Did you know you can obtain free digital copies of highway maps at the websites of many states' transportation department websites? Well, you can just by downloading them, like I said, for free. The files are quite large, and typically come in the .pdf format. In some cases, the map is in a .jpg file. In either case, the map is usually a digitized replica of the paper version.
Sure you can buy map software like Micro$oft's Streets and Trips, and even Rand McNally makes mapping software. However, for some reason I cannot understand in this day and age of fast computers with powerful graphics capabilities, the quality, appearance, and accuracy of the maps in even Rand McNally's software doesn't even come close to their paper based maps. But for some reason, map companies don't seem to want to make these maps available in digital format. They only maps of theirs you'll be enjoying on a PC will come from their software, which like I said, doesn't even begin to rival their paper maps.
However, I want to have my cake and eat it too, preferring to have digitized copies of paper-based highway and street maps. However, your state DOT website is about the only place you'll be able to find any decent digitized versions of any paper based highway map. And that is just fine with me. I have noticed that the “official” highway maps, issued by state DOT's, are almost always more detailed and of higher quality than maps that are sold by map publishing companies, such as Rand McNally. Personally, I don't think even the highest-quality Road Atlases can even rival that found in a state-issued map (btw, I still have yet to get my new Road Atlas!).
One thing I really like about having digital copies of these maps, though, is they never get worn, they take up very little space (nothing more than a file on a CD-ROM), and you can make as many copies as you want..:) Today, I downloaded maps for Mississippi, North Carolina, and Kansas, bringing my digital collection of these beautiful highway maps to 21. I intend to collect a map for all fifty states...eventually..
Well, I happen to love traveling, and as a consequence, I happen to love maps a lot, and I collect them. ...as you can probably tell...LOL. I collect both physical and digital copies, with maps of every major American city and even wall-sized maps of individual European countries in my collection.
I even draw my own maps, but those are of fictitious places that I have made up...hehe
Sorry if this blog bored some of you to tears...lol..but the way I see it, my purpose in having this blog is to allow YOU to get to know me in every way possible. And you can't ever really know someone, until you know something about their favorite hobbies - even the boring ones..;)
- the Fuchian 
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