RV trip planning

I have been trying to set up our trip to get us to the start of the Grand Circle rally in Las Vegas (http://beaveramb.org/grand-circle-2-rolling-rally/). We would prefer to drive between 250 and 350 miles per day when we don’t have a specific destination in mind  for that particular day. Additionally this particular trip includes 5 or 6 stops at specific points along the route :

•  Mariana, FL -Florida Caverns
•   Biloxi, MS - Jefferson Davis Home 
•  Breaux Bride, LA – possible future rally site
•  Dallas, TX – visit friends
•  Carlsbad, NM –Carlsbad Caverns
• Scottsdale, AZ – visit friends

 Planning complex trips has been time consuming in the past, and I have tried a variety of online, smart phone, paper directory and PC based tools. I am of the opinion a good trip planning tool should do the following:

1.  Allow for multi-stop trips
2. Provide an extensive list of city, county, state , BLM, CoE, NPS,  and commercial campgrounds.
3. Identify discounts (passport America, Good Sam, FMCA, Escapee, etc.) as well as Moose & Eks club locations
4.  Identify truck stops and real time fuel prices.
5. Produce a CSV file which can be input to the GPS as well as other applications
6. Generate an itinerary

Unfortunately, no single tool performs all of the tasks. However, using several applications in concert generates some pretty decent results.

In the spirit of full disclosure, at this point the first tool we use is RV Trip Wizard. It provides the initial trip layout and potential campground via points on the trip. There are two delta's

1. There is an annual subscription fee of $39 and that may put a lot of folks off. From my perspective the cost is more than offset by the flexibility, ease of use, and time savings generated with this service.
2. It is a web based service, so maps directions, etc. are not available when you have no internet service.

This particular trip planner takes my miles per day  driving preferences into account as well as allowing me  to set up an adjustable inner (250 miles), middle (300 miles) and outer (350 miles) range. The three circles are displayed in relation to the current starting point or via point. After establishing the start and end points on the trip the three circles help pinpoint the next campground via point along the route. Once that via point is selected the new set of radius points are displayed with the selected campground or stopping point as the center of the new circles. This feature helps identify campgrounds along the route for the succeeding via point.  Each via point automatically includes pertinent information about the campground (arrival date, length of stay, location, contact information, campground ratings, etc.).  The graphic below shows the types of campgrounds which can be displayed.

The second graphic provides an example of how via or intermediate points are identified using the three radius  circles along the route

RV Trip Wizard also provides a CSV file for input into our GPS device. In addition,an Excel spreadsheet with a detailed trip plan can be generated and used as the basis for our itinerary. This spreadsheet can then augmented with points of interest along the way. The source I like to use for this function is Roadtrippers.com From a single source perspective it is a  very good web site for sightseeing. The down side to both Roadtrippers and RV Trip Wizard is that they are web based . Therefore if internet access is unavailable the data can't be accessed. The detailed trip plan spreadsheet generated by RV Trip wizard helps mitigate this issue.

Additionally. the detailed trip plan can be used to populate a custom (Map Engine) Google map and/or Microsoft Streets and Trips. Simply remove the first column and the top 3 rows of the spreadsheet before importing it into your custom maps using latitude and longitude columns. Data points should be named using the "Stop name" column. Next open a second layer and select the "add directions" icon then add each of the data points a, b,c, etc. I would also suggest using Style by Arrival for this layer. The resulting Google Map can be seen below:

Google Maps is very easy to tie to my blog at blogger.com for journel entries.

Microsoft Streets and Trips can be used to provide an non web based copy of the trip. It is simply a matter of importing the excel file and the work is complete. Unfortunately, Microsoft put out the following statement: "With more and more people turning to their phone or in-car navigation systems we felt it was the right time to exit the market," said Larry Peterson, test lead for the product. Microsoft will support S&T through July 14, 2015.

.

Other online tools include:

·         Passport America’s trip planner (online tool which only includes passport america parks)

·         Good Sam’s RV trip planner is a decent online tool that provides ratings on good sam parks. Its limitations are similar to Passport America in that this is a web based tool focused on Good Sam parks. 

·         RV Park Reviews is a good way to validate the selected campgrounds are acceptable

·         RVillage provides basic trip routing but is better suited for social activities.

Roadtrippers provides basic trip routing but is currently better suited as a tool to highlight points of interest along the way. Here is the same trip using Roadtrippers. Keep in mind on a long trip roadtrippers is limited to 40 stops.

Smart Phone based solutions include. These will be addressed at a future date:

·         Allstays Camp & RV 

·         Ultimate Campground Project

·         Good Sam Camping

·         RV Parky
Roadtrippers