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A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

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Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

bigblue_dl said:
I tried using Bing instead of Google, just to see if there is any different in times. I liked Bing much more, it seemed to refresh faster and had hours and minutes listed for a route, so I could be more precise. The problem with Bing is, you can only add 10 waypoints between the start of the route and the destination, so there is no way to actually get the entire route mapped. Anyone know another way to do it?
Click to expand...

Google Earth, perhaps?
 
Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

FlagDUDE08 said:
Google Earth, perhaps?
Click to expand...
I wouldn't expect that to be any different than google maps. hmmmm

I have to think that one of the biggest keys to this whole thing is timing it perfectly so you hit Chicago/Boston/New York/etc. at night, or on weekends, and when there are no events going on.
 
Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

bigblue_dl said:
I tried using Bing instead of Google, just to see if there is any different in times. I liked Bing much more, it seemed to refresh faster and had hours and minutes listed for a route, so I could be more precise. The problem with Bing is, you can only add 10 waypoints between the start of the route and the destination, so there is no way to actually get the entire route mapped. Anyone know another way to do it?
Click to expand...

Another thought I had for this: Can do you do partial trips? It might help to break down various parts and really optimize for time.
 
Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

Do you think its more time efficient to cross the US twice east/west or a couple times north/south to get all the states?

You can get the southern 3rd of the US from CA to NC (incl. FL) in about 48 hours (61 mph avg.) if you run the borders of the states. That's 17 states. FL is such an outlier it will waste time in at least 1 direction.
 
Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

JF_Gophers said:
Do you think its more time efficient to cross the US twice east/west or a couple times north/south to get all the states?

You can get the southern 3rd of the US from CA to NC (incl. FL) in about 48 hours (61 mph avg.) if you run the borders of the states. That's 17 states. FL is such an outlier it will waste time in at least 1 direction.
Click to expand...

My first road double-backs the country, and it was 116 hours. bigblue_dl does north/south and gets it down to 103 hours. If you were to have round trip be a caveat, though, double-backing east-west is the way to go.
 
Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

FlagDUDE08 said:
Another thought I had for this: Can do you do partial trips? It might help to break down various parts and really optimize for time.
Click to expand...
Following this lead, I made this.

If you want to use this to make improvements, I can add you as an editor.

This is the same route, or very close to it, that I got 103 hours on, in Google. I think this is the quickest one we've found so far.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0ApfOnU5g-h_ndDg3NlpOZWtPNzBUV2s4NlY1ZHBCMUE&usp=sharing
 
Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

Conference in Montreal in about 9 days... I've got a good number of brewpubs marked. What else is there to do? Yes, the Alouettes are in town.
 
FlagDUDE08 said:
I do wonder what Google's criteria for time determination is. Are they using the true speed limit? An average based upon state?
Click to expand...

I believe Google goes off of speed limits and "average" traffic. I use it to locate stores I haven't been to for work, and I best their predicted time by 15-20 minutes every time in the early morning. Usually right on for the commute home though, when traffic is heavier.
 
Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

My supervisor and I were trying to figure out how Google gets real-time traffic information for **** near every road in the country a few months ago. We concluded that they have to be using the average speed of GPS signals of Android phones on that specific section of road.
 
Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

Patman said:
Conference in Montreal in about 9 days... I've got a good number of brewpubs marked. What else is there to do? Yes, the Alouettes are in town.
Click to expand...
I went to Montreal for a bachelor party last summer and had an absolutely fantastic dinner at L'Express. The place we didn't get to that I wish we had is Au Pied de Cochon, a temple to pork-y deliciousness.
 
Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

bigblue_dl said:
My supervisor and I were trying to figure out how Google gets real-time traffic information for **** near every road in the country a few months ago. We concluded that they have to be using the average speed of GPS signals of Android phones on that specific section of road.
Click to expand...

I didn't realize it had gotten that far
 
Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

Anybody know anything about rural France? I've been a lot of place but that ain't one of them.
 
Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

XYZ said:
Anybody know anything about rural France? I've been a lot of place but that ain't one of them.
Click to expand...
I just got back from rural France, and will most likely go again next year. This year we were in Northern France. People very nice, no problem with english, rental cars cheap, very little wi fi, food fantastic.
Lots of the gas stations are closed on sundays so be real careful about getting low, and many of them are automated so you must have a chip cc vs our swipe ones to get gas at these stations. You can find gas, but it's harder.
We stayed at an 11th century chateau which was also a B and B. Totally fantastic. I would recommend getting there during daylight, at least the first time. And having a GPS other than your phone is a bonus when looking for out of the way spots. Many WW2 locations have gps coordinates available. the phone works, but data is extremely expensive, if you can get a signal, which you might not. So using maps on your phone is maybe not the best idea.
 
Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

Portland was awesome. Seattle was pretty cool, although we had less time to do stuff there.

I want to go back to just Portland for a vacation. We stayed in the Pearl district, which was a little crazy, but tons of places to go. I did a lot of restaurant research before the trip, and we ate very well.

Saw Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens, Multnomah Falls (and scenic highway), Portland Rose Garden, lots of Portland restaurants, Museum of Glass in Tacoma (meh), Space Needle (meh), Ballard Locks, Pike Place, Chihuly Garden and Glass (WELL worth the money), and Safeco Field.

Ate at: McMenamin's in Centralia, Bunk Sandwiches, Apizza Scholls, Mother's Bistro, Multnomah Falls Lodge, Cadillac Cafe, the Original Diner, Voodoo Doughnuts, Top Pot Doughnuts, Macrina Bakery, Skillet Counter, Ray's Cafe and Lowell's (for the scenery), Ezell's and a few other places.
 
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Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

manurespreader said:
the phone works, but data is extremely expensive, if you can get a signal, which you might not. So using maps on your phone is maybe not the best idea.
Click to expand...

Get a local company SIM card. We've been doing that with either a European phone (2005-2010, a few trips) or my new unlocked iPhone (last month). Just have to go to a company, tell them you want a pre-paid card and you are all set. With modern phones, they all have cards and plans for smart phones. We also got one for a iPad. You get a local number, but nice data access.

Not much effort- very worth it.

(we did "Normandy" back in 2007, and really loved it. Need to go back and see more)
 
Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

Year to date travel:

yvth.png


It's been a fun year.
 
Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

Yellow's one flight, Red is 2, anything more gets progressively darker.
 
Re: A Thread for Travel: Trips/Advice/Ideas

So I modified the 48 state trip that I had before, took the advice of someone who said get all the eastern states in on and although it's not the fastest way to get to all 48 states, I believe it's the fastest way to get to all 48 states + DC in a round trip. If you live anywhere along the blue line, well, you can do it. Cut out the one part at the Capitol Beltway if you don't want to count DC (it'll save probably an hour or so). http://goo.gl/maps/4mwib
 
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