A few weeks ago, my friend and I got the bright inspiration to walk all the way to Kismet from the Fire Island Lighthouse. I had been told it wasn’t an extremely long journey, and, timed just right in the early fall, would be quite lovely and scenic.
Well, it was certainly scenic.
Considering that there is basically one route from the Lighthouse leading into the Fire Island communities, one would think there would be no need for directions. But, just for kicks, I decided to put the address of the restaurant we planned to go to – Surf’s Out – into my phone and ask the famous Siri for directions. Immediately, my trusty little map dropped a pin at our current location, as well as another quite some distance away.
At first glance, it seemed rather far, but we paid no mind. We just started walking. Pretty soon, we saw the sign telling us we were entering Kismet Village. Okay, we were on the right track. My friend thought she remembered that there was a particular cross street we would need to make a left turn on, in order to head north to the Bay side of the Island, where the restaurants were located. Not quite certain which road it was, we figured surely there would be a sign.
Oh, there was a sign all right.
The next marker we came across welcomed us to the Village of Saltaire – in other words, we were now exiting Kismet. Hmmm… interesting. And yet, there remained the little glowing dot on my phone, still way off in the distance. Something was wrong.
As I zoomed in further, I started to faintly make out the words “Ocean Beach” stamped on the map. Ocean Beach?! As in that town I had not too long ago take a ferry to?! I didn’t even know you could walk there if you wanted to! And who in their right mind would want to? Uh-oh, we were seriously off track.
At that point, short of knocking on a local resident’s door – many of whom had already packed it in for the season – the only other passers-by consisted of bicyclists zooming by – and deer…lots of deer, galloping across the street, darting from one yard to the other, presumably in search of something to munch on.
Ah, but then, out of the blue came an older couple, clearly local residents out for a leisurely afternoon stroll. “Excuse me, but can you tell us if there is a restaurant near here?” my friend inquired. “Oh yes,” the man said. Oh good, I thought. “But not here…” Uh-oh. “It’s way back in Kismet,” he gestured in the direction from which we had just come. Oh boy. “How far, exactly?” “Oh, it’s a good hike,” his wife said apologetically.
We politely thanked them and began the long process of retracing our steps, finally arriving at our intended destination – approximately 3.5 miles and 1 hour and 20 minutes after departing. All for the experience of walking to Kismet.
It was an experience all right.
Suffice it to say, Siri will not be invited on our next journey.
Pubished: October 3, 2012