when i moved to la in 2004, one of the first things i did after returning the moving van was buy an NFT guide and a thomas guide. google maps was just starting to overtake mapquest. i still thought AAA maps were cool (well, they still are). and i hadn’t even considered buying a smartphone or a phone with more than 12 buttons on it.
but now i have a garmin and a blackberry and i will probably get the iphone. do the nft and thomas guide still have a place in my automobile? probably not, despite the fact that thomas guide claims that it is more accurate than internet directions.
funnily enough, i had a mapquest printout of the route from WH to huntington beach that i threw out today. and i briefly considered tossing my 2004 thomas guide, but kept it for nostalgic reasons. you never know when you might want to know exactly where los angeles county stops and orange county starts…
i am going through the site and updating broken links. my thomas guide link was broken so i went to find the right URL and i don’t think you can even buy an annually updated thomas guide anymore. there’s a 2013 at amazon but there isn’t a los angeles county thomas guide at the rand mcnally store. welcome to the 21st century.