I can totally empathize with Ben.
A few years ago Deb & I went with relatives to the National Zoo in DC. Deb and I had been there together about 15 years ago, and I had been there any number of times while I was stationed in the DC area in the 1980s. Drive down to the closest Metro station, park, take the Metro in, get off at the Zoo stop. Piece of cake!
Off we went. Oh, but Deb’s niece also wanted to visit a particular park while we were in the area—we could do that, right? Um, sure, I’d been there (in the 1980s) it was very nice and next to a Metro stop.
Park the cars, get tickets. The ticket machines had changed. (Not like Ben finding an ATM when he wanted to buy tokens, but now we had to read everything instead of pushing familiar buttons.) The relatives, never patient, started getting their own tickets, got confused, and had to be bailed out by me and Deb while we were still trying to figure out our own tickets. Then there was confusion about which stop we were going to, and how much to put on the tickets, and “but I thought it worked THIS way” arguments, and… Plus noise and confusion and people and Situation Normal DC.
Plus my blood sugar may have dropped. Does that when I’m stressed. (I was very stressed.)
Get on the train. Get off at the stop. Exit the station. I survey the area, knowing I’ve been there before, and wait for my “no worries, I got this!” infallible sense of direction to kick in.
My sense of direction returns, “404 ERROR — DIRECTIONS NOT FOUND!” I confess the Deb that I do not remember ever being there before in my life. Deb suggests (for the 3rd time) that I eat some Lifesavers that I always keep in my pocket, and this time I do so.
We (finally!) get out our phones to get directions. The relatives say “Let’s just start walking while we figure it out” and start walking in a direction that looks interesting. By this time the sugar has kicked in and, maps in hand, I can walk them around three sides of a square to get to where they want to go. The park is as I remember (just not WHERE) and we depart by the Metro station right next to it (not the one we arrived at) and head for the zoo. We have a nice time at the zoo.
I make sure from then on that I have our journeys mapped before we depart, if it’s a destination not in our neighborhood.