Maybe I Should Invest in a GPS

Note: I sincerely apologize for not updating last week. It has been crazy busy, but I promise to make up for it with crazy blogging next week since it is spring break.


Two weekends ago, I was able to travel to Michigan for the first time ever. I was going to be meeting up with a few other girls from my home church at this conference called Awaken. It was an all girls conference for junior high up to college aged students. It was to be held in Highland, Michigan (or so I thought, but I will explain that later). It was sure to be a great weekend.

On the day of the conference, I loaded up Bono. Bono is my beautiful, red 2008 Ford Focus. My really good friend, Nick Wright (yes I must say his full name, and I have mentioned him briefly in a previous post) joined me for most of the ride. I was giving him a ride home since he lived in Michigan.

Things were going great. Nick and I were having such a great time conversing that the time flew by quickly.

We were to meet up with the girls from my church in Findlay, Ohio. I had never been to Findlay, and I had arrived on the other side of town from them. I had to navigate my way through this unfamiliar town, and we passed through some sketchy parts of town, but we made it. We then followed my church friends for a little bit.

Then, something happened that should have been the red flag that my journey was going to be terrible. I had looked up the directions for Highland, Michigan just in case I was magically separated from my church friends. I noticed we were going a different way than my directions had said to go. The way my directions said to go was going to take me right past an exit where Nick's dad could meet us. My church friends went a different way. I called them and asked what was going on, and they said they were following their directions. I thought that it was weird, and explained that I was going to go take Nick home, and I would just meet them at the conference since I had the directions.

I dropped Nick off, drove a little more, stopped at an exit that said it had food that turned out to be two miles off the exit, grabbed some food, drove some more, and finally reached Highland, Michigan. I had missed the road I was supposed to turn on, but luckily, Michigan has these nifty little places where you can make a U-Turn (which is illegal in Ohio). See, Michigan doesn't believe in left turns. You honestly can't really turn left at any intersection in Michigan. However, they compensate for this with these turn around places. You will see crazy, annoying signs all over Michigan explaining how you are to make a left turn in Michigan because you have been doing it wrong your whole life.

Once I reached one of these places where I could turn around, I noticed there was a stoplight there to indicate when you could complete your turn. When I arrived, the stoplight was CLEARLY red. Yet, I still saw people disregarding the concept that it was red and they turned left anyway. I mean I thought maybe sometimes you could turn right on red, but left on red? Okay, I'm not from Michigan, but I thought it was a national rule that red means stop and do not go.

Well, fortunately, I did not have to take the risk of trying to figure out if I could turn left despite what the stoplight says. It turned green by the time I reached it, and I was headed for the road I needed. The problem was now the road I needed to turn on was on the left! Therefore, I was going to have to make ANOTHER U-Turn with ANOTHER red stoplight that people were ignoring.

I turned on the road, and I was in the town. I was very confused. This town did not look like a town that had a big enough place for a conference. It was a tiny town. In fact, when I was trying to explore town, one of the roads that branched off from the main road went from a paved road to a dirt road in less than two hundred feet. I pulled over into a gas station right when Andrea, one of my church friends, called me.

We tried to discuss where we were, but the road names she was saying did not ring a bell to me. The road names I was saying to her did not sound familiar to her either. Finally, I asked, "You're in Highland, right?" just as a joke. This is when Andrea informed me that she had no idea where Highland, Michigan was and that she was in Sterling Heights, Michigan.

I was officially lost, and in case you didn't catch it with the title and the fact that I had directions, I don't own a GPS. I told myself not to panic, and I told Andrea I would figure something out. I hung up and started thinking. I decided to go into the gas station to look for a map. I figured if they didn't have one, maybe the cashier could help me.

I walked in, and even though I was flustered, I tried to be as pleasant as I could be. The cashier rolled her eyes at me. I thought maybe I imagined it, but in case I didn't, I was going to try to find a map on my own. The gas station was small, and so I searched it fairly quickly. I saw no map. My nerves were shot. I thought maybe I had overlooked something since I was so tense from being in this situation. I didn't want to bother the cashier, but I knew I would have to ask for her assistance at this point. That didn't go well. The only thing I can think of that explains her rude behavior is that she must have smelled my Ohio scent and decided I was not worth any ounce of respect.

The way I handled that situation was probably not the best way to deal with it, but it was a lot better than what I wanted to do. I walked out, and I sat in my car contemplating my next move. I knew I had seen a McDonald's about a mile back, and I did have my macbook with me because I had intended to do homework sometime that weekend. I decided I would go there, use their wifi, and find out how to get to Sterling Heights.

I reached McDonald's, went inside with my macbook, and searched where Sterling Heights was. It was an hour away from where I was. It didn't seem like it would be too hard to reach. I closed my macbook and left the restaurant.

After having to turn right in order to turn left to get out of Highland, I was on my way to Sterling Heights. I was still kind of flustered. Pulling over for gas at this gas station that I am sure was bent on brainwashing the entire human population with the noise they call music playing and the random car trivia they announced did not help.

After the fill up, I was back on the road. I was driving for a while, and I felt pretty calm the longer I drove. Then, all of a sudden, the road I was on turned into a highway with exit numbers. The directions said I had to make a simple right turn. They said nothing about an exit number. Almost positive I had somehow missed my turn...again, I decided to pull off on an exit that had a McDonald's sign.

Unfortunately, another fact I learned about Michigan is that the place I want to go is probably not going to be conveniently placed right off an exit. The McDonald's was also two miles down the road. In fact, it wasn't even on the road. I missed it. I think explaining how I missed it will require a diagram.

As you can see, I could not get over to make the right turn, and as we know by now, you can't make a left turn at an intersection in Michigan. My only option was to go straight. I turned around in the grocery store parking lot, and I was now going the opposite direction of where I just came. I got in the left lane because I stupidly forgot for a second that I couldn't turn left at an intersection. Therefore, I had to go straight again! This time, I turned left into the gas station and just cut across it into McDonald's.

I walked in yet another McDonald's with my macbook to see if I was heading the right direction. The only problem was now I had no idea what town this was. By this point with the constant turning around, driving two miles away from the highway, and being so lost that I had no clue as to what the town was called, I was a nervous wreck on this inside. However, I was not going to let that be expressed on the outside because I knew it would not help a thing.

Swallowing my pride, I walked up to the counter where a boy that I assumed to be in his teens stood. This made me even more nervous because I ALWAYS get nervous talking to guys that I don't know. I can't explain why, but I do. Sometimes I am able to control it better than others, but this time I just lost all control. When I asked him for help, I am pretty sure it was like I was applying to be a Valley girl.

He informed of the town's name. I looked on the computer, and I discovered that I was still on the right path according to the directions. I left McDonald's, drove two miles back to the highway, was in the wrong lane so I missed my turn to get back on the highway, had to turn around at one of those U-Turn things again, and finally turned onto the highway.

I eventually reached the conference, and it was great. Despite missing a good chunk of the first session, it was awesome to see God moving that night and throughout the weekend. I learned a lot, and I know it is only by the grace of God and His guidance that I found my way. He guides my path every step of the way... literally.

Oh, and I got a glow bracelet.