This weekend we went to Springfield, IL for a wedding. My wife took me to work and then picked me up at lunch to leave so we would not have to leave a car somewhere and so I didn’t have to drive back home since work is on the way.

She forgot to get the GPS out of her car.

Now I’ve probably driven I-74 between Indianapolis and Springfield at least 25 times in the past year, but it was just strange without my GPS. Someone called and asked what time we would be there. I had no clue. I usually can say and be correct within a minute. Yet again, I had grown accustomed to the technology.

On the way home yesterday, things got really interesting. Instead of our usual stop at the McDonalds on Neil St. in Champaign, my wife decides she wants to try Taco Bell’s value menu. That’s fine I tell her, but I have no clue where a Taco Bell is in Champaign, or how to get to it.

We decide to exit on Neil St. anyways since there are several restaurants in the area. When we exit we see there is indeed no Taco Bell. So I use the only technology at hand and give GOOG-411 a call. Top search result for Taco Bell in Champaign? SOUTH NEIL STREET. Success! I go ahead and call and ask “How far from I-74 are you on Neil St.?” The guy responds “Uhhhhhhhhhhh…………. Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh…….. about a half a mile.” Perfect. So we head down Neil St.

My first indication that I should not have listened to this fine gentlemen was when I noticed we were on the 800 block of North Neil St., and GOOG-411 said it was somewhere on South Neil St. Of course, the Taco Bell ends up being 2.75 MILES from I-74. Obviously this guy has no sense of distance.

So in the end we get our Taco Bell and all is good. We drove an unnecessary 3.5 miles and wasted about 10 extra minutes in our efforts to find a Taco Bell with no GPS or iPhone.

But man, that Crunchwrap Supreme sure hit the spot.