The Setup
NC DOT maintains a list and map of scenic byways. It's a great way to tool around in the car for a day and see some historic sites around the state, and I'd been thinking about checking out one or more and the perfect opportunity came up with a few free days from work. The plan was that L. and I would drive the Colonial Byway and then head for Mayo River State Park for a little hiking, and then overnight somewhere near there before heading home the next day.
Things that are possible.
- Creating a custom route following specific roads in Google "My Maps".
- Creating a multi-destination "trip" in Google Maps that you can navigate.
Things that are not possible.
- Creating a custom route following specific roads that you than then navigate with Google Maps.
- Adding more than 10 destinations to your Google Maps trip.
So, I did the best I could and added a bunch of small NC towns in a way that approximated the scenic byway as best as I could and we set off on our way.
Problem 1: Setting off on our way.
It turns out when you do a multi-destination trip and you tray to start navigation somewhere besides your original origin Google Maps assumes that all interim destinations are null and void and just gives you directions to the final destination. So that was confusing for a bit as our trip time was much shorter than expected.
The solution was to EDIT THE START POINT TO BE OUR CURRENT LOCATION AND RESTART NAVIGATION. Stupid and baffling, but we got on our way and passed the first "destination" treating it as a waypoint.
Problem 2: Treating destinations as waypoints.
So initially Google was like "TURN AROUND, YOU MISSED THE FIRST DESTINATION." for an uncomfortably long time, and then we pulled into a parking lot and it gave us a dialog telling us we'd passed the first destination and did we want to Continue or Stop Navigation?
Problem 3: Pressing "Continue"
Pressing "Continue" stopped navigation (and would... er... continue to do so about 2/3 of the time for reasons we couldn't determine. We restarted navigation and deleted the first destination and were again on our way. We finished out the scenic drive in this way more or less stopping occasionally to sort out Google Maps navigation.
Good gods, why didn't you just use a paper map?
We had a map, but we hadn't gone over the route together and I hadn't printed out a turn list. I could have bought a map and drawn on it, but again I thought this way would actually work. It turns out the Google Maps navigation is not only not suited to a scenic drive but also too buggy to do multi-destination drives without hassle.
So, what now?
Well, I'm not going to try and do it that way again. I've looked at a few other navigation apps - particularly ones that were rally-oriented and did actual waypoints - but remarkably few of them support Android Auto. In fact the only one I saw that did was OsmAnd, so I'm checking that out currently. Suggestions are always welcome.
Who cares about scenic drivers, anyway?
Well, if I want to do more of this, me. But also anyone who wants a finer degree of control than just "avoid highways" or "avoid toll roads". Speeds on superhighways can be a little daunting for some drivers, but you also don't want to get stuck going light to light on some exurban stroad. Are folks going to put the effort into planning a route to do that? Hard to say, but it'd be nice to have the option.
