The Most Eventful Drive From The Gold Coast.
In my head, the definition of a road trip is a long journey consisting of many hours and multiple stops.
This story does not fit that description; however, it is a story of a trip by road of a couple of hours.
I drove to the Gold Coast for a day trip to see my sister yesterday. Usually, it’s an easy 2hr drive along a major highway and no issues.
I am not quite at the point where it’s autopilot, but I generally know my way around.
So anyway, on the return journey, I left later than I had intended, and it was already 9:30 pm.
This past week I have been without data on my phone after I used it all up, which meant that I didn’t have GPS.
About halfway through my trip, I realised that I had missed the exit to my hometown. I was on my way to Brisbane and adding at least 15–20min onto the journey (that will teach me for not paying attention).
Thankfully, knowing a little of the area, I took the next exit and wound my way through the streets, only needing to stop for some roadworks.
‘Great, I will still be home before midnight, I thought.
The rest of the trip was smooth sailing until about 40km from home.
The highway was closed, and I would have to turn around and go a back way.
Not my idea of fun driving the back roads without a GPS at nearly midnight. Turning around, I tried to follow the car in front of me, but they pulled off shortly after (presumably to plug in the GPS details), and I didn’t want to seem like a weirdo stopping behind them.
The police officers’ directions sounded simple enough, do a U-turn, then turn right, which will take me around the back of one of the country towns to get back onto the highway.
Ten years ago, I did a nursing practical in the region, so I recognised some little towns but wasn’t familiar with the roads. After driving about 20–30min through quiet country roads, I eventually made it back on the highway. By this point, I was beyond tired, and if someone had been with me in the car, I would have readily swapped spots.
It was only as I got back onto the main highway that I realised that I had, in fact, unknowingly backtracked and was further away from home, not closer!
Time was ticking away, and it had been an enormous day. I just wanted my bed.
Again I came across the roadblock and did another u-turn. This time, driving slightly further down the road before turning right.
Given that by this point, it was after midnight, very few people were on the roads, and I had to follow the road- praying that it was the right one and would lead me to the town I was trying to get to.
Surprisingly, it did (I did think for a while that I was going around in circles)
Once I found my bearings and drove through yet another sleeping town, I could get back onto the main highway.
After multiple detours, what should have been a 2hr drive turned into a 3.5–4hr trip, and it was nearly 1 am before I pulled into the driveway.
There are many things that I can take away from yesterday, but it has highlighted how readily I rely on things like GoogleMaps as a safety blanket to get me from point A to point B.
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