I have experienced numerous problems with my GPS unit, non-​existent roads, bad directions, etc. I thought this might be a good place to list some of these that I and others have found in our travels.

If your GPS sends you up Breakneck road in Sturbridge, MA, it does not go into Conneticut and meet up with Breakneck Road in Union. This is a cart path and is impassable to anything other than four wheel drive.

Get yourself a DeLorme Atlas and Gazetteer — it’s the best paper atlas published and it doesn’t crash when the batteries die. You can drop it, write on it, hold it in your lap and it won’t quit. We’ve got a set of all the New England states — they keep updating them, so watch for new publication dates. I know I’m a dinosaur, but who takes road trips these days, anyway?

At one time, I was the biggest fan of DeLorme and have atlases for about fifteen states. However, they’re hard (if not irresponsible) to use while driving, and they don’t pinpoint where you are in real time.

Plus, I’m amazed at how many people, Mrs. Roadside included, simply can’t read maps.

My preferred GPS, Waze for my iPhone, also gives me traffic updates and tells me where the cops are. A paper atlas cannot do that.

I love maps more than the average person, and I still love pouring over them, but they’ve become marginalized by technology.

Yipes — I never felt older than hearing that one of my favorite forms of communication — the map — had been marginalized. I’ll grant you lots of features and extras that paper can’t even begin to measure up to, but as both my wife (Mrs. Armadillo) and I are ardent map users, readers, dare I say — aficionados — we’ll stick with the hard copy.

As to reading them whilst driving, that and all the other sins of distracted driving scare the crap out of me. More people driving more miles more distractedly is a recipe for disaster. I don’t even use a headset and cell phone any longer while driving — I’ll grab whatever edge I can for my family, friends, and me by paying attention to those around me even if someone thinks they need to tell me something that couldn’t wait until I get there.

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What I still love about paper maps is that they allow you to see the big picture. You can’t really plan a 400 mile back roads tour on a GPS. And yes, you should do that planning while stationary.

But while driving, I like to know exactly where I am in real time at all times. I never bought into the whole “just get lost” theory of road trips.