Before MapQuest, you’d carry around a six county atlas, and a state map. If you had to go somewhere outside the metro area, you’d use the state map to get to the city, then stop at the first gas station you saw there to look at their map on the wall, or ask to look at their phone book for the map in there.
Ew, people.
Better yet, stop at the rest stop at the state border and pick up a free state map, which included insets of the large cities.
Pro tip: Those maps are still there.
They never restock them though. Somehow they are always out. (At least for the last few years they have been)
However, you can use OSM offline pretty easily and if you want a physical map you can print it. (For those of us who want control)
We had those big red atlases (Atli?) with the glossy covers from over half the US states, and smaller maps for all the counties in Virginia, NC, SC, and about half of TN. Huge ass stack of em in both door panels, under each seat, and several on the back seat. My brother collected them whenever he could. I think he’s still depressed he never finished his collection before giving up and finally getting a gps (only like 2 years before decent smart phone gps)
Atli
I’m pretty sure the proper form is Atlapodes.
Gonna split the difference. Atlapodii
The singular isn’t “atlus.” Atlases is correct.
Nope, up thread we figured out the correct form. Atlapodii.
Great Mapquest story: my two friends and I were driving from Gainesville Fl to Tuscaloosa, Al to visit another friend in college. I was in charge of the ‘quest, and we had the directions set on when to light the 6 blunts we rolled for the drive (aligned with the longest periods without having to turn, 70+ miles on the highway, etc).
Well, I missed the 0.2mi immediate exit before the 125mi straightaway and lit that next blunt. Long story short, we went like a hundred miles in the wrong direction because I told him we were good for a couple of hours.
My B
Oh shit! Hilarious!
Haha yeah. MapQuest. That’s old school, you silly geezers. Let’s get ya to bed.
Slowly folds up his road atlas hoping no one notices
Rand McNally with all the folds <kiss>
I still keep a state map stowed in the pocket behind the driver’s seat. You know, just in case.
Fun fact: Michelin stars come from the before times where Michelin would print a yearly road guide with maps and locations and would give stars to the best places. The guide was so popular that getting a Michelin star became a thing. When printed maps ended the stars remained. That’s why a tire company became synonymous with best restaurants
Bruh, I remember being excited to be the one to stay up in the passenger seat with the atlas overnight making callouts from the highlighted route. A child never felt so important, needed, and critical to the operation.
look at what they took from us
And the scaling was fucked all to hell.
I am astounded people managed to drive around Japan without gps. The signage is awful here. Even with gps it can be a struggle at times.
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AAA did the same thing. Yellow highlighter marked the route.
I used AAA Trip-Tik or whatever it was called, a couple of times driving cross country. Worked pretty well, actually.
“Sometimes, you just had to stop and find someone to ask for directions…”
That’s honestly still a good answer. The locals know best
Unless the local is me. I am terrible at giving directions. “Go that way for like, three… maybe four intersections. Turn left when there’s like a store or something on the side of the road. When it seems like the right time, turn left again, and then like… uh… there’s a tree… You know what, let me just give you the address and hope that GPS works out for you.”
i know a guy who still does this. mapquest->print … hes not even that old… just dumb as a brick.
The short time after smartphones but before free EU roaming was the prime days of offline map apps that you specifically downloaded for each city
My grandmother still does this for some gods forsaken reason and somehow is worse at it than me. Mind you ive been having to track down adresses for work for about 3 years now but c’mon.
I went camping with my family last week somewhere with no signal. I got there fine, but when it was time to leave I had to just follow roads a general direction until I got signal again (and backtrack the hour I went the opposite way).
I had downloaded an offline map on Google maps but it just wasn’t working. Wish I had printed it!
Pages? Like a static display made from dead trees?
Ripped map pages out of the phone book
