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RV.Advisor.com is your guide to RV travel and adventure on wheels, including motor homes, toy haulers, campers, and recreational vehicles of all types.

Advisor Eval
Map/Navigation Software: DeLorme vs. Microsoft
Drive smarter with guidance from PC-based software
By John L. Hawkins, HawkTrek

I take many road trips, often on routes I haven't traveled, to places I haven't been, and often in a large motor home. Many trips are for business, so I need to get to the right place at the right time. I rely on a computer to plan the trip, then drive the trip. Little GPS receivers are cute, cheap, helpful -- but limited. But fortunately, my vehicle has plenty of space for a laptop that is visible to the driver. So I drive with computer-based, GPS-controlled map/navigation software running on a big computer screen.

There are two major software products in this category, Microsoft Streets and Trips, and DeLorme Street Atlas USA, and I think one strongly out-classes the other. Here's what and why...

RV Advisor
Choosing an RV
How I investigated, evaluated, and selected a mobile office motor home.
By John L. Hawkins

"How can there possibly so many different makes and models and designs and options in the RV marketplace?" In search of a vehicle that could be both a capable mobile office and a nice place to live on the road, the choices seemed overwhelming. But over time, I learned why there's so much variety, and what makes the most difference. While your needs and considerations might be different, here's some of what I learned in picking out the ideal RV for me.

RV.Advisor.com
RV Travel: Is It For You?
Flying is often unpleasant and frequently inefficient. Can traveling -- and working -- in a motor home be better?
By John L. Hawkins

AdvisorAudio: Click to hear this story.

To begin at the end, I now have an RV, a Monaco Diplomat motor home that gives me an office on wheels, a meeting place for customers, a way to avoid the hassles of flying and dirty hotel rooms. And yes, it's a home on wheels.

But why, after racking up more than a million flying miles (as an airline passenger, and doing my own piloting), do I now want to plod down the road instead of zooming over it?

Richard Rider Rant
California Has Highest Gas Taxes in the Nation
The state again leads by example
By Richard Rider, San Diego Tax Fighters chairman

We're number one! Yup, California has the highest total taxes on gas of any of the 50 states. As of January 2008, we wealthy West Coast folks pay 63.9 cents of federal and state taxes a gallon, vs. the national average of about 47.0 cents.

Actually, total California state taxes are even worse than it first appears. All gasoline has a federal 18.4 cents a gallon tax. Hence the rest is all state tax. Thus California state tax is 45.5 cents a gallon vs. the average state tax of 28.6 cents. That means that California gas taxes are an outrageous 59% higher than the average of all states.

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