Originally Posted by
pdlamb
You left out my favorite navigational aid: a road sign with directions (or distance) to my destination. I've misread paper cue sheets and maps, and we could start another thread with goofy GPS directions (e.g., turn left. 50 feet later, turn right. Situation on the road: there's another road on the right, and nothing visible to the left). But when a sign points thataway to Tall Trees Campground, I've got a solid feeling Tall Trees Campground is thataway.
The reason your gps device tells you to turn right then immediately left is that the waypoint may be "off" in relation to your position. For instance, say you are on a bike path next to a 6-lane divided road and you are supposed to turn right at the next intersection which also has a 6-lane road. The "center" of the intersection may be 50+ feet away from the bike path so the GPS is dutifully telling you to go left to get to the waypoint and then once you get close enough it tells you to then turn right. Used to drive me nuts when it did that. Then I just started looking to see where the route line went and followed that. But yep, I agree a road signs are usually pretty reliable.