Almost anyone who’s ever ridden in a vehicle with me can confirm that I am, at baseline, a pretty lousy driver.

Just ask my friend from residency, Dr. J.F., about the time I accidentally jumped my Jeep Wrangler, “Dukes of Hazzard”-style, when I thought that some sketchy people in a station wagon were chasing us and I tried to take a shortcut back to the hospital to get away from them.

We caught some serious air.

How was I to know that there was a huge pothole in the road? It was dark and rainy,  and I was driving a wee bit faster than necessary.

While my driving is not stellar, my navigation is. Spouse will vehemently disagree with this (he started calling me “Magellan” with oozing sarcasm more than a decade ago), but he’s wrong. I get there by gut, every time. Plus a real Magellan GPS device.

 Here’s a tip I learned recently. Perhaps the hackneyed summer school driver’s ed course I took when I was 15 mentioned this, but I was probably asleep.

Check out these Interstate Exit signs:

The positioning of the Exit Number sign over the Route sign indicates whether the exit location is to the right, left, or straight.

This will be a left exit.

This will be a right exit.

If the Exit sign is in the middle, stay straight.

If you want to read more, this is an interesting article about the U.S. road system.

P.S. East-West interstate highways are even numbered. North-South interstate highways are odd numbered.

P.P.S. If an interstate highway is numbered with 3 digits, then it means it is not a primary highway, rather it’s a loop or connector that runs diagonally or around a city.