Schmap.com Puts Travel Information Right at Your Fingertips

I’m not really what you would call a “world class traveler”, but I have roamed around the countryside a little. One of the things that really frustrates me is that I get lost easily. Maps might as well have been written in hieroglyphics and I think that I was born without that little magnetic strip in your forehead that aligns you up with the north pole, so someone standing there giving me directions doesn’t work very well either. I remember having to spend a few weeks on business in San Antonio a few years ago. The restaurant company that I was working for was really cheap, so they set us up in a Day’s End that was butt up on the highway on one side and had the Barrio on the other side. Now don’t get me wrong, San Antonio is a beautiful city; the River Walk, The Alamo, Fort Sam Houston, and all those missions. Well the mission tour got a little tedious after awhile, once you’ve seen one of themâÂ?¦. But like all big cities, there are certain areas that you don’t want to be out in after dark, even if you are a native.

The motel had a restaurant that served a fairly decent breakfast, but it closed right after lunch. That usually meant snacks and sodas out of the machine for dinner. One afternoon a couple of weeks into the stay, I had the afternoon off, so I decided to dig out the map and see if there was a grocery store anywhere nearby. First I looked in the phone book to get some addresses and then tried to plot out the distances on the map. There was a Piggly Wiggly about a half of an index finger’s length from the motel. It was a beautiful day outside, so I decided to walk. I had slept late, so it was about 4 in the afternoon when I set out. I walked for what seemed to be about 2 miles and I noticed that the neighborhood seemed to be getting worse and worse. Everyone appeared to have a vicious dog in their front yard and some thin chicken wire was the only thing between their teeth and me. I finally stopped at a little corner bar to ask for directions. Everybody sitting at the bar was wearing hats and cowboy boots. I fit right in with my business slacks and Nike shoes. “Can anybody tell me how to get to the Piggly Wiggly?” I asked. The fella that I was standing next to stared at me and then promptly spit a very large wad of tobacco juice onto my shoe. I thanked him for his time and trouble and hurried back out onto the street. I kept walking until, eventually; I saw the blessed grocery store up in the distance. I went into the store and bought two large bags of food, mostly snacks and stuff that didn’t require cooking. By then it was getting late and I decided to call a cab back to the motel. Three hours later I was sitting on the parking lot of the deserted Piggly Wiggly still waiting for the cab. Every so often a group of kids would come up to me and ask me what I was doing there and what I had in the grocery bags. I ended up sharing most of what I had in the bags by the time the cab finally arrived some four hours after I had called it. Back at the motel, I looked forlornly at the solitary bag of Cheetos I had left and after having it for dinner, prepared to go to work.

Now there’s a better way to travel. Just log on to Schmap.com and download the free Schmap player and any or all of 70 interactive guides to cities all across the globe. You can call up the street map of a specific neighborhood, check off any of the 20 categories of hotels, museums, and local attractions, and icons that mark their locations pop up on the map. Put your cursor over the icon and you get a picture, review, and a link to the website. Here’s something that I could definitely have used: draw a line between two different locations and it will tell you whether it’s within walking distance or not. Or you can click on the tour button and it takes you roaming all over the city, giving you all of the pertinent information along the way.

Schmap.com is still in its initial Beta testing stages, but they plan on listing 189 North American and European destinations by November. They also plan to have an onsite travel store and links to Amazon and hotel booking sites in the future. I wonder if it can tell you how to get too the nearest Piggly Wiggly?