Time was when planning an extended car vacation involved long nights poring over road maps and atlases on the kitchen table or the front-room floor. No more. Now, with the help of DeLorme and the American Automobile Association’s Map’n’Go 2.0 and DeLorme’s Street Atlas USA 3.0, picking your way or locating an address on a map almost anywhere in the United States is a few mouse clicks away.
Map’n’Go is a CD-ROM travel planner that allows you to key in two addresses in the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean for the shortest route between them. It also provides information on hotels, motels, campgrounds, restaurants and attractions, so you can plan your trip to see things along the way. You can print directions, customize maps and make a travel plan listing your route and your choices for stops. There also are narrated slide shows of major cities and other attractions as well as an built-in on-line connection to a Web site (http://www.mapngo.com) so you can get up-to-the-minute weather and travel information.
A cousin of Map’n’Go is DeLorme’s Street Atlas USA 3.0, which is a marked improvement from its older siblings. With the efficiency of a spy satellite, the CD telescopes through 16 magnifications, starting with a map of the United States and proceeding down to your block. The maps are crisper, more detailed, although I was a bit disturbed while scrolling south on Sheridan Road from Evanston to find that although Mundelein College was labeled, Loyola University is a large blank space along the lake. The program also puts the Chicago Historical Society above LaSalle Drive rather than below. But these are quibbles.
Street Atlas still allows you to print maps, but in this version you can customize them to put a symbol representing your house on the map and include a text box with directions. You can cut and paste these maps into documents or even e-mail them so long as the receiving party also has Street Atlas. For those who have DeLorme’s Phone Search USA, a CD-ROM program with the addresses and phone numbers of 80 million homes, businesses and organizations throughout the country, you can look up phone listings and map their locations.
Map’n’Go, which retails for $39, is available for Windows 3.1 or better only, and unfortunately DeLorme says there is no Macintosh version in the works. You’ll also need an IBM or IBM-compatible PC with Intel 386SX or higher processor, 8 MB of RAM, 9 MB minimum of hard disk space, a Windows-compatible VGA card and a 256-color monitor.
Street Atlas, which retails for $45, is available for Macintosh or Windows. Macintosh requirements are a 68030 or greater processor, System 7 or later, 4 MB of RAM, 4 MB of hard disk space and, to make your own maps, a printer. Windows requirements are the same as for Map’n’Go.
Both of these DeLorme products are readily available in software stores.
Little house
Does the name Laura Ingalls Wilder ring a bell? If it doesn’t her series of books, including “Little House on the Prairie,” certainly should. In honor of its famous daughter, Pepin, Wis., the setting for the first “Little House” book, is holding its sixth annual Laura Ingalls Wilder Days next weekend featuring exhibits and events inspired by her life and writing.
On Saturday, there will be a grand parade, and girls between the ages of 4 and 10 can take part in a “Laura Look-alike Contest.” (If you want to enter your daughter, call 715-283-4408 for more information.) Sunday activities include an 1800s military camp with regular cannon firings and a “Little House” reading marathon. Marcy Schram, an authority on Wilder, will present an exhibit of her extensive collection of “Little House” and Wilder memorabilia.
In addition to these scheduled activities, there will be a wide variety of events and entertainers such as musicians, storytellers, a puppeteer and an organ grinder. Sandy Johnson will perform a one-woman show, “Laura Ingalls Wilder, Frontier Writer,” through the weekend on the stage of the Allen-Hovde Theater. Pepin is located in western Wisconsin along the Minnesota boarder. For travel information, maps and directions, call the Pepin Visitor Information Center, 715-442-3011.
Election adventure
This has to rank as one of the more interesting vacation ideas we’ve seen. Next month Nicaragua will hold its first election since the Sandinistas suffered a stunning upset six years ago, and a group of Americans will be on hand to observe and support a fair election. You can be a part of the election observation delegation sponsored by Global Exchange, a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization that has led previous observer tours to Mexico and Haiti, among other places.
The Oct. 14-23 tour begins in Managua, where participants will receive training on how to be an election monitor and get briefed on the overall political situation. Prospective judges also will meet with representatives of parties and non-governmental interest groups across the political spectrum. Observers should brace for a long day on election day, Oct. 20, when they will be dropped at a polling place at 5:30 a.m. to watch the setup and then observe throughout the day and finally be picked up 1 a.m.
The trip costs $800 per person double occupancy (single supplement $100) from Managua and includes accommodations, two meals daily and all transportation within Nicaragua. Non-English speakers will be matched with a bilingual partner, so a knowledge of Spanish, while helpful, is not necessary. Call 415-255-7296.
All aboard
The 20th Century Railroad Club has chartered an Amtrak train, “The Galena Limited,” direct to downtown Galena for the annual Country Fair Oct. 12-13. The train stops at Chicago’s Union Station, LaGrange and Naperville. It will have 14 superliner coaches and snack/coaches. Round-trip coach fare is $69. For information on ticket purchase and departure times, call 312-829-4500.
