I travel all over the North America for work, and for the most part, I use google guides for finding local cuisines, and places to visit. A few years back, one of the places I wanted to visit was a vineyard near Penticton, British Columbia.
I got in my car and turned on google maps to navigate there. It was about a 30 minute drive through the scenic lake side and up along the mountains and cliffs. The GPS told me to turn off onto a smaller road as I was getting closer to my destination, and as I kept driving the road was getting narrower and narrower. Although in the back of my mind, I had doubted that the way I was going was correct, I shut that thought down thinking, there is now way that google maps is wrong. Eventually I found myself about 100 feet up in the air with the rocks on the side of the mountain inches from the right mirror and the left wheel was on the very edge of the cliff with a lake right below me. If I opened the door, I would have no space to step out, because it’s a drop straight down. I eventually realized that maybe this is not the right road to take, so I had to back my car up for about 1 kilometer.
This was one of the scariest moments of my life, but it was an interesting story to share with others.
What local guide means to me and why I love to contribute can be summarized in one word is “Inspiration”. We can post high quality pictures of a sight seeing destination, or write a beautifully descriptive review on a restaurant, but what I think is amazing about local guides is that it inspires people to go out and have their own experiences and adventures, which they can share with their friends and family.
