Today, there are many resources on the Internet that consumers can use freely to find addresses or even create routes with detailed directions to guide you along the way. I found such a resource to plan the most scenic and quickest routes to Big Bear, before downloading them to my laptop.

Some of the top sites for maps and trip planning include:

MapQuest.com - http://www.mapquest.com

These guys developed the original online mapping software and are still one of the top sites for online travel planning.

Yahoo! Maps - http://maps.yahoo.com

Of course, Yahoo! is in on the deal. Their site is very easy to use and designed to give you simple directions and maps between two addresses.

Expedia - http://maps.expedia.com

Expedia is an all around travel site but this link will take you directly to their mapping and driving directions area.

So, I had my route planned in the laptop and the GPS ready to track us along the way to guarantee we would stay on track. And, everything was working great until we varied from the main highway to take the computer's "quickest" path.

It started out as a dirt road just northeast of Palm Springs. We were driving a Volkswagen Scirocco at the time, but figured it would turn back into smoother roads after a while. Besides, we were only 20 or 30 miles away from Big Bear, and I had the glow of the keyboard and the GPS tracking our every move boosting my confidence.

Confidence, that was short-lived. The road didn't get better. It got much, much worse.

Now, it was dark. We were in the middle of nowhere and the sporty, low to the ground Volkswagen was handling the ever-worsening mountain road in a far from graceful fashion.

What happened next? You could probably guess it, the laptop batteries finally gave out. I started to feel really guilty about those rounds of Tiger Woods golf I played while the driver enjoyed the Salton Sea scenery.

There were many times I wished I could get an expanded view from above to decide which trail to take to get us to our final destination.

There is a Web site which recently published a vast collection of decommissioned government satellite images that would have been very helpful. Here is a link to a page showing the Yuma area: (http://terraserver.microsoft.com/default.asp?W=2).

In the end, after four hours of Jeep trails, many white-knuckled hills and turns, several blows to the Volkswagen's under-carriage and one final river crossing, we made it.

And, after a great weekend of skiing in the mountains of the San Bernardino National Forest, we drove home with the laptop in the trunk and the good old Rand McNally road atlas in hand.