We were headed for a weekend get away and I decided we should take Great River Road. It is a scenic byway that follows the Mississippi River on the eastern side of Iowa.

It was a beautiful drive over hills and around farms. There just weren’t many towns between the Quad Cities and Dubuque. We knew the road would take us to Dubuque, but we didn’t know where we were.

The GPS on your phone is great when you are trying to go from Best Buy to Guitar Center in an unfamiliar city, but it doesn’t help when you will be on one highway for an hour.

I got out my 2014 map of Iowa. As we passed through a small town, I saw on the map it was the last chance to use a bathroom or grab something to eat. We ended up having lunch at Casey’s, a gas station, but the views were worth it.

The nice thing about the map is you can follow it with your finger. I guess I am a tactile person. I like tracing our route as we go along. We would see a sign for a small town to the right or left and I could see it on my paper map.

The map shows parks, colleges, and other features that you will not hear about on GPS. Did you know Iowa has an island? We drove by it.

I saw it on the map.

Old school map.