Help me make my upcoming trip easier

[Stick Figure]

So planning an upcoming holiday trip from San Jose, CA to Omaha, NE. Now if I wanted to take the fastest way there, It really doesn't take any sort of GPS or map guidance, you can actually stay on one interstate number for 99% of the trip. What I would like to do is take some less traveled routes and see some sites that I haven't seen before. Navigation options for this include:

HTC EVO 4GLTE

Garmin Nuvi 205

iPhone 4S

Garmin: I picked up the Garmin several years back and it has done okay on a lot of trips, but I really should update the maps, and I've never tried planning a full on adventure out of it. I've been playing with BaseCamp a bit and really so far I am not loving it. Seems clunky at best to make things happen. That could be because I don't have much time with it yet though.

HTC EVO: This is my second Evo, and love the ability of the phone. The GPS is awesome when I need to talk to it on the dash and have it find something quick and local. My problem arose when I tried to program a day trip to LA a few months back. I wanted to to take hwy 1 down for the scenery and fun driving roads. Using goggle maps was super easy to program and all seemed well until I opened the map and tried to use it with the phone. This is where it wanted to only take me to the start point of the map or redirect me to the fastest route to my destination. Not at all what I am looking for on a long trip like this.

iPhone 4S: I know nothing about this since it is the girlfriends phone, but if it offers a better solution than one of the above I may have to learn more about it.


So which device would you use? what software should I be looking at using to make it work well, etc?? Normally I try to do a lot more research on things before posting a thread, but I'm really running out of time to get everything planned so I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask for a little advice early on.

 

[JRhetts]

It seems to me that you are not going to find any device that can automatically take you the way you want to go. The software on all devices includes a strategy or algorithm for getting you from A to B most efficiently, along with a pre-programmed strategy for avoiding certain things [toll roads, etc.]

But what you seem to be after is a "by-ways" algorithm, and only you can define this. So look at a paper map and decide the places you'd like to go through — including those you want to stay away from — and put those places in as intermediate waypoints or 'vias' in the software/device of your choice. This will be your "by-ways" algorithm. They all do it in one way or another. But they can't read your mind to determine what your "by-ways" algorithm is.

 

[Stick Figure]

oh don't get me wrong, i'm not looking for my device to plan a trip for me. I understand about actually mapping everything out. the problem seems to be getting either the EVO (via google maps) or the garmin to cooperate with the transfer of what I want as a route going into actual navigation on a turn by turn ish basis. I am looking for some software ideas to make that transfer the easiest possible. Including deviating from the route and returning to it as we stubble on other things along the way.