Direction options

Overview

I live out in the middle of nowhere, but not far from stuff in every direction. That means that the best route to here can come in all directions. Rather than writing one set of directions that are only optimal for some and may be really bad for others, I originally made up several pages. But, there was a lot of common text and when I had corrections I didn't always find all the places that needed it. So, I decided to write this directions generator to keep the duplication to a minimum.

Being out in the middle of nowhere also means that the detail you need to get here doesn't always show on maps. Another thing is that many maps (including all the online mapping sites I've tried) have incorrect information on what roads exist. There are several roads near me that appear on the town map, but the road is actually not maintained and thus impassable (if, indeed, it ever was). Some of these would make great shortcuts if they existed. The combination often results in directions that can't be followed...

These directions are not generated from any database, they were written by me based on actually driving the route in question. Any of these routes should be passable (unless I made some programming error in writing the page), although some are a little dependant on the weather (select paved or major roads under road type to avoid the weather dependant routes).

From

Type of roads

What is your preference for simple directions and road types vs shorter travel? From some (but not all) places, you can get here faster if you are willing to take less travelled routes. This menu selects what your preference is. The options are:

Major Roads

Follow major, numbered routes as far as possible.

Paved Roads

Shorter travel time following main roads, but including some unnumbered routes and/or hard to find turns for short cuts.

Shortest route

Shortest route, even if it involves travel on back roads (i.e. hard pack dirt roads, not ruts in the woods). Note that some of these roads may be in bad shape during some kinds of weather, primarily if it's actually snowing (or any variant of frozen or nearly frozen precipitation) or during the height of mud season.

Note: you can't avoid all dirt roads, as I actually live on one, so the last half mile to my house is on a dirt road. But the road is usually in pretty good shape. Of course, if you really want to avoid driving on dirt roads, and you're in good shape, you could park at the end of the road and hike in the last half mile up the dirt road...I've been known to do this myself on the worst days of really bad mud seasons.

Page generated 2024-11-25 at 15:42 GMT
Copyright © MMXXIV Michael A. Patton

And finally, a random note:
I pride myself in being "normal" only when I stand up, and then only in the geometric sense.