I got lost in Mississauga today

This is going to be a wordy post. It’s worth a read though.

Why was I even IN Mississauga this morning at 7:30!?

Let’s start from the beginning.

Well wasn’t that an adventure… my Boyfriend had to rush home today and I decided to save us some money by driving him myself to Toronto airport, instead of him taking a shuttle, or driving and parking at park-n-fly. Since I’ve never driven him to the airport before I wanted to drive instead of sit in the passenger seat so I would know how to pick him up again when he arrived back in Ontario.

We left at 5:40am. The 401 traffic was getting congested at 6:15, by this time we were getting worried since his flight was at 7:30. He told me to take the next exit. I was all ‘WHAT!’ since that wasn’t the direct route to the airport, and now I’ll never know how to get to the airport — I’m terrible with directions, even while following signs. You’ll see why, a little later in this entry. So continuing on, the 401 was congested in our direction just because people were rubbernecking looking at the truck-trailer type thing that jackknifed and caused a pretty brutal accident in the other direction.

Great. Scott told me I’ll never make it to work on time and I’ll have to take an alternate route going home. But then back-tracked and said it was too confusing to give me directions and to just sit and wait in the traffic, lol.

Okay, so that exit I was talking about that we had to leave the 401 due to too much traffic. We ended up on some side streets with me surpassing the speed limit quite excessively so much, where I was constantly checking my mirrors for cops. That wasn’t the interesting part — I dropped him off at the airport at 7:09am,  his flight was at 7:30 remember. I waited in the departure terminal for an a-ok to make the way back home. I checked my blackberry literally every 2 seconds, panicking thinking they didn’t allow him to check-in his baggage since we were SO LATE arriving. He told me he got in fine, and I was okay to leave.

I didn’t have time to confirm directions to get home, but on the way to the airport I remember him saying 427 south til you see 401 west London. It was easy getting to the 427 south, and I was even in the correct lane when I saw 401 west London. I’ve driven him twice from the airport before, but this time I was unsure of myself and ended up making a remarkably brutal mistake of leaving the 401 west lane in a split second and jumping back into the 427 south lane. Which I immediately regretted my decision. WHY. Tell me why my brain was unsure of that decision. I was told to get on the 401 west. You see, I guess I got confused since we’re always going East whenever driving and I’m like “well west doesn’t ring a bell…”. BARRRMP, wrong answer.

I started swearing really loudly. I knew this was the wrong way and I didn’t want to exit immediately due to the fact I didn’t recognize any of the major street signs shown on the highway.

I guess 10 or 15km’s went by and I decided it was time to get the F off that highway. I saw Dundas Street and ended up taking that exit. I mean, everyone knows where Dundas Street is. That shouldn’t be a problem to find a highway from that road, right? The road then departed from East, and West. Not to make that mistake again, I took Dundas Street WEST — and kept going down that road for a good 10 minutes. I saw signs for Mississauga. Panicky, I didn’t know where Mississauga was in relative to where home was. DUH, the correct direction. Dundas Street west turned into East. Why did the road fool me like that? I thought I was going in the wrong direction, I pulled over and looked at my blackberry. Who was I going to call? Star OPP (the police lol) to help me get home?

I ended up pulling into a Jiffy Lube and the sign said open. Lies. It opened at 8am. It was now 7:30. I pulled out the BlackBerry and ended up entering weird stuff on Google Maps. It told me to do a U-Turn and find 427 South again. I contemplated asking people at the stop light with me if I was going in the right decision. It’s Toronto, I didn’t do that. Okay, saw the sign for the 427 South. We’re here!

I ended up on the 427 South. I fist pumped the air and shouted YES. The road diverted into a bunch of lanes where you either had to take Browns Line or you could take the Gardiner/Expressway. I thought to myself — huh, why doesn’t it have 427 on it? I HAVE NO IDEA. I nearly cried. I took Browns Line — I’ve heard of that street before! I knew the Gardiner was probably going to take me into City Centre (I was correct, a co-worker later told me). I ended up on a residential area. OMG WHERE IS THE HIGHWAAAAY. I quickly pulled over to an Asian market store and said out loud (in my car to myself lol) “please speak English”, but I  didn’t bother to ask for directions. Some guy pulls up in a car next to me and gets out to I suppose, shop at this market.

I jump out of my car with frazzled hair, jogging pants and morning face. I asked for directions to get to Milton… I don’t live in Milton. I just wanted to get to the Milton area so I knew where I was. He told me to go on the QEW. I said , okay sure — how do I get there? “Right, left, right, andddddd another right”. I swear to you those were his exact directions. Blank faced, I stared at him and said “Hrm. No. I don’t think I’ll go that way. How do I get on the 401?” He told me to take 427 North. I went so bloody far from where I was supposed to go that now I was supposed to go NORTH? I asked him if he was sure of his directions and he was — my blackberry even agreed when I looked at the map after I got back in my car.

Sure. I’ll take the 427 North. I knew to stay the heck on this heaven-forsaken highway until I saw 401 West. I ended up making it to the 401 no problem, but it wasn’t time to relax just yet. I was wondering where the accident was that caused all the backup at 6:30 this morning. I was in the left, fast lane and noticed skid marks on the road. OH, sure that’s where the tractor trailer went off the road. They cleared it up and trafffic was a-ok. Sweet. No 3 hour backups like I thought was going to happen. I guess all my time in Mississauga made up for it.

I kept going along the highway and knew I was safely on my way home. I usually cruise in the middle lane going a normal speed. I decided to switch to the left lane to pass some person, and I swear if I was 10 minutes later I would’ve still been stuck in traffic right now. Because a chick about 5 cars ahead of me, in this fast left lane ended up hitting the wall and completely totaled the front of her car. It JUST happened. I didn’t have to slam on my breaks or anything as I must have been far enough back. We went out onto the left-shoulder and passed her. Parts of her wheel rubber were all over the highway and she was on her cell phone as I slowly passed her on the left. How do accidents like that happen on a straight-away? I don’t get it. People not looking at where they’re driving. Or maybe they’re lost like me. I ended up getting home at 9:01am, and I was due to get to work for 9:30. I guess the adrenaline of everything happening this morning made me speedy-mc-speed at home. I ended up ripping off my jogging pants and everything else as soon as I got in the door way. Turned on the shower and ran to the bedroom to get my clothes. Thankfully I lay everything out Sunday nights and have outfits pre-picked out for the week. I don’t even know if I washed the conditioner all out of my hair, but somehow I managed to get back on the highway and drive 15 minutes to work, and get there on time for 9:30. How did that happen?

That was my stressful morning.

My little map I drew out for you all to see where I was supposed to go, and where I actually went. I’m so glad this day is almost over. Time for supper…. lol

You may also like

12 Comments

  1. Ugh poor you!!! I get confused in Toronto area too, too many 400 highways and my mom lived in Toronto area for 10 years lol. I knew how to get to her house, that was about it!!

  2. EEk crazy!!
    I don’t think I’ll ever be ready to drive to TO or anywhere in the GTA lol. It scares me so much! I’m glad my boyfriend knows where to go though :)

  3. Buy a GPS! Worth EVERY PENNY! I used to get stressed out driving in unknown areas and now i don’t!

  4. I agree with Kevin. Definitely invest in a good GPS. I cant count how many times I’ve been sure I knew where I was going and I’ve had to pull over an use it. Sometimes I just use it to see what roads are coming up ahead, I dont even plan the route.
    best money I’ve ever spent

  5. Pingback: Okay one more….
  6. Pingback: R.I.P 2011
  7. Pingback: No GPS?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badge