Matt_Colie wrote:
As a man that as frequently had a job description that said "Navigator", I like both a plan and options. As our life no longer includes getting to work on Monday, we have more options.
If you are going to use on-line, use them, print them and put it all in a 3-ring binder. I use AAA and Trip Adviser both to find interesting places. No one has all of them. I have tried all I can find. Furkot.com comes close, but it does not seem to like rearrange fuel and EOD - or at least I haven't found out how to as yet.
For That Very Reason, the on-line trip planning is pretty useless. I have used them, but even years ago, we found that the plan was gone by the end of the third day. That was if we were lucky and/or found no worthwhile diversion. All of the on-line planning is great if you can carry the wire. (This is an ancient term for have internet access.) But still they are all missing important features.
The problem is simple. Both Streets and Trips and Street Atlas could give you good approximations of both End of Day (so you can scourer your sources for an ONP) and suggest fuel stops. Both would easily recalculate based on new information. This way, you can avoid both having to EOD sooner because you messed up a reservation, losing a reservation because you found an interesting stop and stayed too long or you got advised that you next fuel stop would be in someplace expensive (thanks, GasBuddy).
Unfortunately it seems both S&T and SA have gone the way of all code. There is no replacement that I have found, but both can still be used for advanced planning. (I am currently working on a 7Kmi PCH tour.) And if we do this, we will do it the way we have for the last decade (give or take). I will lay out the plan and which ever is navigating will keep it up to date on the running laptop with SA15. That day's plan will have been transferred either by *.gpx or just important points to the driver's GPS. The smart phone will be running for traffic updates and GasBuddy when this can happen. There is a lot of area, particularly off the blue roads and west of the Mississippi where there is poor or no cell coverage let alone 3~4G data.
I am still hopeful that can happen, but I was just informed that California is risky. Both because an acquaintance was stopped by CHP and they demanded that he allow them to search his coach. They made it clear that as his coach was from out of state, they could detain him on the basis of both safety inspections and illegal transport (he is still trying to figure out what it is legal to transport within CA). I am a sport shooter and go to sanctioned events all along any typical route. (Often this drives the route.) None of the pieces I carry fit the California templates and all have magazines that are more than 5 round. Those magazines have all been hand fit to their piece to feed correctly. I am still waiting for confirmation that they have negated the federal "peaceable transit" rules, but it seems that they have. OH, Well.
Matt
The magazine load is no more than 10 rounds. Plugs or devices that change a higher capacity magazine to 10 rounds are also illegal. I believe the "reasoning" behind that facet is what was done to lower the capacity can easily be undone.
I've been retired for 11 years but I believe that any law enforcement officer needs your permission or articulated probable cause to detain you and search your vehicle. If the CHP said he could search your vehicle without your consent I'd ask politely for an explanation or his probable cause for such a search. The only other reason (and this is a long shot), if you failed to stop or the agriculture officer at a border agriculture saw something he thought was contraband (fruits and veggies).
