I Heart You, Google Maps

I grew up in the Salt Lake Valley, which, as many of you know, is on a grid system. And when I say "grid system," I mean a real grid system. If you just went to Utah for BYU and spent all of your time in the Utah Valley, you have never experienced the joy. A real grid system means that you can go anywhere in Salt Lake County with no directions whatsoever. (None of the "Oh no! Now we're in American Fork and the numbers are all different!" business.) You just need two little numbers--the north/south coordinate and the east/west coordinate of your final destination.

I spent one summer as my dad's "personal assistant," which basically meant that I spent June through August driving all over the county delivering and picking up random items. My dad isn't exactly the best at giving directions, but he did have the addresses of the places I needed to go. Without too much trouble, I managed to find every one of them. Thank goodness for the grid. Even in Utah Valley it's not too bad. You can find what you're looking for. It might just turn out, once you cross that city line, that you're not quite as close to it as you thought.

Out here in, uh, well, not Utah, (and I know that many of you will be shocked by this) they don't believe in grids. Before Hugh started work, he asked if I would prefer to drop him off in the mornings so that I could have a car during the day. My thoughts on this were that since there was little to no chance of my being able to find my way anywhere, there wasn't really any point in having a vehicle in my possession.

So, Hugh's first week of work came, and on Monday and Tuesday he drove himself to work. While he was gone, Asher and I explored the immediate vicinity of our apartment with our trusty stroller (meaning that anywhere we went was close enough that I was sure of being able to find my way back). On Wednesday, however, the other mommies in my new ward were holding a play group, and since I had made up my mind not to be an antisocial recluse, I decided to go. I dropped Hugh off at work that morning so that I would have a car. I had the address of the park where we were supposed to meet, and the address had numbers in it, but, unfortunately, I knew that the numbers were not technically related to the physical location of the park. So, about half an hour before the play group was supposed to start I pulled Google Maps up on the computer.

Hugh showed me Google Maps a long time ago, but it mostly seemed like another technology toy that he could use to fill up his free time. I had used it once or twice when I was driving somewhere far away, but mostly, it was where Hugh went to find satellite pictures of old mission apartments or places we went in China. Now I was hoping to turn this toy into a tool in my regular arsenal. So, I typed in my start and end address, clicked the "get directions" button, and voila! I had directions to my play group. I was a little worried that the directions would not actually lead me to the place I wanted to go, but I copied them down, grabbed the diaper bag, buckled Asher into the car, and left anyway.

I know that you will be amazed to hear that I actually did get to my play group, and back home (I copied down directions for the return journey separately, just in case.), in fact, without having to turn around once. It was spectacular. The best part is, it wasn't even a fluke! This week I found my way to play group at a different park, in addition to other places. I can even get directions to places when I don't know the address, or even if I don't know the actual name of the place. Who knew?

So, what I'm trying to say is, Google Maps, I heart you. Thanks for opening up the world to me. Oh, and, Hugh, I guess you were right. It is pretty cool.