I’m moving across the country in a few weeks and am trying to plan my route as I’ll be driving a moving van with a car towed behind it. The entire drive will be 16-17 hours.
Google maps seems limited for searching everything I’d want to take into account for the route (pull through gas stations, height requirements, avoiding mountain highways, etc.) and was wondering if anyone knew of a better way to plan out the trip?
Couple of thoughts that come to mind that might help. I’ve done a few long haul trips and it’s daunting. It never helps to buy a US road atlas for like 20$ at Walmart. Take a highlighter and mark whatever route you find in Google on it. There are a few places where there isn’t cell service on the interstate but it’s pretty rare now. This will give you a backup but it also forces you to look at your route. Look at the different cities and note how big they are. Get a general idea of how far apart they are. My thought on this is most vehicles you can get 300 miles to the tank. This will kinda help you plan out approximately where you’ll need to stop and gas up. You can also look at your map and see if you’re good for x more miles or if you stop at this gas station you’re passing.
The other thing is plan on stopping every couple of hours. Get out, walk a few, go pee, buy a snack or pull one out of the cooler. A lot of the rest stops along the interstate are pretty decent but don’t expect hot food in most states. You’ll probably find vending machines at most of them.