Over the River and Through the Rain

Last week, we had Thanksgiving Dinner with the Fort Worth family. David drove back to Waco on Thursday evening, but I planned to visit a friend on my way home Friday morning, so spent Thursday night in Fort Worth. My friend used to live in Waco, but now lives in an RV/Trailer Park about 50 or so miles away, between Waco and Fort Worth. I’d been to visit a few months ago, and thought that I could get in another visit this trip, as I didn’t have any time constraints, this day-after-Thanksgiving Friday.

Thursday evening, I was checking with Kevin about the maps app on my phone. I’d misplaced the address, but she’d sent the information to me (address, gate code, and lot number), and I was aiming to get everything in place for a smooth trip in the morning. Kevin said, use the “copy” and “paste” feature to move the address from e-mail and into the maps app, which I did, and saw with delight that there, on her contact page, there was the address (let’s call it “123 Winnebago Lane”). Perfect!

Friday morning, after a trip to Trader Joe’s, and another trip back to Kevin’s because I’d had a text from him that said I’d left my iPad there, I set out, tapping the address and leaving town. I was surprised to see that the place was only 22 miles away, which really wasn’t too surprising, as, last time, I’d driven quite a while from Waco to her, and assumed that it was sensible to think that the distance from Fort Worth would, of course, be shorter.

Hah.

As I left Fort Worth, the weather changed from cloudy to misty and drizzly, and I was driving along parts of highways that I’d not been on before. I drove and drove and drove. Finally I reached “123 Winnebago Lane.” I saw a gate, but it didn’t look like the gate I’d been through before. I thought that maybe this was the back door of the place. I pulled up to the number pad, punched in the number I had, and nothing happened. I tried again. I scrolled down the list of names and didn’t see my friend’s. Then, another car pulled up behind me, and that driver apparently had a remote, because the gate opened, so I drove on through. I drove down a couple of roadways and saw only large houses in big yards, but no trailers or RV’s. This just didn’t seem right, so I tried to drive out, but the place was quite spread out and I was a little bit lost. Fortunately, a FedEx truck had made a delivery and I followed it out. I stopped at the entrance and checked all my info again. And there it said, quite clearly “123 Winnebago Lane.” And it also said “Cresson, Texas.” My friend does not live in Cresson, Texas. I’d never heard of “Cresson, Texas.” Maybe it’s just the name of this very large housing tract.

And then I thought how stupid am I! I can’t just put in “123 Winnebago” and expect the phone to know that I mean my friend’s town, not just any old town with a 123 Winnebago Lane. So, I re-entered “123 Winnebago Lane” and carefully included the name of the town where my friend actually lives! After driving for half an hour,  to the wrong place, I still had an hour to go to get to the right place.

It wasn’t a difficult drive, and there weren’t all that many people on the road, their having more sense than to be out in the cloudy, drizzly weather. The phone took me down all the roads I should have been on, and, yes, in just about an hour, I reached “123 Winnebago” in the town where my friend does live, and the gate that I did recognize, and where I punched in the appropriate code and watched with great relief when the gate opened and allowed my entrance.

We had a nice visit. I’ll go again. The trip should go more easily, as I now have her complete address in my Contacts app.