Reply #167: Ain't that the truth.

[sofa king]

Paper maps are prohibitively expensive, too, even if they can be found.

As an inexpensive form of amusement I've been drawing my own maps and going on epic scooter rides. It's a heck of a way to learn, because I get really pissed off when I make mistakes, and so I usually don't make the same one twice.

Now my biggest problem is that unless I've been there before, I always wind up copying the errors contained in the online maps. After most rides I go back and angrily scratch notes in red pencil with notations like "wrong name" and "road closed."

One particular problem I have is that those Bush assholes cut so much funding to the National Park Service that they were forced to close off almost all of the connecting roads that reach the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Skyline Drive. Google seems not to be aware of it. So, for example, one can putter all the way up Route 682, only to be stopped by a gate and "no parking" signs about two miles short of the Skyline Drive and just shy of Big Meadows. Learning that the hard way was, well, a little frightening, as I had to hurtle down miles of 11% grade with fading brakes and big-ass bears wandering across the road.