Rest Area POI - What a Relief ;)

I am curious to know why you had to click on your poi for rest stops to know where the next stop was along your route. I thought that just having the rest stop poi loaded onto the device was all that you had to have, and that as you would approach a rest stop you would get an automatic alert -- provided, of course, that you had entered a distance alert when you loaded the rest stop file with POIloader.

Am I wrong?

Thanks.

You may get a mile or two warning (alert set)if you are close to one but if you want to know if there is one within the next 20 miles you have to bring it up manually.

Custom POI, Rest Areas, etc

Thanks to everyone who helped develop the rest stop POI - I travel more than I would like and it is 1,100 each way to my destination - the last trip was the first time I was able to use my rest stops - it was great to know we didn't have to pull off to a gas station and take our chance with cleanliness when we knew when the next rest area was. Thanks!

Ohhh nice, I never thought of this POI file. We are driving 800 miles for a trip to Florida next week.

I am going to download it now.

Thanks!

Just building my long route from MASS to MOBILE, about 1450 miles one way.

Can I get the icon for rest areas to appear on my active track while zoomed out at any distance?

My rest breaks will be on Interstates primarily.
Stop on empty to fuel up. Stop on half full for the rest break. Driving alone but with 2 small dogs and 2 parrots, I do not dilly-dally during hot weather.

Wytheville VA I-81 SB Exit 63 is about half way, and when not making good time, I decide near there if I should stop half way or not. Otherwise, it is straight through to the end of my road.

Used this features numerous times...awesome.

Yes, but by the time you see the automatic alert, you already see the signs for a rest area.

If there is a rest area in 5 miles and a gas station at 4.5 - I want to know that because I'd much rather stop at the rest area.

When you load the rest area poi do it in manual mode then you can set your own atert distance. If you like it more than a mile then put it the distance you like

Yes, you could, but I don't care about a set distance.

When my 4 year old says - "I have to go to the bathroom"

I immediately click and say - "The next rest area is in X minutes, can you make it buddy?"

He tells me yes or no.

Sorry I miss read your comment I thought you wanted to be alerted farther down the road from the rest area not do a search for the next close one.

Have made good use of this file this summer and also last year in our travels. A real valuable tool to make life on the road much more comfortable. Also we find that rest areas are good, safe places to stop to change drivers.

I just used this file on a trip to Montana and back and it was great. I have it set for a 2 mile warning but I also used it to find out how far it would be to the NEXT rest area if we didn't stop at the upcoming one.

I found a rest area along my route that wasn't listed in the file. If this happens to you I'd suggest you stop, take readings at the entrances to the rest area, note if there are picnic tables, phones, flush or pit toilets, etc. and submit the info for addition to the file.

A Reminder when travelling on US Highways, State Roads or County Roads and come across Rest Areas .
These Rest Areas may not be in the Rest Areas Combined file.
The "original" intent of this file was to list all INTERSTATE Rest Areas.
We have been adding other class road Rest Areas as received from users.

So as Thrak mentioned above" If this happens to you I'd suggest you stop, take readings at the entrances to the rest area, note if there are picnic tables, phones, flush or pit toilets, etc. and submit the info for addition to the file."

Just send the info to my contact e-mail address and I will do the research necessary to get it in the file.

What you say about rest stops also applies to "I'm Hungry" comments from the back seat (or even the right front seat). I took five or six Fast Food files, combined them and made a large file called amazingly enuf "FastFood Combined". Now at that complaint, I can bring the file up and at least these 6 companies stores will pop up with a distance. Everyone then knows how soon they can eat. I just wish there was a Subway-US but there must be a whole bunch of them.

I have my Rest Area alert set for 26400 feet (5 miles). I have found that is ample warning that there is a rest stop ahead.

--It's the dog's fault

I left VA a few days ago to go to NC and can report the rest stop file worked great on I85.

I just want to express my gratitude to all the contributors to this great POI. I'm not too fond of long distance driving unless I have to. I'll be making a 1450 mile trip to send my daughter to college. This POI will be extremely helpful. Again thanks to everyone.

You are correct on the usefullness.

On our trip. I'd just have the the Garmen show all restaurants.

As we approached, I could read off a list of what was coming and the passengers would say yes or keep driving.

The rest area POI has been really helpful. We travel the I-15 from the border down to Las Vegas at least once per year, and knowing how far it is to the next rest area is a life saver!

Sadly, rest areas along the Trans-Canada (and other major highways up here) are not a priority. Perhaps that's why we let the vegetation grow so high along the side of the highways?

We recently travelled as a caravan from the Sacramento CA area to Bullards Beach OR with an overnight stop in Grants Pass OR and then returned the same route. Thanks to all of you helped to keep the rest stop info accurate. The lead vehicle was able to direct us using a personal radio the trip was much more enjoyable this time as opposed to last year without using the poi informoation.

I have used the rest stop poi and it is very useful since I travel with a wife, young child, and dog. I will be traveling form Sacramento CA to Shasta CA soon and will do my part to make sure the poi is accurate along this stretch of travel.

I would like to know how you search ahead several miles for rest stops before the alert comes up? I have a Garmin 1490t

Also what is the limit in distance you can set your alerts to go off? 1 mile, 2 or more?

I have the combined POI's loaded on my GPS now.

I assume you have the Rest Areas Combined POI file loaded on your nuvi. On your nuvi, tap WhereTo/Extras/CustomPOIs, then scroll down if necessary to your Rest Area file and tap it. It will show the nearest Rest Areas with their crow-flies distance and direction. Note that some may be behind you or otherwise not on your intended route and that the distance via roadways will likely be further than the crow-fly distance. (You do need to tap the "Custom POIs"--a point of common confusion arises when folks think their loaded POIs should appear under Custom POIs and forget to tap it to see what you've loaded.)

I use 15000 feet as my alert distance--roughly three miles (without having to remember or calculate that three miles is actually 15,840').

with older women and young children... (kidding)

Followed your directions and found the file right away.. Wow how simple that was. I think I pushed every button except the extra one.

Rest area is a great file. Thank You to the great people for taking the time to create all the POI files on this site.

With state budget cuts it hurts when you bring up the next rest area, and it says closed.
Virginia is bad for this. You see a sign before the rest stop that says "next rest area ** miles ahead"
when you get there, there is a sign saying "closed"
They should tell us at the first rest area that the next one is not open.

This one is also in my favroite list

Don't know when you traveled VA Interstates last but the state reopened 21 rest areas in 2010 that were closed in 2009 "because of budget cuts".
I very recently drove I-95, I-81 and other roads in VA and did not notice any recently closed rest areas.

If you are aware of any please send the details to me via contact listing.

I always compile this file seperately from any other POIs with a 2 mile alert distance. I then always load it first, before any other files, onto the SD card so that it will always show up first on the list when I tap the Where To? - Extras - Custom POIs.

I also always tap "NEAR" and set it to search "on my route" so I only see the stops ahead of me while driving.

I do have all my POIs broken in seperate folders (Food, Stores, Scenic Roads, etc.) and compile them all seperately to a hard drive location. I then drag and drop (copy) them to the individual GPS units that I keep updated because -

A) this allows me to control the order in which they display on the GPS

B) I don't put all the same POIs on all of the GPSs

C) I don't have to re-run all POIs with different distances and types of alerts through POILoader everytime a single update comes out. With 1 or 2 updates here and there I just download them when the update comes out and run POILoader on it right away. Then, everytime I get a GPS connected to the PC I just drag and drop the latest updates it needs and I'm done.

Once the files are on the GPS, replacing the files with updates does not alter the order they are displayed in.

I hated having something I rarely used being at the top of the list just because its in alphabatical order. I put mine in the order of the frequency they may be used.

Yeap, food is right near the top. I have to maintain my figure!

One of the MOST USED POI's we have!!!

Wife is great at calling up the list, determining which is best for her, and sets it as a waypoint....

THANKS to the folks who keep it up to date!

Rest Areas, and Cracker Barrel is the only POI's that we use >2000' on: We use 12000' for each, (and Cracker Barrel uses TourGuide because it often is not on the road we're on....

I drove down I95 last year, I know that they close and reopen rest areas all the time. I was talking about them not telling you in advance when they do close them. It could not cost that much money to install a sign when they do it, instead of leaving the old one telling us how far the next one (that is closed)is.
I used to drive it several times a year.

Definitely a benefit knowing how far the next rest area is. This is a must have POI for long distance or semi-long distance driving, IMHO.

I have mine set for 3 mile alert. Just thinking as I type. Might make a double alert to also make a unique short sound when within 10 or so miles from a rest stop.