I can't even explain the number of times that it has happened......

Oh well, thats why VZ Navigator on the verizon phones is the best $10 I spend every month. Constant GPS in the pocket, yes it is a little spotty at times and sometimes slow to update, but the pain of having to call someone and hear the "I'll bet your calling me because your lost, you always call when your lost" is well worth the money not to have to hear.

 

[Gaffle]

How about "woods lost"? During a salmon fishing trip my dad and I were wicked lost in the woods. We fish the Pere Marquete river. There is a section with tons of state land around the river. We left our spot and went on our merry way to some known private land. Well somehow we became totally discombobulated. We missed a road I knew of, and found some dirt road I didn't know of. We actually walked in a huge circle. I bet we walked in the woods for about an hour (with waders on (breathables), nets, backpacks, etc.). Finally we came upon my "secret" road. We saw power lines. Walked to them, and ended up right at the spot we had left earlier. I then walked into the water, caught my fat brown trout, took a picture, and then proceeded to leave the river.

I bought a Lowrance Hunt after that. Ask me if I have ever had to use my GPS since that day. Go ahead, ask me...