The lost art of using the map

I got an email yesterday about the availability of the 2025 Rustic Roads Guide for Wisconsin.  

If you haven’t traveled on them, it’s a fun experience.  

Next to it on the download page was a downloadable copy of the 2025 Official State Highway Map. Or you order a printed version.  That brought back some memories.  

Back when I was younger, a map was the only way you could use to find where you were going.  

If you looked in anyone’s glovebox in their car, you’d likely find one or more state maps in there.  

As a kid, and even as a young adult, I loved looking at ways to get from home to wherever I dreamed of going.  

I always had a set in my car-Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Plus a few maps of big cities. If there weren’t maps, the old Rand-McNally Road Atlas would also do.  

When the map got too beat up to use or fold up (an art unto itself sometimes), you could just stop by a gas station or rest area and get another.  Politicians would hand a bunch of them out every year.   

Paper maps or atlases convey a sense of travel and adventure right in your hands, which is why it’s a shame they aren’t as popular anymore.  

Nowadays, there’s GPS or your phone to guide you to where you’re going. Voice cues tell you when you need to turn.  

Granted, it is nice to have the technology available.  

My old curmudgeon self though does have to shake my head a bit when I see that that’s the only way many young people can get around.  

If you gave them a paper map to use, I suspect I’d get a quizzical look like I’d just handed them a phone book or rotary dial phone. If there was no cell service, we may never see them again. 

No, having a paper map is like having a good companion with you on whatever adventures await just around the next bend in the road. You don’t even need batteries or a charger. You can always use it to find your way home.  

As I see it, I’m Kevin Millard