Dave & Justine's Western Adventure: A Thought On Travel Books

So, I am no expert on travel books by any means, but in an attempt to master the use of this thing...I make one more rambling post. In reading up on stuff for this trip, I've used Fodor's and two other books as main sources of info. Both Dave and I picked up Fodor’s, which is suppose to be one of the better guide books. They do kind of make you feel like a haughty tourist a bit, but some information is without a doubt useful.

However, we’ve noticed a few things about Fodor's:

-EXPENSE-they happen to direct you to the most expensive and mainstream sights in each area. It’s been more beneficial to look further into the random names of places they mention or glaze over than use exactly what’s in the books.
-GENERIC-there are a lot of “touristy” clichés in these books, though they seem to admit it when it happens. Again, random web searches and suggestions from people who have traveled has been much more detailed and interesting.
-SITE INFO-there is definitely enough to go off of in these books, its overwhelming at first, but some things are missing. There weren’t always prices and hours, unless it was a focal point. Luckily, the books does have all the websites, so clicking through those of places like museums, tours, etc. is probably more helpful.
-WALKS and OFF THE BEATEN PATH-the books do have pre-planned routes in them with timing, distance, and sights to see along the way. They are kind of neat ways to see major neighborhood and must-see sights in short amounts of time. There are also sections that have non-mainstream (though still mainstream, let’s be honest) things to see in the nearby area. Helpful. PLUS there is a decent website of the company’s to go with it: fodors.com
-BUY? Would we have been better off buying a bunch of Fodor’s for the roads, or just gleaning info and putting it into the binder? We’ll let you know. We have a books for the National Parks that Dave bought, but to buy all the ones for all the other places we’re going would have been a small fortune. So we’ll see if we wish we had a guide book when we’re anywhere besides a national park
-25 BEST VERSION-had this one for Seattle. It’s really easy to use, narrows down options, and hits major/popular things to see. Useful to see what everyone says you shouldn’t miss, but maybe missing some things. It seems like it’s more useful for cities maybe?

The other two books I've used, which have been uber entertaining are:

1,000 Places to See (In the USA and Canada) Before You Die by Patricia Schultz
Interesting, and awesome, to see that a lot of this stuff was on the route that Dave already plotted! There’s really great descriptions on certain aspects of each place and a TON of info for resources. Since it’s split by region and then state, it’s crazy easy to skim through. And each place has a little catch phrase under it that gives you a clear idea of what the place is about.

The Ruby Slippers, Madonna’s Bra, and Einstein’s Brain: The Locations of America’s Pop Culture Artifacts by Chris Epting.
Ever seen the movie Michael with John Travolta and the world’s largest ball of twine? Yea, awesome. This is literally all the stupid things you can see all across the country, from “the largest”s to celebrity stuff to old stuff. It’s not as easy to use for this because it’s split into sections like Roadside Relics, Criminal remains, Sports Memorabilia, and Celebrity Antiques. It’s really interesting to actually sit and read for curiosity or history’s sake, but there is a state-by-state index in the back that helps.