Mapping It Out

Blogging has been light lately.  I have been under the weather for several days with a particularly nasty virus.  Lots of 7-Up and soda crackers.  Anyway, while padding around the house, I came across my Rand McNally road atlas.  It was several years old, but still very useful.  Face it, road maps don't change much year to year.

Anyway, I am planning a trip later in the year and since I had a little time on my hands, I took out the atlas and started looking at the route and then possible other routes to my destination.  I then started thinking about other trips I had made in the past and trips that I had planned but for whatever reason not made.  I thought about the routes I had taken, places I had been, and even places I would see if I took those trips not-taken.

I then thought about who I was with on a trip or who I planned a trip with.  What we were thinking about (or sometimes worrying about) when we were at some particular point on the map in front of me.  Good memories of what had occurred on the trip and how the passage of time had even changed supposed calamities to laughter.  Some of those people on those trips are still alive, some passed on.  No pain, just miles.

I looked at the US map and saw how you would drive from one city to another; what states you would pass through on the journey.  I looked at how all the states fit together (no matter what you see on the news channels) and made one country.

I think auto travel is due for a come back.  (I can't remember the last time I wanted to get on a plane.) And part of the fun of that type of travel is planning the route.  It is a cliche', but it is still true, "it's the journey, not the destination."

This is perhaps too syrupy for some, but there is something special about maps like my old road atlas.  Yes I know GPS is great, and Google maps plot the quickest and most direct routes.  But I think and I hope there will always be a place for Rand McNally.