[DutchmenSport]

I use a Tom Tom, it's pretty stupid though. I've been fighting with it ever since I've had it. No matter what I've tried, no matter what setting it's on, it still want to take me down housing editions, around shopping malls, down back country roads with a thousand stop signs every mile. Or it takes me down interstates that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. It's never taken me down the wrong road, or a low clearance bridge road, I just haven't figured it out yet. But I use it with my destination plugged in. When getting within the last 10 miles or so, it's priceless!

We also use Google Maps on our phones for comparision with Tom Tom. Most of the time, Google Maps will keep us on the road that make the most sense, no looking for those short cuts to trim off a mile or so, maybe a little longer distance, but maybe faster because it keeps us on main roads until we are ready to get on city streets and housing additions deliberately.

And then, before we start any trip driving a distance outside of our known range, I always map out the roads on a paper map. I have the Rand McNally Trucker's Road Atlas. I like this one because the print is a little bit more clear and bigger than the conventional Rand McNally Road Atlas. Plus it shows the truck routes.

We like to avoid interstates as much as possible. We'll take US highways and enjoy the back country a little more. US Highways will take us through small towns and past fuel stations that are off the interstate and usually anywhere from 10 cents to 50 cents or more cheaper than those found at major interstate cross roads, exchanges, and entrance ramps.

So, I always study a paper map first, write down the main roads we want to travel on paper and then use Tom Tom to watch what the road looks like ahead, it gives good warning for upcoming turns, and also gives warning for road construction and here recently, warning when entering speed traps. It started doing this. Must have happened at the last upgrade it did.

In order to do trip planning and not get get yourself into a jam, you need to use 2 or 3 mapping sources together. None of them are perfect. None can show if a tree has fallen across a road, or section of the road had a rock slide, or section of road may be flooded. It's always good too have a visual of the big picture and plan the course ahead of time. I like the Tom Tom because it shows the posted speed limit and the speed I am actually driving. It warns against speed traps, photo enforced speeding sections of road, road closures, time remaining to the destination, distance to the destination, and how far ahead is the next "event" occurring in the journey (a turn, a merge, stay left, stay right, etc).

Google maps, Bing maps, Tom Tom, Garmin, and any other electronic mapping program app are good programs for immediate, on the spot travel. But for actual trip planning, a paper map is still the best place to start.