You have a map...

Many years ago we made a road trip across northern US in a hired Cadillac using nothing but a paper tourist map. Had no idea where we would visit, but stopped at some fun places. In later years when we travelled in Europe, it was the same we just went. As Paul Theroux put it, 'Tourists don't know where they've been, travellers don't know where they're going.'
 
A bit off topic. 2005, March 15, my wife Patricia and I were heading to St. Patrick's MO for her 60th birthday. We are in our brand-new Honda Odyssey (our first "not USA" car ever!) and using the GPS for the first time. We liked to wander off the beaten path on the way there to enjoy seeing America, and were most pleasantly surprised that no matter how far off route we got, that GPS would instantly know where we were and where we had to go. No need for the Trip Tick or maps! Isn't modern technology wonderful we thought!

Thoroughly enjoyed St. Patrick's, population about 16, except swells to over 200 on the holiday. Not only does the town host an annual celebration in honor of its patron saint, it also built a shrine to him, and the town's Post Office even offers St. Patrick’s day-themed stamp cancellations.
 
ohioboy said:
Follow the yellow brick road.
Click to expand...
My wife and I would spend much of our motorcycle riding through the night. Usually coming home from a two-wheeled excursion of neighboring states. I never rode the expressways except when coming close to a large city. To miss the stop signs throughout the outlying suburbs and in the city itself, we would finally get onto an expressway. We rode it past the city and suburbs to the other side. it was then off the busy expressway and back to the more safe and empty country roads - where my top grade radar detector saved my butt many times from getting a ticket for the 90 to 100 mph I'd often be doing.

A god-send on my last bike, a Honda Goldwing, was the GPS with dash readout of the road we were on and the ones ahead. It kept me from missing a necessary turn off onto a planned road. Before that gimmick, I often missed turning onto the next planned side road, usually riding a few more miles before figuring out I was heading farther away from home. Figuring that out usually took a pull-over on a totally dark road and reading a map with a flashlight.

How I *loved* that backlighted dash map.
 
Last edited:
@Jace >>>"you have a map...But, you really don't know where you're going. What to do?"

OP left out much and instead unintentionally made a game of watching how members assume what the OP may have meant.

For instance you might be:
  • On a boat cruising 3 miles parallel off an ocean coast.
  • Walking on streets of a large unfamiliar city while looking at street signs.
  • Hiking on unfamiliar trails 10 miles in some wilderness area after at a trail junction maybe taking the wrong path?
  • On a golf course wondering why you are now on the 11th hole fairway instead of the tee area for hole #4?
  • Inside a large hospital building looking for the Opthamology Department, but without knowing the department's actual name, floor, or room numbers.
  • Looking for your seat at Section 29 row 12 seat 16 in a large unfamiliar football stadium.
  • Driving a vehicle within a maze of unpaved dirt backroads without signs or other vehicles.
  • Driving a vehicle in a foreign country with an unfamiliar language of confusing street signs.
  • Driving on an unfamiliar USA freeway after taking a confusing unramp.
  • Driving about in an unfamiliar street labyrinth of some residential neighborhood.
  • Walking around your local residential block lost in daydreams after momentarily forgetting why?
  • Much more of course.

Again, much more interesting was how posters assumed missing information that probably has more to do with their own daily life.
 
I call SO, my knight in shining armor. PD got unpleasant the other day when I asked about not signed detour to the house and I ended up miles from nowhere. Working my way up the food chain for signage.
 
among some..
Today- S.4/5/25 I is National Read A Map
Day!

Find that unique-sounding named town.
that you'd like to check out!😉
 
I use GPS exclusively. I may not know where I am, but it tells me how to get to where I want to be. I got into a never ending line of slow traffic after a 300 mile trip to view an eclipse, where everyone left at the same time and jammed up the free way. I stopped at a couple of gas stations to pick up a map to look for alternative routes, but gas stations don't seem to carry them anymore.

So I got off an exit and headed north for 50 miles and turned on my GPS which got me the rest of the way home. I was far enough from any freeway that the GPS didn't send me back to a freeway. There was still a line of traffic, and occasionally from the top of a hill, I could see that line of traffic a mile ahead of me, but I could not see the end. At least it was fast moving, so it was a good choice.
 
Once long ago when I was plotting out a route on a map, a friend's husband said "that's women's work". Yes, I thought. You would probably drive around in circles hoping for a miracle.
 
I'm always hesitant about taking long trips. Firstly, I don't trust my car which is 23 years old and little problems are starting to pop up. And
the other is all the new roadways and highways are unknown to me. I don't have a GPS for seniors. Think I'll stay at home with all the roads I'm familiar with.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top