“Just follow me,” it is a phrase we say all the time to people who are confused about what roads to take. It especially irks me when someone says just follow me and they take you the most obscure way where even your GPS becomes confused. I just started my new internship on a campaign in Providence, Rhode Island and was planning a short weekend trip right after my internship to visit my friend for her birthday in Middletown, Connecticut. I began asking around at my internship if anyone knew of a better way to get to Middletown besides going all the way around on highway 95. One other intern at my internship, I actually still have no idea what his name is, said to just go west. When I began to seem hesitant, he said those three words, “I’m going to near there, just follow me.” I figured I could trust this intern enough to get me near where I wanted to go since his hometown was less than 15 minutes from my friend’s house.
We began our journey at 3 p.m. leaving Olneyville, an area of Rhode Island I am already not familiar with, my little white Honda behind his black Jetta navigating through Johnston, into Scituate and Foster. The drive was filled with a long stretch of single-lane roads with the only view of the December month’s dead trees on either side of my car. I honestly had no idea where we were but figured I’d just keep following him. The straight road turned into a highway, which turned into an exit to another highway with an exit to another road with a back road then back on another highway to a route. I was utterly confused. What way was he taking us?
I tried putting my cell phone GPS on but my phone was just as lost as I assumed we were. We passed by a ‘Middletown’ exit but kept going. This confused me even more. Was I supposed to get off at that exit? He told me his exit was a few before my friend’s but wasn’t that her exit? Finally after driving on a strange looking highway for almost another 15 miles he got off an exit, which is where our journey together ended. I knew that I was still nowhere near my friend’s house, even though he was basically home. I looked to my clock and it was now well after 5 in the evening. This certainly did not seem like an “easier” way to go since it seemed to be taking much longer. I finally got my GPS to work and found her house was about 15 minutes away but had a two-highway travel.
As I pulled into her driveway to pick her up at almost 5:45 at night, which was when I decided to never let anyone convince me to just follow him or her. Sometimes going the way you know might be longer, but at least you know exactly where you are. In this case, I thought going out of the way by going through all of Rhode Island and then back up through Connecticut, there had to be an easier way, but as I went just west, I realized there was no easy way to get to middle Connecticut. You just have to suck it up and enjoy the long ride.
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