Finding POIs on route

[Marlin]

I've noticed passing references by some posters here of searching for POIs that are on the route.

I've looked through the manual, which sucks, and found nothing. I've also browsed through all of the destination screens and found nothing.

So lets say I'm on a 10 hour road trip, and I'm looking for the next Cracker Barrel resturant that is on my route, so I can exchange my book-on-CD with another one. Is there a way to do this?

[jimofdg]

Yes. Pull over. (a separate thread explains how to set up the Nav so your passenger can use it while you are driving - a feature which becomes disabled again when you turn the car off).

Press the Dest button to the right of your display, then the POI by Name switch (rectangle) on the screen. A keyboard will appear. Type in the whole name Cracker Barrel including the space, then touch the List button to the right.

All possible Cracker Barrels will appear. Assuming you know where you are, press the City switch and type that in on the keyboard that appears. Now you have a short list of what you want in the town where you want to find it. These may not be right next to your highway, but the Nav will take it from there. Press the Guide switch to begin the guidance.

[Marlin]

Hmmmm,

I was hoping for something that would tell me that there's a Cracker Barrel (or McDonalds, or gas station, or whatever) two hours or so down the highway.

What you are suggesting is all I was able to find, however if I'm trying to find out where the next Cracker Barrel I will pass is, I would have to check city after city down my route, and then if it found one, I would have to check to see if it was anywhere near the highway I'll be on, rather than 20 miles across town on some other highway.

What I was hoping for was a way to search for POIs that are within a mile or so from the route I will be traveling on.

I don't think such a facility exists, but every once and a while I see some comment from someone that makes me think they know how to do it.

Oh well, as far as Cracker Barrel goes, I guess I'll just have to use the map they hand out, which shows the location of all of the Cracker Barrel resturants.

By the way, in case people are unaware of it, Cracker Barrel resturants are great places to get books on tape or CD for listening to when traveling long distances. They have a pretty good selection of lots of current novels. You buy the book-on-tape/CD at its cover price, usually around $30, and then can return it at any Cracker Barrel resturant and they credit back to your credit card the cover price minus $3 per week that you had it. There are Cracker Barrel resturants all up and down the east coast, and they are always located within sight of a major highway. They are also beginning to pop up on the west coast and in the central US. When I drove from Oregon to Philidelphia three years ago, I passed one almost every day of travel. On the east coast, you'll past about 10 in a day of travel, especially in the south east.

[aaf709]

Hmmmm,

I was hoping for something that would tell me that there's a Cracker Barrel (or McDonalds, or gas station, or whatever) two hours or so down the highway.

Well, you can use the voice commands that will add restaurants, gas stations, banks, etc to the screen. Touching an icon will give more information.

[Gassipper]

Marlin,

You can set the NAV system to display icons for restaurants on or near your route. You can have up to 6 POI categories displayed at once on the MFD.

[I'm doing this from memory, so the steps may not be exactly correct, but should give you the idea.]While at rest, press the POI button, select LIST, then choose the categories you'd like the NAV system to display. The number of icons shown depends on the level of map resolution you select.

If while driving, you see the restaurant you'd like to stop at to eat, just touch the icon, select INFO, and the NAV system will give you the address, phone number, etc. for the eating establishment.

As mentioned previously, you can also have the system guide you to the restaurant.

Peter

[tmorrowus]

It would be nice to have a system that would rank cracker barrels by distance along your intended route. Now if you stop and ask the system for the nearest cracker barrel it will bring up the one an hour behind you before it will bring up one 70 minutes ahead of you on the route. And it would be nice if it preferred the one a block off your route to the one a little closer but half hour off your route. The system doesn't do any of this now.

We need google to enter the car nav business!

[mikepaul]

There is an "On Route" button when searching for POIs and a route has been selected, but since I've never pressed it I'm not sure how well it works...

[DanMan32]

I wish On Route would work when using POI names rather than just categories. Tried to use it to find a Dunkin' Donuts when I was driving from Universal in Orlando, to church in New Port Richey. No such luck.

[Marlin]

There is an "On Route" button when searching for POIs and a route has been selected, but since I've never pressed it I'm not sure how well it works...

Hmmm, I have yet to see this "On Route" button, and I thought I checked everywhere. I think I shall have to look again when I go out for lunch.

[Marlin]

OK, so I found the "On Route" button. It seems moderately usefull, but it doesn't look like it would work on the highway. It appears that the POI has to literally be on a section of the road you are traveling.

It appears that if the POI was just off the highway you will travel on, you wouldn't see it in the list. Also, I would guess that on non-highway roads, if the POI was just one or two buildings past the point where you would turn onto another road, then you wouldn't see it in the list.