It's October 2016. I'm at the Sheraton in Parsippany-TroyHills NJ for Chiller theater (A.K.A. ChillerCon) with my ex, who was the soul reason why we went in the first place. I dressed up as Boba Fett and she dressed up as a Storm Trooper. We left from her place to get there (she lives in College Point NY in Queens).
After enjoying ourselves, walking around, buying souvenirs, and watching a concert, we decided to leave to go home at night (hotel was fully booked, so we couldn't make a reservation). As I start the car and turn my GPS on to go home, it took longer than usual to calculate the route, but after a minute or two it went "route/signal cannot be found". "WTF?!" i said, as I entered in the address for the second and third time until finally it said "Go North". "... huh" I thought "Maybe it knows a better route for getting home", so I follow it. After about an hour driving, my ex started to panic, because we weren't on any highways and there were no street lights around, so we were driving in complete darkness (aside from my headlights) surrounded by hills and trees. She forced me to stop to check the GPS, and when I did, I came to the disturbing realization that my GPS was taking me and my ex to Canada.
Now I, normally the calm one, start to panic, and turn the other way. My ex is having a full blown panic attack, going "omg what if we get stranded, how will anyone find us?!?!" and like a good boyfriend I re-assure her that everything was going to be fine. First of all, I always carry an emergency kit with me in the back of my car (including flashlights, flares, jumper cables, etc...) just for such an occasion. Second, my GPS has a feature where it leaves little dots on the road for paths you've been to before, so I just followed that the whole time back to the hotel. Before we wound back at the hotel I stopped to get gas and took her to a McDonalds cause she wanted french fries. I just got a water bottle cause my mouth was like cotton x10 from internal panicking. She forced me to ask for directions before we got back in the car, so while she went to the bathroom, I, half-dressed in my Boba Fett costume (I had a plain shirt on but Boba Fett's pants still on) asked a NJ cop that was waiting in line directions on how to get back, and without even blinking twice he told me where to go.
Luckily the route the cop told me to go to was exactly the same route we had taken to get to the hotel earlier that day, so I followed that all the way down until we wind up at one of the bridges that connects NJ to NY. Unfortunately, I take one wrong right turn (thanks to my GPS pulling a "SYKE!!" on me) and wind up in the middle of Manhattan, so we wind up being stuck in traffic in the city for a good half hour. That's when I noticed something even scarier... my car battery light went on, and my headlights were getting dimmer. Now, i thought, this was an emergency situation.
FInally, we wind up back on the highway to where we get to familiar grounds (Long island Expressway headed east to Queens). We wind up getting back to her place and immediately call it a night cause that moment took alot out of us. Next day I take my car to the shop near her place and find out my engine decided it wanted to leak oil while my alternator was giving out for the 8192347236874th time. I drove my car back home and the next day I sold it on "LetGo", threw away the GPS and wound up getting both a new car with a built-in gps that christmas.