Trusting mapquest instead of looking at a map…

Freight Rate Central

Ok here is a story of a delivery I was making to a residence once awhile back. The office girls had printed me out a mapquest map which they often did and always seemed to work good for me. It was a delivery to a different county than we normally delivered to, so they printed me out this map and away I went. Now as a side note I normally bring up an address on my phone and look at a map of the area so geographically I know where I am supposed to be. But for some reason I decided not to look at a map first, this was a small mistake on my part. But sometimes the best memories start off with a mistake, right?

 

So two hours into my trip and I reach the last town I am driving through before my destination, I navigate my way through streets, passing the local high school and several houses as I make my way from a wide two lane road to an almost single lane road and finally gravel road. I remember one of the last houses I passed sat a man on his front porch staring at me, I didn’t give it much thought at the time, but now I am sure the look he was giving me sounded something like, “where is this idiot going?” So my gravel road continues to travel upward, switchback after switchback, suddenly I start to realize I am on a mountain road and there is no sign of houses anywhere! Did I mention it was spring time? The roads are reasonably muddy right now and I am having to keep a fair amount of acceleration to keep going. I did not want to try and back down this road as there was no place at all so far to turn around, no signal to the cell phone either. My only choice was to press on and hope for the best! Twenty minutes later I reach the top of this mountain and continue on down the other side. Another 15 minutes later and I reach my destination, so happy to be off the mountain and that I didn’t have to deal with trying to back down this thing!

 

I get done dropping off my cargo and come to realize that he is one mile away from a town that I normally deliver to, the county line is just past the town and for whatever reason mapquest decided that the best route for me to take was over a mountain? Hilarious after the fact but could have been avoided if I would have just looked at a map first! Happy trucking my friends!

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