Ward Words

Last week I went to a conference in Pasadena, California for a project that I am working on. I was flying into the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, picking up a car, and driving to my hotel. Being unfamiliar with the area, I of course turn to Google Maps. This was despite the unreliability in Ireland (I let it slide since it was a foreign country) and the issue of telling me the county tax building here was several miles down the freeway from where it really is. Well Google Maps, I am done with you.

Check out Exhibit A:

First notice the line marked with a "1." This is where Google told me to turn left on I-5. This would have taken me to Sacramento, and later Seattle. Already a bit leery of Google's reliability, and because the road sign said "Pasadena - right," I turned right.

Now notice the area marked with a "2." I arrived in Pasadena last Monday night, the night of the NCAA men's basketball championship, with about 10 minutes to play in the second half. "Yay!" my brain said to my self, "You can catch the end of the game!" Well, Mario Chalmers hit the tying 3 while I was parked on the side of the road trying to figure out where to go from my Hertz map. You see, even though I typed "Pasadena" into the search box, I was given an address in Alhambra. The address was some dude's house in a residential neighborhood. I finally made it to the hotel more than an hour later than I expected. Below you can see where the hotel really is. Point A is Bob Hope Airport. Point B is Joe Schmoe's house in Alhambra. Point C is my hotel. And it really is in Pasadena! Fancy that.

To be fair, Google does state that the maps are "for planning," (see highlighted box in Exhibit A) but I had actually used them quite often for maps with no problems. Now, I'm done.