I agree with Poppie.

My Dad always used maps for our family travels and taught me to read
them early on.  In the Coast Guard I was a Quartermaster - navigation
specialist.  Even with the advent of GPS we still used paper charts -
electronic charts weren't in wide use when my seagoing career ended.
When I travel now I use a 'dumb' GPS - a Garmin GPS III+ - with no
spiffy color screen or voice directions and maps.   Sometimes rental
car maps, sometimes a Rand-McNally road atlas, sometimes USGS Quads.
I also carry a handheld compass just in case.

The beauty of the GPS is that one can be confused but never really
lost - as long as the batteries are charged and you have a signal.

Chuck
'85 Wolfsburg Westy - 'Roland the Road Buffalo'

On Oct 11, 2009, at 1:39 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote:

> ate:    Sat, 10 Oct 2009 22:05:06 -0700
> From:    Poppie Jagersand <poppie.jagersand@YAHOO.CA>
> Subject: Re: Maps vs GPS
>
> Maps and GPS are complementary.
> With just the GPS one becomes myopic. I know people who drive by
> GPS, get where they need to, but have no idea of the "lay of the
> land". They simply become slaves of the directions of the device,
> and should need arise they cannot navigate on their own because they
> lack the big picture.
>
> Maps give a great big picture, but it is difficult to keep all the
> details in ones head so at least when I'm driving alone it is great
> to have the GPS call out the directions in tricky traffic situations.