Getting Lost

As great as Gmaps is, it does have one siginificant drawback: it doesn't know everything.

For example, it doesn't know that some streets have different names depending on where you are. So when you're walking around Lake Calhoun and are looking for Lake Harriet Parkway so you can hop over to that lake and complete the 7-mile loop you carefully planned out for yourself, you end up missing it completely. Because the street is not called Lake Harriet Parkway at that point. It's called William Berry Parkway. Naturally. So instead, you end up walking around Lake of the Isles, because fortunately you've found and used the secret canal under the bridge connecting those two lakes before (not labelled on gmaps, incidentally).

It also doesn't know whether a lake is completely walk-around-able. (There's gotta be a better word for that, but it's eluding me). So, even though I had a nagging feeling that there's a reason I never ran all the way around Cedar Lake back when I was running, I still set out in that direction. I walked around part of it, and then the walking path just stopped. I'm pretty sure that what I ended up on was the Cedar Lake Bike Trail. Oops.

I decided that the sensible thing to do, since I had no way to track the miles I'd walked, would be to walk out about an hour and then turn around and follow the same path home. (A 3mph pace - fairly conservative for me since I'm generally a fast walker - would give me 6 miles roundtrip).

It was a genius plan, and as I began walking back, I congratulated myself smugly until I noticed a house I hadn't seen on the way out.

'Huh. That's odd,' I thought.
'Must've zoned out,' I concluded.

Till I saw a street I was sure I hadn't crossed before. I stopped, scratched my head, shrugged, and decided to turn.

Even now, looking at a map, I'm not sure how I ended up back at the Lake of the Isles. I wandered through neighborhoods, counting on my very vague inner compass to tell me which way to turn. I sometimes went down streets that curved back in on themselves, but I'm pretty sure I never went in the "wrong" direction. (Hey, that's a feat for me). I don't know how far out of my way I went, but at least I got my 6 miles in!

Aside: The weather people had been promising rain for that day, and it was so muggy out that I wished it would. I wore a baseball hat, and the hat/humidity combo did lovely things for my hair.

See?