We had to travel up to Duke University yesterday to consult with a Doctor there. It’s about a 2.5 hour trip, Interstate to within a couple miles of the destination and no big deal except navigating the narrow, twisty streets around Duke itself. I used the map app on my phone which is something I actually only started doing about a year or so ago. Prior to that I plotted out routes and printed paper maps as I have my whole life.
We stopped at a Rest Stop on the way and I noticed that the only map there was on a wall behind plexiglass. I remembered so many trips over the years when I’d always grab a State map when at a Rest Stop. Every Gas station had a map display with local State maps and maps of surrounding States. My car ALWAYS had multiple maps in a pouch and I remember many episodes of sitting in a parking lot or on the side of the road poring over the unfolded Map to plan the next route or to get back to where I SHOULD have been before the wrong turn (which of course was ALWAYS my wife’s or kid’s fault).
We laughed about the fact that without the Internet and Google Maps most People today would be totally lost and unable to get ANYWHERE outside their local neighborhood. Then it struck me that since starting to use that app I too no longer had any Maps in the car. It actually sent a chill up my spine to realize I was over 100 miles from home and had NO paper maps in my possession or readily available even though I knew the rest of the way home on Interstate 40.
So I’m ordering paper maps of North Carolina and neighboring States today. In the short term I’m printing out the North Caroline Map on Ledger Paper on my wide format printer and taping the pages together so that I once again have at least ONE paper map of the region in which I live.
After looking only a few minutes I did find this site where you can order Free Paper Maps of most States.
Get some!!!
The Librarian