@cstross@wandering.shop I learned on a manual and used maps, too. I drove alone a lot and, on long trips, I got used to pulling into a parking lot and making mental plans for where I was going to be going next to get to where I wanted.

One time I was on a major road and didn’t see what I was expecting to see and didn’t have anywhere to pull over, so I was trying to check the map while driving and ended up driving onto a closed military base without realizing it. I later found out the other cars had stickers so didn’t have to stop. I was just going with the flow, so maybe they missed me somehow. I was fortunate that I wasn’t shot or arrested, but this was before 9/11 and they didn’t do anything.

These days I do use electronic navigation and probably couldn’t get by if it went out for the simple fact that I haven’t owned a map in a decade or more.