Think inside the box, and you’ll never get lost

My wife needed to find an address on Van Zandt County Road (VZCR) 1224 south of Grand Saline and east of Highway 17. So we built a box. Anything west of Highway 17 (and north of Canton) was in the wrong direction, so we used Highway 17 as the west side of the box. Because Highway 17 makes a turn to the east just south of Grand Saline, Highway 17 became the top of the box. Interstate 20 became the southern boundary of the box. We used Highway 110 from Van to Grand Saline as the east side of the box.

Here’s the principle of the box: As long as you’re inside it, you can’t get lost. As soon as you contact one of the edges of the box, that’s as far as you need to go. Get back inside the box and keep looking! You aren’t really lost as long as you are inside the box, whether you know exactly where you are or not.

By driving along the west end of her box on Highway 17, my wife eventually found VZCR 1224, turned east on it (and stayed inside the box), and found her destination.

When I was a kid, my mom gave me a box to stay in. It was a straight line from our house to my grade school. As I grew older and hopefully more responsible, my box got larger. Eventually it encompassed everything in town. When I learned to drive, my box expanded to include adjacent towns. All I had to do was let her know where I was going and precisely when I would return, and I could get my box to grow even more.

If you’re in a town, use major thoroughfares for the sides of your box. Include landmarks.

If you’re a hunter, use box boundaries for the area in which you are hunting. The sides of the box can be roads, power lines, streams, or fence lines.

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