Don’t you hate making wrong turns? I do. Once I hiked for an hour down the side of a mountain heading south on the Appalachian trail before meeting a hiker going the other way. There was one problem: He said he was also going south. I began to argue. Then he told me he had started in Maine and was heading to Georgia. He knew south.
With my last feeble protest, I showed him my map. Without a word, he turned the map right-side-up and handed it back before hiking on. I had made a wrong turn.
But my mistake was nothing compared to the man we celebrate today. On this day in 1938, Douglas Corrigan left New York in his small plane; 28 hours later, he landed in Dublin, Ireland. There was one problem: He had meant to fly to Los Angeles! His excuse? He said he had read his compass upside down.
That’s a wrong turn of 3000 miles. His mistake brought him instant fame, a ticker-tape parade when he returned, and a new nickname: “Wrong Way” Corrigan. (Read some interesting
tidbits about his life.)
As an old man, Corrigan admitted that he had flown the wrong way intentionally, but that won’t bother us as we make our own wrong-way journey today — without even leaving the house. Here’s how to do it.
Gather your kids. Take a map of the U.S. and decide on some place you’d like to visit. Anchor a piece of string at your town on the map, and stretch it to that place. Now, with your eyes closed, swing the string (still anchored at your town) in any direction until someone yells stop. You now have your new destination.
Where did you land? Ashland, PA? Ashland, OK? Doesn’t matter. You don’t actually have to drive there; just send a postcard.
Find postcards that show something of your town or area. Address each card to a different person in each town: postmaster in one, mayor in another, Chamber of Commerce in another. Write that your family found their town on the map and you’re wondering if someone would write back and tell you about it. What is interesting about it? What do they do for fun? Then sit back and wait to see who responds.
My son, Will, and I did this and were surprised
by what happened.
It’s fun to explore, even when your final destination is a “mistake.” As Frank Tyger has said, “Discoveries are often made by not following instructions, by going off the main road, by trying the untried.” Sometimes the best way is what seemed to be the wrong way.
— Bruce Van Patter
