Visting the DeLorme Map Store in Yarmouth Maine

Right outside of Freeport in Yarmouth, Maine is the DeLorme map store. If you’ve travelled I-95 north through Maine, no doubt you’ve seen the giant globe named Eartha in it’s glass house too. We’ve driven past it for years now but time always has a way of getting away from us so we’ve never stopped in. As luck would have it yesterday, we weren’t in any kind of hurry to get anywhere and had no real timetable other than making sure we got to the last ferry across the sound, so we took the opportunity to finally go in.

Its no secret that I’m a bit of a map lover. I don’t covet them like a collection, but rather love them for their intended use. I’ve got a stack of poorly folded, creased, tattered, torn, highlighted, written-on maps here at my desk just begging to be used. Sadly the truth is, they don’t get nearly as much exercise as I’d like them to but I’m working on it.

Come for the globe, stay for the maps.

I’m fairly certain that most people are drawn in by the big globe, and rightfully so… but, the maps. The Maps! The store is filled with Lonely Planet type travel books for just about everywhere and nestled neatly beside the books are the accompanying maps for those far away places.

It felt rather serendipitous that we did stop. Not 10 minutes earlier, I had asked Kenny to pick the destination of our yearly ‘big motorcycle trip’ for 2009, and he did. We walked in and were able to get some lovely low-level maps to begin planning our journey. As I sit here now and type this I feel giddy with idea of going away again, even if it is a year out.