Navigating life with and without a map

Modern technology is wonderful, but it pales in comparison to the human mind. Recently I found myself on the Ohio Turnpike traveling through Northeast Ohio. Anyone familiar with their geography and who follows the weather even a little bit, understands that the turnpike there is right in the middle of the state's Snow Belt. And, as luck would have it, I was witnessing that Snow Belt firsthand. Truth is, I found myself in the middle of a blizzard with blowing hard snow, ice covered roads and vehicles alongside the turnpike both to my left and to my right. What once was a well-traveled four-lane roadway was literally more like an ice rink. It was white-knuckle driving, that's for sure. And, what made matters a little dicer for me was once I reached my destination in Pittsburgh, I needed to turn right around and head back. Considering I preferred not to repeat this bumper car experience again, I needed to see a weather map to learn where the snow was heaviest and view alternative driving options. The trouble was I needed my GPS to work through this blizzard, and I didn't want to risk backing out of any program on my phone and risk not getting back into it. Let's just say my fingers don't fly across a phone's keyboard as fast as those of any of my granddaughters. What they might have been able to find in a minute would have probably taken me five or 10. Not to worry, I thought, I'll just give my oldest son a call. Now here is a little-known fact about my son, the publisher of this newspaper. In addition to his many newspaper-related talents, he is a geography whiz kid. As a kindergarten student when our family first moved to Michigan, his idea of having fun was having me drive to a new part of town, where he would then consult a map of the city and direct me back to our home. It was a great way to get to know a new town. Back in those days GPS did not exist. Maps were the navigation tool of necessity. When our family went on trips, up until this point, my wife was the main navigation consultant. However, by first or second grade, Jeremy had taken over that responsibility and our whole family trusted him and his skills. To give you an example, one summer we headed west to visit the Badlands. On the way home, Jeremy was reading the map when he piped up, "You know dad, in another 10 miles there is an exit that would take you to where they filmed "Field of Dreams." My whole family really liked that movie. "How close is it off the exit?" I asked my son. "It's almost right there," he said. Because I trusted Jeremy, I immediately decided to get off the exit and stop. It was, and remains today, the best unplanned stop we ever made on a vacation. The Field of Dreams site was awesome, and because we had our baseball gloves and balls in the car, playing on the field made it even more special. But I digress thinking of warm weather rather than the blizzard I was driving through. Knowing Jeremy would be keeping up with weather reports, I called him to get the latest on the weather conditions and for him to look at a map to try and find me an alternative route for the ride home. Believe it or not, I had no Ohio map in the vehicle I was driving. His advice was extremely helpful and accurate yet again. He told me in about 20 miles I would drive out of the snowstorm (actually it was 25) and he determined a route more to the south that would contain less snow potential for my return trip. I am lucky to have a Jeremy in my life, who I could call at a drop of a dime. But if I truly was smart, I should have had a map in the vehicle. That would have been the intelligent thing to do. I need to rectify that situation soon. You never know, until it's too late, when you are going to need it. GPS is great, until it's not. Bill Speer is a Findlay resident and was the publisher of The Alpena (Mich.) News. He can be reached at speers@chartermi.net.