We were driving up to Birmingham (UK, not Alabama), the rental car place had run out of GPS units (Sat Nav Units if i got that right?), so had printed directions. One step said "Take the M5 to The Midlands". Not knowing what the Midlands were, we saw signs for M5, took that, and then the next sign said M5 and also very boldly proclaimed "The South and the South West". Of course we followed that and my American colleague remarked "wow, the locals around here must be real proud of this area to put up a sign like that".
The next step said drive 32 minutes and take M42 to Birmingham. We drove 32 minutes, drove 42 minutes, drove 50 minutes, still nothing. Pulled over at a service center and consulted our "smart" phone maps.
We had driven about 50 minutes in the opposite direction, when by now, we should have been in Birmingham.
Another lesson learnt! "The South and The South West" was THE Direction, or rather the southwest region and midlands region as I later 'googled' and found out :) That is what getting used to going North/South/East or West on the interstates will do to you. If they had gone all the way and put up a sign "Gentlemen, You are now entering the M5 headed towards The Southwest Region of the Kingdom", it may have avoided this very minor confusion !.
:))
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