"Warning - Entering Unmarked Map Area"

We took a road trip to visit family and dear friends over the Canadian Thanksgiving holiday in October. It was really exciting, not only to go visit and spend time with our loved ones, but also because we got to drive our brand new SUV ("Henry")inland through the Rocky Mountains. What a gorgeous drive, made all the more enjoyable in our new vehicle.

"Henry" performed admirably in all respects but one: a expensive built-in-dash navigation system does NOT take the worry (or arguments!) out of finding your way around in unfamiliar places.

Even with up-to-date software loaded into the "nav" system, we regularly found the computerized female voice intoning: "Warning - entering unmarked map area - proceed with caution." In other words, the nav system didn't have a frigging clue where we were, or how to direct us to the destination we had programmed in! We'd look at the nav screen display to see our vehicle, represented by a disembodied arrow, floating in unmapped space - even as we travelled down a major six lane highway. Alternatively, the nav system would direct us to make illegal U-turns, or tell us we had arrived at our destination while we were still blocks away.

It was really frustrating, and caused us far more angst and irritated verbal exchanges than any low-tech map reading and navigating we have done in the past! We were especially infuriated (for different reasons, mind you) by the learning curve involved in finding out what nav functions are actually disabled while the car is in "drive." This is for safety reasons, of course. The car doesn't have any way of knowing it is actually the passenger doing the programming and allowing the driver to stay focused on the road. The manufacturers had to assume they would need to keep drivers from attempting to program the nav system while underway, so ensured you would need to be pulled over to do more complicated functions.

Until we figured this aspect out, there were some nasty words uttered while I figured the nav system was utter crap for not accepting my inputs, and John figured I was utterly stupid for not being able to punch the right stuff in!

But what has stuck with me since that trip was the warning about "entering unmarked map area" and needing to use caution. Right now, my life (especially my business/career) feels much like that disembodied arrow floating on the nav screen. Essentially I am in uncharted midlife territory, daily trying to figure out how to move forward to an as-yet unknown ultimate destination.

Like that drive through the Rockies, I want a beautiful, exhilarating, but safe trip (it's okay to include some some bumps and surprises) that ends in the arms of loved ones.

Todo bien. (It's all good.)