Published May, 2001
"Spring has sprung, the grass has riz - I wonder where the birdies is?" Well, the snow birdies are circling and thinking about heading north, or at least in that general direction. The smart birdies are starting to check out the Internet to find where is the best place to go and the best way to get there.
Have you been checking out the Internet? Do you know how to plan a trip using the Internet? Here is a case study.
We, the Pennys, are pulling our fifth wheel to New Orleans this spring for a barge cruise on the Mississippi River. After doing some research on the river up to St. Louis we will visit relatives on our return to southern California by mid-year. Of course, we plan to enjoy ourselves along the way as we find other items of interest.
My first step for planning this trip is to plot the basic route on a map and estimate our preliminary itinerary. Unfortunately, I have found no Internet web sites sufficient for mapping and trip planning for a RV tour with multiple stops and an extended schedule. Mapquest at www.mapquest.com provides good details about a single leg of the trip from point A to point B when it is time to move, but planning needs a better tool than that.
So I go offline, using DeLorme's Street Atlas USA 7.0 to determine the quickest route for the trip. When travelling I will use the GPS option in the program to track our progress across the country and help us recover if we get lost. You can find more about this program at www.delorme.com.
Our trip begins at Jojoba Hills SKP Resort (see www.jojobahills.com) in southern California. I enter the major cities we will visit into the trip plan and set my maximum average speed to 53mph in Street Atlas. From this I get a first estimate for the trip leg to New Orleans: 1,800 miles and 35 hours of driving time with the trailer in tow. Wow! The side trips and detours to visit relatives and points of interest along the way will only add to this distance and time.
The next step is to refine the trip. On the way east I plan to visit family in Palm Springs CA, Ruidoso NM, and Georgetown TX. I enter their addresses into the route plan. I also plan intermediate stops at Escapees Parks along the route to Louisiana: Congress and Benson AZ, Deming NM, and Livingston TX. Looking in on www.escapees.com I check out locations and facilities for the SKP parks involved. I add these stops to the route plan.
The first leg still has two portions that are longer than I like to drive in a day, so I look at www.tldirectory.com to see what Trailer Life suggests as a place along the route where we can spend the night. You may choose to look for boondocking sites, but we want hookups when we stay overnight. I add stops in Post and Cisco TX and Lafayette LA.
Checking our schedule for the barge cruise at www.adventurecaravans.com shows that we are due in New Orleans by April 13 to rendezvous at the Bayou Segnette RV Park in Westwego. I change the location of our New Orleans stop to Westwego.
With these changes the trip to New Orleans has grown to 2,100 miles and 45 hours of towing time. There are eleven stops. Adding ten days for contingency and the time we will be staying over to visit means we must leave no later than March 25.
Using the www.metacrawler.com search engine to check on Westwego and New Orleans finds a good description of the Bayou Segnette State Park at www.crt.state.la.us/crt/parks/bayouseg/byusegne.htm. It also points me to www.neworleansweb.org/events.html for a list of events going on in the New Orleans area. I see the French Quarter Festival will be in full swing when we return from the cruise (see www.fqfestivals.org/overview.html) and a week later is the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (see www.insideneworleans.com/entertainment/nojazzfest/). Now I know to add more days in the area after getting off the barge.
I won't bore you with the details of planning the remainder of the trip, but it is worth while telling you of some of the interesting web sites I used. I expect to research and photograph the Mississippi River from Natchez to St. Louis during the month of May for my book-in-progress. The Mississippi River Parkway described at www.mississippi-river.com/mrpc/map.htm identifies points of interest near the river. I expect to be in Memphis a couple of weeks. www.ci.memphis.tn.us/visitor_info/main.cfm provides a good list of events and information about the sights around the city.
On our way through St. Louis we plan to visit the Arch. A great site for an architectural and historical overview is www.nps.gov/jeff/arch-ov.htm. Useful information about the city is found at www.st-louis-cvc.com/frame_home.html with its links to history and pictures of the city.
For Oklahoma www.oklahomaadventureguide.com/okrvdirectory/welcome.html provides a directory to camping spots in Oklahoma. A tried and true resource is www.gorp.com/gorp/location/ok/ok.htm where you find several current, up-to-date links to interesting activities. Visit www.travelok.com for a most complete list of events in the state in 2001. They even have a trip planner to guide you around to all the things you want to see.
Take a look at www.amwest-travel.com/awt_silverton.html for a great set of photos of the narrow gauge Durango and Silverton Railroad. The trip between Durango and Silverton is a real thrill. If you are in that area, go on over to Mesa Verde. A very informative web site about this beautiful park is found at www.mesa.verde.national-park.com. For the rest of the Colorado Rockies, the web site at www.rockies.com/parks/ from the Colorado State tourism people is one of the best.
I could go on and on, but I leave it to you to do some independent searching on the Internet for interesting places to see and things to do. Use it, it's a great tool.
That's all for this time. I hope you start planning your next trip soon, looking for those places where you can have fun along the way. Take care, drive carefully, and we'll see you down the road.