Maps

I guess you can consider this somewhat of a post on travel.  I often feel guilty writing a blog that originally was about my travels, but mostly ends up being about my humdrum day.

In my computer/camping stuff/junk room I have big laminated full color maps on two walls.  One is a map of the United States, and the other is a world map.  Am I the only one, or does anyone reading this have the same experience when looking at a map - the feeling of being drawn into it.

I first experienced this phenomenon when I worked in an office in Sacramento in the 1980's.  One of my co-workers got a big laminated map of the U.S. and hung it on the wall outside my cubicle.  When I was bored or needed a short break, I would walk to that map and look at the different states, and before long I would be drawn right into the places I was studying on the map.  It still happens to me, and is a wonderful way to be transported to another place, and to dream about "what if".

This morning after reading the news headline about the threat by N.Korea to launch a nuclear weapon, I went to the world map to find it's exact location and proximity to the West Coast of the U.S. and Hawaii.  Dang, it's right on the border with China, as well as with S.Korea, of course.   

I hold in my heart the U.S military personnel who are stationed in S.Korea.  One of my uncles, a U.S. Marine, fought in the Korean War.  My husband served in S.Korea (Camp Casey) during the early 1960's.  I spent 5 weeks in S.Korea in the mid 1980's, mostly in Seoul but was able to visit the demilitarized zone at Panmunjom.  We have a lot of military personnel at Panmunjom, and they would be the first line of defense in an attempted border crossing.  The N.Korean army has always tried to tunnel their way under the DMZ, and the Corps of Engineers have the eternal job of finding and filling in the tunnels.  So I really hope that negotiations can prevent another war with the N.Koreans.

I followed up with a look at the U.S. map which I always find calming and exhiliarating at the same time.  It isn't practical for planning a road trip, but it's good for an overview of the possibilities.

I just got my mail and had a letter from another of the three friends I wrote to in Ireland.  She owned the house I lived in for the first two years I was there, and was a wonderful friend.  I would really love to go back for a couple of months, but the cost is prohibitive.  For one thing, it would mean a rental car which would be a lot of money for that long.  But I can nearly taste the Murphy's Stout, and hear the music and laughing in the pubs.  Time to go look at the wall map and let myself be pulled in.