Getting lost

[Patchouli]

I think I'd be really lost if I ever end up back in Louisville KY again. I didn't like it there, didn't get lost either, with plenty of opportunity to get lost.

 

[OBG 57]

or navigated with a "Cracker Barrel" locations map

My cities weren't always laid out on a grid so it doesn't really apply to me, LOL. I've never noticed or read/knew that avenues run north and south and streets run east and west.

Even numbered roads almost always go E-W and odd numbered ones N-S,I could go on but you guys know all my stuff

 

[Patchouli]

Even numbered roads almost always go E-W and odd numbered ones N-S,I could go on but you guys know all my stuff

I don't know about you, OBG 57.

 

[Terri9630]

Even numbered roads almost always go E-W and odd numbered ones N-S,I could go on but you guys know all my stuff

That's opposite here. Even rds go north and south and odds are east west.

 

[OBG 57]

That's opposite here. Even rds go north and south and odds are east west.

I'll have to look at a map

 

[Peanut]

That's opposite here. Even rds go north and south and odds are east west.

I beg to differ... I-10 and I-40 go east and west across your state... even numbers. I-25 goes N to S... odd number. US highway 285 crosses your state N to S... odd number. US highway 60 crosses your state E to W. Granted, there are places in all states where an even numbered road may go northish/southish for 50 or a 100 miles... same for odd numbered roads. But @OBG 57 is right... even number roads are east/west, Odd numbered roads are north/south.

There is a place in my state where I-20 and I-59 are the same interstate for more than 100 miles... then I-20 goes straight west and I-59 turns more southerly.

 

[TMT Tactical]

I beg to differ... I-10 and I-40 go east and west across your state... even numbers. I-25 goes N to S... odd number. US highway 285 crosses your state N to S... odd number. US highway 60 crosses your state E to W. Granted. there are places in all states where an even numbered road may go northish/southish for 50 or a 100 miles... same for odd numbered roads. But @OBG 57 is right... even number roads are east/west, Odd numbered roads are north/south.

Peanut and OBG57 are corrects. It is the starting and ending point that determines the numbering. Start in the east and end in the west is even number, no matter how many miles it runs north -south. Start and ending points.

 

[Terri9630]

The highway yes but we were talking city streets. Our city streets are the opposite. And actually, now that I'm awake all our numbered streets even and odd run both ways. We have 1-7 running east west and 8-13 running north south. All our tree streets run east-west and all our mineral streets run north-south though.

 

[The Lazy L]

Was in North Carolina once. This was before GPS. Car Rental agency gave me one of their bare bones area maps to my hotel. I find the right road and then "poof" I'm on the wrong road. Took me awhile to figure out that at almost every intersection the roads were renamed! Who's bright idea was that!?!?

 

[Patchouli]

Was in North Carolina once. This was before GPS. Car Rental agency gave me one of their bare bones area maps to my hotel. I find the right road and then "poof" I'm on the wrong road. Took me awhile to figure out that at almost every intersection the roads were renamed! Who's bright idea was that!?!?

They do it all the time and I do not like it!

 

[Spikedriver]

Was in North Carolina once. This was before GPS. Car Rental agency gave me one of their bare bones area maps to my hotel. I find the right road and then "poof" I'm on the wrong road. Took me awhile to figure out that at almost every intersection the roads were renamed! Who's bright idea was that!?!?

There's a spot in Kansas City like that. My old college buddy lived on a street that changed names 3 times in 3 blocks. The changes were not marked, either. I was an hour and a half late to his place because I just couldn't find it. This was in the mid 90s before everybody had a cell phone, and I felt like an idiot when I called him for directions from a pay phone, and he laughed at me...

I'm not naturally good with directions. Iowa has very little wild land and even rural roads are in a grid pattern. I'm country enough to use the sun if I have to, though...

 

[Bacpacker]

I have never gotten disoriented except in Louisville KY. Every other city , forest, desert or mountain range I have been able to stay oriented. Maybe their magnetic waves are out of focus, don't know, don't care, don't plan to go back there.

TMT, I lived there for 2 years in the mid 80's. Couldn't wait to leave. I'm not sure about the magnetic waves, but something was sure wrong. Since then, I've only had to pass thru there 2-3 times. Made that as short as possible.
One thing came back while thinking about being up there and direction finding. We lived in an apartment outside of downtown. Every weekend that we could, we'd take off out in the country on a road trip looking for areas to hike in, fish, or camp. Doing this multiple times over 2 years, we kept running into a problem I never had in Tennessee. Around here on most any road you can take and come out somewhere on some road. It really don't matter how small the road is, dirt, or paved. It never failed up in Ky to take off down a paved 2 lane road in the country and end up on a dead end at someones house. The maps rarely ever showed that the road ended. People always sitting on the front porch watching us turn around and head back out. Bet they saw that all the time.

 

[Peanut]

Chicago has an oddity that wasted 3 hours of my life. Say you’re on shoreline drive at lake Michigan and turn onto 10th street going west. Each block you pass has a block number… 100 block, 200 block, 500 block, 1500 block, an address on that block might 1501 E 10th street.

This is where it gets tricky, there are two 1500 blocks on 10th street. For example you get to the 1900 block on 10th street, the next one will be the 2000 block on 10th, the next one will the 1900 block on 10th.

Even though the street signs don’t say it there is actually an East 10th and a West 10th street. But if you look at a door at a business or residence the address will read… say 1901 E 10th or 1901 W 10th.

The block numbers on a street count up to some randomly determined number then start counting back down.

I was confused for 3 hours one morning looking for business on a vacant lot! Until I figured out there were 2 blocks on that street with the same number. They were separated by 9 miles.

 

[Terri9630]

Chicago has an oddity that wasted 3 hours of my life. Say you’re a lake Michigan and turn onto 10th street going west. Each block you pass has a block number… 100 block, 500 block, 1500 block, an address on that block might 1501 E 10th street.

This is where it gets tricky, there are two 1500 blocks on 10th street. For example you get to the 1900 block on 10th street, the next one will be the 2000 block on 10th, the next one will the 1900 block on 10th.

Even though the street signs don’t say it there is actually an East 10th and a West 10th street. But if you look at a door at a business or residence the address will read… say 1901 E 10th or 1901 W 10th.

The block numbers on a street count up to some randomly determined number then start counting back down.

I was confused for 3 hours one morning looking for business on a vacant lot! Until I figured out there were 2 blocks on that street with the same number.

The street I live on is like that except there are huge gaps in the numbers. Three houses next to each other, or as next to each other as 2 acre lots will let them be, and you get 120 then next door is 248 then the next place is 354. It really confuses people since there is one street sign where you turn off the pavement and no cross streets where east might separate from west.

 

[Amish Heart]

Our street is one acre lots, and we have the same thing. Very confusing.