RVTrek Features

RVTrek is a software package, which, when used with Microsoft Streets and Trips provides virtually all of the information that a traveller needs to navigate in the continental USA, to visit friends and family, and to see the sights in all the 48 contiguous states. Streets and Trips provides a traveller with mapping and routing capabilities which are equivalent to those in much more expensive software suites. Included in Streets and Trips is a database of points of interest, motels and eateries. RVTrek adds in the RVer's and camper's resources - rest areas, service areas, turnouts, truck stops and plazas, campgrounds, WalMarts and toll booths , with new items being added all the time. All of these are plotted on the route map, making a change in plans possible with the flick of the mouse. Massive information on most all of these items is available on the Internet, and RVTrek facilitates accessing that extended data with a mouse click when the user is connected to the Internet.

Features in Streets and Trips

To begin, RVTrek is built upon Streets and Trips - a general purpose mapping and routing software tool by MicroSoft, available quite cheaply. List price for the latest Streets and Trips is amazingly cheap - usually about $40.00, but it is often available for much less, and occasionally for free as a promotion. Included in Streets and Trips is a complete road and street database of the continental United States (and even beyond, though with less detailed data). It includes all the toll, interstate, federal, state and county highways and roads, interchange entrance and exit ramps, local streets and avenues, and an address database which suffices to change almost all the addresses in the United States into a location on the map. This allows a user to enter an address and let the software map it, so those delivery and pick-up points don't have to be located by hand.

Having located pick up and drop off points on the map, Streets and Trips can then be used to select a route to travel from one point to the other. This route, in the first instance, will be automatically generated, with pre-selected input for optimizing either time or distance, and adjustments can allow the trucker to express his druthers about the route. It can be set it so it maximizes Interstate mileage, or includes more secondary roads. It can then be adjusted point-by-point to the driver's whim. It can even be apprised of the length of a trucker's driving day, and choose where rest periods should occur along the route. The route is drawn on the computer screen in bright green so it is plainly visible, and a matching set of step-by-step driving instructions is also generated.

Streets and Trips never gets old. On its own it will occasionally download an updated list of road construction and closure notices over the Internet, and display these on the maps, so you will always know when to expect road maintenance delays, at least at the Interstate level. A new release of Streets and Trips happens approximately every two years along with upgraded features to the software itself, so new and changed roads will not be far behind the reality on the road.

In addition to the usual cities, towns, county and state labeling, and the roads of all types, Microsoft also adds a database of locations. In this database are included points of interest, restaurants, hotels and other public places. These are places mainly of interest to the vacation traveller, but sometimes also to the trucker. Interestingly, Streets and Trips does not highlight highway rest stops, as one might expect them to.

Microsoft Streets and Trips also includes a GPS option. When an approved GPS receiver is plugged into the computer, Streets and Trips will automatically track the current position on the map and read the instructions through the computer's sound system to provide hands-off navigation of your route.

Another new option with Streets and Trips 2008 is the ability to get gas prices and traffic alerts in selected areas, known as MSN Direct areas. There is an annual fee for this service.

This discussion has only been a cursory examination of Streets and Trips's features. For more detail on Streets and Trips, one can visit Microsoft's Streets and Trips website. From Microsoft's online store Streets and Trips 2008 is priced at $39.95. Other pricing can be researched on the Internet.

RVTrek Features

RVTrek adds additional markers (known as pushpins) to the Streets and Trips map. The currently available data items include:

• Service and Rest Areas - places to refresh one's self. Rest and Service areas are always easily accessed from rights-of-way, and provide truck parking and bathroom facilities. Service areas, usually associated with toll roads, additionally provide food and fuel vendors. A class of rest areas are called turnouts, and provide no facilities other than parking; in fact, many states are building such areas exclusively for trucker's use to help alleviate the national shortfall in truck parking spaces.
• Toll facilities - Toll roads, bridges and tunnels are identified by the two ends of each road, and the single location of a bridge or tunnel booth. In addition, each toll collection point on a toll road, be it a mainline or a ramp booth, is located.
• Low Clearances - The location height and description of low clearance situations are identified; these are, of course, as important to the RVer as they are the trucker.
• WallMarts - WalMarts, SuperWalMarts and WalMart Markes are displayed, over 3500 of them. WalMarts are known for their RV and Trucking friendliness, though some are constrained by local laws and policies. Where known, these are mentioned in the notes at each store.
• Truck Stops - from large to small, truck stops are included in the database, with many more to come. We have started out concentrating primarily on stops along the interstate highway system and the large chains, but in time to come we will branch out to areas farther from the superhighways.
• Campgrounds - over 6,000 campgrounds across the USA are highlighted on PTNAME. These include commercial tent and RV campgrounds as well as National and State Parks, and most especially, National Forest sites. Some are primitive, some are fully functional RV parking sites - something for everyone's tastes.

As time goes on, more features will be added, as well as regular updates of the existing features. We are implementing:

• Propane Dealers
• RV Dump sites
• Other features requested by our users

Purchase of RVTrek includes a one year subscription to the updates, which will be made at least twice a year.

The following table will be adjusted with each upgrade so you can track how we are improving the amount of information we deliver:

RVTrek and the contents of this help file are
Copyright©2006 by ThistleKeep Engineering; all rights are reserved.
Comments and suggestions, as well as support, are entertained at Lmc@ThistleKeep.com.
"Punch!" and other titles of Punch! operations are trademarks of Punch! Software L.L.C.
"Streets and Trips" is a trademark of Microsoft Inc.