A Year of Blogging: April 5, 2011

Today is Read a Road Map day. Another skill I think people have little use for. Or rather, they think they have little use for it. Who needs a road map when you have GPS systems, or mapquest? Well, because the GPS systems, or even mapquest, might sometimes be wrong. Of course, maps can be wrong too. I was once trying to find a store in a nearby town, so I used Mapquest for the directions. I was doing great. I had followed the directions all the way to the town, and it told me to take a left and the store would be right there. I was with my parents, and Dad was driving. So he took a left and we ended up smack in the middle of a cemetery! No store anywhere around! We had to do it the old fashioned way- stop and ask for directions. My Dad taught me to read a map as a very young child. Whenever we took a road trip, I was Dad's copilot. I have always been his copilot. Mom gets distracted, either by us, or by what she sees on the side of the road, or she falls asleep. My sister had a routine on a road trip: eat, sleep, wake up at the rest area; repeat. So I became Dad's copilot. Even back then, I was always a night owl. We used to leave in the evening and drive all night to Florida. That way we missed traffic all the way down the east coast: NYC, NJ, DC, Richmond. I could stay up talking to Dad long after everyone else had gone to sleep. Before we went on a trip, Dad and I would look at the atlas and plan a couple of routes. We liked to have a backup plan. The atlas came with us on the trip, and if we got on I95 and hit an accident or weather, it was my job to find a way around it. Dad couldn't read the map and drive, so it was my job. Some people look at a map and see nothing but colored lines and little type. I look at it and see the interstates, the rivers, the parks, the small roads. I'm happy to say I still use maps- in fact, I used one last week trying to figure out the directions for my dad to come down I71 instead of I75. Even if I'm with someone who is using a GPS, I like to check the map just to be sure. And not only can I read a map, I can fold it too!