Friday Fives – mapping and destinations

1.  What is the most beautiful place on the map that you have even been. 

Barcelona, Spain.  We went for our honeymoon, and it was amazing.  the architecture was amazing.  Before that trip, I didn’t notice, or care about buildings.  Boy, Europe sure changes that.  They have trees older than our country.  As to my architecture point (geesh, that is a bitch to type out), just do a google image search on their most famous architect – Guadi.  Here, I have done it for you.
 
2.  What about all the senseless ugly: What is the ugliest place on the map you have ever been. 
 
Dallas, TX.  Just an ugly city, ugly skyline, ugly art.  It’s the whole package.  I imagine there are possibly some amazing and transcendant suburbs.  The shit I saw, though, was just armpitty.
 
3.  In our GPS/Google Maps world, when was the last time you consulted a physical map. 
 
a map.  hmmm.  I have a bunch, but I use google for everything.  Last time would have been camping.  I have a topo map of the state.  So, I can see everything around me.  They are AWESOME.  I can see what my elevation is, where the nearest fishing spot is, there the nearest four wheeling route is… all kinds of super cool stuff.
 
Here is the trick to finding four wheeling.  Look for old forest service roads.  they are labeled ‘fr877’.  These are roads, obviously, that were used for logging and such a long time ago.  So, they are a big overgrown, but free of trees and boulders and cliffs and will always connect to somewhere else.  Assuming you have a truck, it’s also a great way to find camping spots.
 
4.  Columbus – hero or villain? 
 
the truth, as always, is much more complicated than that.  It seems he was largely inept.  I certainly don’t see him as a hero.  He was a few continents off, and seemed to only bring pain and misery to his crew and those around him through generally poor judgement.
 
With that being said, though, I have to ask myself this; were it not for him, would I not be here typing this?  Probably not.  So, I shouldn’t be so harsh.  I don’t blame him for genocide, though… or what happened to the native Americans.  That is just humanity being humanity, sadly.
 
5.  With Satellite mapping and the all of the world now know, is there much interest in geography anymore?
 
absolutely.  In fact, I think all the more now.  I can do a google street view of a neighborhood in Germany if I wanted.  That is pretty terrific, and awesome for education on the whole.
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