In Austin and Looking for B3

At La Hacienda RV Resort, Austin, Texas...

Our drive here from Kerrville was uneventful and, as we had been told by many in the know, the traffic we encountered as we neared Austin was daunting. However, La Hacienda is a nice and quiet RV park that is tucked away from the traffic on a quiet peninsula that protrudes into Lake Travis northwest of downtown Austin. 

When I registered at the office, the clerk gave me the customary park map and drew a line on it with a Sharpie showing where I was to park. When I went back outside and sat down in Phannie's cockpit, I looked at the map again and compared it with the visual image I was seeing through the windshield--pretty standard stuff, right? Except what I was seeing through the windshield didn't match what I was seeing on the map! Not even close.

Now before you write this off as incompetence on my part, you should know that I am no stranger to maps. In 15,000 hours of flying, I can assure you that I have plenty of map-reading experience, although I don't often need one to find my way around, as I have always had a very good sense of direction.

This was the only case I can remember where I was completely stumped after turning the map every which way to try to make sense of it. Now Sandy will tell you with great exasperation that I am no different from most guys in being reluctant to ask for directions. I think I can speak for 90 percent of us males in telling you that we would almost rather have a prostate exam than to suffer the indignity of admitting that we don't know where we are or to ask where something is. Yes, we see asking such things as a sign of weakness and no, we're not going to change; it's in our DNA.

So, rather than go back inside and admit to a (female) clerk that I couldn't figure out where to go, I unhooked Mae and commandeered Sandy to drive me around the park in the little car while I looked for site B3. We finally found it, although quite by accident, having misidentified another site as ours. This was mainly because the site numbers had been rather ineptly hand painted on the bases of the utility posts. 

I'm glad to have done this scouting around the park in Mae; it would have been a pretty embarrassing spectacle to drive the monstrous Phannie and Mae up and down each of the rows looking for our parking place. You see, not only do we guys 1) not like to ask for directions, we also 2) don't like to appear lost. Unfortunately, because of (1) we often find ourselves experiencing (2). We can't win. 

I do intend to tell the park management that they should make sure they hire a sober mapmaker next time. It might help.

Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful life; please forgive me if I don't appreciate it enough each day.