Driving in circles

Boys and girls, this is called a map:

For hundreds of years, these have been how humans have conveyed geographic information about the world. Maps are almost universally understood. In modern times, even in times before you were born, people traveling used printed on paper versions of these to get around in cities and countries they were not intimately familiar with. They served several purposes.

1. Knowing how to read a map would provide you with the route to your destination. 
2. After your trip, the map provided you and others an indication of where you had been, even if it was not your original destination. 
3. It was a source of frustration for one who could not refold it, a source of a feeling of mastery for one who could, and a source of entertainment for the children watching in the back seat. 
4. Old maps make great gift wrapping paper.

Many of you have never seen, much less used, a map. You rely completely on a GPS or your cell phone for directions. This generally works out well, but one day you will find yourself on a road looking for a spot that doesn't exist on your machinery, while a voice inside your GPS tells you that it is recalibrating or that you are an idiot for not doing a U-turn across 6 lanes of traffic. Paper maps don't verbally assault you. They are patient and will wait until they are needed. No batteries are required. In Ireland, we will use a map. For the uneducated or at least uninformed, the blue part is water. We will not be driving there.

So the map above is the southwest quadrant of Ireland, which is where we will be traveling. We land at the Shannon airport and head south. Vicki will be the one at the wheel. Not only is that wheel on the wrong side of the car, but she has to drive on the wrong side of the road. We will inevitably come upon a sheep who has decided it is his turn to screw around with the tourists. He will be in the middle of a narrow, winding road at the top of a cliff, daring us to try to drive by without him head butting our little car over the railing.  If I were driving, my natural reactions would likely not be suppressed in the critical moment, and I would immediately veer to the right into the path of an oncoming lorry or mow down the rest of the sheep and their shepherd.

So Vicki drives. I navigate. Stay tuned for the resulting stories.