My grandmother still does this for some gods forsaken reason and somehow is worse at it than me. Mind you ive been having to track down adresses for work for about 3 years now but c’mon.
I am astounded people managed to drive around Japan without gps. The signage is awful here. Even with gps it can be a struggle at times.
i used to have to buy printed maps from the magazine racks at the grocery stores back in the 80s
Oohhhh I forgot about those!!!
I remember navigating for my dad as a kid using a physical street map. It was a great feeling tracking your position on the map and telling the driver what turn to make next.
But nothing beats the convenience of having a small rectangle that automatically calculates routes for you, especially when travelling alone.
Everyone ought to try driving somewhere they haven’t been before without bringing gps or even printed maps.
Look at a country/state map to get an idea of the general direction beforehand, but then otherwise just drive there and follow the signs as you get closer.
Oh that’s nothing. Before then we had to commit landmarks to memory and just call back on it as you’re driving.
And the scaling was fucked all to hell.
Bruh, I remember being excited to be the one to stay up in the passenger seat with the atlas overnight making callouts from the highlighted route. A child never felt so important, needed, and critical to the operation.
Wait until you find out what people did before computers
Had to make a stop at AAA to pick up an atlas before leaving for long road trips.
Although depending on where you are you could just memorize the route. A lot of the cross state travel is just a matter of getting on a highway and staying there for 10 hours. (At least in the US)
I remember those days.
Rand McNally has just entered the chat
In Rand McNally, people wear hats on their feet and hamburgers eat people!
Haha yeah. MapQuest. That’s old school, you silly geezers. Let’s get ya to bed.
Slowly folds up his road atlas hoping no one notices
Rand McNally with all the folds <kiss>
Before MapQuest, you’d carry around a six county atlas, and a state map. If you had to go somewhere outside the metro area, you’d use the state map to get to the city, then stop at the first gas station you saw there to look at their map on the wall, or ask to look at their phone book for the map in there.
Ew, people.
Better yet, stop at the rest stop at the state border and pick up a free state map, which included insets of the large cities.
Pro tip: Those maps are still there.
They never restock them though. Somehow they are always out. (At least for the last few years they have been)
However, you can use OSM offline pretty easily and if you want a physical map you can print it. (For those of us who want control)
I know, but my phone is more convenient.
We had those big red atlases (Atli?) with the glossy covers from over half the US states, and smaller maps for all the counties in Virginia, NC, SC, and about half of TN. Huge ass stack of em in both door panels, under each seat, and several on the back seat. My brother collected them whenever he could. I think he’s still depressed he never finished his collection before giving up and finally getting a gps (only like 2 years before decent smart phone gps)
Atli
I’m pretty sure the proper form is Atlapodes.
Gonna split the difference. Atlapodii
The singular isn’t “atlus.” Atlases is correct.
Nope, up thread we figured out the correct form. Atlapodii.
“Sometimes, you just had to stop and find someone to ask for directions…”
That’s honestly still a good answer. The locals know best
It was pretty great. Tried to have me drive through a city park lake once to get to a movie theater I hadn’t been to before. A+
