I have been participating in a discussion on the Travel
Advisor boards on how to plan a road trip…
Personally, I use Google maps and a spread sheet… with lots
of options… lots of versions, but usually have a paper map on hand as well. I mostly use the web, but have AAA guidebooks
at hand… The spread sheet drives the planning… My spread sheet self calculates time
and distance at various speeds… I look for transits that will get me where I
need to be… at a speed (and resulting time) I am comfortable with… I make a differentiation
between transits… getting somewhere and road trips… wandering along a route…
The first two or three plans don’t survive… they don’t stand
the test of distance and time, and things along the way, or nearby… easy
detours… are found to distract… and add time ruining a otherwise good plan…
but also distance starts to veto transits… we need to be realistic…
I like weird stops, and check http://www.roadsideamerica.com/ for
sites along my route… AAA guide books
are good, once you have an idea of where you are going… If you have any specific interests, search
for sights related… I will search for house museums… for railroad museums… (I will miss most.. but I like to know what I
am missing…)
I try to say aware of sunset… Unless headed home or on a
hard drive to get away from home I generally stop before sunset.
You need to know how far you are willing to go in a day, and
allow sufficient time to go to places you want to visit to avoid the dreaded sightseeing
drive by… “Wow… there is a historic
marker… pull over… wow… I didn’t know that… hit the road we are losing time….”
Of course, there is always too little time and too much to
see…
Currently the lovely Tina and I are planning a couple of
trips… In the near term to Tucson for a family gathering, then on the way back
via Death Valley… The first day exploring some back country trails in the Jeep…
We will spend New Years eve in Death
Valley… I plan on taking a bottle of champagne and sitting on the sand dunes
near Stove Pipe Wells for sunset… sunset is probably our midnight… our New
Years… followed by a fast trip home via Walker Pass…
The second trip is more complicated, with more decisions…
That trip is to Glacier National Park… in late July… Glacier
is some distance from San Mateo (aka “Home”)… two days at least… Since I have
retired (and the lovely Tina has not…) I will drive to Spokane Washington… She
will fly… I will take three days or so
for the journey… she will take a few hours…
From Spokane it is a day, with distractions to get to the vicinity of
Glacier National Park… We are planning to drive I-90, with a visit to the
National Buffalo Reserve on the way… We
like buffalo…
We have run 3 spreadsheets to plan the travel… we are not
done, but the trip is taking shape… the spread sheets… (spread sheet version
2.2 or so… ) drove possible travel dates… reservations at Glacier Park Hotels
drove the exact dates (at least while in Glacier… the before and after are
still in play) We will spend the night
near Glacier in Kalispell… at the local old school grand hotel… the Kalispell
Grand… I have a good feeling about the place… it has taken 3 emails to work out
the details but we have a reservation… the interaction only made the feeling
better… it was a conversation, not filling out a form… and we have a reservation…
Beyond Kalispell we will wander Glacier National Park… to
East Glacier and the Glacier Park Lodge... The Prince of Wales Hotel (Canada... a different country... ) Many Glaciers Hotel and Lake McDonald...
Once done with Glacier (can you ever be done with any
National Park, much less one as grand as Glacier…??? Probably not… just done until next visit… ) but
beyond we have decisions…
Our trip beyond Glacier is in its 5th or 6th
revision… Originally Tina was to fly home from Montana… then from Salt Lake
after a drive along the Bitteroot Highway…
Now, we are likely to drive home together via Ely and Tioga pass… after
transiting the Bittteroot Highway and Hayden Valley in Yellowstone, with a
dinner at a brewpub in Jackson…
Beyond Glacier the trip is now revolving around the
Bitteroot Highway… and a 26’
tall talking penguin statue in Cut Bank, Montana. I am also looking forward to the brew pub in Jackson.
The travel planning is as much fun and lasts longer than the
trip… and nightmares of penguins last longer that anything else...
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