I'm "Not Very Good At (my) Job"

So I got myself in a situation this morning. Totally my fault. Thought I could turn into a place to get myself turned around but there was a closed gate I failed to see until I had pulled up on it.

I missed a turn going to my delivery and quickly looked at my GPS map at what I thought was a good place to get myself turned around. The green line shows where I entered. The red line is the gate. The blue line is the path I was trying to take. Yellow line shows where I backed my trailer to get out.

First thing I did was call the airport police number I found on Google. I spoke with a really nice lady who told me she'd have a car come help me out.

Police car showed up about 2 mins later. He pulled alongside me and asked, "So how is your morning going?" He was really nice. Told me he'd stop traffic from entering behind me so I could back up and go out the way I came in.

As I'm preparing to back up another police car pulls alongside me and asks very sarcastically, "What? You can't read signs? What part of car rental did you not understand?"

I started to tell him I thought I could take the road around the building to get out. Before I finished explaining he interrupted me and asked, "How long have you been driving?" I told him, about 5 years. He said, "You must not be very good at your job." I wanted to tell him to eatabagadix, but I just nodded and started to back out.

I stopped as I approached the area where I'd have to swing the trailer to the left to get myself facing the exit. I looked to make sure I had enough room to my right as my truck swung around to catch up to my trailer. I did not have enough room. I pulled up to get a better angle, then got out to look again to make sure.

Then the a-hole cop decides to point out the fact that I'm holding up traffic and that a driver with my experience should be able to back it around the curve easily. Meanwhile the nice cop comes up and tells me he'll spot me so I don't get into the grass. I thanked him for his patience and his help.

Well, I got out of there. The nice cop even escorted me to the exit I needed to take to get back to the road I had missed in the first place.

Going to sleep now and prepare for another day. I have no doubt it will be better than this one!

RD, another good cop, bad cop setup? Lol.

Yeah, I’ve had my own experiences with “getting in was easy, but it took me a hour to back out.”

Good learning lesson for everyone reading.

So I got myself in a situation this morning. Totally my fault. Thought I could turn into a place to get myself turned around but there was a closed gate I failed to see until I had pulled up on it.

I missed a turn going to my delivery and quickly looked at my GPS map at what I thought was a good place to get myself turned around. The green line shows where I entered. The red line is the gate. The blue line is the path I was trying to take. Yellow line shows where I backed my trailer to get out.

First thing I did was call the airport police number I found on Google. I spoke with a really nice lady who told me she'd have a car come help me out.

Police car showed up about 2 mins later. He pulled alongside me and asked, "So how is your morning going?" He was really nice. Told me he'd stop traffic from entering behind me so I could back up and go out the way I came in.

As I'm preparing to back up another police car pulls alongside me and asks very sarcastically, "What? You can't read signs? What part of car rental did you not understand?"

I started to tell him I thought I could take the road around the building to get out. Before I finished explaining he interrupted me and asked, "How long have you been driving?" I told him, about 5 years. He said, "You must not be very good at your job." I wanted to tell him to eatabagadix, but I just nodded and started to back out.

I stopped as I approached the area where I'd have to swing the trailer to the left to get myself facing the exit. I looked to make sure I had enough room to my right as my truck swung around to catch up to my trailer. I did not have enough room. I pulled up to get a better angle, then got out to look again to make sure.

Then the a-hole cop decides to point out the fact that I'm holding up traffic and that a driver with my experience should be able to back it around the curve easily. Meanwhile the nice cop comes up and tells me he'll spot me so I don't get into the grass. I thanked him for his patience and his help.

Well, I got out of there. The nice cop even escorted me to the exit I needed to take to get back to the road I had missed in the first place.

Going to sleep now and prepare for another day. I have no doubt it will be better than this one!

A bad driver wouldn't have known to call the cops and have them spot you out. Sounds like the one cop was just a jerk don't let it get to you. If you didn't hit anything you did great

I turned too early into the Glen Elyn, IL. Walmart last year. Ended up having to back out onto the street across traffic. Too many obstacles to navigate to the back of the store. Found a spotter who was collecting carts in the parking lot. He said I wasn't the first. Good thing it was in the middle of the night in a Chicago suburb.

Embarrassing for sure.

Dean wrote:

I turned too early into the Glen Elyn, IL. Walmart last year. Ended up having to back out onto the street across traffic. Too many obstacles to navigate to the back of the store. Found a spotter who was collecting carts in the parking lot. He said I wasn't the first. Good thing it was in the middle of the night in a Chicago suburb.

Embarrassing for sure.

Same exact thing occurred to me at the Walmart in Warminster PA many years ago. Got out of it unscathed but had help. That is the time when I began using the GoogleMaps satellite view religiously and requested a paper copy store map from that point forward. I compiled an entire notebook of store maps by state in alphabetical order.

I’ll bet a paycheck if say a lawyer quizzed that officer on the law that he had to learn in the academy he wouldn’t remember it all off the top of his head. He’d have to go back and refresh himself. Does that make him a bad cop? No.

And neither does it make one a bad driver for calling the police for assistance to get re routed. I have a few friends that are current police officers. I’m positive that would agree with me.

Dean wrote:

I turned too early into the Glen Elyn, IL. Walmart last year. Ended up having to back out onto the street across traffic. Too many obstacles to navigate to the back of the store. Found a spotter who was collecting carts in the parking lot. He said I wasn't the first. Good thing it was in the middle of the night in a Chicago suburb.

Embarrassing for sure.

Same exact thing occurred to me at the Walmart in Warminster PA many years ago. Got out of it unscathed but had help. That is the time when I began using the GoogleMaps satellite view religiously and requested a paper copy store map from that point forward. I compiled an entire notebook of store maps by state in alphabetical order.

G-Town offers good advice for you newer drivers. Look at your destination before you get there. Saved me more than once from making a bad turn. A few of the Walmart stores in the Chicago area were safety record killers and/or career enders.

Dean wrote:

That is the time when I began using the GoogleMaps satellite view religiously and requested a paper copy store map from that point forward. I compiled an entire notebook of store maps by state in alphabetical order.

I did the same thing when I was on the Cheyenne DC WM account for Crete.

"You must not be very good at your job."

And if you were a really good police officer, you’d be somewhere other than “airport police.” 🤣