But back to the thread. Has anyone had the fun I've had with Mapquest? It tends to send you the long way around, whereas directions from people go straight through (I think this may be because in VA, so many roads have the same name when they aren't the same road, or change names when they ARE the same road, so the computer tries to follow the road names and gets led astray). Ive' been sent to the far end of roads that are miles and miles and MILES long, so when you hit the road# you think you're there, and you're not, because that road number in another county is a totally other road.

And my latest adventure: I've gotten from the Internet interesting details about a town with my family name, that (as it turns out) doesn't exist, or at least isn't a town. Mapquest calls it a town, and will map to it, and give very detailed directions. And there is a city website for it that locates it in a particular county. But I tried to get its Zip code, the USPS denied all ken, and when I contacted the state directly, there is no such town, it isn't a town, it apparently never was. It may have been a railroad station at some point (the Mapquest star is on the railroad line), but was never incorporated or whatever one does to make something a town or a city. Municipated? Anyway, it's been a real challenge. I plan to drive there anyway, and look in phone books... but who made a website for it when it doesn't exist, and how did it get onto Mapquest if it has no location? The USGS recognizes the "locality" name is the closest I've gotten, but who feeds this info onto the Web? I assume at least that it's the same thing that got it into Mapquest and to the people who build city sites...