Looking for App where I can select miles per day.

Rand McNally has a pretty good program called Trip Maker Deluxe. Not good for street number addresses, but fine for finding quickest, scenic, routes. You can set it up for the number of miles you want to travel and any stops you want to make. Has POIs etc. relatively cheap but sure helps in planning stages.

Yes a sextant is advisable, preferably a bubble sextant they work better on land.

I use mine after a few cervezas.

I also make an X on the ground, X always marks the spot where you are and on the map, that way I know where I am.


navegator

navegator wrote:
Navigation 101

Tools

1. pencil. Yes they exist
2. eraser. To delete above mistakes
3. note book or paper to preserve data
4. map(s). With scale and latitude and longitude and having a scale for miles and kilometers
5. one good compass, the ones used to draw circles on paper, preferably one with two points

Place map on table
with compass in hand look for the distance scale, it looks like a hair comb and has how many miles it covers sometimes it is on the bottom on one corner and or on the legend and other times it will be on the back side
take compass and place one leg on the zero of the scale, open the compass so that the other leg is at the distance that you want to use
if the route you are taking is fairly straight you can use a big scale, if it is in mountain terrain use a smaller distance
take the compass to the starting point, place the compass on the map and carefully lift the leg at the starting point and swing it towards the route or line that represents the road you are going to travel, set the leg down and swing the other leg around until it is on top of the road line

Continue doing this until you have counted the miles that you want to travel
it is not very accurate, because you are not travelling in a straight line but you need to use the smallest distance to compensate for curves and switch backs when traversing in mountain terrain, it is a lot simpler in flat land and relatively straight roads.

Good maps are always printed to a given scale, do not use tourist type maps that that show the attractions and have bunch of advertisements on the edges, most are not printed to scale.

I hope that this info is helpful, it is basic but useful, when all else fails and you do not have power or access to the internet, you can even use your fingers as a crude compass and walk on the chart.

navegator

Would a sextant help ????:@

Navigation 101

Tools

1. pencil. Yes they exist
2. eraser. To delete above mistakes
3. note book or paper to preserve data
4. map(s). With scale and latitude and longitude and having a scale for miles and kilometers
5. one good compass, the ones used to draw circles on paper, preferably one with two points

Place map on table
with compass in hand look for the distance scale, it looks like a hair comb and has how many miles it covers sometimes it is on the bottom on one corner and or on the legend and other times it will be on the back side
take compass and place one leg on the zero of the scale, open the compass so that the other leg is at the distance that you want to use
if the route you are taking is fairly straight you can use a big scale, if it is in mountain terrain use a smaller distance
take the compass to the starting point, place the compass on the map and carefully lift the leg at the starting point and swing it towards the route or line that represents the road you are going to travel, set the leg down and swing the other leg around until it is on top of the road line

Continue doing this until you have counted the miles that you want to travel
it is not very accurate, because you are not travelling in a straight line but you need to use the smallest distance to compensate for curves and switch backs when traversing in mountain terrain, it is a lot simpler in flat land and relatively straight roads.

Good maps are always printed to a given scale, do not use tourist type maps that that show the attractions and have bunch of advertisements on the edges, most are not printed to scale.

I hope that this info is helpful, it is basic but useful, when all else fails and you do not have power or access to the internet, you can even use your fingers as a crude compass and walk on the chart.

navegator

Joe,

It is may personal and duly considered opinion (you know what they say about those) that the number of miles you travel in a day is almost completely irrelevant. If you have to be some place at a given time, it matters, but that is the worst way to travel in any RV.

In any case, buy Street Atlas and learn to use all of it. This program can be a simple or as complex as you choose. It can be just a traveling map or a complete excursion planner. But you will have to think and work with it.

If you load the planning section with how many miles you want to go. It will tell you where to look for end of day places. If you load it with hours you want the "road day" to last, it will do the same. It you include the expected stop times for fuel, food and attractions, it will include those as well.

If you go to the Discovery Owners Information and collect the overlays for what you may want, you will have it all on one screen.

Matt

FWIW: We have used www.Freetrip.com for many years, putting in our start and end destination. It shows average fuel prices of the areas enroute, and shows how many miles or kms and time are remaining. It tells us we should be crossing the border after 'x' amount of hours and 'x' amount of miles/kms depending how we've set it. There is also mountain advisory and more.

How Far Can I Travel is kind of neat. Sure would be nice if there was a phone app version.

Microsoft Streets and Trips does offer this kind of functionality. Trick is going to be finding a copy somewhere... it was discontinued a few years back. Check on Ebay... you might snatch up a used copy.

We use google earth. Yes, actual road distance may be a little different but usually it's obvious if it's significant (Ie: if you are going from Muskegon to Milwaukee, it's pretty obvious Lake Michigan is in the way.

Since I have google earth pro on my work laptop, I can just put a circle centered on my current location and define a radius. Then it's pretty easy to see where I can get to in a given period of time.

Once you have a destination in mind, you then simply ask it for directions and it will give you miles and estimated travel time.

You can also search the destination for what ever you are interested in, restuarants, groceries, campgrounds, etc...

A nice thing if reaching a new campground is to use streetview, so you can see what the entrance looks like. Makes it a lot easier than just having an adress. Also, a lot of times you can see part of the campground and it looks sketchy, you can pick another without having driven there already.

Hiker_01 wrote:

icanon wrote:

jmccen58 wrote:
I,m wondering if there is an app or software that will allow me to say I want to travel a certain amount miles from my present location? This would make finding sites to stop much easier

SAR Tracker wrote:
Just use Google Maps!

How does Google maps calculate miles without entering a city or destination?
The OP just wants to enter miles to see where they end up.
I too being trying and haven't figure that out and always wonder if it's possible?

I use google maps all the time. Move your cursor to your start point then do a right mouse click. On the pull down menu, select "Measure Distance". Then, move your mouse some distance in the direction you want to travel (doesn't have to be anyplace in particular), do another right mouse click, then select "Distance to Here". This will give you a measured ruler. You can drag the end out or in to adjust the distance you want to measure. You can also "left mouse click" again and it will give you another leg to measure.

Play around with it and you might find it useful in planning.

Thanks didn't know about that, still not exactly what the OP wanted but close enough.