Put down your iPhone and Drive Straight Ahead

Well, it's been a moderate summer but there is an endless supply of things to keep one really busy at a resort.  When something doesn't need a repair, someone has a question, or needs help or is lost.  The "lost" ones always fascinate me.

In today's world, so many are completely addicted to their iPhones and the like that they can't do even the simplest task without them.   In my opinion, that is a really compromised way to be, but nobody's listening to me as they line up for blocks to buy a new iPhone when their old iPhone (which was new last month) was perfectly good from an operational standpoint.  I live in the woods.  I can't figure out the obsession/addiction.  However, I can see what it does to people's ability to think and navigate and it ain't good.

Since iPhones really made their way into the America psyche, we experience at least 20 lost souls per year who, despite having the ability to read our instructions to find us, toss those to the wind and wing it with their smart phones.  This inevitably takes them to Winton MN which is just three miles out of Ely on the way to us and their phone then tells them that they have landed at Red Rock/Northwind Lodge.   They usually end up at Brandau Plumbing in Winton or the driveway of Veteran's on the Lake which is a veteran's retreat.  Then they call us up (because they still have cell coverage) with mild panic and irritation in their voices. It says right in our website how to literally drive your car pebble by pebble in the road to Northwind Lodge/Red Rock but that holds no meaning for many. Knowing this, I instruct them on the phone how to get to us from Winton, Minnesota.  

It goes like this:

Me: Are you ready?


The Lost:  Yes

Me: Take your phone and go outside the car.

The Lost:  OK

Me: With your left hand, place your phone on the ground, approximately 1 foot in front of the driver's side tire on your car.

The Lost:  Errr..OK

Me:  Now get in your car and drive ahead one foot.  Go get a real paper map.

At this point, there is usually laughter from giggles to guffaws OR the occasional snort of derision on the other end.  I then assure them that they are to continue forward on that same road for 12.1 miles and they'll hit our driveway RIGHT across from the Ojibway Lake Public Access.  At times, even this doesn't work and they shoot right past ending up at Lake One, the "default" end of the road.  They then turn around and find us on the way back.

 Many times, they walk in TOTALLY confused as to the fact that our location is wrong in Google or on their Tom-Tom and tell me all about it.  I know.  I've tried for years to change it and I've just given up.  Computers and the internet are not as smart as everyone gives them credit.  In fact, your smart phone is dumber than a bag of hammers, so don't rely on it so heavily.  We're living proof that it can be completely wrong and very unreliable.

Now, I, too, have been lost in big cities and had to re-trace my steps but that was back in the day when we took notes and looked at a map.  Well, actually I still use maps.  Being lost is aggravating and unnerving when you end up in a bad neighborhood, so I understand it well.  The part I don't understand is that the Fernberg road is a dead-end road that terminates at Lake One which is a Boundary Waters Canoe Area entry point.  You can't get lost looking for businesses which are right on this road, right?   There is no where else to go, right?

Sigh...

Here's our website's instructions on how to get to find us:  Click Here  It has worked well this summer with many positive comments.  I prefer "blunt".