Maine Folks: Have You Ever Given a Tourist the Wrong Directions?

Ok, so maybe I have. But they had it coming...

I won't lie, when I was a kid, I'd say whatever. Every now and then people would ask for directions, and I'd send them wherever. Half the time, because I was a kid, I'd have no idea what they were talking about, but I was an impish turd most of the time and liked to cause a bit of mischief. Ok, sometimes as an adult too.

I was doing a remote broadcast once, and was literally live on the air. A man and his three kids came up to me and asked for directions to Walmart... while I had a mic in my hand and was talking on air. So I put the guy right on the air, and proceeded to give him directions to Target instead. Then his kids said they hated our music. So yeah, he had it coming.

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One person from away thinks we all love to give wrong directions.

On Reddit, a person who didn't say where they were from, based their opinion on a bit from a John Steinbeck book, and an Instagram video where they watched someone give some truly awful directions on purpose. It lead this person to believe we must love it. And yeah, we probably do.

Imagine the poor locals in a place like Bar Harbor or Portland, where people are constantly asking you where such and such a place is. Sometimes you'll be asked a few times a season. After a while, it's gotta get to you. It'll grate on the nerves of even the strongest-willed Mainers.

The responses were naturally awesome. And well justified.

Some folks unabashedly give wrong directions, others think it's mean. Others just love to mess with tourists a bit, and then come clean with the truth. But other commenters pointed out, some of our "directions" sound entirely made up, but will get you there, because of odd landmarks.

Or even things that used to be somewhere, but not any longer. You know, the way we Mainers tend to use landmarks that don't exist anymore. Such as, "oh, it's down by the old Dairy Queen...". We're famous for that kind of thing. One person's directions are another person's nightmare. Welcome to Maine!

Maybe this will help you spot tourists more readily...