Road Trip Planning Software

[Jerry Winchester]

Has anyone used any trick software for planning their trips? I have been using MapQuest for rough estimates, but I am also sure it plots segments that are not bus friendly and I would also like the ability to adjust average speed, insert waypoints and the like.

It also says the fastest route from Houston to Denver is thru Oklahoma City and Wichita, but if you piece it together, Houston-Dallas-Amarillo-Denver is over 100 miles shorter.

[ken&ellen]

I have used Co-Pilot which allows me to select RV friendly roads, figures the costs, and prints out a very nice trip packet complete with maps. I understand there is even better software , but I do not know the brand name.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

I have a Magellan that my daughter bought me for Christmas 2004. It works very well except I have to be careful it doesn't take me down a road not suitable for a bus due to height or weight issues.

Prior to that if we were planning a long trip we used AAA, and over the years I have a very complete collection of state and city maps.

I have used internet mapping, but it seems when we are planning a trip we often end up just using a highlighter and a map. It gives us a chance to see places we haven't been and to come up with ideas for side trips.

The AAA membership is cheap compared to the cost of maps and trip ticks we have gotten from them.

[Jerry Winchester]

Well I scanned Microsoft's Trips & Streets today and it looked promising. I filled out the FMCA trip routing request and will e-mail that and see what it looks like, but I hadn't considered AAA.

Although I have 396 Garmin I am going to use for the trip, the MS software comes with a GPS receiver that plugs into a USB port thus turning your laptop into a GPS as well with a much larger screen. What I need is some kind of multi-function display where the back up camera monitor is so that I could select the GPS, the back up camera or some other randomly chosen but essential information to be displayed on it. I am sure the newer coaches have this feature.

Anyone use this software before?

[MangoMike]

Jerry,
Check this out from rv.net

Mike
http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fu...g/1/page/1.cfm

[Jerry Winchester]

Mike,

I read the reviews and they read like the reviews on Amazon. Some think it is the greatest thing and others are dissapointed or liked the older version. Go figure. For $100 I may try the MS stuff and see how it works. I also didn't know about RV net. Looks like it might have some useful info. Thanks for digging it up.

Jerry

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Hey!!!!!!!


For $100 I'll tell you where to go.

[Jerry Winchester]

I already have enough strange voices telling me where to go.

I was picking up my Bonanza from the avionics shop in Fredricksburg were they had installed a Garmin 330 transponder. Heading back to Houston, I was flying thru the Austin airspace at night. Somewhere the other side of Austin, a woman's voice comes over the headset and says, "Traffic unavailable". Since I was in the airplane alone, this was a little unsettling since I knew it wasn't a radio transmission and I couldn't tell where it came from.

Seems the a-holes at the shop forgot to tell me that the transponder was hooked up to the audio panel and that from time to time it would talk depending on if there was traffic or if the Mode S was offline.

Then I was flying back to Houston from Stillwater a few months back after attending a football scrimmage. My old roommate was hauling me back to the airport in his beater car that had no AC so the windows were down. I call flight service on my cell phone to get the brief. I get a woman briefer (not that there is anything wrong with that) and as she starts thru the brief a Honda car with one of those big can looking mufflers that are way loud passes on my side and it drowns out the conversation.

Whe she resumes she asks me, "Are you farting?"

I said, "No maam I am not farting, a car passed by with a loud muffler and it just sounded like a fart."

Then she says, "No I asked if you were DEPARTING..."

I said, "No I'm not doing that either....."

I swear I am not hard of hearing although my wife says I am hard of listening.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

OK, now I don't want you parking next to me at the POG. I'll take my chances with Mango.


Oooop. I misread that. I thought you were farting. You can park next to me. But about those voices.....

[ken&ellen]

To think I lost my medical because a heart problem........but you can keep flying with a fart problem????? Nothing wrong with my hearing!