susieq112's Full Review: Rand McNally and Company - Rand Mcnally 2007 Road ...
It is only family tradition that a new Rand McNally Atlas got bought every year. When we seen the new yearly addition in the stores we would always pick it up. My Dad would flip through when we got home with it, look at particular road, gaze at his favorite routes. Every since I can remember we always had the latest addition of the Rand McNally Atlas on hand and it always went with us on our vacations, whether we knew our way there or not.
As an adult I now enjoy a road atlas as much as my father does. When I was preparing for our vacation earlier this year I made a trip out to our local store, but there was a problem. Where are the atlases. I looked through the books and finally found the remnants of the atlases perched next to the magazines. Argh! There’s no standard sized atlases left. This isn’t a good time, I know where I’m going, I have the whole trip planned out, run through Microsoft Street & Trips and have the route printed out turn for turn, but I still can’t leave without an atlas.
So with my head dropped I picked up what was there, the Rand McNally 㢫 Midsize Atlas with the US, Canada and Mexico maps inside. I scanned it and regretfully placed it in my shopping cart.
What’s In The Road Atlas 㢫 Midsize Edition?
Pages ii-v feature 2007 Best Of The Road, five road trips drawn up by the editors of the atlas.
Pages vi-ix has Sunday Drives that are ‘perfect for an afternoon’
Pages x-xi include information of foods selected and wrote about from certain eateries across the country.
Page xii and xiii is the Numbers To Know section. The first features a breakdown of toll-roads and charges in each state and the opposing page lists hotel chains and their toll-free numbers.
Page xiv offers up numbers and web-site information to find out about road construction in your area.
Pages xv-xxii is the 51 Great Attractions section, which highlights a major attraction in each state of the country.
Page one offers up additional phone numbers you may find handy. Rental Car numbers and Cell Phone Emergency Numbers. The rest of the page contains the Map Legend.
Page 2 & 3 offers a two page spread of the United States in its entirety with Alaska and Hawaii in insets.
Pages 4 through 58 feature the individual maps of each state in the United States. Each state has one page with the exception of California, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas, which have a two page spread.
Forty-seven cities have their own insets for a more detailed view of their streets and/or highways. However in the Midsize edition these maps are placed away from the accompanying state map. The are found on pages 73 through 88. The cities are: Albuquerque, Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Birmingham, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Fort Worth, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Louisville, Memphis, Mexico City, Miami, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New Orleans, New York, Newark, Oakland, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburg, Portland, St Louis, St Paul, St Petersburg, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Tampa, Toronto, Vancouver and Washington.
The Canadian over view map and the maps of Canada’s provinces are found on pages 60 through 71 and the map of Mexico is on page 72 with a Puerto Rico map in an inset in the corner.
On the final pages of the atlas you have phone numbers to the Tourism Boards for each state/province and one for Mexico. Page 90 features a Mileage Chart and the inside back cover features a Mileage and driving times map.
The Road Atlas 㢫 Midsize edition measures ten and three quarter inches tall and eight inches across, so this is one small atlas.
My Experience
I took the Midsize atlas because I had no choice at the time, so I vowed to make the best of it and decided I could pick up full state maps as I went along if I needed to. Needless to say, I wasn’t exactly punctual about picking up those maps where I could, so I didn’t have them when I needed them.
The Midsize atlas is proportionally much smaller than the standard Rand McNally atlases that I am use to dealing with and with that the maps are obviously smaller also. Unfortunately this meant a lot less detail. Most state maps outline the major highways, interstates and state roads, but if you wanted details on other roads, such as gravels or less popular routes you can easily find yourself off of the map in this edition.
With that less detail Rand McNally also leaves the driver in the dark in major cities also. The city insets are included in the back of the atlas, which is inconvenient, and they are very small insets with only a portion of the area covered. Intersecting freeways and interstates are hard to follow and it is almost impossible to get your plan ironed out before you drive out on the busy highway.
This atlas also lacks in the clarity department. Information printed around major areas like Denver, St. Louis and other major cities is difficult to read. The maps are so small they make Kansas look like a happening place.
Thankfully we took our trip to the west including states such as Wyoming, Utah, Idaho and Colorado. Another benefit was the fact that I had been down many of the roads a time or two before, not all, but most. I did however find myself off of the map a few times, which left me disoriented as to where exactly I had been and which way I needed to go once I made it to a road that was actually shown on the atlas. Not to mention that many cities are left off of the map entirely.
Overall I didn’t find The Road Atlas 㢫 Midsize edition very helpful on my trip. The maps were too small with wording and pertinent information all printed too close together. If I ever find myself in the same predicament again, I’ll just leave it where it is, because this edition offers little in the way of direction.
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