Prologue
“Stupid NAV system,” my mother growled. “It doesn’t even know that Medford, New York exists.” She punched in the address again, but ended up with the same result: a blue screen with only the words “No Matches Found” staring back at our bewildered faces.
“Try the phone number,” my sister, Tory suggested, slumped in the passenger seat with an impatient expression scrawled across her face. We all groaned in frustration when the NAV – not surprisingly – didn’t know that either.
This wasn’t the first time our car had done this. The built-in NAV system was extremely outdated, despite the fact that we had bought the car only a few years before. We tried contacting the manufacturers of our green Denali SUV about a software update, only to find that they didn’t make one.
So, we were stuck.
Anxious to get on the road, I threw out one last suggestion. “Just type in a random phone number with the same area code and see what happens.” All of a sudden, after typing in 10 digits that were close to the original phone number, the NAV beeped happily, as if unaware of our struggles and frustrations for the last 15 minutes. It had found a route.
We all shouted with joy as my mom pulled on the parking brake release, threw the car into reverse and passed under our wooden garage doors. We were off, on our 8 hour mission to retrieve a puppy. But not just any puppy – this one had a mission of his own.
Chapter 1
For the majority of the trip, from our home in Northern Virginia to some obscure place in New York, it was smooth sailing. I scanned the book about Canine Companions for Independence dogs, reading the entire care and information manual in about one hour. Every so often, I’d glance over my shoulder at the empty cage rattling in the back, imagining the small black puppy that would soon be inside. I couldn’t wait.
As the clock on the screen of our NAV system narrowed down to five minutes left, we finally understood why the car didn’t quite know where Medford was. It was in the middle of nowhere.
“I say we just go find the place and get to the hotel,” Tory said, anxious to get out of the car. I, however, had different ideas.
“Why don’t we see where this random phone number leads us?”
“Stupid NAV system,” my mother growled. “It doesn’t even know that Medford, New York exists.” She punched in the address again, but ended up with the same result: a blue screen with only the words “No Matches Found” staring back at our bewildered faces.
“Try the phone number,” my sister, Tory suggested, slumped in the passenger seat with an impatient expression scrawled across her face. We all groaned in frustration when the NAV – not surprisingly – didn’t know that either.
This wasn’t the first time our car had done this. The built-in NAV system was extremely outdated, despite the fact that we had bought the car only a few years before. We tried contacting the manufacturers of our green Denali SUV about a software update, only to find that they didn’t make one.
So, we were stuck.
Anxious to get on the road, I threw out one last suggestion. “Just type in a random phone number with the same area code and see what happens.” All of a sudden, after typing in 10 digits that were close to the original phone number, the NAV beeped happily, as if unaware of our struggles and frustrations for the last 15 minutes. It had found a route.
We all shouted with joy as my mom pulled on the parking brake release, threw the car into reverse and passed under our wooden garage doors. We were off, on our 8 hour mission to retrieve a puppy. But not just any puppy – this one had a mission of his own.
Chapter 1
For the majority of the trip, from our home in Northern Virginia to some obscure place in New York, it was smooth sailing. I scanned the book about Canine Companions for Independence dogs, reading the entire care and information manual in about one hour. Every so often, I’d glance over my shoulder at the empty cage rattling in the back, imagining the small black puppy that would soon be inside. I couldn’t wait.
As the clock on the screen of our NAV system narrowed down to five minutes left, we finally understood why the car didn’t quite know where Medford was. It was in the middle of nowhere.
“I say we just go find the place and get to the hotel,” Tory said, anxious to get out of the car. I, however, had different ideas.
“Why don’t we see where this random phone number leads us?”