Favorite way to skip the interstates?
I get lazy with my routing sometimes and rely too much on Google Maps and my in-dash nav. It’s easy enough to skip the interstates in an area you’re familiar with, but I’d be interested in hearing...
Forum Discussion
I would distinguish between trip planning at home (or on the road with wifi and good size screen), and on the fly navigation with only a phone or GPS unit.
Google maps (and others) have just as much information as any paper maps - in fact more so. Precomputer I had to use Thomas Guides, topo maps, forest service, and county road maps to get similar levels of details. For Canada, the Backroads Mapbooks still rival the online detail.
Just last night I was sketching out a short camping trip around Puget Sound and Hood Canal. Neither DeLourme or Bench Mark gave the same sort of detail on Forest Service campgrounds that I could get from GM.
On the road, it can be hard to get the big picture from small-screen devices, especially while it's actively giving directions. For that a paper map can be a useful backup - if your human navigator can read it.
In familiar territory, I like to select a destination, and then deviate from the directions, and watch how the system recalculates things. That gives me a better idea of how the navigation system picks alternatives.
Speaking alternatives, it's easy to explore alternative routes on GM, at least when using a full browser. Just click on the suggested route line, and drag the point to some other intermediate road. That gives an idea of how the distance and time changes. Often distances change little, but times change a lot due to different speed assumptions. With GM I can also zoom in, check the topography, look at the actual road with streetview, and gradients (the bike route option provides this).
The size of your rig may also make a difference in how you plan. A big RV - 70ft with toad - limits how far you can deviate from the freeway, mainly other paved highways, whether they have federal or state labels. But a smaller van or suv (or bicycle) opens up all kinds of alternatives, especially in the mountains. Years ago when I moved from Chicago to Seattle in a pickup camper, I used freeways at both ends, but "snuck" across the SD/WY, WY/ID and ID/OR borders on backroads. The WY/ID legs was on the forest service road sandwiched between Grand Tetons and Yellowstone.
In the past I used to browse book stores - big box, used, and local (and BC Ferries) for guide books. I have various 'backroads' and 'byways' guide books, hiking guides, waterfall guides, etc. Now I do more of that browsing online, but still pull out the old books (even my 1987 Alaska Milepost) to get ideas.
Google maps (and others) have just as much information as any paper maps - in fact more so. Precomputer I had to use Thomas Guides, topo maps, forest service, and county road maps to get similar levels of details. For Canada, the Backroads Mapbooks still rival the online detail.
Just last night I was sketching out a short camping trip around Puget Sound and Hood Canal. Neither DeLourme or Bench Mark gave the same sort of detail on Forest Service campgrounds that I could get from GM.
On the road, it can be hard to get the big picture from small-screen devices, especially while it's actively giving directions. For that a paper map can be a useful backup - if your human navigator can read it.
In familiar territory, I like to select a destination, and then deviate from the directions, and watch how the system recalculates things. That gives me a better idea of how the navigation system picks alternatives.
Speaking alternatives, it's easy to explore alternative routes on GM, at least when using a full browser. Just click on the suggested route line, and drag the point to some other intermediate road. That gives an idea of how the distance and time changes. Often distances change little, but times change a lot due to different speed assumptions. With GM I can also zoom in, check the topography, look at the actual road with streetview, and gradients (the bike route option provides this).
The size of your rig may also make a difference in how you plan. A big RV - 70ft with toad - limits how far you can deviate from the freeway, mainly other paved highways, whether they have federal or state labels. But a smaller van or suv (or bicycle) opens up all kinds of alternatives, especially in the mountains. Years ago when I moved from Chicago to Seattle in a pickup camper, I used freeways at both ends, but "snuck" across the SD/WY, WY/ID and ID/OR borders on backroads. The WY/ID legs was on the forest service road sandwiched between Grand Tetons and Yellowstone.
In the past I used to browse book stores - big box, used, and local (and BC Ferries) for guide books. I have various 'backroads' and 'byways' guide books, hiking guides, waterfall guides, etc. Now I do more of that browsing online, but still pull out the old books (even my 1987 Alaska Milepost) to get ideas.
