top of page

No maps

Updated: Aug 8, 2021

Christmas morning 2020 was low key for my family. My husband, youngest, and I were at home with our pups just enjoying a quiet morning. I am a fairly early riser, for my husband it varies depending on how late he was up painting. Artists... Amirite? Our youngest is still a teenager and well, was sleeping in like one. My husband I began seeing breaking news stories on our social media feeds about an explosion in downtown Nashville. What?

The first reports we heard were it was a planned explosion for training. We knew that was suspect. There is no way Metro PD would have a planned training exercise involving an explosion on Christmas morning. People would be in their homes above the 2nd Avenue venues celebrating the holiday. News of evacuations would have been all over social media. So we waited for updated word. The areal shots on the news of our hometown with dark smoke billowing from the downtown area were surreal.


Later it came out it had been a vehicle rigged to explode outside an AT&T hub downtown. Investigation showed a lone wolf type perpetrator had targeted AT&T. It was sad and scary and some of our businesses and historic buildings downtown still have not recovered or been rebuilt. But, as we have seen many times in the past after tornadoes, floods, and other events, Nashville will come back. #NashvilleStrong

Everyone in the area has their own story and thoughts from their experience with this event. We were fortunate to not be directly affected. And thankful. Our hearts hurt for those that were. I knew this event would make the national news so I advised our youngest to call her dad in Texas and let him know she was safe. If he flipped on the news he would be in for an unpleasant surprise. When she tried to make the call her cell phone would not connect. It was then that I remembered our service provider uses AT&T towers. Obviously the damage to the AT&T hub was larger than we realized.


Our internet service is through another company, so we were able to turn on the Wi-Fi calling feature and have access to make phone calls and send and receive text messages while at home. When we left the Wi-Fi range of our home it went away. I have always been interested in being prepared. I learned a lot from my friend who I wanna be like when I grow up. I also had watched a few prepper type television shows on Prime. While I did not think I needed to go to extremes, this lack of service on our phones when we had no home phone was disconcerting.

What concerned me the most about loss of cell coverage and data was we now had no access to maps. All our directions and maps now are digital. They were all gone. I know that might seem like something silly for my anxiety to focus on but anxiety isn't always logical. However, I felt confident I knew where my parents were and they were safe. We knew where our kids and grandkids were and they were safe. What I worried about was if I had to get to any of them and couldn't use the main roads or, heaven forbid, had to go on foot, I would have at the very least a poor recollection of state roads and back roads. I grew up in the country, I have spent a lot of time riding this area, and I could likely muddle through if I had to, but I couldn't guarantee that.


I began thinking like my friend whom I want to be like when I grow up. She has said many times she has been stuck somewhere unprepared and never wants to be in that position again. Could I solve this anxiety trigger easily? I sure could. I ordered an old style, large Rand McNally United States atlas and each state has it's own section. The one I ordered was paperback without a spiral binding. I did that intentionally because it slides into the back sleeve of my go bag and fits perfectly. And it is lighter weight. As I said, if I had to go on foot, I needed it to be light. I paid under $15 for it. I will link it below in case you want to see it. I decided $15 was a small price to pay to alleviate that particular anxiety trigger.

We were fortunate our services were restored by bedtime that evening. Many people were without telephone services up to a week. But the worry of not being able to look at a map continued to bother me, so I went ahead and purchased the aforementioned atlas. As I said before, that may seem a silly thing to worry about but anxiety isn't always logical.


Short story? Buy the atlas. Or the flashlight. Or the Lifestraw. Or any other small item that will alleviate your anxiety, if it can and your budget allows. Sometimes nonmedical solutions are effective as well. I use a combination approach myself. Don't be afraid to think outside the proverbial box.


Be well, y'all.


*This post may contain affiliate links and as an Amazon Associate

and a member of other affiliate programs,

I may earn a small compensation from qualifying purchases.

All opinions and recommendations are my own.


This is the 2022 edition of the atlas I purchased. I purchased the 2021 version.

If you are interested in a free trial of Amazon Prime Video to watch some of the prepper shows I mentioned, you can go here:

11 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All
Post: Blog2_Post
bottom of page