You took a taxi where?

by Robyn Wright on August 5, 2012

in Living

Traveling failSo we all have those moments of FAIL. Here is my big one from the BlogHer ‘12 conference. The actual conference was at the Hilton on Avenue of the America’s (also known as 6th street). On Saturday I was going to the Getting Gorgeous Event which was at the Warwick Hotel and the address said West 54th Street. I actually tapped on the address and pulled it up on my iPhone and this is what came up. The blue dot was my location and the red is where I had to go.

Now, I totally know that it really is not a super long way – but for my regular readers you know I’m working on things but I have a long way to get in shape. I did not want to get all hot and sweaty because it was very hot and humid here that day and I had already done a lot of walking. So based on the map – I decided to take a quick taxi ride.

I get in the cab and tell the driver the address and off we go. Then it dawns on the driver after we have already left that apparently we were very, very, very close. He snapped at me (really) that the place I needed to go was right across the street from where I had been. He started talking about street numbers and such and finally I just said Look, I’m not from here, I messed up, just take me where I need to go. I was a little annoyed that HE was being so annoyed with me. I mean frankly I was paying him regardless.  When we pulled in front he points out one window and says “there is the Hilton” and then points out the other window, truly right across the street and says “there is the Warwick”. DOH!

Oh well, lesson learned. I’m going to have to get better with maps and GPS when I am in New York City next time for sure!

Were you at the conference? If so, what was your biggest #FAIL moment? If you weren’t at the conference, do you have any #FAIL moments from your own travels you want to share?

© 2012, Robyn Wright. All rights reserved.

Tagged as: blog conference, BlogHer, travel

  • terrik

    I wasn’t at the conference, but I have the worst sense of direction ever.  I’ve lived in this city for almost 15 years and still have panic attacks driving uptown.  I once tried to go to a new doctor and spent FOUR HOURS (really) trying to find it, calling them in tears more than once.  I finally  made it and the receptionist told me that Mapquest was wrong and lots of people got lost.  I ended up in an adjacent county over that one.  

    • http://www.RobynsOnlineWorld.com/ Robyn’s Online World

      In St. Louis my sense of direction is pretty good – but NYC is a whole other animal!
      Glad you made it to the doctor finally – yikes!

      • http://www.redneckrosie.com/ Rose

        I survived NYC better than I do St. Louis – the difference I was not driving in NYC LOL!

        • http://www.RobynsOnlineWorld.com/ Robyn’s Online World

          I can’t even fathom trying to drive in NYC

          • http://www.redneckrosie.com/ Rose

            No way! While we were there none of us saw any gas stations. Life is so different there, verses where I live. I say that even in comparison to your area. My area is simply not advanced, old timers don’t want it to move. I’m okay with that, but they have to do something about the poor phone lines and loss of electric every time a frog poops. Really wish we could have spent a bit more time together at BlogHer.

  • nanlara

    funny..cities confuse me too..just took thw wrong red line on a subway..luckily only had to go back one stop to get  on the right red line

    • http://www.RobynsOnlineWorld.com/ Robyn’s Online World

      More power to you for taking the subway even! I can’t even fathom trying that yet!

      • http://www.redneckrosie.com/ Rose

        Oh no kidding, I wanted to investigate the subway when we walked past one, I just didn’t have the courage to go alone. Plus someone told me it was better than 15 degrees hotter down there and I didn’t want the humidity of being home.

  • rosey

    That taxi driver should have been happy to get money for such a short trip.  :)
    We went to see friends out of the country once…the trip booked our in-flight to one airport, so we assumed that would be the same airport we returned to (and we weren’t familiar with the city, so we didn’t catch it by looking at the reservation).  Luckily our friends had taken us early enough that we could drive to the other airport (not even close to where we were), and they were gem enough not to be mad at us, but it’s still embarrassing to this day that we didn’t pick up on it.  Ah, live and learn.  I hope your conference was great anyway.  :)

  • http://twitter.com/lexiquin Natalie V

    oh, Robyn, I just had to laugh (sorry)! I don’t have much experience with taxi-cabs and when I visited NY I was terrified of public transportation. Your story reminded me of my cousin. She is from San Jose, CA and well-to-do (because her husband owns a car dealership). They came to visit us years ago–in a fancy car that had a GPS–and asked if we’d meet them for dinner in Eugene, OR. When we went to meet her, she told this story of trying to find the restaurant where she had invited us. While her husband napped, she got in the car and, following the instructions from the GPS, she turned right…then, she turned right again…then, she made another right turn. Do you know where she ended up? That’s right–the restaurant she had asked us to meet her at was in the hotel where they were staying! Hilarious!
    I must know–did the cabbie charge you extra? Did you leave him a good tip after he was rude to you?
    I try to learn something new every day; however, I don’t always appreciate the lesson! 

  • tannawings

     I would be scared to pieces in New York if I ever went there and would have no clue whatsoever where to go. I would say thats kind of a tech fail too- I mean if it is right across the street, and the map making it look like it was blocks away.
    Our funniest (and actually fun) fail while traveling was when we went to Texas and I told hubby (who is a military brat) that once in my life I want to go to another country. We went into Mexico and I wanted one of the pots I had seen that had these really pretty decorations. Hubby being the cheapo that he is said if we went further in we could likely pick up a piece of pottery for less. I speak some Spanish and understand it a bit better and hubby said we should get on a bus…. a public bus. The bus we got on was flying through streets no bigger than bike trails at about 50 mph and every now and again the driver would scream in Spanish street names (barely heard above the din on the bus) When we finally got off we were a nervous wreck and nowhere close to buy any pottery. Hubby was hungry so we went into a cafe to get something to drink and a bite to eat. Hubby also thought he was passable in Spanish and I told him what he was ordering was chicken necks of some sort but he didnt listen and got a huge plate of chicken necks he just sat and stared at while I ate a beef sandwich (that was quite tasty) Anyway, we ended up walking back to the border rather than take a bus, and I got my piece of pottery finally. 
    Do not take the bus in Mexico unless you have nerves of steel, or at least not with the driver we had.

    • http://www.redneckrosie.com/ Rose

      It really wasn’t as bad/scary as I thought it would be. It was phenomenal. I would do it again – short term for a visit. Very diverse. While crossing the streets I tried to blend in with crowds so everyone went at once. lol

  • RoundRockGal

    Robyn, there are map readers and there are non-map readers and I fall into the second category.  Years ago I went to England with my then 8th grade son.  We took the train from London to Bath, and there we rented a car so we could drive to the Cotswolds.  I can’t navigate well in the US – what was I thinking when I told myself I could drive ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE ROAD – with round-abouts no less?!  I got lost a lot, but I always managed to get where I needed to go, albeit late.  But you know what?  Driving in the English countryside (without hubs) is still one of my greatest accomplishments.

    But the bigger question is – What did you think of Avenue Q???  I thought it was funny, raunchy & incredibly clever.  And it won 3 Tony awards including one for Best Musical in 2004!

  • http://rhymeschemesanddaydreams.wordpress.com Auriette

    I didn’t go to BlogHer, but I have been to NYC, and I kind of did the opposite thing. I didn’t (and don’t) have a GPS, but I looked at the street number where we were and the address of where we needed to go and said to hubby, “It’s like two blocks over and four blocks down” or something like that. Very close. Well, apparently, the numbering changes from street to street. It was miles from where we were. We kept passing subways, but we didn’t know which lines went to where we wanted to go. The same trip, we also walked from Times Square to Ground Zero. You’d think we’d've lost weight with all that walking, but nope. The only cool thing is, every time we watch “Law and Order” and they find a body, we look at each other and say, “We probably walked there.”

  • http://southerngirlramblings.com/ Kecia

    I wasn’t at BlogHer, but I would have been intimidated with all the busy streets if I was. I am not that great of a map reader. We rely heavily on our navigation system around here!

  • Ravzie

    I didn’t go to the conference, but I couldn’t help but smile when I read your story.  Thank you for being so real and human, talking about something that surely all of us have done.  I have had moments such as yours, so many I can’t even think of a funny example.

  • http://twitter.com/beehivecabin beehivecabin

    haha, this was funny, and I am sure you’re embarassed. I always ask the Desk Clerk.  Biggest Fail moments ? Lot’s of them ! 

  • Cassie

    haha that’s totally something i would do! sometimes it’s so hard to see how close/far away things really are via the online maps. Glad you made it there safely though! (dealbunny20@(gmail)dot(com)

  • http://twitter.com/rkosully Robin

    That is a funny story, but it’s a totally understandable mistake! I don’t understand why the cab driver was so rude. I guess we should be happy he didn’t drive you around the block 6 times to run up the charge!

  • Tiffany Winner

    well, taxi drivers aren’t really known for being kind and considerate but maybe he was just having a bad day, you never know…
    thismomwins@gmail.com

  • http://twitter.com/cstironkat Kelly Ann T.

    We kept getting lost in Germany. I couldn’t tell you how many times we ended up on the train going the wrong way. We even had to go to the police station when we got so lost we couldn’t figure out where we were. It turns out we were in the wrong town, no wonder we could find the address we needed. Its funny now, but it wasn’t back then.

  • angelgenius27

    Ugh taxi drivers in the city are just plain rude! It’s not that hard to get lost or confused while in the city I do everytime lol

  • http://www.redneckrosie.com/ Rose

    We actually took a cab thinking it was a long ways to … good grief, I can’t even remember. Well it turns out it was 3 (small/normal) blocks. Costed $10 to get there and a great walk back! But we did almost take a cab to the Warwick. Woops.

  • Shannon Whitfield

    I appreciate your story because it sounds exactly like something I would do. My worst mistake was in Palermo, Italy.. getting into the cab to begin with.. pretty sure the taxi driver had a death wish, I didn’t speak the language, and it stands to this day as the worst taxi ride ever!

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