[Stratoscope]

I loved TripTiks! And yes, I too was the family navigator as a kid, whether with a TripTik or an ordinary road map.

My other claim to fame was that I was the only one in the family - maybe in the entire neighborhood - who could fold a paper map so everything fell into place and it looked like new.

All the adults would just force the map to fold along whichever creases they felt like folding. I let the map "fold itself" with the map deciding where it wanted to be folded, and me just executing the map's wishes.

Specifically, first I would find the one crease that ran all the way across the map in the same direction - it was a "valley" or a "tent" all the way across, depending on which side you were looking at.

Then I'd find the next crease that was the same across the now-folded map. And the next one, and so on.

Adults didn't know this trick. They would fold along the creases, but they didn't take the time to let the map teach them which crease to fold first.

This is kind of like something I learned recently when I rescued a stray kitten from the street: You don't find a cat, the cat finds you.

Back to TripTiks, I bought one on eBay a few months ago, and it turned out to be an awesome road trip a southern California family took in the late 1960s.

First is the "front matter", with pages on:

  Using your TripTik
  Strip Map Legend
  About Accommodations
  In Case Of Accident
  Western Radio Stations
  The SPEED that's set is your best bet
  Trip Planning
  Expenses
  Entering Canada and Returning to the United States
  A Summary of Safety Responsibility Laws in Canada

Now we start the trip from Temple City, near Pasadena. Many of the pages were 2-3 page foldouts. I will use the original state abbreviations instead of our modern two-letter ones.

  Temple City to I-10 East
  I-10 to I-15 through San Bernardino
  San Bernardino to Las Vegas
  Local map of Las Vegas
  Las Vegas to Beaver, Utah
  Beaver to Salt Lake City
  Local map of Salt Lake City
  Salt Lake City to Logan, turning onto US 89 East
  Logan to Alpine, Wyo.
  Alpine to Yellowstone National Park
  Local map of Yellowstone
  Yellowstone to Gillette, Wyo.
  Gillette to Deadwood, S. Dak.
  An optional loop all around the Black Hills Region
  A TripTik Supplement for US 85/14/94 where they didn't have the map
  Belfield, N. Dak. to Bismarck, N. Dak.
  Bismarck to Fargo and on to US 81
  Fargo to Winnipeg, Man.
  Winnipeg to Kenora, Ont.
  Kenora to Port Arthur on the Thunder Bay
  Port Arthur to Nipigon, Ont.
  Nipigon to Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.
  Sault Ste. Marie to North Bay, Ont.
  Another missing-map supplement for North Bay to Ottawa, Ont.
  And finally a local map of Ottawa, their destination

Every one of these TripTik pages has a description of the towns and cities along the way, with hotel, motel, restaurant, and service station listings.

Thanks for mentioning TripTiks. It was fun for me to go through this road trip in my mind and on paper just now.