November Thankful #17

In honor of Thanksgiving, I'm doing daily thankful posts. I'd love it if you'd join me by commenting here or on MichiGal's Facebook page.

November 17

 

Today I am thankful for maps. Yes I realize this may sound lame to some, but I'm a map girl.I love maps, I pore over maps. I love paper maps and online maps. I like to imagine someplace I want to go and plug my destination into Mapquest or Google Maps and play around with the route. Maybe mapping makes other places seem more real to me? I don't know, but it borders on obsessive, once I get going.

Since I want to go everysingleplaceintheworld, I like to daydream about where I'm going to go. How long will it take, how much money will I need for gas, how many nights lodging? Will I have to drive over mountains, and if so can I handle that without totally freaking out? I used to live in Arizona, and I vaguely remember driving along narrow mountain roads with very little wiggle room between our vehicle and a massive drop into oblivion.

By the time I was 8 I had been on three cross country drives, plus one train ride from Michigan to Arizona. The furthest my kids have been on a car ride is the northern border of South Carolina, and I don't think Chris's dad stopped one time the entire way there. Okay, maybe once, but that's it. He had rented an RV to take 8 of us to a wedding, so we had a bathroom and a bed to make it pretty comfortable for the kids. That was when Bethany was in preschool, so Lucy and Mattie weren't even around yet. I have been positively itching to take my kids on a massive trek. Maybe I'm crazy, or masochistic, or both, but I think it sounds like fun! Last year I wanted to drive down to Florida with the kids, but the timing didn't work out at Hotel Uncle Rob. Now I've got some other ideas rolling around in my head for next summer. Hmmm....

In the meantime, I will obsessively pore over maps, and occupy myself with pseudo-planning. Are you a map junkie too, or is this totally weird?