I'm Lost!

Well reader, to be honest, I considered not telling you this story because it is slightly embarrassing. And Kings should not allow themselves to be laughed at, but after careful consideration it would be a crime to pass up on such an opportunity to tell such a good story. So here it is my dear reader.... the story of me getting very lost. Now I'm sure you're thinking that my loyal subjects would be more than willing to help out their King, and you would be correct. The people love me just as they have loved every King Charles before me (don't fact check that). However when I go out on my own I use the old celebrity trick of a baseball cap and sunglasses that way no one recognizes me. Trust me, after you get mobbed by your subjects once you'd go incognito too.

It started out as a normal Friday here in the big city. I woke up, ate breakfast, and then I decided to go on a run. I planned my route out on Google maps, ironically, so I wouldn't get lost. It was a very easy route to remember, just a loop down to the river and back, about 8 miles. It was through several areas I'm fairly familiar with so even if I took one wrong turn it wouldn't be the end of the world. I'm sure you have already inferred from the title of this post that my run did not go as planned. You would be correct.

I ran from the residence (oh if I haven't mentioned this before, we call where I live 'the residence' and the staff calls it 'the accommodation') down to the river Thames, along the river, then up through Trafalgar square towards Regent's park. No wrong turns, no problems at all. Once I got to Regent's park I decided to take the canal back to where I live. I've run on the canal before and it is quite nice but I have not ever been on this particular part. Well I started my way down the canal and when I finished the 8 miles I planned on doing I still wasn't home so I kept walking in the same direction. It can't be too much farther I kept telling myself. After walking for a while and not recognizing any landmarks I decided to get off the canal and figure out where I was. Uh oh... I didn't recognize a thing. I found one of the many street maps posted around most bus stops and realized that I must be pretty lost because I didn't recognize the area the map said I was in. I guess I should ask for directions...

I would like to thank the young man working at the Chicken Inn Village, a fast food chicken restaurant, for pointing me in the right direction to get home, which was the direction I had just walked from. As I'm walking in the direction he pointed me in I went through a couple weird intersections so just to double check my course, I asked a guy at a tube station I passed how to get back to Kings Cross. He looked puzzled and asked if I didn't know how to read a tube map, "Its easy just take Bakerloo line too...". "No no no," I said "I'm walking." I told him I didn't have any money to take the tube nor did I have my Oyster Card (the public transportation pass). The horrified look on his face immediately told me I was VERY far away from home. Well I better get walking, but hey it won't be that bad. It's not windy or raining and I had my IPod for entertainment. I spoke too soon, after the guy at the tube station and I parted ways my IPod died! So to recap: my IPod was dead, the temperature was around 40 degrees, I was sweaty, cold, hungry and had a long walk ahead of me.

Thanks to the modern miracle of GPS I can show you just how far from home I really was.

The red line is where I ran, starting at the green pin and ending at the red one. The red X on the left is where The Chicken Inn Village is. As you can see I stubbornly kept going in the same direction after I quit running because I thought I was going in the right direction to get home. As I learned the hard way Regent's canal will not only take you back to the residence but it will also take you AWAY from the residence! (hence my wrong turn at the top of the map). Had I taken the correct path on the canal I would have gotten home no problem and you my dear reader would not have gotten to hear such a wonderful tale! I learned to ALWAYS carry my Oyster Card with me just in case I get lost again. When I finally got home I checked my GPS and it said my mileage for the day was a grand total of 19 miles! So my 8 miles turned into over twice that with just one wrong turn. My legs were very sore the next day but I did hit my step goal and I definitely slept very well that night!

On the bright side I got to see some new parts of the city. I ended up walking through one posh neighborhood where the canal ran through the middle of the street (pretty cool if you ask me) that had some very nice cars parked along the side of the road. Well my dear reader I hope you enjoyed this story of my misfortune, here's to hoping that this doesn't happen again!

Long Live the King