Newbie questions regarding Road Atlas

Doing the second step first (and still hoping to travel your country in a MH one day) I bought a USA-Road Atlas - and have some questions now concerning some items in the atlas (Rand McNally Road Atlas & Travel Guide).

1. Wayside or Roadside Park: Does that mean a parking-strip along the road? Not recommended for a stay; just for a short stop?
2. Rest areas: Is this just a parking lot? Not recommended for a stay; just for a short stop?
3. I did know some types of streets. But what are Business Routes (BR)? Seems they are leading into a city while the "normal" Highway doesn't. Same question about Business Loops (BR) and Business Spurs (BS).

That's all for now. Have to travel on with my finger. I am in Oregon now.... 

Mike (ex-f-221) said:

Doing the second step first (and still hoping to travel your country in a MH one day) I bought a USA-Road Atlas - and have some questions now concerning some items in the atlas (Rand McNally Road Atlas & Travel Guide).

1. Wayside or Roadside Park: Does that mean a parking-strip along the road? Not recommended for a stay; just for a short stop?

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Waysides are usually just a small parking area alongside the highway good for stopping for lunch or a stretch.

2. Rest areas: Is this just a parking lot? Not recommended for a stay; just for a short stop?

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Rest areas are larger, frequently have rest room facilities and may have tourist or other information. Some permit overnite parking, but caution is suggested.

3. I did know some types of streets. But what are Business Routes (BR)? Seems they are leading into a city while the "normal" Highway doesn't. Same question about Business Loops (BR) and Business Spurs (BS).

Click to expand...

"In the good old days " highways were built thru the middle of town. Now with all the bypasses, the old highways, or even newly constructed ones, permit driving into/thru town to shop or stop.

Mike,

Business routes, loops, or spurs (all the same) frequently put you in town at one end and then back onto the freeway or bypass at the opposite end.  This gives the traveler an opportunity to stop - restaurants, grocery stores, shopping, and even campgrounds.

With a large rig you sometimes have to be careful with wayside parks because they're designed for cars with no place for larger vehicles to turn around.  The best advice is to always look far ahead so you can decide if it's a place you really want to enter.  If a sign at the entrance says No Trucks, sometimes it means they just want it used by casual travelers (tourists) because they don't have facilities truckers might need, BUT sometimes it means a RV will be too large and you should avoid it too.

Truck routes are wonderful for RVers because the streets often are larger without overhangs that can wreck A/Cs, antennas, and the like (the trucks have already done the tree trimming for you).  Another hazard is deep gutters with big dips at the grates.  When we go to visit friends in one city, we have to drive down the middle of two lanes (four lane undivided city street) because of the huge gutter dips and overhanging branches.  I hate to be such a roadhog, but that's the only way to go there and we sure don't want to damage anything.

I guess what we're all saying is that you can't necessarily base your route on some of the designations in an atlas.  If you think you'll have a nice lunch stop at a roadside rest between point A and point B, well I wouldn't count on it.  Heck, sometimes the rest areas on the interstates are closed for repairs so you can't even depend on them 100 percent of the time.

But have fun looking at your atlas.  The planning is half the fun.  Just keep Bobby Burns in mind, "The best laid plans of mice and men...." 

ArdraF

One thing you can do (Sometimes) is drive your route in the virtual world


Google maps or Microsoft "LIVE" maps, both offer sat views of most of our highways and roadside parks, MOST = not all!!!

@ Bernie & Adra,
thank you for your informations and explanations. Summary: "Don't rely on what you read, rely on what you see."

@John:
Google Earth is my companion for a long time. The first time I looked around there I wasn't responsive for three or four hours. BTW: Google Earth means daylight and (mostly) sunshine 24 hrs a day 
For me Google Earth is one of the best things in the internet. Datastormusers.com allows to transfer positions of the RVs into Google Earth. There I often can see the CGs in excellent quality.