This isn't the first time this has happened, but it doesn't happen often enough that I check to make sure it's leading us along the route I want to go.
Granted, it "usually" gets us to where we're going eventually, just not along the expected path I thought we were going to take to get there.
← The image on the left is the route that I had planned and saved in the GPS last night and expected to take today.
The image on the right → is the route the GPS unknowingly led us down to our destination today? |
Today was one of those times when the GPS really let us down because after I ignored a sign telling me to turn left and travel 14-miles to my destination, I followed my GPS directions to travel another 7-miles down the road I was on before before making my left turn.
You'd think I'd know better and just follow the signs posted along the road. The fact that the sign had me turning onto a gravel road with 14-miles still to go, and the GPS was instructing me to continue for another 7-miles on the nice paved road I was traveling on, MAY have factored into my decision to continue straight.
Anyway, 7-miles down the road where we were supposed to make our turn there were indeed several more signs. One explained that we were about to turn onto a dead end road that apparently entering private property.
Earlier along the road we passed a Nebraska Department of Transportation man on a large tractor mowing the shoulders of the road. I'm sure that as we passed him he chuckled to himself saying "I bet I'll be seeing them again real soon". Then 30-minutes later when we passed him again, going the opposite direction, he probably patted himself on the back for being right.
We eventually got on the right road and found the campground, but our simple 98.5-mile travel day had turned into a 155-mile roundabout way of getting here.
There are only 6 campsites at this First-Come-First-Serve campground and I've read that 3 of them are basically only large enough to park a van or car and tent camp.
While still a ½-mile away we could see there were already a lot more than six cars and campers in the campground. Turns out this is also a trailhead for the hike we intend to do tomorrow and half the cars were to do the hike and not parked in the campsites.
Still there were only two campsites open when we arrived at noon and lucky for us one of the larger ones that we could fit into was still vacant. That's what having good karma will do for you! Even when everything seems to be going wrong, something turns out right.
THURSDAY - It's beginning to look like we may have missed our only chance to hike the trail here by not doing it soon after we arrived.
But the temperatures were in the mid-80°Fs and today they were forecast to be in the lower 60°Fs. The lower temperatures were caused by a front coming through last night and it's been raining all day today.
Toadstools are just another term used to describe goblins or hoodoos and we've definitely seen our fair share of those back in Utah at Goblin Valley State Park and Bryce Canyon National Park, so it's not the end of the world if we don't get to see the toadstools here in Nebraska.
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