Route plan with Google Map / Earth, need tech savvy help

Normy wrote:
Hi,

(I posted in this forum rather than Tech discussion being that my issue should be a quick thing to resolve with you very savvy Google Map and Google Earth folks. I will then continue discussing routes as I come up to a question).


I have been planning a trip from MA to SD and asking a bunch of questions from experienced travelers that know how to avoid area's like Chicago etc.


I would like to create a trip from Mass to South Dekota. I am trying to find the fasted and safest route and avoid heavy traffic as possible like Chicago, just interested in far enough away that makes sense but not add too much time or miles. Not a fan of gridlock, but is it worth putting up with some than going way around. I've got quite a few choices from feedback on my original post about using Good Sam Trip Planner to take shots of my screen. So I want to use this post as the offical for tweaking my route East to West.


Thanks
Normy

So far I cut and paste all the suggestions I received to date on alternative routes etc. and placed them on a word sheet to check out what these proposals look like in google maps. I will use the departure feature to look at traffic congestion times and area's.

I appreciate everyone's impute and I copied those that have reasons why the alternates may not work well or as people just travelled through the area had warned about construction they knew about.


Now I'm at the phase where I need to figure out once and for all how long I plan on driving between destinations? I mentioned 11-13 hours not counting stops, but that might be pushing it too much. I figure including stops, traffic, construction, my average travel time may end up being 45-55 mph.


So here's the next question: What do you folks think is a reasonable distance/time to travel between destinations? About what do you think are your reasonable travel times tend to be? We are not full timers and we are limited on vacation time, so I think we are stuck traveling longer than I would like.


Any thoughts?


Thanks again for your time and replys, it's very helpful to us.


Thanks

Normy