Wrongway Wendy

"I may never drive again."

Several years ago Wendy told the boys that her name was Wrongway Wendy. She may regret ever telling them that. Today she had one of her worst directional problems which ended with her telling me that she may never drive again. Let me explain as best as we can figure out what happened today as she drove around Orlando (and apparantly several other neighboring cities).

She decided that she should take the boys to the Florida Mall while I was in my afternoon sessions of the music conference. She drove me back to the conference and then left to head back to the hotel and Mall area. It should have been a fairly easy return trip: Toll road 417 North to the Beeline 528 West and exit onto Mccoy road which becomes Sand Lake Road that runs beside the Florida Mall. She tool 417 to 528, but somehow found herself at the Orlando International Airport. She turned around to get back onto 528 and the next thing she knew she was driving around the Disney park area (in Kissimmee). To do this she had to either exit 528 to I-4 or somehow get back onto 417 and go the wrong direction. At one point she found our hotel road (Orange Blossom Trail) and drove down it since it also runs alongside the Mall. When she reached Gatorland (between Kissimmee and Saint Cloud) she asked the Gatorland security guard for directions to the Mall. He made sure she knew it was about 6 miles down the road in the other direction.

They did get to the Mall and the wehn back to the hotel. The she left pick me up from the conference. She called to ask how long she was supposed to drive before exiting onto 417. I told her it was a good 10 miles. She said, "Really? I have gone a long way and haven't seen one sign for 417." I asked what exits she had passed and she told me she had seen an exit for Winter Garden I realized she was on the Florida Turnpike, not the Beeline. I told her she needed to turn around and drive back to 528 East. She called back to ask me if she should have gotten off on the exit that said Orange Blossom Trail. I said yes and that she will have to drive to the Kissimmee exit and do a u-turn to come back to 528. I suggested that she just get off on Orange Blossom Trail and go to the hotel and I would get a ride to the hotel with some friends who were planning to meet us for supper. She called back as we were on our way to the hotel and said, "Somehow I managed to get onto 528 when I took the Orange Blossom Trail exit. I couldn't find the lane for Orange Blossom, so now I am on 528. I told her to drive to the Airport exit and take it to get onto Semoran, but cautioned her not to get into the righthand lane of the exit or she would be back at the airport. We told her we would meet her at the Cracker Barrell on Semoran. We waited for quite some time, but after several more phone calls, she did make it. At which time she said, "I may never drive again."