Blind Faith

I was on my way to see a new client yesterday, their address plugged into my faithful GPS system. My first clue that something was wrong should have been when I turned off the pavement and onto a dirt road. But no, I kept going. After 20 minutes of bouncing along the washboard texture I was deep into the uninhabited desert. Did I turn around? Oh no! My GPS seemed too sure of itself! That's when I hit the deep ruts gouged out of the road from the rain. A brief glimmer of reason flashed when I stopped, pulled out my phone and called my client. I left her a message, let her know that I MIGHT be lost in the desert and left my last known coordinates in case they needed to launch a rescue operation. Still I kept going, ignoring the small bit of reason telling me that no one could possibly live out here. Of course, that small bit was shaken loose by the deep ruts my little non-4 wheel drive vehicle was bravely navigating, which is the only explanation for what I did next. I got to the top of a hill, looked down, and saw that the bottom was a soft sand pit. I could see myself getting stuck in the and if I didn't go fast enough, which is why, instead of turning around, I hit the gas and flew down the hill and across the sand. Past the sand trap I noticed that I had less than a quarter of a tank of gas. I kept going until I got to a point of the road with a large trench dug out. A few feet ahead was a large compound surrounded by a 20 foot log barricade and dotted with signs warning trespassers of dire endings. Still I kept going, around the trench and past the fortress; down several more rutted roads until my GPS declared that I had arrived. There was no house, no trailer, no shack.

Only cacti.

About the time I was getting back to the sand trap, my client called me and assured me that she did not live in a cactus, or an underground bunker, or next to the Mexican Militia. All ended well as her husband guided me back to civilization with a flare and batman signal. I'd like to say I learned some profound lesson about trusting common sense over technology, but really, I've just learned that I should update my GPS more than every 3 years; and next time I want to go off-roading in the desert I'll take my husband's Jeep instead of my little Caliber.