Logging road strikes again

As it was said so many times before: you can't fix stupid. They were trying cross forest on logging road with bus-sized vehicle. They knew, they shouldn't but GPS "made them do it". Some say people get smarter with age. Looks like only some people.

What next? If some GPS will show them road to Europe they will try to drive through ocean floor?

They said they should have stopped but "gps made them do it". Well at least they had food and water.

If you haven't experienced a regression in good judgment yet with any of your own aging relatives, consider yourself fortunate. Most people who live long enough begin having increasing problems making good decisions. That's why con artists prey on elderly people with scams like wire me $2500 to claim your lottery prize or bail your nephew out of a Columbian jail. It wouldn't have worked when they were 10 years younger, but it works now.

The adult children of this couple have probably been pushing them to stop traveling with the RV like this, but the couple isn't listening and may even be digging in their heels more, determined to prove their children wrong.

Been there, done that with our parents, aunts, and uncles, not with RV travel, but with other issues.

Should these people even be driving???? Evidently no common sense...

They had cellphone contact, food, and water, and were never in any trouble. They were only a bit adventurous. Can't we old folks have some fun?? OK, so they should have been smarter realizing eminent problems ahead and taking corresponding corrective action.

We all make mistakes now and then. I have certainly made my share, and not all of them since I got old. I am sure this couple will not make that mistake again.

One wonders if this was not a set-up to get some TV exposure. They were on their way to a RV event so I wonder if they did not plan this "stuck in the mud" situation.

I posted my own story along this line last summer, when I let my GPS lead me through The Haunted Forest -- our friends in Morgan Hill give out specific directions to get to their place, and tell folks DO NOT use your GPS!

Yeah, I would have worried a lot less if I'd been in the Jeep Grand Cherokee than in my Mini Cooper (more an issue of ground clearance), but other than picking up dust from a few miles of dirt road, no problems.

I went into that one eyes open, early morning in wonderful weather, keeping track of places to turn around, and ready to back out if I thought things were getting too interesting.

I made it, and I won't do it again, in the Mini at least...

At night, bad weather, that's another deal entirely -- stick to the big roads well traveled!

Mine recently put me and my friends on a "shortcut" in Virginia called "Crabtree Falls Hwgy" which turned out to be a dirt road down a very steep, winding mountain trail. It started out quite wide and nice-looking when we turned (off a "real" paved, 2-laned highway) onto Crabtree Falls Hgwy but then narrowed into a one-lane dirt road that was, thankfully, very smooth-riding.

Didn't see any sign of life till half way down the mountain then it turned into a chipped road surface and we started seeing some homes and mail boxes. When we got to the bottom of the mountain and the end of the road it met up with the paved highway we had been on at start. So we figured it was a shorcut across/down the mountain instead of all the way around on the paved surface. It was one hell of a ride because of the steep the incline on this mountain!

And it had us all talking about how you need to use common sense when following the gps' directions!

PS I had the gps set to "fastest time" so didn't really expect this behavior. Usually, I get this kind of direction using "shortest route."

I have some ocean view property in Nebraska if they're interested

Rte 56, Crabtree Falls Highway, is a paved 2 lane road. It's a Virginia Byway. That's a scenic designation. If you were on a dirt road, then it has been partially washed out.

Yes,normally that is the fastest way off the Parkway into Rockfish Valley and access to the Wintergreen Ski Resort area.

"A study published recently in the journal PNAS suggests that our ability to make wise choices changes over time, and actually declines with old age.

In fact, the study found that in certain situations, the decision-making ability of people older than 65 was worse than that of adolescents...

'We found that even the healthiest of elders show profoundly compromised decision-making,' wrote senior study author Ifat Levy, an assistant professor of comparative medicine and neurobiology at Yale University in Connecticut."

from: http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-do-we-ma...

I find it interesting they 'spent a few nights' before calling for help. I wonder what they were waiting for.

"Alan D B" said in part...

There's a "B I G" difference between making a "mistake" (like typing too fast on your computer keyboard and writing "teh" instead of "the") and what they did which was completely "STUPID"

It's a "B I G" difference, dont'cha know.

Nuvi1300WTGPS

type "teh" and then have spell-check correct me. Thought I was becoming dyslectic in my old age!