Trip planning/directions

[mapcat]

My planned Christmas-New Year's trip got nixed by the weather, but I took a photo of Monday's itinerary before throwing it away just because I'm curious about how other people write out their itineraries/trip plans/directions, or whatever you call them. I write these out so I can make notes while I'm driving about TM data, and then file them so I have a record of where I went in case anything changes in the future (such as the recent extension of IN 237 along a county road, which I was happy to discover I'd driven a few years ago).

Link

What do yours look like? Do you have a template? Special shorthand to simplify directions?

Happy holidays and safe travels, everyone.

[Markkos1992]

I pretty much write down my route plans on a separate sheet of paper, and then write everything down in my notebook after the trip.

[the_spui_ninja]

You guys write things down? I just come up with it as I go and hope I have time to log... life with a screaming baby lol.

[Markkos1992]

I pretty much write down my route plans on a separate sheet of paper, and then write everything down in my notebook after the trip.

Here is a link to my notebook from my trip Tuesday to NC.

[mapcat]

You guys write things down? I just come up with it as I go and hope I have time to log... life with a screaming baby lol.

I have to write things down beforehand, since the directions are usually pretty complicated. I don't like taking notes while I'm on the trip, so I cross my fingers and hope all goes to plan. Any deviations get noted when necessary.

My screaming baby just turned 20, but I learned to avoid mixing clinchtrips with family trips before she was born, which usually led to harmony. She accompanied me enough to develop an appreciation for driving for the sake of driving.

[mapcat]

Here is a link to my notebook from my trip Tuesday to NC.

Good way to keep it all organized. How many notebooks have you filled so far?

[osu-lsu]

I have my 2015 edition of the DeLormes street Atlas & GPS program I use to plot out my travels.
I just wish I had something more current than that (Delormes got bought out the following year)

[michih]

I have to write things down beforehand, since the directions are usually pretty complicated. I don't like taking notes while I'm on the trip, so I cross my fingers and hope all goes to plan. Any deviations get noted when necessary.

Me too. I made handwritten notices like you and added changes while driving - e.g. stopping anywhere along the route - but that was dangerous and annoying. I learned to plan the exact route on my PC prior to the trip. I plan with an offline map of my GPS. I usually enter 50 to 130 intermediate wps for a day trip. An exception was my latest trip in Turkey. I only had 30 intermediate wps for a 13-hours-driving day becaues it was mainly on freeways. That's rare meanwhile since I've already traveled most of Europe's main artery freeways. I always check mapview, GM and - if available - regional traffic info sites for finding the best route in terms of TM mileage and avoiding road closures. Thus, I have less to change during the trip and can simply enjoy the ride Nonetheless, I often face unexpected things like unexpected road closures or other detours, e.g. for having lunch. It's usually 1 to 3 changes per day I can keep in mind till I log it to my list file in the evening.

[Markkos1992]

Here is a link to my notebook from my trip Tuesday to NC.

Good way to keep it all organized. How many notebooks have you filled so far?

At least a couple.  The idea was to use those for journaling, but that never quite happened.

[froggie]

For those trips I "pre-plan", I'll type up a cue sheet in Notes on my iPhone, but I usually don't TAKE notes while on the trip.

And whether I pre-plan or am winging it, I also have my iPad open to TM in case I have to make changes on-the-fly.

[vespertine]

99% of the time, I'm planning an itinerary for my roadtrips, to help me manage time and maximize what highways I get on my route. Helps immensely in places with a lot of routes or complicated areas (I'm thinking the northeast, or Kentucky). I make these sheets with shield pictures to try and make it as easy to read as possible when driving. Here's a leftover page from my recent trip out west. There's a LOT of shorthand I use, but it's probably easy to figure out.

Route plan

v.

[mapmikey]

Even with complex clinching rides, I work out the route I’ll use, study it over and over until I can recite it in my mind. I supplement this with GMSV in locations with complicated intersections so I will be prepared when I get there.

After the ride I can recall wherever I went when updating my TM file, even if I deviate from my intended route.

[oscar]

I have my 2015 edition of the DeLormes street Atlas & GPS program I use to plot out my travels.
I just wish I had something more current than that (Delormes got bought out the following year)

I do something similar, with Microsloth Streets and Trips (updates stopped in 2013), supplemented with OSM and Google Maps to spot post-2013 hotels, etc., and also significant recent route changes. That gives me a durable record of the route I planned to take, and also about how long I can expect to take. I can also do some trip planning with Streets and Trips, in remote places where the Internet basically doesn't exist without an expensive sat-phone connection.

I print out the Streets and Trips itinerary, and TM maps of the routes or route segments I plan to drive, to take with me on the road. I'll also write down mid-trip planned route changes, if I don't have access to a printer.

I'll be soon be transferring programs, etc. to a new notebook PC (the old one I'm now using is near death), and looking for something better than 2013 Streets and Trips for trip planning.

[mapcat]

Vespertine's route plans are art. Wish I had the talent and time to do that. I can see how that would make navigating a lot easier. As for memorizing a route like Mapmikey, I don't think I could memorize a route of more than 5 turns. Congratulations for mastering that. Agree that GMSVing intersections and turnarounds ahead of time is very useful. Sometimes it's a lot easier to remember what the little church or VFD building at the end of a route looks like than finding a hidden ESM sign or noticing a pavement change.

Guessing that the DeLorme and Streets & Trips users have issues with GMaps' limit of 10 waypoints? I default to GMaps (and save the urls in text files) despite sometimes having to break a long day into 10 or more individual routings. Actually the breaks are kind of useful for gauging how close I am to the predicted time. The lines on the sheet I posted correspond to the ends of each partial route, with the time Google predicted "without traffic" there to let me know how far ahead of or (usually) behind ideal I happen to be.

I agree with Froggie, having mapview loaded on the iPad is essential while on the road. Is there a way to get "mark current location" to work when the iPad is using a hotspot?

[osu-lsu]

Guessing that the DeLorme and Streets & Trips users have issues with GMaps' limit of 10 waypoints? I default to GMaps (and save the urls in text files) despite sometimes having to break a long day into 10 or more individual routings. Actually the breaks are kind of useful for gauging how close I am to the predicted time. The lines on the sheet I posted correspond to the ends of each partial route, with the time Google predicted "without traffic" there to let me know how far ahead of or (usually) behind ideal I happen to be.

How could you guess  Actually Delormes maxes out at 100 waypoints. I discovered this 5-6 years ago when I was plotting out my Lincoln Highway in Iowa revisited trip.
Tim Brown used GMaps for his Cincy Roadmeet itinerary, back in 2020, and I wasn't fond of the multiple layers he had to use to cover his trip, and that was just one day & one city.
Back to my DeLormes map program, it does allow one to break up multi-day travels and allow one to know how long one has to go before reaching their destination (assuming one has a GPS unit attached to their laptop). One can manipulate the pre-programed time (i.e. how fast one can drive on various roads), though I find myself normally doing better on time than what DeLormes originally predicts....unless I take more stops than I originally planned.

Maybe you can start a new research project, for my alma mater, for a new map program that is more flexible than Gmaps, but more portable than the old DeLormes & Streets & Maps programs.
Present your research proposal at the 2023 Ohio Roadmeet (wherever I decide to hold lunch at, in Columbus or Delaware)