A Generational Observation

I had the pleasure of helping my oldest son move his household across the United States, from western Washington to western Massachusetts. We covered about 3,000 miles in six days. The first two days were hard: getting a 27 foot truck with an attached loaded car trailer over mountain passes it not a lot of fun at 30 miles per hour. Once we got onto the flat of South Dakota and points east, daily average speed doubled and we had one main responsibility: keeping our rig between the lane lines.

My son had never been on a long road trip before. He had once before moved his family from Washington State to California and back. But that took only a day or so each way.

This trip was different. It was long, very long. My son invited me to join him several months after I had volunteered to help drive when he accepted the new position in February. He set the agenda: six days of driving, one day to unload the truck (the crew already hired at the other end), one day to take me to Logan Airport and pick up his wife and my grandkid.

The trip was pretty much uneventful. We avoided getting trapped by pulling into parking that would be next to impossible to drive out without taking the car off the trailer and the trailer off the truck to turn things around.

We learned how to scout for entrances, exits, diesel pumps, motel parking, and truck stops. We even got to learn how to perform a DPF regeneration procedure on the truck 40 miles east of Sioux Falls.

I brought a book of current road maps. I got an edition that included approximate locations of rest stops for freeways and service areas for turnpikes. My son brought his iPhone 5 with Google Maps. There was a striking difference in our use and experience of both media.

I could tell him where the rest stops were on the trip. I could also tell him what freeways to take and when. He could guide us from motel to motel using the app. Plug in the next address and push play. Google Maps also gave some indication of road maintenance work ahead.

Sometimes my information would be just as accurate as Google Maps but more direct in instructions, less confusing. I came close to really trusting Google Maps.

But then came the last 40 miles…

My instincts and experience let me read the maps best route as going from New York to Massachusetts via I 90 and then turning left to Pittsfield and heading up Route 7.

Google Maps, and the route we followed, had us getting off I 90 at Albany, going through Troy along Route 2 over to Route 7. I was copilot at that point so my son was in control. The 27 foot truck with the attached trailer navigated the unfamiliar streets of Troy NY with its stop lights on hills. We also covered the rest of the 30 or so miles climbing and descending the narrow two lane road with 7 and 10% grades at about 40 miles per hour at best.

It was not pleasant. No shoulder. Long drops. A lumpy, bumpy road. Hills and valleys. Pretty country, but a heck of a lot prettier when in a car, not said moving rig.

So, what are the lessons here?

Google Maps is great for a lot of micromanaged driving.

But the big lesson is that Google Maps is a great app provided you are not in a 27 foot truck dragging a car trailer. It is capable of finding the shortest route, but not necessarily the easiest route. (Perhaps that is a sign of the times: shortest, not best.) It also is not capable of listing rest stops and service areas. It would also be interesting to list gasoline and diesel prices at service areas.

The book of maps was very good on a gross scale. Sometimes it took a bit of hard looking to decipher the best route. It was also useless in the dark.

I believed in old technology. My son believed in new. I think we learned that there is a place for both.