Once upon a time, dear children, when Daddy drove the family on a vacation trip (and because this was a very long time ago, it was Daddy who always drove) the trip might take much longer than Daddy had anticipated.

This is because Daddy, believing himself the reincarnation of pioneers of bygone days, would never listen to Mommy and stop and ask for directions.

"Would Daniel Boone have asked for directions?" Daddy would say. "Did Davy Crockett stop at a gas station and ask the way to the Alamo?" as Mommy would roll her eyes. "Did Lewis and Clark pull over and ask a cop how you get to the Northwest Passage, please?"

No they would not. And neither would Daddy. And that, children, is why trips to Cape Cod would not infrequently go by way of Plymouth when Daddy took the wrong turn on the unexplored wilderness trail known as Route 3.

Then, the Internet was born and, as with so much in our modern world of technological marvels, things got immeasurably worse. Apparently the Internet is no better than Daddy was in figuring out where anything is.

Just ask Foxboro residents who live on Patriot Circle. One online mapping service, Google Maps, has placed the home of the New England Patriots and the Revolution, Gillette Stadium, directly in the middle of the subdivision.

The stadium, actually located on Route 1, uses "Patriot" in its address - One Patriot Place - as does residential Patriot Circle.

Foxboro officials say motorists using Google Maps and other online services and GPS units on their way to a game or concert are turning up at Patriot Circle. And, evidently, Google is not only mislocating Gillette Stadium, but is also indicating that Route 1 is the site of long-gone Schaefer Stadium.

It's not the first time technology has steered the public wrong. There have been plenty of stories of drivers dutifully following voice instructions from their GPS systems to a dead end or into a lake. And Google Maps has located and provided information about a small village in England called Argleton, in Lancashire, which, like Brigadoon, does not actually exist.

Foxboro and Patriot officials are trying to get various Web sites to correct the Gillette Stadium error but are finding the task daunting. As with embarrassing photos and e-mails, once something gets on the Internet it's nearly impossible to remove.

So, what is the moral of this story, children? Perhaps it's not to put too much trust in the latest high-tech toys or in far-off faceless corporations, no matter how user-friendly they may seem.

Perhaps, if we want to know where we are, we have to open our eyes and look around us.

Oh, and maybe let Mommy drive for a while if we want to get where we are going and, by the way, live happily ever after.