Low Tech help..or how I got home without a GPS

My saga began after an evening shift ending somwhere around midnight.  It was a Sunday night like all others except I suddenly found myself lost in Seattle.   In a span of a few minutes it seemed I went from comfortably toodling along in my car a very short distance from home to facing an uncertain future in alien territory.   The experience might have made an interesting Twilight Zone episode in retrospect.  The lifeline to West Seattle from I-5 is the west seattle bridge and occasionaly the on ramp is closed which it was that night.  In those instances, I normally pass the exit , keep heading south to the next off ramp and work my way back.   But I just had to try something new.    Before I knew it I was driving through industrial south seattle where every road had barriers and detours.  I hadn't realized how much of south and west Seattle is awash in road construction



Every possible route home foiled!!!



In my younger years, I would easily get lost as my sons can testify to. They no doubt remember frantic searches for the right road while sitting in the back seat with their mom at the wheel...  But I'm pretty confident in my older years having navigated successfully to many places over the decades.  I did learn from experience.  So I wasn't too worried (just slightly) that I was in this unfamiliar area in the dark and that every hopeful road to rescue told me to go elsewhere.





Prospects for getting home turned grim.  I was getting nowhere fast. Passing scenes like this gave me the eerie feeling that I was in an alternate universe - no people just concrete and steel.  This was the mood I was beginning to succumb to as the clock was ticking and I was farther and farther from my comfy bed.  I had completely lost track of location.  I didn't know my east from my west and I really needed to head west. 

Then I remembered I had a compass.  When I hiked with the Mountaineers you had to carry the 10 essentials.  This is the one essential that I thankfully still carried in my car.  I probably would have made it home without this low tech device (which appeared a beautiful vision in that dark night)

Brunton compass made in USA

but by pointing the magnetic needle north, my shiny yellow compass told me I was heading east. This knowledge saved me endless frustration.  I still had to use my wits (which were pretty frazzled by this time) to find my way home through every obstacle known to road crews.   And then once on my own familiar roads, the world turned back to its normal friendly feeling.  And yellow is now my favorite color.