Something happened to me today that hadn't happened in a while: a driver stopped on the street to ask me for directions. As a frequent walker, this used to happen all the time. Either I've become less approachable as I've aged, or GPS systems have reduced the number of lost people.
The strangest directions I've been asked for was when I was walking to class in Waterloo, and someone asked how to get to Toronto. I was trying to think of a polite way to say, you've got to be kidding, when it occurred to me that it was easy: I told him to turn right at King Street, then turn when you get to the 401. Then I walked away before he realized that I was directing him through both Kitchener and Waterloo. But hey, you asks for directions, you takes your chances.
Another time an American stopped me at a gas station (fittingly, it was near that 401 interchange that I had directed the other guy to.) He asked how to get to the border. I asked which border, Detroit or Buffalo? That should have been his first hint that he was in over his head, and he should just go back into the gas station and buy a map. Which is also what I should have told him: I'm not trying to avoid helping you, but I guarantee that in about an hour, you're going to wish you had paid five bucks for a map.
The weird part is that during our mangled discussion of how to get to Buffalo, he kept asking, "Is this the 401?" I continually assured him that it was. When he seemed to understand enough to get on his way, he hit the road - up King Street and back into Kitchener. It then hit me: when he was asking if "this" is the 401, meant the street the gas station was on, not the superhighway just down the road. Now he was going to drive through Kitchener and Waterloo, looking for a highway that would take him to Niagara Falls, and getting even more lost. So somewhere in Buffalo there's a guy with a poor sense of direction and hostility towards Canadians.
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