Using a Map by Margaret Leora workman; Warponie Art

There was this time when I had to get to Albuquerque New Mexico. I had never been there before. My phones had been stolen, so I couldn’t use my iPhone or the internet for directions. I had to get to a certain address in that city. I had used a paper map before, the kind that you can get at gas stations. I had an atlas as well. An atlas is a collection of maps in a book. I asked someone at the local gas station which road to take out of the town that I was in because the gas station in this town had no maps for Albuquerque! Seriously?!?! Because my phones were stolen, I had no idea what to do! I couldn’t find a pay phone in this town either! My truck keys were lost, but I finally found them, so I started really early in the morning the next day. I looked at the atlas to make sure that I was driving on the right highways. I finally got to a gas station right outside of Albuquerque and I tried to find one that had a gift shop because those will usually have maps. I was able to find one. It was a city map. On one side is a zoomed out version and the other side has some sections that are zoomed closer in. All Maps have a ‘key’. I had the address of the place which has the street. Look somewhere in the map key and there will be a list of the streets in alphabetical order. It will give you a letter and number of the grid box section that the street is found in on the map. Try to find some cross streets to find some numbers and see how the numbering system goes up and down to find the number of the address. Then I drove over to that section and found the address. The hard part was finding parking and because of Covid the building was locked. Since I had no phone I was unable to call. I saw these people standing outside of the building and they walked inside. It was one of those slow closing doors so I was able to go in. Then when I left I did get turned around! I did get lost and I ended up in some random town in the middle of nowhere in New Mexico. I asked someone in the Walmart parking lot what town I was in and he didn’t know either. BUT! I did make it to the first stop! At least I found a town! I thought I went back the way that I came and I thought I found a highway that I was the same one that I came in on, I still wonder how I got so lost.