My auto club map collection...

...fits snugly in seven 27 quart Sterilite latch boxes.

I'll probably get some more of these boxes as they're waterproof and reasonably-sized for paper. I still have a lot of maps acquired from other sources, so I'm sure I'll fill them. And while polypropylene isn't as good as mylar d, it's easier to find big storage tubs made of polypropylene. And at $3.40 a box directly from the store (cheaper than the price at the link above), they're pretty cheap.


I rather feel like I started collecting paper maps from the auto clubs at the end of an era. The California State Automobile Association closed its 12-person cartographic unit back in 2008, citing a drop in demand for paper maps. GPS/satnav units have their place, but it'll be a long time before we'll have one with the display size and detail of a paper map.

I haven't seen anyone post a reasonably comprehensive list of maps keyed to AAA/ACSC/CSAA map ID number so I think I may put that up in Google Docs or something when I finally have them all entered in.

The followup post I told tavella I'd write.

lilas pointed me at this article from the Weather Underground, which includes this colorful surface temperature departure from average map from the NOAA:
It just happens that the cold bits are in North America, Northwest Europe, and Northeast Asia, where lots of people--particularly ones well connected to media--live.

So you get stories like this one about the train that got bogged down in seven feet of snow near Jining in Inner Mongolia:

This being China, they got a couple thousand people with shovels to dig out the train.


18 degrees below zero Fahrenheit and seven feet of snow. That's some serious winter weather.