We all know our local surroundings to a certain extent, but if we had to travel beyond our everyday lives or worse, if we need to take more rural routes then you’ll be grateful for old fashioned paper maps. GPS is great for the most part if your in your car. If your on foot, things will change drastically.
I see a trend where purchases can only be made by debit or credit. I prefer to use cash when I can. The goal of corporate and government is to have a cashless society. Easier to monitor your spending habits. Although I believe it may be sometime before a cashless society takes full hold, it could happen before you realize.
With the GPS push, handheld, built into your cars, boats, on your phones, I could easily see paper maps going towards a path of extinction. Then what?
Paper maps are still available, but are you aware that the map/chart makers for marine use have discontinued updating maritime maps/charts. The time to make new charts takes so long that the marine conditions have changed by the time the new map is released, rendering them unreliable. I currently use GPS on our boat and the benefits are great. But for many years I learned the waterways and coastal conditions by sight. I rely a lot on the GPS but it’s making my natural intuition weaker the more I rely on the GPS.
I recommend building up your map collection, first with country wide maps, with supplement maps of the local areas that you plan to possibly relocate to. Include an atlas that covers individual states or countries.
I have stocked each of our vehicles with at a minimum a full country map, and atlas and individual maps for areas I may spend more time in.
Just a note on marine charts. If you live near lakes or coastal areas. I would suggest you get your hands on any charts available for lakes and near coastal regions you visit. Most local bait stores near lakes have laminated placemat type charts for the lakes in that particular area. These are great references if a GPS were unavailable.
Just like a book library consider building a map library while ther still available. God bless!