re: Anyone else obsessed with maps both as a kid and adult?

Maps are simply wonderful. I think I discovered them when I was in the second grade and we drove to see my Grandmother in Illinois. (When we got home, I kept a hold on the Atlas and figured out how to drive to Key West and then to Cuba by ferry (yes, I am that old). Of course, my interest wasn't shared by my parents.

Let me introduce you to the Perry-Castaneda map collection at the University of Texas.
Perry-Castaneda Map Collection
You could spends months and still find new old maps at this site. I used it when the lava was flowing in Hawaii because they had the daily updates. I used to it trace some highways from the 1890s on topo maps. It is a time sink, and their updates "in the news" are superb.



Addtional historic topo maps are here, and this site gives you a choice of how refined you want the images.
USGS historical topo map portal

Google maps for daily searches and internationally, to see where things happened (and often when you switch to satellite at close up, you'll see why). One of the neater things I stumbled on was an abandoned naval base on the shore of the Korean Peninsula.

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I might regret it 30 minutes into the trip, but in the next 12-18 months I want to do an old school Griswald family car trip Rent a van and just go for 7-10 days and hit up multiple states. My friend did it and said they would do 2 hours of no phones and then 1 hour with phones. They had to talk and do road games Sounds fun

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We did this when I was young. I regret that we have not really been able to do this with my family, and that opportunity is now passed as one of mine is early 20s and married, and his brother is 20. :(

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and, how good were y'all at re-folding?

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Ha. No they don't. They they follow the solid blue line or listen for the voice to tell them where to go.

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I would put my sense of direction up against you or anyone else at any time, baw.

Those are cool too. I've got a pretty cool map from the 1940s hung in our living room. It was my grandfather's. It's part of a series and I want to try to track down the rest. Mine is Mexico/Central America/West Indies.

Absolutely. Still am.

Topo maps in particular

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They’ve spent their entire lives looking at maps on their phone. Do you honestly believe their incorporating cross streets and landmarks would be beyond them?

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I get calls from people daily who can't find our facility (it's extremely easy) because the physical address doesn't jive with google maps.

I always try and find roads that lead to super remote areas like northernmost Canada and imagine some family humping up from Toronto visiting Grandma or something in a place humans shouldn't be able to live in