Maps

So we were hiking along the Bridal Veil Falls Trail in Dupot State Forest when a very tired Eva asked to see the map. I thought it strange for a 5-year old to request a map, especially a trail map, trail maps are notoriously hard to read. As I watched the two of them hunkered over the map, it clicked....

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... Eva inherited the map gene from her Grampsy. Of course. Now it all makes sense.

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As long as I've known Tom he has always loved maps. We've had maps hanging on our walls every place we've lived. Stuffing the glove box with maps is the first action upon the purchase of a new vehicle. AAA Trip Tix were replaced with mapquest, which was replaced with Google Maps. And most recently, we pooled our money and got Tom a Garmin GPS to track his backpacking trips. The Backpacker magazine has started publishing their maps in the gps fashion, logging coordinates and Tom is hooked. (pictured: Tom S. reading his map in Budapest or was it Munich? I don't know, I didn't have a map)

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While Tom's romance with maps has been infectious, I remain a writer at heart. A documentarian. A preservationist, ContentPreneur, a Purveyor of Information. While Tom has one-on-one time with maps, I must have time to write. Or draw.....

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- ... Or think. Process. It's as if my CPU gets full, bogged down, and I must stop and process. -

We really make a good team actually.
He navigates...
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-... I wallow.
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He explores . . .

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...I examine.
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He discovers things, I pass them on.

When we travel, I want to relish in my environment, suck up every last drop, soak it all in. Just look at this - Berchtesgaden, Germany. How could I just hike right on by it all? I had to stop and wallow in it.
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It's not that I don't prepare or study up. I spent 4 weeks listening to German in my car before we went to Munich. I spend hours on the internet finding the perfect places to visit. I scour the grocery stores finding the perfect snack to take. I use tons of mod podge preparing my journals. Then pack it all in my backpack and try not to get it confiscated in airport security. That takes skill.

Then.... when I'm on the trip, because I'm not a mapper, it takes a lot of time to find just the right spot to sit and read and write. It requires some hiking and peering around crevices....

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But when I find the perfect spot, it's always worth it. And when I feel inspired, no matter where I am, I have to sit down and capture it.