How I Map

As anyone who has travled any distance with me knows, I handle road maps in an interesting manner. I often can not point to an landmark within a mile of me without line of sight and will take a round about path to get to it if asked. The reason I do this is I simply dont know where it is. I have a good memory for 3d space, and a good memory for graphs (vertex/edge graphs, not f(x) graphs (although f(x) graphs too)), but an extreamly poor spacial awarness memory. I.E. I can tell you what roads to take to get somewhere, but I couldnt tell you the distance to that place. So if there is an 'A' shaped road I might go from the bar to the tip and back to the bar if I didnt realize the bar connected.

But I bring all this up, not to wax elequently about how easily I get lost, I dont get lost, I always know A way, but more to the point, how did this map come to be in my brain? I know that many people suffer from lack of navigation skills, so maybe seeing how my brain constructs its map could be usefull to those people. Only 1 problem though... I have never built one of these maps from scratch. When I learned to drive, I had already been riding arround this town for quite some time and had a rudimentary map to improve. All other cities I have been to I had visited prior to learning to drive and/or still dont have mapped. Well, except for 1 exception. Courpus Christy TX has been firmly mapped in my mind. So lets examin the process my brain used to learn Courpus Christy.

Ok First off, here is what our mental map of CC looks like.
Ha ha, hillarious! But seriously, this is what we are starting off with, a blank city with nothing in it. Now lets add a quick pin for my house there Momentum Village.
And naturaly the road out side Momentum gets added since it is the way to get to Momentum, Its called Ennis Joslin road. Now Ennis Joslin has 2 very important traits that I learned quickly, 1. It is on the water, there are no through streets (ok, effectivly no through streets, there are 2) and 2 it is 1 way both ways with a median, you can only make turns at these two points (green curves), notably the parking lot exit is here (green arrow), thus you always have to turn right in and out. Its also the most important feature of my mental map, so it is top and center.

So now the ways to get to Ennis Joslin, there is a road over here called Ocean drive. Ocean drive is a very important and notable street because it is also on the water and is one of 2 streets that goes through Ennis Joslin, but it does so at a "super intersection" with designated right turn lanes. Thus, if you ever need to find Home, the easiest thing to do is drive towards the ocean, if you hit Ennis Joslin, turn right, and if you hit Ocean, turn right. Once on Ennis Joslin, make a U-turn if you hit a major intersection before hitting Momentum Village. This will get you home.

Ok, now that we can generally find home, the next most important thing to find is work. Conveniently Texas A&M Univeristy Corpus Christy (TAMUCC) is on an island that is only connected to land via Ocean drive. If you go through the super intersection, the only place you could possibly end up is TAMUCC, and the super intersection has a designated turn lane for folks like me going from TAMUCC to Momentum! Problem solved. Also, while campus is a big place, conveniently, work is at the Conrad Blucher Institute, which is the first right turn after the first right turn, so thats easy enough.

Ok, from here, the only other direction is right from Momentum, what of interest is that way? Well turns out Padre Island Dr is. Padre Island drive is notable for many reasons, first the intersection(s) with Padre go under the "highway", second Padre Island is 1 way both directions on opposit sides of the highway, there are regular on and off ramps from the highway on to Padre and every intersection has a U turn lane to get going the other way. 3rd this is one of few roads that does not stop at EJ, but it effectively does. And 4th, this highway goes out to Padre Island.
Ok, so now what? We have home, we have work, whats important next? Food, food is important. The only real grocery stores in Texas are the HEB chain, A quick google search reveals that there are only 2 HEB stores near by, one on Padre island, and another an Alameda. Considering that we have not talked about Alameda yet, guess which one I ended up using? Thats rignt, Padre island. Time to add landmarks, the HEB on Padre is at the intersection of Staples and Padre. Now you might think that staples would eventually intersect ocean, but a quick glance at Google maps reveals it curves away and paralells ocean.

Now Staples Street can be hard to find, so another important landmark street is needed, Airline rd. Airline is notable for 2 reasons, 1 it is the last intersection before staples, and 2 it is one of those awkward diagonal streets. (btw, it does intersect ocean somewhere)
Ok, so next what? oh yes getting home from groceries. The last major intersection before EJ on Padre is Rodd Field Rd, Rodd Field wont play a major part other than as a landmark, so lets place it here. For completness the only other major intersection with padre is Nile. Nile is noted for 1 thing, via one thing and another, it eventually conects to EJ to the left of Momentum (go figure). This isnt really important, but could be if you got lost. Next we have to add Walmart for all your dorm needs (like plates, shower curtains, and Toilet plungers). Walmart goes here, in the... other part of town? Not sure what is over there, but there is a Walmart super center! And its Highway exit is the first one after the water ends, so it doesnt matter what street it is on. Ok, groceries is in, next what? Ah, lunch! There isnt actually food in Texas. Well there is, but its just regular fast food. Lets add the most important stops to this list. These where slowly collated over a month or so. First is 8te, notable for being everyone elses favorite place to eat. It is in a stripmall on a . Next is McDonalds, because there is nothing like a mcd breakfast Buredo at any time of the night. McDs is noted for being on Rodd Field road and and doubles as a gass station (although they dont share a parking lot) with valero. There is also one on staples, but it is hard to get in and out of. Next we have one of the only Texas Delacacies I would return specificly to eat.... Whataburger. There are Whataburgers all down Padre, you cant miss them, the most convenient are on EJ and Airline. If you are anywhere near Texas, go to whataburger for lunch and order A whataburger with bacon, musterd all the way, Carmelized onions, and no pickles. Oh so Good! Also swing by for the 11-11 breakfast and get the Sausage BoB. After Whataburger comes the reason that I will be returning to Corus Christy at some point in the future. Jason's Deli. My "Local" "contacts" and "guides" (also conveniently named Jason) Didnt think to introduce me to Jason's Deli until like the last 2 weeks or so. Jason's Deli has an absolutely DELICIOUS Texas Style Baked Potatoe. Its hard to say exacty what it is, but think a baked potato about 4x the normal size loaded with bbq brisket and you should just about have it. Jason's Deli is located on airline in a little strip mall right there or so. Next after those, we have to add entertainment. There is always the ocean, the ocean is easy, just take the highway east until you run out of land. Do note that this is out on an island, the water arround us only looks like ocean, in reality its like 3 feet deep. Boom Done. Real ocean located The last map pin is the Alamo Draft house, best theater in town, dinner, and a movie, in a recliner! What could be better? I dont know. Oh wait, yes I do, it would be better if they had Irish Cream in stock durring the movie... if only that where the case-- Oh wait! It is the case! So tuck in to a burger and a glass of Irish Cream while you enjoy your movie! Nothing better. Any way, it is on the "other" side of padre island drive on staples. I dont have a good pin for it, so here ish. And that is my map. All these major intersections with padre get implictly extended to ocean drive in my mind, but none get distances, they go the other way too. And there are a few roads that connect and Staples to ocean and Airline, but I dont remember their names or locations, just that they exist. Oh right, one more thing, Alameda! You may have noticed that I mention Alameda a bit, but never drew it. Well that is because I never used it, it intersects EJ here ish, and goes off at an angle kinda like this. So now, map in hand you can see why I drive where I do. Oh, its not obvious? Well, here is a google map that aligns with my map. Notice how EJ takes an extra mile or so curve? not in my map. So travling from TAMUCC to 8te, I go Ocean → EJ→Padre→Airline→8te, in my mind this is shorter than Ocean→EJ→Alameda→Airline→8te because count the nodes, it is 4 streets no matter what, and Alameda does not really exist, so naturally padre is the way to go. So that is how my system works, I dont find the absolute shortest route, but given the major street where something in Corpus Christy is located (well this part), I could find it relativly easly. Especily given a quick glance at its location on google maps. One brief glance is all I need to find it (ok, I have to check google maps once I find the right block to find it often times, but thats just because Texas does not belive in names visible from the roads). Still, this map is good, it allows me to find 90% of what I wanted to with ease.

I hope that helps those of you who have troubles mapping a city, and I hope those of you in my life who complain about my direction sense have a better understanding as to why it is how it is. Next time you see me, if you would like me to draw a mental map of any of the other cities I know, I would be happy to. And if you are curious how I might map out your house, feel free to send it to me and I will do my best. No promises though, my maps are based on being on the ground in a location trying to go places.

Oh, one last thing really quick, you will notice that my map of CC is oriented with east up, this is because I think of that city in that way, with the ocean at the top with Ennis Joslin parallel to it.