![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
New Pin Map: Complete!
Jan. 15th, 2026 09:27 pmReplacing our USA travel map has been an odyssey. When I ordered the new one in early December I didn't think it would take just over 5 weeks until we hung the new one in its place. Though given the original had hung on our walls for going on 30 years what's an extra 37 days?
The delay happened first because getting the customized map printed and shipped took over a week. Then we delayed opening it as we were busy in the pre-holidays rush. Then we found the map was misprinted. Oh, no! The vendor courteously took full responsibility right away and printed and sent a new one, but again that process took over a week. It's only in the past week we've spent time moving our pin markers from the old map to the new one.
There were hundreds of pins in the map. We didn't count them precisely; that's just an estimate. Moving them was a laborious task. But it was a labor of love. Each time we removed a pin from the old map we noted the location it marked, recalled the time(s) we've been there, and inserted a new pin in the corresponding location on the new map.
Alas this labor of love was still labor. Moving all the pins made our hands achy, even with small pliers (you can see them at the bottom of the pic above) to help remove the old ones and press the new ones in. We worked on it across three sessions over the past week.
But now it's done! And tonight we hung the new map on the wall in the place of the old one, in our upstairs landing.
What's custom, BTW? Aside from the frame we picked, which was one of about 8 choices the maker offered, we customized the message in the map legend.
It's our riff on the theme of the 1976 Billy Joel song You're My Home. Y'know, the one that goes:
The delay happened first because getting the customized map printed and shipped took over a week. Then we delayed opening it as we were busy in the pre-holidays rush. Then we found the map was misprinted. Oh, no! The vendor courteously took full responsibility right away and printed and sent a new one, but again that process took over a week. It's only in the past week we've spent time moving our pin markers from the old map to the new one.
There were hundreds of pins in the map. We didn't count them precisely; that's just an estimate. Moving them was a laborious task. But it was a labor of love. Each time we removed a pin from the old map we noted the location it marked, recalled the time(s) we've been there, and inserted a new pin in the corresponding location on the new map.
Alas this labor of love was still labor. Moving all the pins made our hands achy, even with small pliers (you can see them at the bottom of the pic above) to help remove the old ones and press the new ones in. We worked on it across three sessions over the past week.
But now it's done! And tonight we hung the new map on the wall in the place of the old one, in our upstairs landing.
What's custom, BTW? Aside from the frame we picked, which was one of about 8 choices the maker offered, we customized the message in the map legend.
It's our riff on the theme of the 1976 Billy Joel song You're My Home. Y'know, the one that goes:
🎵 Home can be the Pennsylvania TurnpikeWe've been to all those places. And hundreds more.
Indiana's early morning dew
High up in the hills of California
Home is just another word for you. 🎵
