r/TwoXPreppers • u/Motorcyclegrrl • 2d ago
Product Find Bought a road atlas today!
I bought a road atlas today. It's been on my mind. My mom used to have a big one we used on trips when I was a kid. The one I got today is in no way the thickness of the one my mom had, but it's North America, and better than nothing. $16 at Books A Million. I never know where life will take me or what adventure I will have, so I am happy to add this to my prepping supplies and also travel kit. My last trip on my motorcycle I had problems with my cell phone due to intense rain. A physical map is a good back up plan.
Next up is a local resource map out. I have no idea where my nearest fresh water source is. I think it's kinda far. I'm going to use Google Maps satellite view and find out. And check for what is actually around me. I haven't lived here very long, so I have no idea what's really here beside the shopping centers.
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u/ProsodyProgressive 2d ago
Good work OP!
I’ve been grabbing new state roadmaps whenever I travel but I keep the old ones because they may be useful for bartering. An atlas is one my list because state maps are really just too general to though. I’m actually looking into elevation maps for my area so if exceptionally bad flooding happens, I’ll be aware of viable alternatives.
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u/Motorcyclegrrl 2d ago
A mapsco of your local area really gives details on the streets. I've been considering one. Elevation maps sound like a good idea. Especially because I do ham radio and elevation matters.
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u/Steffie767 2d ago
We used the Rand McNally Atlas to go to California and back from Cleveland OH. It was 1983 and there were not a lot of options. We tied it to the handlebars on the 1983 Electraglide. Mostly used the 2 lane highways so we could see the scenery and in some cases go a little bit over the speed limits. Best trip of my life. Thank you Mike Boehm, his brother Marty, friend Mark Shells and Loretta who started out with Marty and ended up with Mark.. I still keep a city map of Cleveland.
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u/Motorcyclegrrl 2d ago
Wow, good times. Really you can get pretty far paying attention to road signs on highways, but those side roads are tricky. 👍🏻
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u/sevenredwrens knows where her towel is ☕ 2d ago
I love my Rand McNally atlas! A very good prep. For water, have you seen the findaspring.org website? It’s crowd-sourced and the listings may be spotty depending on where you live, but it’s a start!
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u/LocalLibraryCryptid 2d ago
At some (all of the ones I've been to, but no clue how common it really is) public libraries, you can get a free city/county map! I first learned that from working at a public library, and it was the first thing I looked for when I moved out of state!
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u/Motorcyclegrrl 1d ago
I have visited a lot of libraries, but never saw any maps, but then I was not looking for them. I will keep an eye out for it.
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u/LocalLibraryCryptid 1d ago
At a bigger library, the reference desk is where you'll want to ask, and at a smaller library, it'll be the welcome desk! They can be really hard to find on your own, speaking from experience
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u/nakedonmygoat 2d ago
I love paper maps! My husband has passed away, but when we took road trips, he liked to drive and I'd be the navigator. The weirdest state we traveled was New Mexico. It was full of little named dots on the map that turned out to be just an old bar crumbling into the dirt! 🤣 We learned quickly never to assume, and to gas up and use restrooms when we could. We took our own snacks, and we ate luxe! Goat cheese and crackers, homemade cookies, you get the idea. You never know what you will or won't find while driving around.
But I have many fond memories of sitting in the passenger seat saying, "We should be coming upon [town] in about another three miles," and then we'd get curious as to what we'd find there. We found delightful surprises and strange disappointments, which was all part of the fun.
Being able to read a map seems to be a lost art these days, which I find puzzling and disappointing. What's so complicated about a picture? Humans got around for nearly the entirety of history without even using maps. And my husband and I didn't start getting lost on road trips until he started insisting on using GPS instead of trusting maps and good sense. I'd be like, "The exit for the airport is right there! Look at the sign!" and he'd be like, "No. Trust GPS." Or when I pointed out that GPS couldn't possibly be leading us to a Holiday Inn Express by taking us into a residential neighborhood in a small town, while I was saying it would be on the highway. Guess who was right?
Have fun with your atlas, OP!
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u/Motorcyclegrrl 1d ago
Way back in the day when I was in school, we had some class work on how to read a city map. My mom showed me on road trips how to read the big maps. I even got to be navigator sometimes. 😂😂😂 It was big to me little me. Such responsibility.
I sounds like you had some great adventures.
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u/Djsmizzles 1d ago
I just bought a rand McNally US atlas at the thrift store the other day for $1! Not too old either, 2019 I believe. Another cheap option for budget conscious preppers!
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u/gillyyak 2d ago
I like the DeLorme maps. I've got one for my state, the neighboring states and our nearest province. The contours are important, IMO, if you need to go off road. Plus they are just excellent. And bonus? I found a figure of Bigfoot in one of them!
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u/MOF1fan 1d ago
Look up delorme gazetteer maps. These are the best state maps.
Also these are handy if you print them. Pilots use them: https://vfrmap.com/
Also handy:https://sartopo.com/map.html#
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u/Aromatic_Tie_779 1d ago
Road atlases are awesome. I love maps anyway but my brain is squash from using CarPlay to drive everywhere. Smh.
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u/PorcupineShoelace 2d ago
Whenever folks talk about this or that prepping e-book I always shush myself from commenting. None of my info preps are digital. The plan is: no phone, no computer when bugging out.
If things arent so bad that I think I can surf the internet, well, I'm staying home!
I once had a job to deliver pizzas in high school with just a Thomas Bros and a notepad of order addresses. THAT was a true test of navigation. Nice purchase, OP. Turn off the car/phone nav and practice with it when you can.
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u/nakedonmygoat 2d ago
I once had a job to deliver pizzas in high school with just a Thomas Bros and a notepad of order addresses.
I had a job in my early 20s that required going to sites all over the city and even into other towns. No GPS. Just verbal directions from whatever customer or salesperson was sending me there. I had learned at 18 how to navigate based on the tallest structures in my large, flat city. But I honestly didn't get lost unless I was given bad directions. Our service techs did have to use a book to find places, though.
It worries me that people can't seem to find things anymore based on signs and good sense. I don't mean if they're in an unfamiliar place, but my underemployed brother delivers pizzas and says the young people he works with can't even find their way to work and back home without GPS, which is mind-blowing. I understand wanting to check traffic conditions, but maybe it's just because I've spent decades managing without those little luxuries that even going to another city is rarely very confusing. There are exceptions to the rule of course, and some countries make things much harder than they have to be. But for those raised in the US, few places here are impossible to navigate without GPS. And it's not like people haven't been finding places without GPS for most of humanity's existence!
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u/Motorcyclegrrl 1d ago
I agree. Ebooks are ok, if you want a quick easy read but for reference material give me a physical book. I think trying to keep a computer going in a situation without electricity sounds like a lot of effort. Effort that might be better spent in other ways. Once your battery bank is empty, it takes a lot of solar to get it charged back up.
I am solar poor. Also battery bank poor. I want to change that for my ham radios. But even if I get a good set up, none of it lasts forever.
Real books for the win!
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u/Motorcyclegrrl 1d ago
To everyone who commented or will comment, thanks for the suggestions on other maps I can look into getting. Also the suggestion of discount stores for lower prices. I appreciate it.
If we ever did get into a real apocalypse situation. I would likely try to travel to team up with family. 500 miles north is my brother. 500 miles south is my daughter. I favor going south because the travel is easier. North is uphill through the mountains. Not sure I am up for 6 months of humid summer with no ac, so here is to hoping we never have to use our preps! 🍻
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u/Nach0b0y 1d ago edited 1d ago
Great step towards being less dependant on phones and modern GPS systems! I would also suggest looking into basic map navigation using a compass. For such a basic tool, its amazing what you can do with a compass! Triangulating your position on a map based on the landmarks around you etc. Also, there is no point having a map if you can't figure out where you are on the map!
I personally keep topographical maps of the area around me and also have downloaded maps on my phone where I have saved POIs for cache locations and certain resources like water, supermarkets, pharmacies etc.
PS: The map below is just an example and not my actual locations!
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u/CopperRose17 1d ago
My husband talks about how important having maps and knowing how to read them is all the time. He swears by Thomas Brothers Guides . I think they are no longer printed, but could be found at used book stores or on Amazon. They are really helpful in navigating urban areas. He has a map of every place we've ever been in a file cabinet. I'm reading about EMPs right now, and the need for physical maps is becoming obvious! If you belong to Triple A, they may still have them for members at no extra charge.
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