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We’re on the Road to Nowhere
I am a fan of travelling and I am a fan of maps. I own a few maps, but I’m what you’d call a collector. I’m not a fanatic about it, but if I see an old road map (the kind companies like Texaco sponsored) in a shop, chances are it’s coming home with me. I think I got the love of maps from my dad. Dad always had one or two tucked away in the glove box of the family Rolls-Can-Hardly. Once in a while Dad would ask one of us how to get to a place like Pottery Road or Salisbury Avenue or the St. Lawrence market and whoever was riding shotgun (sometimes it would be me) would haul the map out and try to steer him in the right direction. When I was a little kid and lucky enough to be the navigator, I thought I was really and truly being a big help. I had no idea, at the time, my dad had a Map-Mind. He was a natural navigator and he was actually teaching us how to use a map, read place names and not ask for ice cream. Dad knew all of the backroads and secret routes of the City of Toronto. Somehow his love of the “lay of the land” washed off on me and my younger brother.Younger brother knows all the roads, the names of roads, the secret routes from here-to-there, wherever he calls home, and loves a good ole “Cook’s Tour”. Not sure if baby brother is a collector of maps, but I imagine he’s got a few tucked away. I suppose I am a cartophile. Sheesh, that sounds a bit rude. Cartophile, I am.
Do LOML and I have a map in the glove box these days? Not exactly a real map, but a map just the same. LOML and I do have what we refer to as “The Red Map”, once issued to tourists and visitors to the County. You know the one I mean. Once, many years ago, I even delivered Red Maps to popular tourist locales from here to TO. However, I do believe the most up-to-date “Red Map” I have stashed away in our glove-box/junk spot is from 2014. The old roads are the same, but some of the businesses have changed and new roads have been added. Those Red Maps used to come in handy when a visitor asked a question about which County Road gets a person to where. It was always a good resource to have on hand and something for me to peruse when I’m not the driver and don’t like the tunes the driver has picked. What’s that? Do I have a box full of maps in my secret stash of stuff I could never get rid of and will be yet another thing my children will have to deal with when I shuffle off this mortal coil? Yep. Yes I do. I’m that interested in maps. But, like I mentioned, I don’t own a lot of maps, just ones which mean something to me. And, ya, ya, LOML and I own a vehicle equipped with a fancy- arsed Satellite Navigational System—SAT- NAV. Most new cars are equipped with a GPS, which has saved our bacon on many a rental vehicle when we’re navigating far from home. However, when it comes to my preference of visuals, give me a proper paper map. One of those great, big, folding maps which never get folded properly after they’ve been refolded. Years ago, when our son and I drove from Picton to Vancouver, it was a TripTik Map Booklet from CAA we used to find our way. Basically, driving from Picton to Vancouver is pretty simple. You drive west for a while, then north for a while and then west until you hit Vancouver. But having a map gave us fair warning of the day’s suggested distance and a pretty good idea what was coming up next, town-wise. Mostly, we had a chuckle or two about how some of those town names must have come to be. The only drawback with a paper map, at that time, was they didn’t let us know if the upcoming locale had a restaurant, gas station or restroom.
Like I said, my dad was a map-in-the-glove-box kinda guy. In the early 2000s, when I was working in Markham and needed a map to find my way around, Dad gave me his well-thumbed MapArt book of “Toronto and Vicinity”. He said I’d need it to find my way from downtown Toronto to my new work location. He also told me I should give it back to him when I was finished my contract in Markham. When the day came to return the book, he told me he didn’t really need it and suggested I keep it to find my way home— drive north to the 401, turn right, drive east until you hit Wooler Road and turn right again.
We don’t really go anywhere these days, but I have been looking at my maps recently. Someday soon, LOML and I will be able to make our way to Newfoundland and Labrador. According to my map we just head north to the 401 and turn right until we get to the ferry. It’s not complicated, but a good, folding map is more fun (and more annoying) than Google Maps and SATNAV. Besides, when I spill my coffee on a paper map, it doesn’t give me a “blank screen”.
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