Sadie the nice lady

A few years ago the Cottage Master and I had the opportunity to visit Orlando, Florida. Since we were going to have to be at certain places at certain times, like a wedding, we wanted to avoid our usual "we're lost" episodes so we rented a GPS system with our rental car.

We fell in love with the system the first time we failed to follow the directions and the kindly male voice merely said, "Recalculating" and in a few seconds continued to tell us how to reach our destination based on the direction we were currently traveling.

Wow. No one was yelling at anyone! No one was implying that the driver was incompetent! No one was feverishly flipping a map trying to figure out what should now be done. No one was almost in tears! etc.

I believe we were the first people to sign up for the service when Verizon offered it to be available on our telephones. We knew this was going to SAVE OUR MARRIAGE.

The voice on Verizon is female and I've named her "Sadie the nice lady" because she never yells at me when I make a mistake. She always knows where I am and is always looking out for me.

However she and I had our first bit of trouble this weekend in Portland. I asked her how to get back onto the freeway when we was ready to leave but she couldn't find me and she kept asking where I was but I didn't know.

I drove for a few blocks and she locked onto me and began to tell me where to turn. It wasn't long before I realized that she was leading toward a bridge that according to the morning news going to be closed until Monday morning (and I wasn't willing to wait that long).

We continued to drive while she continued to suggest that we turn around to get onto the bridge.

I finally turned her off. I thought I could hear a note of frustration with me in her voice. After a couple of miles we saw a sign stating our destination -- only to discover that once again it was leading to the SAME CLOSED BRIDGE.

By that time I was laughing. Oh my, stuck in Portland and can't get out!

We continued to drive east until we hit another freeway heading north and then we just had to treat ourselves by stopping for lunch and shopping.

Poor Sadie. I hope she's still speaking to me after this.

rita