GPS and Paper Maps

When I grew up, we didn't have personal GPS devices to help us find our way around town, or even MapQuest or Google Maps. We used maps on paper and our brains to find routes. In first grade, I even remember a brief unit on learning how to use a grid-based paper map (although I had already learned how to navigate a few years earlier using the maps at home). Basically, navigating worked something like this:

1. Pick the map for the region


2. Look up the street names in the index


3. Go to the indicated page number and/or grid number


4. Find the street in the grid and trace it to your desired location


5. Repeat for the other point of interest and connect the dots

It seems, however, that not everyone can read maps anymore...

For the record, I usually use non-GPS-based computer mapping programs, but often like to retrace the route on paper and build my own alternate routes based on that. I do not own a GPS navigator (yet).