Francis Scott Key bridge destroyed and family adventures with it:

 This morning (Marcy 26, 2024, very early in the morning, a cargo ship crashed into the very very tall (scary tall) Francis Scott Key bridge while trying to get out of the Baltimore Harbor.  Which reminded me of the many times I have driven over that bridge.  Also reminded me of that time.....

One day the family was going to go to my oldest's graduation from college - in southern Maryland.  

So we packed two cars and off we go to drive from north of Baltimore city to St. Mary's City. My youngest drove my mother in law's car and went first. Then we (the rest of the family) took off. We arrived at St. Mary's City and where was my youngest and my mother in law? They arrived an hour later.  

It turns out that neither of them could navigate. So - They got onto the Baltimore Beltway (696), took a right at I-95, went under the Baltimore Harbor through the tunnel, continued on I-95 until they reached the south part of the Baltimore Beltway (695). They immediately got onto 695 and soon found themselves driving over the very scary high Francis Key Bridge and suspected that they may have taken a wrong turn. Continued on 695 until they met I-95 again, so they then again headed south on I-95 and figured out that they needed to Not take the beltway again, but to take the road to Annapolis and then on to St. Mary's.

Ask a Librarian -- you know they can help

An older gentleman came into the library where I worked and asked for directions. He was trying to find his niece's place. From his vague description, I finally found it on a map, but when I tried to show him how to get there, his conversation kept wandering so much that I asked him if he had his son's phone number so that his son could help him get to his niece's place. The old man searched his pockets and came up with a piece of paper with his son's phone number, so I called it. The son was shocked that his dad, who has Alzheimers, actually was able to drive so far away by himself and had actually had the sense that librarians could help and had stopped at a library. 

Your place in space

 Do you get lost easily? I hardly do. (but when I do I get really discombobulated) I usually know when I'm going north or south (north is up. I actually feel that I'm going up when I go north and definitely feel I'm going down when I go South). 

I also have precise visual spacing. (when my husband packed the car for a trip there was stuff left outside the car that he couldn't figure out where to put. So I'd pull everything out and then everything fit. Not only that, but the kid's car busywork and toys were on top and the snacks were accessible.)  

My second child had no sense of direction. She'd call me late at night saying she somehow found herself in Pennsylvania and couldn't find her way home. So I'd pull out a map and direct her.  

My husband would ask - how much further to go. So I'd say = about one inch. He had no idea what one inch on the map meant time wise. On long trips we would trade driving responsibilities. Once when we were on a trip, he directed me to drive across a bridge INTO the next state. No we weren't supposed to go that direction. From then on he preferred to drive and let me do the directing. (Let's not talk about the time I was the one who accidentally got us headed across the Hudson river into New York City. No, we didn't want to go into the city. We were headed home and he should have taken the second exit (to the west) instead of the first exit (to the east) that got us to a bridge toll station. This confusion must happen all the time at that spot because they actually had a turn-around there so we could get going into the correct direction.