mcdonalds etc (Rand McNally / alert before exit ramp?)

These sites are likely all off the highway and you would need a Proximity Alert of 1 or 2 miles or more to alert you before you pass the exit ramp.

However, I would recommend that you be selective about what POI's you set prox alerts. If you have a prox alert dinging or announcing every McDonalds, Walmart and Wifi spot as you go past, you or your spouse might end up throwing the GPS out the window. Add to the fact that you could have all of these in close proximity, to each other as well as on the opposite side of the highway and you'll be driven crazy. (Walmart could have a McDonalds in it, and also offer wifi)

I restrict my alerts to Rest Areas, and Red Light Cameras. If you want to go to the McDonalds, etc, simply pull up the custom POI file for what you want and the nearest locations will show up in order of distance. then just stick one in as a waypoint and you'll be directed as needed.

Besides, the alert will only tell you that a McDonalds is nearby, but you will still have to enter the location as a waypoint, to be guided to it.

As the OP has one of the Rand McNally units I don't know just how much can be done with those. I know you can change the distance for an alert trigger, but I don't know if it is an along the route or true proximity alert such as one a TourGuide produces for Garmin.

Very sound advice. Too many alerts an you tend to tune the device out. The danger of missing what could be critical information increases. With these units not having a lot of processing power, you never quite know what it would take to overload the processor and cause it to freeze. As like GPSgeek I'm very sparing of what alerts on my unit because it overloads easily.

I see you've just joined this community and we welcome you. This is site should be considered to be a community, because you will get all the help you need to learn how to use your GPS.

There are no stupid questions (unless you keep asking the same question LOL). You will find people that probably know more about your GPS than the tech support in many cases.

I would suggest that go to the upper right hand corner and click on "Learn". That will give you the site etiquette and lead you to many FAQs that likely will help you a lot. There are forums that are specific to the GPS brands and I'm sure that Rand McNally is in there.

I also suggest that you go to "My Account-Additional Information" and add the make and model of your GPS. This will help members see what you have so they can gear their help to your GPS.

A good guess would be true proximity. Routing is so compute intensive, it is normally impractical to use for more than the requested destination.