It's apparently never too early to plan a trip to see a total solar eclipse

The site http://eclipse2017.org/ has all the details.  It's the next reasonably accessible eclipse for US residents.  The site looks like it's from 2000, but it talks about the far future!  They even have weather map predictions based on annual data so you can decide on where to go.  I'm definitely going.

You can even follow it on twitter, presuming that twitter won't look like geocities by 2017.

Road trip planning utility? (going to Portland)

I'm using a custom google map to plan a road trip to Portland, OR in early August.  I have our route planned out, and I've been labeling points of interest along the route.  While this is a decent use of google's custom map feature, it seems clunkier than I'd like it to be.  It would be much cooler to have something that offers some more functionality, like:

- Simple adding of new locations from looking up addresses on yelp and other sites. 
- Automatically identifying good places along the route to buy gas (prices go way up in certain rural areas due to increased cost of delivery), buy groceries, and sleep. 
- Easy checking of places to visit, with routes updating accordingly. 
- Integration of hours of operation on tagged monuments/museums/parks etc, when available. 

The google maps API has been around a long time... I'm sure there's something good out there.

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Of course, the way to get good advice on *what* to visit is still the old-fashioned way.... by asking friends.  So if you have advice, let us know!

We're planning on taking 5 from San Francisco to Portland, and 101 on the way back.  Shasta and Crater Lake are on the list.  Otherwise, it's fairly open.