GROVELAND, Calif.--This is a very old town. It is just about the last piece of civilization before the western entrance to Yosemite National Park, and the town is studded with 19th century Wild West saloons and wooden buildings with wraparound porches.
Ah, but it isn't the 19th century anymore, is it?
Today, this venerable town, which millions of people surely pass through each year on their way to Half Dome and Yosemite Falls and such, is doing its best to keep up with the times.
And the most visceral symbol of that?
In Groveland, Calif., progress means the general store is right next door to the Net Stop--a place for travelers to get some high-speed Internet
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)It's surely the fact that Groveland's general store--the centerpiece of any small town--is directly next door to the "Net Stop," a place where travelers can sit down and get a high-speed Internet connection.
It's quite a funny juxtaposition. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised given that the Internet is everywhere these days. But in a town like this, where the first things you see are such old buildings and a sense pervades of being in another time, it does feel a little out of place.
Yet, it is perfectly appropriate. In the old days, the general store, or the trading post, was the place where people would come from miles around to get word of the world at large--or at least towns beyond a short horse ride. So, this is that reality, writ modern.GROVELAND, Calif.--I suppose I should read what my colleague Elinor Mills writes a little more closely.
If I had, I would already have known about a ridiculously useful new feature of Google Maps that lets you see a new route between two destinations simply by dragging an existing route line through another location.
A route from Groveland, Calif., to Las Vegas
(Credit: Google)Instead, I had to discover it on my own. But luckily I did, and things will never be the same.
Last night, I was sitting in my hotel room in this tiny mountain town near the western entrance to Yosemite National Park, feeling fortunate simply to have found an open Wi-Fi connection. After all, Groveland has a population of only 3,663--and that's for the entire zip code, which comprises more than just this hamlet.
I was looking at Google Maps, trying to determine the route from here to Las Vegas, which is my stop tonight on Road Trip 2007, my three-week journey through the Southwest, and I noticed that the suggested roads didn't take me through Death Valley, but rather just around it.
That was no good, I thought, to be so close to such a noteworthy location, and not go through it. But I have a lot of driving to do, and didn't have any idea how long it would take to reroute through Death Valley.
Then I noticed this little square on the Google Maps route. I'd never seen it before--since I hadn't noticed Mills' blog entry of June 28--and it was a wonderful surprise.
By using a new feature, you can simply select an alternate route.
(Credit: Google)Suddenly I was able to simply choose a route through Death Valley, and it told me, in a little box on the route, what the new driving time would be. Halelujah!
Technology. It never ceases to amaze me.
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