Pittsburgh and Garmin
So I had to go to Pittsburgh yesterday to get my bride’s green card renewed – worst trip ever. Why would a city have two addresses exactly the same ten miles apart? The immigration office was at 800 Penn Avenue, however, when my GPS got me there, it was a used car lot in a ghetto area. When I asked the local operator of a rap music store how that was possible, he told me that there was another matching address across town.
So I went through midday traffic across town. My Garmin GPS kept me driving in circles around the block when I got there trying to steer me onto a street that no longer existed, apparently. Finally, I just parked in a lot and started looking for the immigration office which, it turns out has absolutely no markings, signs or anything else you’d expect a government customer service center to display. And the temperature was anything but temperate.
Anyway, that’s my last trip to Pittsburgh ever. They obviously didn’t want me there, and the feeling is now mutual.
Category: Pointless blather
Try Atlanta sometime. Every friggin other street named Peachtree, or some derivation thereof. I didn’t even try to negotiate around downtown Atlanta until the end of my freshman year of college.
You were an officer in the chemical corps, right?
I did a summer trip of the western states with my son (who was 14 at the time) a couple of years ago. My Suburban has one of the built in DVD Maps combined with a GPS unit. It was ok for getting us close to places, but once in cities like Chicago, Seattle, and Las Vegas it was terrible.
At my son’s very humorous suggestion we ended up naming the Map/GPS unit after my ex-wife, because, as he put it, it was always telling me what to do and was usually wrong. The name stuck. To this day when he’s in the truck with me he asks, “should we ask mom where we’re going?”
I always keep a backup atlas in the truck with me.
V5
I don’t have a GPS; I’ve had good success with Google for street maps. Usually I laminate the map, study it the night before, and then go from memory on the drive, with the map along for reference. You’d be surprised how much you will actually remember as you go.
Atlanta is sort of an interesting place to drive, isn’t it, NHSparky? The thing that threw me in Atlanta was the one-way main streets in the middle of town. I had to go around the block a couple of times…
Like I said, I avoided driving in Atlanta as much as possible. Chemical corps? Nope–just a silly Nuke Engineering student at GT for a couple years until I found out that colleges aren’t usually very sympathetic to people who are broke. But ah, Junior’s, when it was still on North Avenue…”Dress two cheese, side, sweet!”
TSO–actually, going to the Varsity any given weekend MIGHT be considered chemical warfare, though…
downtown Atlanta traffic sux major! and I ain’t talkin Interstate traffic either, although, that sux too!!
NHSparky…you wouldn’t be talkin about Peachtree Road, Peachtree Street, Peachtree Battle, etc…?
And the Varisty? I would have to agree with you on that, but its sooo good! 😉
GPS huh?
Was in DC heading to Walter Reed and I volunteered to lead the convoy with my GPS.
Seems there were some tunnels (IN DC!!) en route.
We made eventually.
That said; why Pittsburgh?
Oh, Jonn — I WISH I had known you were coming to the ‘Burgh!! I would have warned you — Pittsburgh and GPS do NOT get along — at all!!! See — it’s all the rivers, and valleys, and mountains, and tunnels and bridges. We have streets that suddenly end and turn into steps. Streets whose names change as you pass under bridges and such. And then we have the famous orange cone/construction/street repair zones — with or without posted detours. This is why those of us born and raised in the ‘Burgh give directions by landmarks, not street names. In fact, we are known for giving directions by things that aren’t there any more. “Take a left where the such-and-such used to be.”
I’m so sorry you had such a bad experience, Jonn — ’cause it really is a nice town.
Marilyn,
Shiiit. And here I thought Germany was bad for all those things. I spent 4 years stationed in Nurnberg in the early 80’s, and street conditions were exactly the same — except in Deutch.
Pittsburgh makes me drunk.
And then it rains.
LOL @ B Woodman — there’s a reason it seems familiar to ya’ — the ‘Burgh was settled by a LOT of German immigrants in the mid to late-1800’s (like my mother’s side of the family). They came to work in the steel mills — yeah, the steel mills aren’t here anymore either.
I live in the Atlanta area, but was born and raised in Pittsburgh. I can relate to everyone’s traffic nightmares. LOL
The last time we went up to see my Mom in PA, we used my iPhone with googlemaps and that worked pretty well. I left the “Burgh” in 78 when I joined the Navy, so I’m not able to navigate there by the seat of my pants anymore.
I have used a GPS for years; to find fishing holes, my way from Island to island in the Bahamas, Caribbe, or the Keys, but I always first correlate the GPS(s) with a paper chart, and then use it with caution.
In highway travel, I always have a Rand McNally Road Atlas, (which I find to be far more accurate than any GPS program), and have, if necessary called the destination to ask of someone with experience with similar equipment as I am driving/operating, about any quirks, or surprises on the route.
A GPS is only as smart as the person who programmed it and who turned it on.
Sorry about your bad experience in an urban situation. Any experience in an urban situation is a bad one for me.
Meh–worst I have to deal with of late is four cars waiting on a traffic light to change, or the traffic circle in Portsmouth. Weekend/holiday traffic with all the Massholes heading to Lake Winnie or Conway? I’ll stay home, BBQ, drink beer, and laugh as I look down the hill at all the cars crawling along at about 10 mph.