LOL@ Hikermor! I was speechless! And to Eugene's point, the directions were a little off but close enough.

We were going from a major city to a little town outside a major city so little risk other than a late arrival.

You're absolutely right, Buckeye. I don't know what happened to their gps systems. We were outside of Ottawa in an area that hadn't had power for 3 days but I don't imagine that had anything to do with it. They were on two different major Canadian networks and they just seemed to get stuck for a little while. I'd never rely solely on it in a more remote or wilderness setting.

2 is good and 3 is better is a great mindset but when it comes to navigation, an alternate, manual system like a paper map back-up makes a lot sense. In this case it wasn't crucial but I can certainly see why the number of calls for rescue has gone up with people who depend on that technology.

The UK emergency number is 999.

In most of Europe it is 112, and that will probably work here too. It's probably the one to memorise if you are travelling in Europe and want a single number, but few British people would use it here because 999 is what we trust.

Wikipedia says that 119 is the emergency number for Korea, Japan and some other places (unless you want the police, in which case it is 110). In France it would get you to a child protection line.

Dialing the american "911" number will probably get you in contact with some kind of emergency service in many European countries.

This isn't just to be kind to vititing American tourists. The dial-911 response is something of a popular culture icon due to the influence of American films. I would guess that there are more non-US people that remember "911" than has learned their own national emergency service number.

lol

HJ

I heard today that school libraries are starting to close. Apparently some schools feel that the power of the internet is king and there is little need for paper books anymore. Orienteering class will no-doubt see map and compass replaced by GPS - or worse. Thank goodness for Scouts!

There is a whole new dependacy on battery powered items, they are great when they work and a real serious letdown when they don't!

I this week just got my first "smartphone", I think they are called that because they make me look dumb! I can make a call, I can enter a contact and even setup and recieve email, but is it worth the cost over all? I will see, won't I!

I will say that the batteries are definately a potential issue on the phone. My old phone would stay charged for about a week with minimal use, at least 2 days with normal use. This new gadget was dead in less than 20 hours and I never made a single call. I only did setup, recieved a few emails and texts and called in to activate the phone. That will be hard to keep charged on a trip!

Don't forget to pack the signal mirror, map and good baseplate compass, the battery powered toys are fun but finicky and may only operate in the "paperweight mode" when the battery goes down. Cheers!

Even with a non smartphone I made the habit to always keep it charged. At night it gets plugged in to the charger sitting by my bed, always have a vehicle charger and carry a spare charger.
With microusb being the industry standard now its even easier, I have auto to USB adapters, wall to usb and various lengths of usb cables so I can plug in anywhere.

Don't apologize Mark it happens quite a lot!