Maps, Mountains, and the Road Trip that Never Ends

Remember the time before GPS …

Hey Everybody. It wasn't that long ago, before the usage of GPS, MapQuest, Bing Maps, Google Maps, and the Garmin: we have to find out where we were by using a map. No, we didn’t pull out the sexton to go to the supermarket, but we had to use the grid system to find our location and manually calculate your location to your destination.

Using a map is a very important skill. There could be a time that you don't have your smartphone to give ‘turn-by-turn’ directions. You need to have some skills and use a map. I thought it would be important that my kids understood how to use a map (or a phone book — future blog post), because … you never know about the future.

I remember we were on the road to the supermarket when the idea came into my head that the kids should learn about a map. The reason why, at that moment in time why it became important, is that I was lost. I tried to drive to a new store and remembered the cross streets to get there, but that wasn’t the way, and I am driving around with no direction home.

My firstborn asks, “Dad! I have to go to the bathroom!”

My secondborn chimes in, “I am so hungry that I could eat the fallen food under the seat!”

“Don’t worry, Dad knows what to do.”

I had no idea what to do.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a drug store. At least there, I can get the kids something to eat and a bathroom.

As we moved through the store with the slightest of ease, I asked the guy behind the corner, “Where do you keep your maps?”

“Maps?”, the man said with a deep Jamaican accent, “What do you think? This is 1980?”

“Hey Joe!”, he yells out to his friend at the pharmacy, “Do we have any maps? I got a guy who just got here from 1980.”

Joe starts laughing and walks to the front of the store, looks at me, and says, “We have cell phone batteries in 9D. That should charge your smartphone and you can find your way home.”

I smile and say, “I don’t have my phone with me.”

Joe says, “What about the kids?”

I reply, “They are too young for phones.”

He comes in close, so close that the tuna on his breath made me want to hurl, and whispers, “Ok. Ok. I know where there is a map. Follow me.”

I follow him to the back of the store wondering, is this the last time I am going to see my kids? I hope firstborn can drive out of here in case I don’t make it out!

Joe takes me to the last shelf in the last corner of the store, where they keep the expired merchandise they can’t sell. He uses the flashlight of his smartphone, wipes an inch thick layer of dust, and there it was … a map.

I take the map and begin to unfold it.

Joe says, “We haven’t had someone look for a map since …”

I read the copyright date on the map. It is a map from 1980!

I yell, “This isn’t going to do me any good. My house was built twenty years after this map was produced!”

Joe is laughing hysterically.

I yell out, “How am I going to get home!”

Joe says, “Just go to the Tripple-A next door and they will get you a map if you have a membership.”

A few minutes later, I bought a membership to Triple-A, took my map, and went home.

Bottom line: Even though smartphones have GPS and can direct you to anywhere in the world, keep an up-to-date map in the car in case of emergency.

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