Red Dawn Over Baltimore

There was an absolute gorgeous dawn in Baltimore today. I had an overnight run to Richmond and caught the dawn on the way back.


I really need to start taking my camera with me, but then I have been saying that for thirty years of travelling.

I often wonder how many people actually take the time to watch the sun rise, or the sun set. For me it never gets old, but i wonder if for others it does or not. So often we are hurrying to go from one place to another, I have to believe we don't see anything. With all the gadgets which are supposed to make our lives easier, I think our lives are more stressful than ever.

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Take a Global Positioning System (GPS) for example. Now you may recall a few years ago i wrote about my first experience with a GPS and how the lady in the box got mad at me because she wanted me to turn left and I couldn't go down that road with my truck because of a low bridge. I swore I would stick with my old-fashioned maps. Well I admit I have caved in, and have been using a GPS.And because of this I have lost all sense of direction.

There was a time when I could find my way into or out of anywhere. I knew shortcuts, street names, landmarks, etc. In fact you could blindfold me and put me anywhere in the New England area and I could probably tell you where I was and I could certainly find my way home. The GPS destroys that. We are so intent on listening to the lady in the box that we only pay attention to her and no longer know where we are. We can no longer distinguish between neighborhoods or even towns. We are so intent on looking at the little screen we miss what is around us.

And with the advent of the GPS, there has been a decrease in common sense. People will follow the directions given no matter what, they will go the wrong way down a one way street, will head down cart paths with very large vehicles, get stuck places they never should have gone. For example, a couple of winters ago, when I was still towing cars we received a call for someone who was stuck in the woods behind the town dump. Sorry, we can no longer call it the town dump it is the sanitary landfill and recycling center, even though people still go there to dump their stuff. When we arrived, there was a large box truck about a mile down a small cart-path, which was snow and ice covered. One would thin after 500 feet or so the driver might have said, maybe this isn't a good ides, but no, he soldiered on and became stuck. Why? Because the GPS said it was a road so damn it it must be a road.

By now you are wondering what is the point, and how is the red dawn over Baltimore related to a GPS. It's simple. Don't blindly follow others, think for yourself and take the time to notice what is around you. Otherwise, you just might hit that low bridge, believe me, that isn't any fun.