Google, GPS, and the True (Almost) Horror Story

I'm not going to badmouth Google, this is totally not what this is about. I love Google. It has made my life easier in so many ways. And they are an amazing company that treats their employees well, from what I have heard anyway. But you must not put all of your faith in the search engine!

Thursday night. I'm on a long stretch of highway, seeing another vehicle maybe every 15 minutes. It's been dark for a couple hours and this part of the country is unfamiliar to me. I had been driving for 6 hours and topping the gas tank every couple hours as towns were evenly spaced.

My Jeep's GPS is amazing. When my phone has no service due to canyons or mountains, my GPS still works without interruption.

I entered the highway with over three-quarters of a gas tank full, confident that there would be a town or gas station within the hour. I get 36 miles per gallon highway which is pretty good for an SUV.

So I'm driving and driving down this lonely stretch of dark highway. Lost phone service for a while. Mile after mile, meeting a set of headlights every twenty miles on average. Watching the gas gauge go down. Down. No lights on the horizon, no lights on the countryside. Mile after mile, no towns, no rest stops, not even a personal dwelling on the horizon.

After probably an hour and a half, I finally see a few dim lights. Gas! Cafe! The peeling old sign a relief as my panel warns me I'm at less than a quarter tank. I see super dim lights ahead and slow down.

The place had been closed for a while by the looks of the weather warped boards nailed to the door and windows.

A scan of the area shows this is the only building in sight.

We get back on the highway and drive. My son says Maps shows a gas station ahead about half an hour, I just have to exit off the highway. The arrow hits the red and my low gas icon glares at me incredulously.

I pray.

The needle dives deeper and deeper into the red to match my growing anxiety level. I tried not to picture every horror film beginning- stranded and out of gas on a dark and lonely highway, civilization hundreds of miles away...

Son, "Ok, soon there will be a road, take a right and we will find a gas station."

I see no lights on the flat, black land. "How far is the gas station after I turn right?"

Son, "12 miles."

Me, "Twelve miles?! I can't go 12 miles, I can't even go 2! I say, as the needle falls below the line. It's past the red, even. We will be running on fumes any second.

I scan the one-foot-wide shoulder, planning how to best park.

The road to a gas station is coming up and I see a semi truck pull away, revealing the best sight I have had all day. Lights! I can make out old-fashioned gas pumps! I pray they work and the place is open.

They do, and it is!

It is illegal to pump your own gas in the state of Oregon. The elderly owner-operators take care of me, and I talk with the wife while her husband bundles up to fill my tank. I thank her profusely for being an oasis in the desert!

She tells me that Google sends everyone around their gas station, as well as the larger town 20 miles up the road.

"I don't know who to talk to at Google about this. So many people get in trouble because of the GPS sending everyone away from civilization. They should know that people are getting hurt."

She pulls out a map and shows me the way GPS skirts all the gas stations, and points the way to go toward my destination- that is actually a shorter journey with more amenities.

I was so scared, and so close, to being stranded in the middle of nowhere.

Embrace your GPS, but also check the route you plan to drive manually so you do not get into a horror story predicament!

Happy Travels Steemitzens! Be safe.