Lost in Camden

Remember way back in 2006 when we moved to New Jersey? To put it mildly, traffic patterns are a little different there. New Jersey was my first experience with traffic circles, jug handles and roads where you could not turn left. Those of you who know… you know.

So I had this running joke that every time I left our apartment I would end up “Lost in Camden.” For those of you not having been lucky enough in your life to live in the honestly awesome state of New Jersey, Camden is a pretty rough town. It had the highest per capita murder rate for a years. It is not a place you want to stop and ask for directions. The thing is, a few early drives in a row I honestly did get turned around and lost in Camden. Scary times. Later on we got a Garmen, I got to know the roads and even volunteered at a Camden grade school. I got to know the city a little better when one of its long term residents took me for a driving tour and shared some info about local politics.

And then we moved. And then we moved again. Then a little while in a different state. Now we are in Africa.

And today in my first solo drive in our new car.…. cute huh? In case you were wondering about the lush vegetation, this isn't really a photo of our car, just to same make/model/color from the internet. I'm not getting lazy I'm getting more efficient. : ) It's a pretty good car. Much smaller than it looks in the photo. It isn't any longer than my Protege and drives like my old Tercel. Zippy!

So today I went for my first solo drive. It was a big deal because they drive on the left side of the street here so the steering wheel is on the right and everything is reversed. And wouldn't you know it ... I got lost in Camden.

Seriously! I don’t know how the entire town was transported to Botswana but it was like my car had a magnet pointed toward the crummy part of town and every turn just took me further in. It was pretty neat to see more of Gabs though. Another plus, I didn’t hit any goats. We came close a few times but no goats died in the inspiration for this blog entry.

So eventually I found a familiar road and got home. Alls well. Still, I am REALLY REALLY looking forward to when the box with our Garmen gets here. Then Lance and I will pick up the Bots/South Africa chip and I will be free to get lost in some other country. I bet there are Camdens all over Africa just waiting to be discovered. And don't even get me started on the traffic jams when the stoplights don't work.