Boxster Road Trip

We knew the minute we started mapping our route, that we were going to need three tools:

1. Good planning software for the tablet (in our case, a Lenovo Helix running Windows 8)
2. A real paper map (we are old school and still like the visual that a map gives you)
3. A new GPS for the Boxster

First, the Software

We started with the planning software.  We looked at (and tried) several products:

1. Google Maps (maps.google.com)
2. Roadtrippers (www.roadtrippers.com)
3. AAA’s TripTik (www.aaa.com/travelinfo)
4. TripIt (www.tripit.com)
5. My Scenic Drives (www.myscenicdrives.com)

We chose My Scenic Drives because it was easy to learn and use, and it had some features that we really liked, for example:

• You can set your start date, so you know when you might actually arrive at your ultimate destination (assuming not too many side trips!)
• It lets you set your estimated MPG and what you think fuel will cost, giving you an estimate of the cost of the entire trip.
• You can set your default speed to the speed limit, or 5%, 10%, 15% or 20% slower.  Since we know we are going to be stopping to take photos, (and, of course, we would never exceed the speed limit in our Boxster), we are opting for 20% slower.
• You can set your default daily start time and the number of hours per day you plan to drive.  These defaults can be overridden easily for each leg of your road trip.
• You can opt to avoid highways by default (my favorite) and also opt to avoid tolls.  Again, easily overridden.
• You can add notes to each destination (I’ve added average temperature, so I know how to pack for this trip) and you can add activities (like stop for ice cream).

During the coarse of our planning, I have sent emails to the developer asking for help and he has always been responsive (a very important “feature”).

Second, the Map

We chose the National Geographic Road Atlas – Adventure Edition.  It had everything we needed and it was spiral bound, which we think will hold up better.  It is rather large, which could be a problem given our limited space.  We’ll let you know!

Third, the GPS

In our case, since we had an old Garmin and we had good luck with it, we decided to stick with what we knew and just buy an updated version of the Garmin.  So we chose a nüvi® 50LM.

So, with these three tools, hopefully we won’t get unintentionally lost; although we will, no doubt, get intentionally lost a number of times!