Driving...or trying to!

Okay, I forgot one more thing. Though I don't really miss the freeways in Los Angeles, I do miss the simplicity of them. To get to our old house from, say, Topanga, you would drive north on the 405, you would then hop on the 5 going north, then you simply took the Hasley Canyon Road exit. Turn right on the Old Road, left on Hillcrest, and right on Beryl. Simple.
I entered "Charlotte-Douglas Airport" into my iPhone map search and thought I had a short in the phone. From my housing development, here's what the map search came up with.
1. Head NW on 24th Ave. Ln. NE toward 14th St. Ln. NE
2. Drive 151 ft then take first left onto 33rd St. Ln. NE
3. Drive .3 miles then take the 2nd right onto 24th St. Ave. NE (yes, thats a different 24th than the first direction)
4. Drive 194 feet then take the 1st left onto 18th St NE/State Rd 1401
5. Drive .9 miles then continue onto 10th St. Dr. NE (wait, continue? Yes, it changes from 18th St to 10th St. Dr.)
6. Drive 1.8 miles then turn left at 10th St. NE (WHAT? Turn from 10th onto 10th?? Ludicrous.)
7. Drive 46 feet then turn right to stay on 10th St. NE. (Turn right again to stay on 10th St. NE????? City planners must be playing a mean joke on the citizens of Hickory or they were drunk while planning, or they are a very conflicted bunch.)
8. Drive 512 feet then continue onto Lenoir Rhyne Blve SE/State road 1534. (CONTINUE ON? So you have to follow all of these turns to do your best to stay on 10th St. Dr. NE, and then they just pull the rug out from under you and change it to Lenoir Rhyne Blvd.??? All for naught. Unbelievable. I give up.)
9. Drive 1.7 miles then merge onto I-40 via the ramp to Asheville. Ah. The first simple driving instruction. However, it's about to get insanely crazy.
10. Drive 1.8 miles then take exit 123-123A-123B for US-321 toward N Carolina (you mean the state that I'm in??)127/Hickory/Lenoir/Lincolnton/US-70 Say it isn't so. If I hadn't seen it on my very own iPhone, I'd be tempted to disbelieve. I really thought there must be some mistake when I saw the directions on my phone, but was convinced that my phone was only trying to confuse me. What topped the shock charts was that the iPhone had the exact wording of the freeway sign. Verbatim. I know, because I nearly caused an accident while comparing the two- which took around 10 minutes with my mom's help ("driving time"- kinda like cat years). No way. Invitation to car crashes. I just checked the internet for accidents around this interchange, but obviously the city planners have been removing them from public access. :)
So, I wonder to myself, why on earth is driving somewhere made to be so complicated? Most people search their directions on mapquest before they leave their house, right? So once you're on the road, wouldn't it be easier if the sign just said, "321-South"? Maybe I'm just too simple. Maybe I'm missing something. Actually, if we stay in Hickory, and my kids learn to drive here, maybe this will help them to gain some trouble-shooting and problem-solving skills, and serve to improve their SAT scores. They'll learn how to read faster, that's for sure. Hey, combined with the DMV drivers test, they'll be ready for grad school before you know it. Maybe I owe a big thanks to the state of North Carolina for the bettering of the education of my children through hands-on practical life quizzes. That is, if their mother doesn't crash and severely injure them before they turn 16!
Or maybe the bottom line is this: I miss L.A. Freeways!!
By the way, my NC driver's license arrived in the mail yesterday! I'm official!