Last week Kevin and I were driving to see the Springsteen Concert at the Citizen's Bank Arena in Philly. While on 95 we passed a sign that reminded us of a funny memory from over 30+ years ago. Looking forward to a nice, relaxing island vacation, we had tickets in hand to fly out of Philadelphia airport. Kevin's brother was supposed to drive us early that morning but when he didn't show up, we called and found out he had overslept. We were on our own to get there and also park our car. We'd never been there before, but figured, how hard could it be to find this major airport? There had to be signs off of the highway, so we confidently drove off towards Philly. Low and behold, we saw signs for the Northeast Philadelphia airport, and we took the exit thinking how easy the ride was. It certainly didn't take us as long as we thought so we were relieved to arrive. Hm, where is our major airline terminal? This didn't look right. Panic starting setting in as we asked security for help. Yup, we were at the wrong airport. We needed the Philadelphia International Airport not this smaller regional one.
Back in the car we ran, flying down the highway in a panic. The guy had said look for the signs and so that's what we did. Long story short, we parked, ran in and believe it or not, they had held the plane for us. It was an Apple Vacation charter and as soon as we got on board, everyone cheered!! If that doesn't tell you how times are different, that certainly did. Today, not only would the plane not have waited but the passengers would have thrown objects at us when we boarded. Finally, we took off for our fun vacation and learned 2 very important lessons - don't trust driving to anyone but ourselves and make sure you know exactly where you are going before you leave.
Getting back to our drive to see Springsteen, I mentioned to Kevin that I did not miss those days of having to pull out a map or look for signs. Now you just enter your destination, it not only tells you exactly where to go but approximately how long it will take to get there. As he said, "it wasn't so bad, we didn't know any better" and I guess he's right. Even so, I certainly wouldn't want to go back to those "pre-Google map" days.
We really do live in amazing times. In some ways, things are worse (getting through an airport today is a nightmare) but in other ways, things are easier (no more paper maps). I guess we must take the bad and be grateful for the good. I for one, am grateful for Google. In case you were wondering, Springsteen was amazing. If he's still going that strong at 72, there's hope for us older folks yet. Have a great day everyone!!
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