This post is in reply to a comment by Ed about route planning. He favours the index card method over the GPS, where each step of the route is written on a card. Guess what, Ed? The index card method is part of how I route plan! I think the index cards are a great tool and I write on them in big bold marker. But I’d be lost if I only had them .

To plan my routes, I use a paper map, a GPS, and index cards if I am going somewhere super specific that I can’t get the GPS to route me the exact way I want to go.

I first started using a GPS in 2008 and wouldn’t be without one now. It is an invaluable resource in a strange area to quickly know exactly where I am and where the nearest services are. Today, I was able to make the decision to get gas in Malta because my GPS told me it would be the last place on my route to get some between there and Billings.

But imagine if the GPS goes down! That’s why I have a paper map as a backup. The paper map also lets me see the whole of my route more clearly than the GPS can.

Here’s the best example of how the three methods work for me: when I arrived in the Texas Gulf Coast in early 2013, my GPS wanted to route me through Houston to go to Port Lavaca. My paper map allowed me to plot a better (more RV friendly) route, I was able to use the GPS to get from one segment of the route to the next, and the index cards got me from Port Lavaca to Magnolia Beach.