Jane's trip (short story)

If you're preparing to go on a trip - never forget to take the map with you. You shouldn't leave home unless you have precise directions…

…It was a beautiful sunny morning of the first day of Jane's trip. The town she was going to was so small that she couldn't even find it on a map of that area…

On the second day of her journey she planned to make a short trip to this very small town, near which had been recently found the remnants of the ancient Mayan pyramid hitherto unknown, their household items and the evidence of the high level of culture of the Mayan race. After this trip Jane intended to fly to another state to visit her elderly parents.

…The new day began so nice that she couldn't even think that something can go wrong. She went to bed last night at 7 P.M. - to have a good sleep before next day's ride. She planned to drive 200 miles.

Before setting out on this trip she contacted the U.S. Automobile Club to get the needed directions. But they just gave her general routes to follow and not where to turn right or left. After that she went to Google Driving Directions on her computer and it gave her a detailed BUT completely different set of routes to follow. Now she had three sets of DIFFERENT directions. "Ye gods", - she thought.

Thanks heavens, she had a friend who was coming over at a lunch time and who had driven there once (but not this time). Jane could ask her for final set of directions to follow. But the day which has begun so well was turning up to be not that cloudless clear and easygoing. The friend didn't come. Her child caught a cold and she had to stay at home. "What to do now? Who will give me the directions?", - thought Jane helplessly.

Then she went for a lunch and there, by chance, she met and had a talk with a woman who knew the directions to the small town Jane intended to reach. Moreover, she was going to go to a city en route to which that small town is situated. And she proposed Jane to join her!

The young woman drove Jane in her car. She had a GPS (Global Positioning Service) system which Jane thought to be a modern miracle. For the first time she saw it in Japan in 2000. Everything's very simple. What you do is type your present location address into the GPS hand-held computer and then type the address that I your final destination. Then you press "Go" and behold: a map shows the way on thee little viewfinder. And a voice from within the machine tells you when to turn left and to go 20 miles and then turn right… And eventually leads you to your destination. So Jane and her new friend found their way just by following the instructions the GPS gave them.

Jane finally got to see the remnants of the ancient Mayan pyramid. She spent several hours wandering through the place of the excavation. Sometimes she made some notes in her little notepad. Since she was a school teacher of history she could tell her class about some interesting and unusual things she saw at the place of the excavation.

Jane's way back was far not that exciting. She got back to the town where she spent the previous night and left her car. Now Jane was going to have a good dinner and a nice sleep before tomorrow's driving back home. Falling asleep Jane thought that a young woman with the GPS system in her car was a great help, indeed, and a pleasant company to travel with.

Jane Polevaya