EPIC Wrong turns

[djsinco]

I hope this is not already covered in another thread, I did a search and found nothing like this on the forums.

Describe the wrong turn that is most memorable in your driving history. While I have many, here is mine...

I was 17, and on a drive from NJ to Gallatin, TN. My passenger was a female from Gallatin, and it was my first drive on this route, which was pretty much I-78, I-81, and I-40. Everything was going well as we were southbound on 81, and left PA for WV. I knew that we were only on 81 until it hit 40, and the exit for 40 seemed to come quicker than I expected, but I headed down the ramp onto 40 Westbound. The only problem was that it was US40 West, and I turned about 400 miles too early. Back in the day (about 1976,) of course, 40 had not not become I-68, and we kept right on track (we thought) with the '66 VW Beetle for much of the afternoon completely unaware. At Grantsville, MD the highway became noticeably less modern, and I was still oblivious until I saw the most unwelcome, "Welcome to Pennsylvania!" sign. That prompted a glance at the Rand McNally, which of course was quite disturbing. We drove almost to Uniontown, PA, and headed South to WV. We ended up the days drive in Beckley, WV. The WV Turnpike was almost all 2 lane road in those days, and we had little money so we slept in the car that night. The ride down to 81 was pretty, we finally found the correct 40, and away we went...

PS Using Google maps, I now see that the total out of route for this wrong turn was only 108 miles. I am sure this was not a personal best, but the wrong turn cost also pretty much added the better part of a full day in overall travel time.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Well, in my short life as a driver (I have the driver license since November 2011) I haven't made any epic fail yet. But once coming out from Zaragoza I intentionally headed to Madrid only to clinch the Z-40/A-2 superhighway before getting on the good route back to Huesca. Widening works were about to finish, only one lane remained to open.

[bugo]

My dumbass stepbrother was driving from Hot Springs, AR to Posey Hollow.  He was born in Hot Springs and grew up in Posey Hollow, so he has been in the area his entire life.  The route is US 270 to CR 70.  He ended up using his GPS and ended up on a 4 wheeler trail out in the middle of the mountains and got stuck.  GPS is the devil.

[Alps]

I've never gone far out of the way before realizing my directions had led me astray, maybe 5 miles at most. The most memorable was when I was 18, on vacation with my family in Hudson, WI, and visiting a friend in Eau Claire. I'd never visited a friend while on a family vacation before, and this one was quite cute. So I get my family onto I-94, and a few miles later, I say, "wait, no, no, how are we entering Minnesota??" I was a little too excited to see her...

[jeffandnicole]

My only real epic 'wrong turn' was going from Vegas to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  And it wasn't so much a wrong turn, but me trying to avoid another National Park.

We got to a National Park I wasn't expecting along the route I had chosen.  I didn't want to pay an additional fee, so I told the attendent, who said just go back to the 1st traffic light, make a left, and we could go that way.

A half-hour later, no traffic light.  Not knowing how how much further I would have to double back, I decided to make another u-turn and go thru the National Park.  I was not happy losing an hour of North Rim park time that day, as it was our only night at the North Rim, before spending a half-day there then heading to the South Rim. 

At the time, the National Park Service's Annual Pass was $50.  They did allow you to accumulate receipts, and you could pay the difference if you wanted an annual pass if you could receipts for the other parks.  Eventually, at the 3rd National Park, we asked about this, was told what I just mentioned above, and we got the annual pass.  We may have made use of it one other time in that year.

[vdeane]

No epic wrong turns, but on the Honors trip to Ottawa last summer, I was part of a three car caravan heading from the science museum to a parking garage downtown.  I was the last car to leave the science museum.  I was also the first to arrive at the parking garage, one of two to make it to the correct parking garage, and the only one to make it there without the aid of GPS.  I guess I was also the only person to verify that the driving directions we got from Google were actually accurate (they weren't; King Edward Ave is now a divided highway north of York St, which is not reflected on Google).

Had a minor one going to the Ottawa road meet, partly because the city had closed part of York St, and partly because the only reason I was over there was because my trip up took 20 minutes less than my allotted time for it.

I also seem to make a wrong turn every time I'm in Pittsburgh for some reason.  I blame poor signage for US 9.  These days I try to memorize street names whenever I'm going through there because the signage for the numbered routes is sparse, and in at least one case, completely wrong.

[empirestate]

I also seem to make a wrong turn every time I'm in Pittsburgh for some reason.  I blame poor signage for US 9.

I suppose that's fair blame. If you're trying to follow US 9 in Pittsburgh, every turn is a wrong one.

[1995hoo]

I missed a turn in Colorado back in 2007 on the way back from a football game in Laramie. Wound up going 125 miles out of the way through Rand, Granby, and Winter Park to approach Denver from the west. (I had wanted to go to Estes Park and take the scenic route, just missed a turn.)

Ms1995hoo was decidedly displeased about the whole thing..... At least the Hotel Monaco in Denver turned out to be quite nice.

[vdeane]

I also seem to make a wrong turn every time I'm in Pittsburgh for some reason.  I blame poor signage for US 9.

I suppose that's fair blame. If you're trying to follow US 9 in Pittsburgh, every turn is a wrong one.

And boy are there a lot of them...

[djsinco]

US 9? It doesn't go anywhere near Pittsburg, KS! Also, learn to spell...

[vdeane]

Damn you Chrome!  That's what I get for using spell check and not really paying attention to what the suggestions are.  I meant Plattsburgh.

[djsinco]

I thought you were talking about Pittsburgh, PA and meant Route 19...

[Brian556]

My dumbass stepbrother was driving from Hot Springs, AR to Posey Hollow.  He was born in Hot Springs and grew up in Posey Hollow, so he has been in the area his entire life.  The route is US 270 to CR 70.  He ended up using his GPS and ended up on a 4 wheeler trail out in the middle of the mountains and got stuck.  GPS is the devil.

This reminds me of an episode of the Kardashians where they supposedly got off I-75 (Alligator Alley), and drove down a dirt path because the GPS told them to do so. I immediatly thought that it was fake, and that this was done to make the show more interesting. During this senario, they supposedly ran out of gas, and had to catch a ride with local hunters and spend the night in a cabin. It seemed to be planned, but the GPS error part seems kinda plausibe after haring this and other stories.

[hbelkins]

Can't really remember making a really bad wrong turn, but I did intentionally cause my mom to make a wrong turn when we were on a family vacation when I was a kid. I wanted to go across the Okracoke-Cedar Island ferry on our way to the Outer Banks. My dad had gone to sleep and mom was doing the driving, so I had my chance. At the time, I-40 ended at Greensboro and you had to take I-85 to the Raleigh-Durham area and then either US 64 or US 70. I was a crackshot navigator even back then so I steered my mom onto US 70. Dad didn't get too mad when he woke up; he had a big of roadgeek in him and I think that's where I got some of my interest from. (This is the man who, when we vacationed in Florida one year, opted to come home up US 25 from SE Georgia just for the heck of it).\

[1995hoo]

In a similar vein to hbelkins, when I was 17 we were in the car en route to New Hampshire for a family vacation. Somewhere in Connecticut my dad got tired and asked me to drive; both he and my mom then dozed off. My brother and I promptly  decided we wanted to go to LL Bean, so instead of driving to New Hampshire I drove to Freeport, Maine.

[vdeane]

Unless your car is also a boat, you probably still went through NH to get to ME.

[NE2]

Unless your car is also a goat, you probably didn't go through Alanland to get to ME.

[1995hoo]

Unless your car is also a boat, you probably still went through NH to get to ME.

Smartarse! You know what I meant.

[Dr Frankenstein]

There was one occasion, two or three years ago, when Google Maps routed us through what ended up being a small low-maintenance road through Parc des Monts-Valin instead of Route Martel, in the middle of the winter while heading up to Le Valinouët, a ski area north of Saint-David-de-Falardeau. On many occasions, we thought we'd get stuck. And there was no cellphone reception whatsoever. Thankfully, we made it.

[algorerhythms]

The worst wrong turn I remember making isn't all that epic. It involved the Baltimore Beltway. It was shortly after I had gotten my driver's license, and my dad let me drive. Before we left, we printed directions to the place in Baltimore we were going to (it was near the Inner Harbor). As it turned out, the directions said to take the Outer Loop... but when you approach I-695 from I-70, the directions on the signs read North and South. Not knowing at short notice which direction was outer, I ended up going north. We got to I-795 before realizing what had gone wrong. So we flagged down a local and asked her how to get where we were going. She decided to lead us there, running red lights (luckily this was before Baltimore installed red light cameras) and blaring her horn the whole way. That was an interesting experience...

As for wrong turns made by people I was traveling with, there was the time I was going to Canada with my dad and some other relatives. Dad was driving the car I was in, and my cousin was driving another car. My cousin was annoyed that my dad was (in his opinion) driving too slow, so he went ahead of my dad. We were on the QEW near Toronto when the cousin says over the CB radio that he thinks he's lost. Just then we see him passing by, going the other direction. We never did figure out how he got turned around. That same trip, he also got a ticket for going 100 mph in a 100 km/h zone...

[DTComposer]

Not exactly a wrong TURN per se, but:

Our college chamber choir was on tour in England, and we left Heathrow in a caravan of two rental cars and a small bus. Our car was in the rear, and when we got to the first roundabout, we were blocked from view by a truck, so we took a second trip around the roundabout until we caught sight of the bus having already exited. We followed along for another hour or so until the bus stopped near Swindon...and it was the wrong bus.

This was before cell phones were commonplace, let alone GPS, Google maps, etc. All we had was the address of our first concert in Cambridge the next day - no lodging info or meet-up point. We procured a fold-out map and made our way to Cambridge, where we managed to run into several of our group that evening in a pub.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

As for wrong turns made by people I was traveling with, there was the time I was going to Canada with my dad and some other relatives. Dad was driving the car I was in, and my cousin was driving another car. My cousin was annoyed that my dad was (in his opinion) driving too slow, so he went ahead of my dad. We were on the QEW near Toronto when the cousin says over the CB radio that he thinks he's lost. Just then we see him passing by, going the other direction. We never did figure out how he got turned around. That same trip, he also got a ticket for going 100 mph in a 100 km/h zone...

Only someone who doesn't know about metric would do 161 km/h in a 63 mph zone, and I knew it would happen .

[kphoger]

As for wrong turns made by people I was traveling with, there was the time I was going to Canada with my dad and some other relatives. Dad was driving the car I was in, and my cousin was driving another car. My cousin was annoyed that my dad was (in his opinion) driving too slow, so he went ahead of my dad. We were on the QEW near Toronto when the cousin says over the CB radio that he thinks he's lost. Just then we see him passing by, going the other direction. We never did figure out how he got turned around. That same trip, he also got a ticket for going 100 mph in a 100 km/h zone...

Only someone who doesn't know about metric would do 161 km/h in a 63 mph zone, and I knew it would happen .

He never said the guy was speeding by mistake... 

But, seriously, you don't have to know about metric to know not to drive 30+ mph faster than everyone else.

[djsinco]

In my experience, in most of the provinces of Eastern Canada (where most of the citizens live,) I believe 100MPH (160KPH) would likely result in a bit more than a ticket...

[kphoger]

In my experience, in most of Canada, I believe 100MPH (160KPH) would likely result in a bit more than a ticket...

Acutally, most of Canada is "northern" Canada, where 100 mph doesn't seem totally unreasonable...