Getting Lost

Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, I often heard people say that the best way to learn the city (because in the Bay Area, San Francisco is “the city”), was to get yourself lost in it.  Since the main part of San Francisco is only seven by seven square miles (within the city limits) and is packed with great restaurants, interesting (though sometimes questionable) things to see, a variety of events to attend, and parks large and small to hang out in, it isn't hard to find something to interest you, no matter how lost you are or how little money you have. 

When I moved to the DC Metro Area, I knew that it would be different from San Francisco.  At over sixty square miles, it had to be.  I felt secure in the fact that there are a variety of guides to Washington DC and some of the bigger cities that surround it (Arlington and Alexandria in Virginia, Bethesda in Maryland, etc).  You can find a map of DC and the immediate surrounding area virtually anywhere.  But I found that once you get about twenty miles (if even that) outside of the District, it is a lot harder to learn your way around.  Since DC tourism doesn’t usually extend out this far (at least, not here in the suburbs), there aren’t many updated guides or useful maps, unless you want the whole county.

I’ve lived in Sterling, VA, for a few months now and, although I still feel that getting lost is a great way to learn a place, I also recognize that this particular area is too big and the routes look very similar (and are pretty meandering and long) to not, at least, have a rough idea of where you’re going, if you ever want to actually get there instead of ending in the Potomac River or West Virginia.

I also discovered that my first instinct, to get maps despite having a Garmin, was right.  If you rely solely on your GPS in this area, you will eventually fall victim to what I like to call, “Garmangles.”   DC Garmangles are parts of the Metro Area that the GPS just can’t figure out, despite frequent map updates.  There is a part of Interstate 495 that makes my brother’s Garmin go haywire (this experience is where the Bermuda Triangle connection was originally made).  And I have had my GPS take me to a housing development instead of a nursery and then, when I tried to get to the second nursery on my list, it led me half a mile out of my way for no apparent reason.  Although in that instance, I should have known to just follow the freeway till I saw it, since I’d driven by that particular nursery several times before.  I really wanted to trust my GPS. 

During my time here, I have been lucky enough to be given a few useful tools for navigating the area, including a heads up on great apps for my phone to help me get around.  Having a place to share all these tools and various lessons learned has helped me become a little more adventurous.  I am looking forward to sharing all of these things with you and begging all of my new DC friends and acquaintances to divulge their secrets to surviving DC.

If you’re new here, or if you just want to explore more of the area, I do still recommend getting lost.  But bring a map so you can find your way back and don’t be afraid to download more apps than you can shake a stick at to navigate the area.  No one will blame you.