DAY 88 – CT, NY, NJ & Back Again

Thought I would take a road trip since I’m just 60 minutes away from Gotham. Work ended around 6:00 p.m. and I jumped into the car, plugged “take me to Radio City” into my TomTom (which my son now calls TinaTina because of the sexy British voice), and started driving.

TinaTina took me right to it the historic landmark. I saw it, took the picture and should have come home. Let me just say that driving in NY is quite an experience. It really was my fault. TinaTina would have taken me directly to my hotel room but I turned on the wrong street at the wrong time and found myself driving over the George Washington Bridge and into New Jersey.

Ordinarily, this is not a problem. TinaTina will usually explain the best route and get me back on track. Not tonight. Here’s were the system can break down (just in case you decide to drive to New York City with nothing more than a few bucks in your pocket and a GPS on your dash).

1. There are lots of streets in the Greater New York / New Jersey area.
2. TinaTina hates lots of roads.
3. TinaTina hates to schedule trips that avoid toll roads.
4. TinaTina hates bridges that are made of metal – especially when you are on the lower level in the left lane.
5. Satellites also hate bridges that are made of metal – especially when you are on the lower level in the left lane.
6. TinaTina gets confused when she can’t connect with the satellites and you keep driving at an insanely high rate of speed to keep from being run over by the NY/NJ drivers who already know where they are going and don’t need technology to direct them.

So, I’m driving the wrong direction because I turned on the off-ramp one exit early. I know this because TinaTina reported the error in a huffy British voice (I SAID take the motorway dumb***!!) This new direction sends me to the GW Bridge and into the beautiful state of New Jersey. Unfortunately, I lost contact with the satellites as I drove over the GW. When I came out the other side, TinaTina was thoroughly confused and started stuttering (Take…….the next……..right………dumb………***.)

I pulled into a parking lot and waited for TinaTina to catch her breath. Her screen reported that she was analyzing 5 million roads in an effort to help the dumb*** get home. At 3.5 million roads analyzed, TinaTina shut down. She went black. Nothing. She just went into her electronic shell and wouldn’t come out.

I tapped her screen…gently, so as not to startle her. Nothing. Not a peep.

Then she sprang to life, asked me to stop tapping her, and gave me new directions that took me over an $8.00 toll road, back across the GW, on 95 North and to my hotel. A Roadway Inn never looked so good.

I love TinaTina, even though she can be a little moody.