I have taken a wrong turn on at least a couple of occasions. These are two of the most memorable--and butt-killing--of them:

Once, I was trying to get to a PetCo, and zigged when I should have zagged. Then, after doing the "Cook's Tour" of a lot of residential neighborhoods in the Newington, CT, area, I found my way back to a main road, and followed it back to another PetCo in West Hartford--this one is on a major artery, one I am more familiar with--and finally got home once I got the cat stuff.

About 34 miles later. Should have been less than half that.

Then, last fall, on the way to a staff retreat for my employer in Wethersfield, took another wrong turn. This was after following on-line directions to the Silas Deane Highway, rather than where I wanted to go. The map, of course, did not show that I could have gone north from where I was and gotten to the intended artery, so I backtracked. All the way through the South Meadows (an industrial/commercial road in Hartford ) and back again down Wethersfield Avenue. This time, I took a different fork in the road near a railroad track...and got on the right course that way. And almost lost it again when I took another wrong fork in a complex intersection near Motor Vehicles! Found my way back faster this time--another "Cook's Tour"--took the proper road, and finally got where I wanted to be.

Started out at about 7:10 a.m....and got to the meeting place at about 9 a.m., which was the official start time for the event. I ended up doing around 14 miles one-way.

For what should have been around a six or six-and-a-half mile trip.