Daddy and his Android!

"Navigate to Philadelphia" The command escaped from Ted’s mouth into his new Verizon Droid phone with Google application. We had all piled into the rental car at our house in Erwinna, me with the kids in the back, Billy 9years old and his older sister Sarah, 13. Their mom Kate sat in the front next to the "navigator". The car turned right on headquarters road and then the ever so pleasant female voice instructed us to turn left in 1 quarter mile. I thought it strange but then maybe I misheard the command. "Turn left now" the phone instructed. Ted took a sharp left almost missing the turn, but avoiding the car from ending up in the ditch. We were now on Tinicum Creek Road headed towards River Road. “We are going the wrong way” I exclaimed, only to be interrupted by Ted, stating the droid is NEVER wrong and to TRUST the droid. It became instantly clear to me not to get between a man and his new toy! I also realized that we were heading southeast when we should have been heading southwest. I only knew that, because I was frantically texting David giving him updates, and asking him where the hell we were heading. I am completely void of any sense of direction, perhaps Droid would not be a bad thing for me. We eventually traversed our way onto I 95 and headed South towards the city. I felt a sense of relief knowing we were on a major freeway and droid or no droid we would end up in Philadelphia. I must admit, that we did get to the city in about the same time it would have taken had we driven the way I would have. And the drive seemed more pleasant. So I gave kudos to the droid.




After parking the car, bathroom break and a quick snack for the kids at Burger King it was off to the Liberty Bell with the help of Droid, even though it was only 3 blocks away! Our next destination involved finding one of the Gastro Pubs I had read about in Bon Appétit. After checking distances from our location on all three listings with Droid we decided on the closest one. "Navigate to South Philadelphia Tap room”, I heard Ted say. It’s only 2 miles from here, a 30 minute walk. Off we went, I figured since this gadget got us to the city, this should be a breeze. As we strolled through the streets, the droid was passed onto Hannah who after a few blocks, got frustrated with it, since it seemed to tell us to go a certain direction we somehow did not want to go. She handed it to me, to which I had a similar reaction, since it kept telling me to make a u turn every few blocks. Captain Ted reassumed the position at the helm of the ship, and every now and then I would hear him repeat the command “navigate to South Philadelphia Tap Room”. “Only a few more blocks” he would declare. I began to fear for our lives as the neighborhood became less desirable to be in. One block would be dotted with cute old homes with colorful shutters and the next block was peppered with adult clothing stores, then nothing, just cheap housing and suspect characters roaming the streets. At this point we had walked well over an hour, but Ted stuck to his guns and according to his calculations we were only 2 blocks away. It wasn’t until 15 minutes later we discovered he had turned the Droid off, which sent me into a silent nervous breakdown. Beads of sweat were forming and rolling down my back, we were all going to die, I believed! I was convinced of this, since we were nearing the neighborhood of row houses that I had driven through months ago, and realized after noticing burnt out houses, drug dealers and prostitutes I did not belong there! The city skyline, was a mere mirage as I looked back for an escape route, in case knives and guns were drawn. The food better be worth it, I thought to myself as I clung to Billy's hand, who I could always pawn if needed to in an emergency. Another 30 minutes had passed, when we finally crossed 611 and I noticed that the city skyline was once again within reach. What had just happened? How did we walk so far out of the way, when we could have gone in a straight line and cut the journey in half? Turns out Droid needed some human intervention, when navigating with Droid one must specify driving or walking! We were walking the driving directions, with all the one way streets one would have navigated in a car, we just walked a giant circle to get to our destination. Ah well no harm done, we got to see many aspects of the city, and burned calories we were soon to digest at the Gastro Pub!



Oh yeah, I changed Tom, Karen, Dylan and Hannah’s names to protect their identity!








http://www.bonappetit.com/magazine/2009/07/philadelphia