I decided to go out for a group ride after work in the afternoon, about 30 miles into the group ride up and past some hills I was falling a bit behind but had the group still in my view. One issue with my large chainring that I had to fix and my group was out of site. I had my paper map but unfortunately, my weakpoint is directions. My mind shifted from finishing the course to trying to get back home.

I tried to ask the locals for help, asking a fisherman, but he steered me wrong for about 6 miles. I ended up asking a man washing his car in his driveway and he gave me some directions to get to a main road. I took off to the main road about 10 miles away and tried to follow the map only to realize that I was fairly off course from the map now and the directions were near useless. I went about 10 more miles until I got worried and checked my position on google maps to find I had been on the road I wanted ... but over shot much too far. I turned off Strava after logging 49+ miles on Strava. I google bike GPSed a route and turned off the GPS after getting started on route to save battery. My front bicycle light also ran out of steam. Luckily, my rear one was still working fine. I knew if I kept the GPS up my phone would be dead, and I was still 30+ miles away from home. I stopped at gas stations to charge up on food and water and talked to people to make sure I was on the correct route. Riding gets scary in the pitch black darkness. There's a nice calm about looking up at the night sky and seeing stars through the clouds. Thank goodness I had a $20 bill in my flat repair kit. I got home safely at 11:30 at night, covered over 80 miles and 4000ft elevation, for a ride that started at 5:00pm.

TLDR; I have the worse sense of navigation and it's time I get a non-phone GPS to get home safer, always carry a $20 bill in your kit, charge your lights always, and always appreciate the scenery.