ContinuousTraveler.com

RV Trip Planning

Welcome to ContinuousTraveler.com

A work in progress ...

ContinuousTraveler.com is in the early stages of development, but the RV park searching and browsing in Locations is working nicely now (as of 7/14/2007 there are over 1,400 RV Parks in the database).

Let us know how we can improve the site by sending your comments to Tom Donaldson (this email link is at the bottom of each page).

Know What You Are Getting Into

This is a completely free site, but before entering, please read:

Speed Considerations

Very often RV'ers only have a slow Internet connection. Web sites that have a lot of graphics can be impossible to use on the road.

There will be few, if any, graphics on this site unless you turn them on.

There may never be a logo, or if there is, it will be a very small one.

Maps are the major form of graphics on ContinuousTraveler.com at the moment. Maps are turned off when you enter ContinuousTraveler.com, and will stay off until you click one of the buttons at the top of the page that turn them on. If you turn maps on, you get to choose how large they will be. If you have a really fast connection, you might want to click the Large Maps button. If you have a dial-up connection, but still want to use maps, then you should click the Small Maps button. For the average RV park's slow Wi-Fi connection, click the Medium Maps button.

Locations

"Geo-Graphical" RV Park Finder

The Locations section of ContinuousTraveler.com is where RV parks and other types of locations are created, edited, and viewed. These Locations are used in Trips.

You can find parks by proximity to other parks (i.e., geographically) and by browsing a map showing the locations of RV parks (i.e., graphically).

Major Features

  • Browse RV parks.
  • Search for RV parks and sort the results.
  • See RV parks on interactive maps.
  • GPS coordinates for RV parks.
  • Share your favorite parks.

Search Example

Here is a simple guided tour of finding RV parks from the Location browse page.

  1. Click the Locations link. This will take you to the Location search and browse page.
  2. In the Find
  3. In the Find field labelled City enter: Cortez
  4. Click the Find button below the State/Province field. This will show you one or two RV parks.
  • Click the Distance Origin button under the name of the park.
  • The Distance Origin should be shown just above the Find button. Above that is new field labelled Distance From.
  • Delete Cortez from the City field (if you do not, you will only see parks in the city of Cortez).
  • Enter the number 25 in the Distance From field and click the Find button.
  • You should now see a few more parks (if you do not, then see #5 just above).
  • For each park, this additional information is shown:
    1. The miles from the Distance Origin park you selected.
    2. The compass heading from the Distance Origin park.
  • Enter the number 100 in the Distance From field and click the Find button.
  • The Results area to the right of the Find menu will show that several more RV parks were found, and that they are arranged in several pages.
  • To the right of the Results area is a Sort By menu. Click the Distance- button. RV parks should now be listed most distant first.
  • To once again see ALL RV parks in the system, click the All button just to the right of the Find button. This clears all search criteria.

    • Map Browse Example

    Note: Skip this example if you have a really slow connection.

    For this to work, you must have Javascript enabled on your browser, and it must be a fairly modern browser.

    Here is a quick guided tour of browsing RV parks on a map. Note that ContinuousTraveler.com uses Google Maps.

    1. Click the Medium Maps button at the top of the page (or the Large Maps or the Small Maps button).
    2. Find an RV park of interest, or just any RV park, as you did in the Search Example, above. "29 Palms Golf Resort" is a good example.
    3. If you are looking at a list of RV parks on the Locations browse page, click on the name of the RV park (e.g., "29 Palms Golf Resort").
    4. This will take you to the Details page for the RV park.
    5. About halfway down the page you will see a map with a marker showing the location of the RV park (a green circle with an evergreen tree).
    6. Before spending any time on the map, look at the "GPS Quality" above the map (above the GPS coordinates). The GPS Quality will give you some idea how much faith to put into the GPS coordinates and the mapped location. In the case of "29 Palms Golf Resort", the quality is "Verified: Aerial Imagery". That is very good.
    7. Grab the map and slide it to one side a couple of times.
    8. Can't see the RV park any more? Click the Reset button in the upper left of the map. The map should slide back into position.
    9. Click the Hybrid button in the upper right of the map.
    10. If high resolution imagery is available, you should be able to see the area around the park, but the park is probably covered by the RV park marker.
    11. On the left side of the map are "Zoom" controls. Click the plus sign ('+') two or three times. It may take several seconds for the images in the map to update.
    12. If the GPS Quality is Verified: Aerial Imagery, then you should see the RV park marker sitting in the entrance road to the RV park. Go ahead and click the '+' a couple more times (or until you get a grey map saying that there is no imagery).
    13. The satellite imagery is slow. Click the Map button in the upper right of the map to speed things up a bit.
    14. Click the minus ('-') button to zoom the view out. You can also grab the slider between the '+' and '-' buttons, or click at some point on the scale between the '+' and '-' buttons.
    15. At some point you will start seeing other markers: evergreen trees with no circle. These are markers for RV parks other than the one whose details you are viewing.
    16. Click on one of these other markers. An info balloon will pop up (eventually).
    17. Click the name of the park in the info ballon. It will take you to the detail page for that RV park.
    18. Continue clicking around as long as you care to.

    Trips

    Note: Feel free to play with the Trips area, but be aware that it has problems.

    The Trips section of this site is where trip itineraries are created, edited, and viewed. Trip itineraries are lists of Locations to be visited, when they are to be visited, drive & stay times, distances, etc.

    You will be able to see "public" trips here. Public trips are trips that the creator of the trip has marked as being viewable by anyone.

    If/when you log in via the Users area, you will also be able to create and view your own private trips.

    Users

    The Users section of this site is where you register and log in. You can also edit your profile, including some information that will be publicly available, and more that is not.

    Anyone can look at most Locations without logging in, and can look at some Trips.

    But to create or edit Trips and Locations, you must log in. To see your own private Trips and Locations, you must login.

    Registration is simple: enter your email and a password, plus a very small amount of additional information. A confirmation email will be sent to the email address that was entered. The email will contain an activation code that must be used to "turn on" the account.

    Once you are registered, login simply consists of entering your email address and password.