The Black Hole of Worcester
As LL mentioned recently in her blog, we recently purchased a talking GPS unit for the car. The streets here are very confusing and cross streets frequently unmarked, so the little talking computer dubbed "Maggie" has been very helpful in learning our way around town.
We've discovered a strange phenomenon, though, that made life rather difficult this morning.
On the entrance ramp to 290 East off Quinsigamond Avenue, there's some sort of black hole. When we hit it, the GPS unit went absolutely crazy. First, it started repeatedly recalculating our route, resulting in the screen flashing on and off and the voice chattering away like crazy, advising us to do impossible things like make a u-turn on the highway or make a right turn through a concrete barrier. When it finally did settle down, the screen showed the car's position as being in the middle of a field with no roads at all. As a result of this, we got a bit lost and LL missed her train to work.
I don't know why this should happen. This unit navigated us all the way to Wallkill, NY without a single hitch... but this one spot drives it nuts. There's a building on Quinsigamond with a sign warning passersby to turn off their cellphones and two-way radios. I didn't catch what's in that building, but whatever it is must be behind the havoc wreaked on our GPS. The effect seems to extend for at least a mile or two to the east beyond the building... but not to the south (it didn't happen until we'd passed the building headed from south to north but continued for some distance along 290 eastbound).
If anyone should happen across this entry who knows something about this phenomenon, please enlighten me as to what's going on. Also let me know if there have been any Bermuda Triangle-style mysterious vanishings in the area. It was a very strange thing, indeed.
