I recently went on a long road trip to celebrate my retirement.  I would be driving thru at least 6 states and wanted to have a hard map on hand for planning purposes.  While I will have a Garmin GPS unit running, I do like having a manual backup - just in case.  I also like having a map so I can spend an hour the night before reviewing the route and perhaps looking for side roads to adventure.  The beauty of this retirement road trip is that if I see a road leading off into some unknown distant hills, I am free to go.  Trying to get a feel for the terrain ahead or where interesting waypoints along the way on a tiny GPS is impossible.  Having an actual map makes it so easy to look for alternate roads, forest service roads in the mountains, and possible stops.