Plague Diary: In Which I Have No Cardinal Direction

[lydy]

I just want to say that the sheer number of people who have helpfully informed me that if I wish to see Lake Erie all I need to do is drive north is adorable.  The idea that I, Lydia Nickerson, could somehow use that as information that would help me choose a direction in which to point my vehicle points to a touching faith in my ability to, I dunno, read a map, maybe?  I have literally no idea what direction North is from here.  I have a vague feeling that Minneapolis is West of here and NYC is East of here, but I honestly would not want to bet money on it.

Comments

[dreamshark]

Oh yes, that business about "turn North and drive for 2 miles" is 100% Midwest. Being from the East Coast myself I was baffled by that when I first moved to Minnesota. Admittedly, it does work pretty well in Minneapolis, where the streets are mostly in a grid pattern. But cross the river into St. Paul and all bets are off.

But once I started making regular drives across the western prairie to visit Richard's family it all made sense. That was also when I made the astonishing discovery that on the prairie you can not only tell the direction by the sun, you can SEE THE WEATHER that is going on at all the cardinal points. Not just "Oh, it might rain later," but "Oh nuts, it's raining in Wilmar. Hope it stops by the time we get there."

[bibliofile]

Also, I come from Chicago, which is also full of grid streets. On almost any street you always have a 25% chance of heading due north.

Of course, in Chicago, instead of "drive east" I would just point in the appropriate direction. That method doesn't work so well online.