Back in the day, before Google siphoned all the fun out of planning that special vacation journey, travelers had to rely on non-Internet tools to route their vacations. Some of these old-school accouterments were things like maps, gazetteers, and a handy-dandy atlas.

Now, all you have to do is ask Google (or Siri), “what’s the way to San Jose?” and before you can say “Swiss cheese for brains,” you’ll be routed on your way.

Growing up, I remember the year our family took a vacation trip to Burlington, Vermont. I think I was 13, or maybe even 14-years-old. My sister was two years younger. I still fondly remember that first trip to Burlington, a vibrant college town, nestled alongside Lake Champlain.

Of course, traveling with the ‘rents sometimes meant that my father required quadrants so he’d know his bearings along the way. If he didn’t get them from my mother (who couldn’t read a map to save her life), he might get a bit cranky, and of course, it might become hell on wheels between the two of them. I think I get some of my driving impatience from my dad when I’m logging time behind the wheel on a trip, and I get lost somewhere between points A and B. Maybe it’s just a male thing. Can I even publicly state that men and women are different? I sure hope so.

Hitting the open road!

When our young family started taking vacations, AAA offered their members (which we were) something they called a TripTik^®. This was custom-designed specifically for you and wherever you happened to be going in your automobile. Included were detailed maps and guides offering up local and regional information.

Like my perpetually grumpy father (when he was traveling), not knowing where I was going could make the JBE cranky, and Miss Mary was never extraordinary with a map, either. In fact, often, I’d yell across to my harried navigator for bearings from the map, and she might be looking at it upside-down. Ah, the good ole’ days.

Of course ,my little sister and I didn’t care that we’d missed that turn in New Hampshire and were now traveling east when we should have been going west. It was the same way with our son, Mark. While Mary and I were quarreling about map directions, he was taking in the scenery, or reading a book in the back seat.

It’s funny how we call not knowing exactly where we are as being “lost.” On our trip to Burlington, we may not have known exactly where we were in relation to Route 302, or whether we were even on 302 (my father used to say that New Hampshire had lousy road signage), but we knew we were in the car, on our way to Vermont, and at that point, were still in the Granite State.

Mary and I learned that our friends at AAA could take some of the stress out of traveling. Their step-by-step directions allowed us to get to where we were going with a minimal amount of conflict and arguing about whether to turn right or left.

In life, everyone has a journey they were meant to embark upon. Sometimes, we start out without clear directions. Of course, technology is supposed to solve all our ills and usher in a golden age. Technology even allows others to know exactly where we are (even if we’re still not quite sure). Apparently some enjoy the “freedom” of not having to make decisions, or knowing how to read a map.

My journey is likely different than yours. That doesn’t matter.

Figure out where you need to be, and start heading in the general direction. And it really doesn’t matter whether you’re traveling with a map, a navigator reading from a TripTik^®, or a GPS device speaking directions from your smartphone. What matters is that you are on your way to where you need to go.

All you need is a map.