Road Map

(images found on O'Canada)

I love maps, always have. All kinds, but road maps especially. When we lived in Holland I did have one of those little GPS gizmos in my car and yes it certainly made it a lot easier to drive in and out of Amsterdam or Berlin. So those things do have their place--in cities. But out in the sweet wide open, a road map is the thing. Road maps give the context of the country, not just the fastest route to the next burrow. 

Here's a link to a scholarly article by James Akerman on the history of promotional road-mapping in the US.

Abstract:The  paper sketches the broad outlines of the practices of map publishers, industrial concerns, motor clubs, and state governments to convince Americans to become motoring tourists and, hence, to consume the goods, services, and landscapes these interests wished to promote. Their efforts were rooted in the promotional mapping of American railroads during the nineteenth century and in bicycle mapping. Yet, the particular demands of automobile travel, including long-distance navigation under the control of the travelers themselves, argues for an almost unique dependence on maps, which in turn gave road maps considerable value as promotional tools.