Nothing is wrong with you. Some people have a talent of driving without geting lost at least once or more (me) some people don't (DH). We have a garmin GPS, which really does help, but then we both learned to drive in Los Angeles and that does help. I have more trouble in the smaller towns (Minot), because the they have both streets and avenues with the same # and have NW, SW SE etc. I spend more time looking, but then I call them unguided tours, not getting lost. Also, I look for landmarks, and heaven forbid if put a new building in, replace a tree, paint a building etc.

I don't like driving in unfamiliar places either. Now, tho, I go to Mapquest and "map it" before leaving, and it gives me street-by-street instructions. Takes away a ton of worry.

I think I'm a fairly smart driver when going forward. But lately, watch out if you are behind me. LOL We have lots of parking area at my house, but last time my middle son was home, he parked behind my car. I needed to leave and knew I had enough room to cut across a small part of the yard. So I slowly backed up and barely hit his bumper. He has a large ranch bumper on his truck. The next day he was behind me again. I knew he was there, but was talking to Jesse and totally forgot about his truck and stepped on the gas and wham! His bumper put a big V in the back of my car. Then a few days later I had to go to get my lab work done and the only parking space left had a large post behind the spot. I had a little talk with myself about not forgetting that pole was behind me. By the time I got ready to leave, I put it in reverse and wham. Right into the pole. I had whiplash! I did get lucky that it hit right on the V dent and smoothed it out. LOL
I do drive in San Antonio quite often, as that's where my doctors are. I do get lost at times, especially when driving downtown. But I give myself plenty of time and have really enjoyed getting lost. I have seen some interesting places downtown that I wouldn't have seen if I hadn't got lost. San Antonio is a really cool city.

I'm fine on the roads, but not finding places. I've backed up in so many people's driveways to turn around. GPS doesn't help much sometimes either.

I like your story though.

I don't get lost very often. I have driven cross country a couple of times. Big city driving doesn't bother me because I learned to drive in CA.

Hi Sue-with-a-curl,

Dad used to say that if he'd been down a road once, that you couldn't lose him on it.

I can't say that ... but I've been down a great many more roads than Dad ever saw!

Son's recently-acquired lady-friend has little road-sense and gets lost really easily. He has to make detailed maps for her, to pick him up in a strange city, etc.

They got a GPS a while ago ... and it looks as though someone stole it (or they lost it) as it hasn't been seen for some time.

Could it be that part of the battle is your telling yourself that you are completely stupid when it comes to finding your way? Building that image of yourself, including that aspect of your capabilities?

How about training yourself to learn various things about finding your way which will help you as you travel that route again? Or about finding your way when going down a new road.

Or asking someone good at it what methods they use to find their way.

Most problems get easier when one takes them apart to look at them a small piece at a time.

Don't tell yourself that you're stupid.

Don't tell yourself that you can never learn this or that system.

Your inner self doesn't discriminate - it just brings to pass the things that you tell it ... tell it that you're stupid, and it'll go about proving you right!

Right?

Know what? It'll succeed, too!

We go about bringing to pass the images that we build of ourselves ... (or have built for us, especially by those ones whom we love/respect).

So - don't belittle your kid (which doesn't mean to avoid evaluating, in non-judgemental discussion with her/him, his/her skills, strenghths and weaknesses fairly objectively).

Have a great week - what's left of it.

ole joyful

P.S. God don't make junk.

But humans sure can! Sell it for high prices, too, they do!

o j

I'm a fairly decent driver. My two fears are getting lost and having to parallel park.

I can get lost in my own small town.......just briefly, but still easily become disoriented. My one DD has the same problem, while older DD and DS have excellent sense of direction. I really don't feel there's anything wrong with me, just don't have that 'talent' to get from here to there easily. I also have a horrible time in hospitals and hotels.....all the corridors look the same.

Shirley

I am a landmark driver. I use landmarks, not road signs and #s. If I go somewhere with a map, I have to have directions on how to get back too. Pathetic I tell you.
I will take your advice dear Joyful, I will eat this elephant one bite at a time.
A couple of weeks ago I had to go to another county to take a test for work-I had know ideal how to get to the place I needed, but SO once again told me how to get there, so I went Sunday morning and drove until I found so that monday I could drive there worry free.

I have a very good sense of direction, but angled and curving streets can be confusing, especially on a dark day when you can't tell east from west. Because Chicago is laid out on a grid for the most part, it's easy to navigate. Finding an expressway entrance can be a challenge though.

DH can't find our car in a large parking lot, even when he parked it. He also doesn't 'scan' for parking spaces the way I do -- just goes straight ahead until he sees one, regardless how far it is from where we're going. He's less aware of cars behind or beside him when driving. (This is just *him*; always been this way.) He also drives much more slowly than I do. DS will do anything to avoid having to ride with his dad.

My mother taught me how to think about where I was going (and how I'd get back) when I was young. She'd take me into Marshall Field's downtown store -- two buildings covering a full block and I think nine floors. We'd walk in and she would tell me to find the toy department or shoes, or whatever. I'd be the guide to get us there. She also taught me to remember by which door we'd entered the store.

On car trips to other states, I learned to read a roadmap. I was 'navigator' from about age eight on.

I wonder if it's true that males have brains better suited to orientation. Can't prove it with DH and me.

I forgot to add that although DH is somewhat navigationally-challenged, he does know where things are in Chicago. He also has some aura about him that draws total strangers to approach him to ask directions. This doesn't just happen at home. We can be in England or on a cruise ship or anywhere. People come up to him everywhere and ask him for directions! It's too bad there aren't any more department store positions for 'Floorwalker'; he'd be *perfect*.

That reminds me, I get lost in buildings also. Parking lots, I do okay only because I remind myself to pay attention to where I park, because if I don't I'm that person you see wondering aimlessly around in a parking lot. LOL

I love to travel and am not one bit intimidated about pulling out of an airport parking lot and headed to who-knows-where! Of course, I'm not going to be late for an appointment and nobody is expecting me but that's the fun. If I miss my exit I can be pretty sure to get off at the next exit and turn around.

When I was a teen my stepfather would be so tense if he passed his exit and had to turn around. Maybe it cost him ten cents more in gas, I don't know! But my husband was always so easy-going and offering a solution or a way to figure it out without me feeling dumb and over the years I got more confident. I am planning a trip now to San Jose del Cabo, an area that I've never, ever been to before. Although I won't have a car I am right now working out the logistics of taking a bus from my Inn to some attractions. DH can just lay back and enjoy the fun because I'm the one who's going to get all the details worked out. And if they don't work, we'll adapt! No need to raise blood pressure over something so insignificant.

I drive a lot. Have driven to the southern most part of Texas 3 or 4 times, Las Vegas, Phoenix, North Dakota, Memphis. I had no fear when I was a lot younger, but now I have a GPS. I got that a couple of winters ago, when Mom and I went to Phoenix for 2 months. I got tired of going in circles. I got lost almost every time we left the house. But then the housing there is like a maze. I still love to drive. Mom's been mentioning going to Phoenix, or somewhere warm, again this winter.
Leslie

I love to take road trips. I like to take roads just to see where they go. Getting a little lost doesn't bother me.

It's strange but my sense of direction is more likely to fail me on familiar ground. Probably due to distractions.

Chisue it's been years since I drove in Chicago but the most annoying thing to me there was the inability to make a left turn or u turn if you missed your turn-off while driving on surface roads.

Most interesting and sometimes scary driving experience was in Sydney. Driving on the left side of the road, on the wrong side of the car with the controls reversed but not all of them and those freaking multi-laned round-abouts. LOL

I agree with CurlySue. I need lkandmarks. Don't tell me, drive three miles east, turn right, then left. Tell me you go up this road about six lights, when you get to the USBank, turn right, then the next left. It's a red brick building, three stories high.

I really don't like driving new places either, and hate getting lost. I don't actually "get lost," but sometimes have a hard time finding places I haven't been to before. It makes me nervous to try to drive and be looking for addresses at the same time. I'd love to have a GPS.

Well...I have to go into the "big city" for jury duty end of this month. Yikes, I don't want to drive, so I'll take the train and do a little walking too and hope all goes well with that. I do not want to drive in the "big city" where everyone is driving fast because they know where they are going and I don't. This makes me feel so old.

linda i did, too...so ca driving lesson, and think i'm a better driver for it. know my one dd who learned in ca is the best of the 4 kids...and i was lucky to have had a defensive driving class when i worked for phone co. i still to this day, count to 3 after a light changes...

if i have an idea of direction, i can get home even from a strange location...but like everyone i do rely on mapquest, and wouldn't dream of leaving town without a trip-tik, or my handy road atlas...

the craziest place and yet once you "learn" the system is seattle...the cross street is almost always part of your address...for instance ours was 8419 150th...so we were close to the intersection of 84th and 150th...

I am lucky to have a good sense of direction and can usually find my way around anywhere. I love to take road trips and have traveled a lot.

But, my BIL can get lost in the driveway. When living in Colorado near the front range (which is an abrupt line of foothills) we all tried to give him the benefit of having a sense of direction, using the foothills (i.e.; if hills on the right, you're going south, on your left - north, behind you - east and in front of you - west). He could still get totally turned around! LOL

I like road trips, too. As long as I'm not on a time schedule, I don't mind being lost, either. When we had had just moved to a new place, sometimes getting lost is the only way to really figure out how to get around, make discoveries. It's an adventure. I always find my way and I don't get upset at all... unless, like I said, it's making me late.

But I don't plan to get lost. I do my homework: look up directions on more than one site, print out the best ones, and now that so many sites have the option to see an ariel view, I always look at that to get a "big picture" of the area.

DH used to call me from the road all the time, expecting me to open up a map online and give him step by step directions, AFTER he was lost and had no idea what direction he was going ("I'm between a Dairy Queen and a dentist's office"). But he has directions on his Blackberry now, and he does OK now. That thing drives me nuts! My mom uses a GPS, too, and I don't like hers either. I don't like being told where to go! LOL. I like my "look it up before you go" system. I don't like trusting that box to tell me one step at a time, I NEED a big picture in my head, I need to see it, plan, learn it. I like knowing if I'm turning east/west as well as right/left, to know the compass direction I'm heading in all the time. (My van tells me that if I get turned around.) But DH gets in the car with me (I usually drive- it's a control thing ;o) ), and turns that thing on and it doesn't always go the route I want to go. So it constantly says "rerouting." The kids think that's very funny. They say it even when DH and his "bossy GPS" aren't with us. It also suggests that I "make a legal U-turn," but the kids think it says "make illegal U-turn," and they tell me that, too. LOL

It also drives me nuts to be in a car with a DVD player going. If I'm in the back, it makes me carsick! New technology in cars just bugs me! I guess I'm passing a milestone in age where I just want things they way they used to be. Stick with what I know. ;o) I'm afraid the next time we need a new van it will come from the factory with gadgets I don't want. Now I'm on a tangent, sorry.

I love driving or riding my bicycle in new places. But I prefer the smaller roads, life is more laid back, and you don't have to drive really fast.

I don't get lost! I just find new routes. LOL

We do have a GPS now, but it is wrong at times. Give me a map, and I can figure out where to go. That works for the overall scheme of driving. But yesterday going to my new allergy doctor, I drove around two buildings twice, before I called them and asked them where they are. She said, take the second drive.

Well, it was the third drive, and if she had just told me the entrance is on the east side, of the first building I could have found it faster.

Last week in Tulsa, was similar. Lady said, turn right at the Quick Trip. Well, doesn't that depend from which direction you come??? Just tell me, turn south at such and such a street (and know, what the street number or name is!!) and don't tell me, we are in a red brick two story building if the building isn't red! That woman needs someone to tell her, how to give directions. LOL

Moni... who likes to "explore" new routes. :)

I agree with Stepahnie. I like to look at the map before I go, to know in advance. I got an early Christmas present....my GPS and it drives me crazy with turn by turn directions. I want to see the big picture.
I recently was on a 2 hour trip out in the country, and it said TR on Queen St., Left on Main street for example without saying the towns they were in. I'd like to know what towns to look for that I'm supposed to turn.

DH does most the driving, and he has no sense of direction either, but will never admit it. Ever. He says I have none, but mine isn't as bad as his, I'm sure. He/we always get lost in the parking lot. I don't pay attention because he's driving and parked. You think I would learn by now......

I can't go backwards. I don't remember if I should turn left or right, or what side that building was when I came in.

I'm a very good driver...much better driver than I am a passenger. I have driven all over the United States, mostly alone. I practically live in my truck...unfortunately. I put about 35,000 miles on it every year, which is considerably less than how much I used to drive. If I am going on a very long trip, I look at a map in advance and may even make a couple of notes. I've gotten lost, but I've always managed to find my way home. When traveling with my husband, we usually take back roads when we can, if we have time...just to see where they go.

Oh how I envy all of you people who drive without a care in the world. I don't know why getting lost scares me so bad, I mean so what, I get a little lost-my house didn't move and I can still get back to it one way or another. I think my biggest fear (this may be silly) is that I will end up on the bad side of some town somewhere and get my hubcaps, purse and life stolen. I don't know.
My DD is back at school and she has a kidney stone-I think I will drive up all by myself and suprise her saturday-she needs a mom hug right now. I will be brave and I will do this. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.

I am the same way CS, I can get lost when I go someplace where I have never been. But I did buy myself a Garmin GPS and it has helped...some!!! I say that because at times I think I am missing my turn and end up turning too soon. LOL!! But it has always managed to get me where I want to go and back...eventually!!! I too can get lost in buildings...and wonder where my car is...!!! Gosh, we should probably not take a trip together, huh???

My DH drives truck so he can drive anyplace, getting from point A to point B, without looking at a map. He seems to know how streets are laid out and what streets connect to what avenues and/or interstates. My DD, is exactly like him, and can even navigate better than her DH!!!!

I so wish I had been blessed with navigational skills. But I also feel that the more I do travel to unfamilar places and succeed, the more confident I will become.

LOL at Maryann

Sheryl

You know what Deamn, we should go on amazing race together. Woudn't that be a hoot, foreign places with english maps and no sense of direction. We would be hilarious.

I have no sense of direction either. My boyfriend always teases me, especially because we go camping in the woods alot, and I have no idea which way is which.

After I moved to Seattle, I learned to get comfortable with being lost for short amounts of time because the city is just too big to know every neighborhood. After living here for ten years, I still get lost sometimes.

I'm a good driver and a good navigator, as long as the signs are there. I like to do my homework ahead of time though and use google maps a lot. I don't mind getting lost a little bit and I love to learn new ways to get to the same old places, but if I'm running late for something, being lost makes me so mad. I try to avoid being late at almost any cost.

MaryAnn, I believe you are probably suffering from a temporary case of "chemo-brain", sweetie. It won't last too long.

I think I'm a good driver and even impressed Alex with my parallel parking skills the other night. (He wasn't so impressed in Germany, though, when I tried to park that big ole staion wagon thing I was driving in their tiny little spaces between two other cars.) He did learn that it's not so easy as it seems.

I get lost all the time, though. Even with directions. Ross, who came with us on our trip told me at one point that I lack confidence in my direction finding and that was my main problem. But, you know I always did better with only Lauren in the car with me, no teen boys with big mouths. In Landstuhl Alex thought it was hilarious to give me wrong naviagational directions so we kept getting lost. I finally wised up and ignored him.

I have a really bad sense of direction, but made it to everywhere we were going eventually.