This past weekend I had National Guard drill again. First formation was on Thursday but because of an important interview I arranged to meet the unit at Ft. Irwin, CA instead of at the Riverside Armory like I usually do. This presented some complications for me because Google Maps (my used-to-be favorite online map) showed the route as 2 – 3 hours longer than the drive to Riverside and I would have to drive up the 15. The problem with the 15 is it connects the LA area to Las Vegas so on Fridays everyone and their mother is on that road heading north, the same direction Google was telling me to go. Google was telling me it would be just under 7 hours but I knew better. Plus I did not want to drive on those roads on a Friday for that long. See, I live in Phoenix so I know there has to be a better way. Something has to be more direct.

Google’s Advice

Now Yahoo has a neat feature that allows me to add additional destinations and it will route through those. I could play with the route a little bit to see if I come up with better times and distances. I know in my head that the little highways are 55MPH to the computer telling me how long it would take, but in reality you can easily do 65MPH without any issues. Unfortunately, Yahoo was not giving me the route I wanted. It was telling me the same thing Google was. Except Yahoo was more up to speed on those road conditions and said it would take almost just over 10 hours. Way too long.

Yahoo’s Route

Yahoo’s interface is heavy on the AJAX and Flash for an interface, which is bad because it doesn’t like my keyboard for some reason. I have to hit a key around 9 times before it registers in the text field. Yahoo is a step ahead on options as it allows multiple destinations and live traffic for most cities.

Playing with Yahoo

I added Parker, AZ as an additional route and Yahoo gave it up this way. The route above was calculated at above 10hrs! This would not do either. I tried many different cities between Phoenix and Ft Irwin and nothing was coming up right. Phoenix -> Kingman -> Ft Irwin was even worse. I had a feeling I should try something else.

Live Search – Shortest Distance

Live search returned the above route at 6 hours and 27 minutes. I knew this to be more correct so I took a closer look at what lay along the way.

Using the aerial view I could see some greenery along the Colorado River. A section of the road between Blythe and Needles ran along the river so I figure this might be a scenic drive.

    

As you can tell the green fields are part of the Colorado River Indian Reservation. It had been awhile since I had an adventure and I figured I could have one along the way and explore some new territory. All in all Live Search provided the best tools and features, it will be handy to use for route/trip planning. Yahoo Maps did allow for multiple destinations which the others did not, but the AJAX/Flash interface is cumbersome (Yahoo fix the typing problem!). Google Maps is great for around town, quick and simple but not feature rich.

My drive ended up being more enjoyable than the map could say. A good part of it was nice winding canyons and valleys that occasionally touched on the river. I arrived at my destination within 20 minutes of my planned time (I stopped for gas and food). I even arrived with enough time to do some training. I am glad I took this alternate route. It made the weekend much better, and left me with a better understanding of the area.

The Moral of the Story is:
Always check 3 sources for information before embarking on a trip. You might discover something you didn’t know or find a better route.