Maps

After cleaning out my truck yesterday I re-discovered that I like "new car smell," but I am also rather fond of "old truck smell."  I also retrieved my beloved Rand-McNally Road Atlas.  You know, the kind Walmart sells for five dollars and has a state road map on each page?  I spent quite a bit of time exploring the maps again.

I love maps!  Since I was a kid riding on long family road trips, I would get out the atlas.  I love that by using the mile markers, you can pinpoint your location on the blue line of the Interstate.  The atlas also displays mileage between points along the route.  I would calculate how far we had gone, how far until the next town, how long it would take us to arrive at our final destination.  I could even plan little side trips down the pink lines.  I spent many bored hours doing this.  

Now whenever I am on a road trip (and not driving), I still do this.  I am a great navigator with all kinds of maps.  I can get you around using the city maps and subway maps, too.  If I am the one driving, I will need to study the map at rest stops.  I love the feeling of driving across one page and onto the next!  I am no tremendous road-tripper, but I have gone by myself as far as Moab, Utah and Toronto, Ontario.  (Rand-McNally also includes Canada and Mexico.)

Here is where the story gets sad.  My skills are being replaced by a GPS.  I like that it helps a driver without having to pull over and study a map.  I am always disagreeing with the route my GPS chooses and I force her to recalculate all the time.  The captains on "Deadliest Catch" always use paper charts in addition to GPS, so I guess I will, too.  The satellites may not always be there for me, but Rand-McNally will be!