On 10/11/2009 10:05 AM Joy Hecht wrote:

>  But I can't imagine not being able to read
> maps any more than I could imagine not being able to read a book.

A good map provides a richness of detail and sense of relationship that a
GPS can rarely approximate. Maps are the novels of navigation, dash top
GPS units the screenplays. Very bare-bones.

DeLorme's Topo running on a laptop gets close to a nice paper map, but
having a laptop running the program on the seat next to me is too gadgety
and too distracting. Tried it, found that I spent more time looking at the
screen than I should for safety, didn't help that I needed to switch
glasses to see the thing clearly, and trying to press keys on the keyboard
to access functions, even those as simple as zooming in or out, feels
about as smart as texting while driving.

--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
74 Westrailia: (Ladybug Trailer company, San Juan Capistrano, Calif.)
Bend, OR
KG6RCR