March 23, 2008
DeLorme Map Store
A great stop as you head north from Portland along I-295 is to take exit 17 at Yarmouth and visit the DeLorme map store. If you haven’t heard, DeLorme is a long time purveyor of maps – for years they were known for their splendid Maine Atlas & Gazetteer, a booklet dividing the state into detailed maps and appended with a treasure trove of interesting places to visit. DeLorme changed with the times and added software duplicating their hard copy wares and expanded coverage across the globe.
The headquarters in Yarmouth reinforces this tack with ‘Eartha’. Eartha remains the world’s largest revolving/rotating globe per the Guinness Book of World Records since it’s unveiling in 1998. For fellow TravBuddies, Eartha should prove an exceptional delight. Tilted just like the Earth at 23.5 degrees, Eartha spins in glory. The globe is an amazing 41-1/2 feet in diameter; meaning California is an astonishing 3.5 feet tall! What impressed me most was realizing how big Indonesia is – I never realized how much land this chain covered (this was from my recent visit – I must have been fairly clueless during my initial time there back in 1999).
Beyond Eartha, the site also houses the Map Store, where you can purchase a Gazetteer for virtually any state in the US (we stopped here specifically to score Gazetteers for our new home state of North Carolina) and many other fascinating tidbits – from GPS devices to guide books and maps around the world. My sole complaint is that they seem resistant to my suggestion for a globe puzzle (which I would like to market as an “Eartha Kitt”).
Will add that the there is a fantastic Maine State Travel Information Bureau just across the street from DeLorme, so if this is your initial venture to Maine, checking out at exit 17 off of I-295 holds several benefits (you can also follow Route 1 North to Freeport from this exit). But regardless, the DeLorme Map Store should be Mecca for any true TravBuddy.
The headquarters in Yarmouth reinforces this tack with ‘Eartha’. Eartha remains the world’s largest revolving/rotating globe per the Guinness Book of World Records since it’s unveiling in 1998. For fellow TravBuddies, Eartha should prove an exceptional delight. Tilted just like the Earth at 23.5 degrees, Eartha spins in glory. The globe is an amazing 41-1/2 feet in diameter; meaning California is an astonishing 3.5 feet tall! What impressed me most was realizing how big Indonesia is – I never realized how much land this chain covered (this was from my recent visit – I must have been fairly clueless during my initial time there back in 1999).
Beyond Eartha, the site also houses the Map Store, where you can purchase a Gazetteer for virtually any state in the US (we stopped here specifically to score Gazetteers for our new home state of North Carolina) and many other fascinating tidbits – from GPS devices to guide books and maps around the world. My sole complaint is that they seem resistant to my suggestion for a globe puzzle (which I would like to market as an “Eartha Kitt”).
Will add that the there is a fantastic Maine State Travel Information Bureau just across the street from DeLorme, so if this is your initial venture to Maine, checking out at exit 17 off of I-295 holds several benefits (you can also follow Route 1 North to Freeport from this exit). But regardless, the DeLorme Map Store should be Mecca for any true TravBuddy.
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