Google Maps Custom Routing: An Imperfect Tool

For the most part, I'm a big fan of Google's various products and services. My personal email is gmail, I often use google docs instead of Office, iWork, or Open Office. Heck, this blog is located at blogger, a Google entity.

Above all, I am a big fan of Google Maps. It is just a much smoother interface than Mapquest (or the godawful product known as Microsoft Maps), and I like how the directions interface works. Until today, I was a big fan of the ability to do custom routing.

Although I still find it to be a somewhat useful tool, I recognize now that it still has a way to go. Trying to chart the map of a road trip I took earlier in the day (more on this in a later post), I was about ready to pull my hair out. Often times it doesn't seem to get that I want to go a certain way, and does weird stuff instead, doubling back on itself, or routing itself way out of the way.
It was like moving heaven and earth just to get the damn thing to take the main road between SR 48 and Maroa, IL, always trying to take I 72 instead.

Maybe I'm just not using it right, or maybe I expected far too much. If any one reading this has some tips, or even possibly a better tool for this purpose, I would be interested to hear from you about this. The comments are open for discussion on this and other online mapping services.

See you out on the road!

Traveling into the (or away from) the Sunrise

As anyone who knows me can attest, I am not a morning person. If I could get away with it, I probably wouldn't get up until at least 10:00. Unfortunately, that would make me about 90 minutes late to work.

When it comes to travel, however, I can easily get up at a very early hour. As I have gone on many road trips, most of them have started early in the morning, sometimes even before the sun is up. I love how things look in the morning, the trip not yet started, the experiences ahead instead of behind me.

On my trip out west, I started at or before sunrise several days, to maximize my enjoyment of the sites before me. I remember the cool dew-filled morning as I left Rock Island, and the crisp air outside of Cheyenne, Wyoming. I remember the sun coming up behind me as I drove through the Nevada desert to Yosemite, and the sun rising over the canyon walls as I headed back up to the Yosemite Valley the next morning. Most of all I remember the frost and fog outside of Glacier National Park, and the sun rising over the mountains as I drove along the Yellowstone River towards the Roosevelt Gate.

The world can be a very beautiful place when the sun rises. I'm not certain why I can't find that beauty every morning, but I do appreciate it when going on my road trips. Maybe I can take the feeling of anticipation for a day a travel and apply to my regular daily routine.