We still kind of tease my mother over the fact that she once gave someone directions that included the phrase "turn where the tree used to be." Her explanation was, "There used to be a tree there. A really huge, weird-looking tree. And then they cut it down. How can you approach that intersection and not notice that the tree isn't there anymore?" She was giving these directions to my father, who is ridiculously unobservant. When my sister and I were kids, we used to sometimes ask him when he came home from work, "What's different here?" And he'd look around the room and just not be able to see that there was a new painting on the wall or a new coffee table or whatever.

On my commute home, I drive along one route number that changes names to, I think, four different streets.

See! PA is weird.

I get what you mean about being rural, too, Hil. Even here near Philly, it's nothing like growing up 25 miles outside of NYC.

Well, in Dekalb we the road where all the new stores are built is called Sycamore Road in DeKalb and DeKalb Road in Sycamore.

Kitty! of the sort that tommyrot loves.

My favourite "How you expect me to find that?" is High Street, in, say, London. I have no idea how many there are, but basically it's just a concept. When the main road that goes through your neighbourhood has the highest density of stores, it is now High Street. Everybody's got one, and 23a High Street is a perfectly cromulent (if oft-appearing) building.

In my neighbourhood now, the problem is National. Most streets behave. Wilshire does a thing with Santa Monica where they switch who's north of who, but mostly they behave.

National does not behave. Do not attempt to reroute via National. It goes neither north-south nor east-west, not really. It just goes. And I think there are mini-Nationals too, so you can't be sure of the street address unless you're really sure of the street address.

Sycamore Road in DeKalb and DeKalb Road in Sycamore.

Hey, it makes perfect sense! In DeKalb, it's the road you take to get to Sycamore, and in Sycamore, it's the road you take to get to DeKalb, easy peasy. They're named based on where you want to go to, not where you are (that made sense in my head).

I'm still kind of getting used the distances here.

Thats kind of amusing, because when I moved from Pennsylvania to Utah, I was freaked out by having to drive more than 10 miles to get somewhere. The town 25 miles away was a Saturday excursion, and a trip to Pittsburgh, 50 miles away, was something you planned a week in advance. Now a trip to Salt Lake City, also 50 miles away, is something we'll think of doing in the evening.

Of course, in PA, freeway speeds are 55 mph, and in Utah freeway speeds are "just below what the cops are able to catch you for."

There is a highway in Cincinnati that used to be called Cross County Highway. At some point it got renamed to Ronald Reagan Highway, but everyone just kept calling it Cross County Highway. And then if you google directions, Google Maps refers to the highway by its number (Rt. 562).

I think it might have been re-renamed to Ronald Regan Cross County Highway. And all the road signs have Rt. 562 on them, in addition to "Ronald Regan Cross County Highway."

Still, it (rightfully) confuses the SHIT out of people who aren't from here. You'd think a highway's nomenclature would be easy. But no.

Nothing's going to beat lower Manhattan where one street intersects itself.

Nothing's going to beat lower Manhattan where one street intersects itself.

"It's like the nexus of the universe!"

The main street I take to work (note: 2 miles and all of 3 roads not my address) is at least 3 in my short drive. Ultimately, it splits into a 4th (another one I take), merges into a fifth that then becomes a sixth. All within 3 or 4 miles, I'd say. (ohwow, take it further east and it becomes a seventh and splits yet again.)