I found this really excellent route home from my favorite global foods store in St Louis. You drive straight on Lindbergh Boulevard, and then – pa pam! – you are in Alton. That’s all there is to it. Drive straight for a very long time.
For a week, I’ve been telling everyone in sight, which is only two people but still, about the great new route. But then yesterday when I started driving, even though I knew to go straight, I made a turn and got into a very inconvenient route through ugly places. Because the GPS told me to turn, and I trusted it more than my own memory from a week earlier. Aesthetic considerations are alien to a GPS, and it will send you wherever the road is a couple of minutes shorter. I know this, and I should have trusted myself more.
There’s a lesson here.
Clarissa's Blog 
There are (on some services) settings like “avoid highways” and maybe “avoid bridges”. But I would even more appreciate “avoid difficult left turns” .
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sorry, I forgot to say the part that was more relevant to your posting! Sometimes among the choices are “prefer scenic route” matched up against “prefer fastest route”.
LikeLike
I would pay extra for an “avoid difficult left turns” feature!
LikeLike
EXACTLY.
LikeLike
Once you learn your way around, the GPS is just so you have something to argue with in the car.
LikeLike
I was just about to suggest to Clarissa that she turn off her GPS when driving familiar local routes, but your comment beat me to it.
Dreidel
LikeLike
I was on part of Lindbergh Blvd back on 25 Apr 2007 when I wrote this is in part:
I was generally back on my US50 route today and passed through Sedalia, Jefferson City, Union & St. Louis, MO then East St. Louis to Wood River, IL. It was a very pleasant drive across MO that started me thinking what it would have been like in the 1920s, 30s or 40’s before the Interstates came into being. There was a small farming town every 15-20 miles that would have had services available for the traveler. That is almost all gone now with only a few identifiable relics of that past service economy. The “Main Streets” now are boarded up or have multiple antique shops lining them. I was able to follow the US50 signs through St. Louis city streets without any difficulty. While in the city I had two drivers call out to me that they liked my car/trailer. I continue to get that kind of a reaction from people but nothing like what it was with the MINI and trailer. My first crossing of the Mississippi was on the Jefferson Barracks Bridge south of downtown St. Louis,…
LikeLiked by 1 person
WOOD RIVER. I love Wood River.
Thank you, this is lovely.
LikeLike