Do you still keep paper road maps in your car?

[Bill Talbot]

Do you still keep paper road maps in your car?

Of course. How else can I plan a proper driving route
Nav makes your brain sleep and takes all the fun out of getting lost...

 

[coskigirl]

I have a couple in there but they're both National Forest maps since those are the areas I'm most likely to take a wrong turn into. If I were doing a road trip that was in unfamiliar areas I'd probably at least have printouts but it's been awhile since I've done one of those.

 

[Pat AKA mustski]

I have an atlas in the RV. I also take the time to plan my route before taking a road trip. To me that is half the fun. Of course, my adventure limit ends where reservations begin. I love to road trip in the RV, but I need to know where I will park each night. I am not adverse to dry dock in a rest area, but I need to know the plan in advance.

 

[luliski]

Yes. I like to have a big picture, especially driving long distances. It's fun to figure which mountain range we're looking at, which river we crossed, etc. On my recent trip to New York, Montreal and Vermont, my road atlas was the reason I knew we were close to Whiteface Mountain and then Stowe. We checked both of those places out.

 

[crgildart]

I usually print out Google maps and directions for places I don't have memorized. The kids like to follow along when taking a break from the video games. Nice to have handy if the satellite signal is lost. Maps in glove box are pretty much only there to make me feel better. Can't remember the last time I dug one out to use... might if I didn't have the GPS and Google maps to refer to first.

 

[Philpug]

Some of our drives are as much about the journey as the destination, especially in the Miata. We have found many times there is an "alternate route" to get us where we want to go that is more advernturous thus more fun. For those who do like to take the the alternate routes..check out madmaps.com for maps that have great driving/riding routes for the enthusiest.

 

[Carl Kuck]

Yes, laminated folding maps by Rand McNally. You can also mark on them with wax pencil and easily remove the marks later!

 

[bbinder]

Yes

 

[Pat AKA mustski]

I have always enjoyed navigating our trips. I have a terrible sense of direction so maps are a must for me. I am excellent at time management and can always choose the most direct route and estimate the amount of time needed for the journey - including fuel stops. Back in the day, the family called me the mom-mom and said I was more accurate than the tom-tom.

 

[Guy in Shorts]

Thank goodness for GPS/Google maps as my co-pilot is next to useless at reading a paper map. Besides a paper map will never tell you that you are below the high tide mark.

Race Point, Cape Cod

 

[James]

^^One can definitely get into trouble with a paper map. Around the millenium I did a week long trip around Wyoming with a friend. 2,000 miles of driving. We used the Wyoming Gazetteer. The scale is so huge though. We ran into some bad roads for a rental 4wd and nearly got stuck. Got lost a bunch and one time ended up on an Indian reservation. We had 3 flat tires for the week. A few months later those tires were recalled.

 

[pais alto]

...Around the millenium I did a week long trip around Wyoming with a friend. 2,000 miles of driving....We ran into some bad roads for a rental 4wd and nearly got stuck. Got lost a bunch and one time ended up on an Indian reservation. We had 3 flat tires for the week. A few months later those tires were recalled.

Good times, amiright?

 

[crgildart]

Thank goodness for GPS/Google maps as my co-pilot is next to useless at reading a paper map. Besides a paper map will never tell you that you are below the high tide mark.

View attachment 27495
Race Point, Cape Cod

Looking at the drift brush and wet sand along the beach solves that need.
There are way more stories where some idiot followed BAD GPS instructions off a freaking dock in to a lake or on to train tracks getting slammed by a train than there are instances where a paper map caused such calamity hahahahaha!

 

[Sibhusky]

Since I'm the navigator in the family, if I'm driving I'd rather count on Google or Garmin than my family. My mom was the navigator when I was growing up and one time after I was grown I had my dad in navigator position and we about came to blows. I ordered him into the back seat and put mom back in charge (pre-GPS days). Husband close to useless. Daughter slightly better, but she was navigating along with "Samantha" (Garmin) for all the Austrian fiascoes. Resulting excitement the result of too many cooks, road symbol disks being anything but intuitive, and it not being me navigating. But we did get to see a guy in his underwear.

 

[Philpug]

Steven Wright: I have a full-size map of the United States, one mile equals one mile.

 

[Tricia]

Since I'm the navigator in the family, if I'm driving I'd rather count on Google or Garmin than my family. My mom was the navigator when I was growing up and one time after I was grown I had my dad in navigator position and we about came to blows. I ordered him into the back seat and put mom back in charge (pre-GPS days). Husband close to useless. Daughter slightly better, but she was navigating along with "Samantha" (Garmin) for all the Austrian fiascoes. Resulting excitement the result of too many cooks, road symbol disks being anything but intuitive, and it not being me navigating. But we did get to see a guy in his underwear.

I'm usually the navigator when @Philpug and I travel. He has made the occasional attempt at navigating but it rarely works (I was going to say never, but he'll probably remember that one time he was a good navigator)
We have come to blows a couple times while he's been in navigator position.
Most recently, I drive long stretches but when we're in a situation where directions need to be given, we switch and I get back in the navigator seat.

 

[Philpug]

I'm usually the navigator when @Philpug and I travel. He has made the occasional attempt at navigating but it rarely works (I was going to say never, but he'll probably remember that one time he was a good navigator)
We have come to blows a couple times while he's been in navigator position.
Most recently, I drive long stretches but when we're in a situation where directions need to be given, we switch and I get back in the navigator seat.

This is very true. Every word of it.

 

[crgildart]

^^One can definitely get into trouble with a paper map. Around the millenium I did a week long trip around Wyoming with a friend. 2,000 miles of driving. We used the Wyoming Gazetteer. The scale is so huge though. We ran into some bad roads for a rental 4wd and nearly got stuck. Got lost a bunch and one time ended up on an Indian reservation. We had 3 flat tires for the week. A few months later those tires were recalled.

Good times, amiright?

Steven Wright: I have a full-size map of the United States, one mile equals one mile.

 

[Philpug]

Name the movie...

Your going the wrong way.....

How do they know which way we are going....

 

[Bill Talbot]

^^One can definitely get into trouble with a paper map. Around the millenium I did a week long trip around Wyoming with a friend. 2,000 miles of driving. We used the Wyoming Gazetteer. The scale is so huge though. We ran into some bad roads for a rental 4wd and nearly got stuck. Got lost a bunch and one time ended up on an Indian reservation. We had 3 flat tires for the week. A few months later those tires were recalled.

Sometimes it's all about the journey...

The Road Not Taken
By Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.