McDonald's trip planner means fast food is never far away

You can ignore the rest stop signs and billboards. If you're driving to the Grand Canyon, Disney World or just down the street, the McDonald's Web site can guide you to every Golden Arches between Point A and Point B.

While most brick-and-mortar businesses have store locators on their Web sites, McDonald's takes the technological asset a Big Mac further by allowing visitors to plot routes and find Mickey D's within a quarter-mile to two miles of your driving direction.

"Going on a vacation?" the site asks. "The McDonald's Trip Planner (www.mcdonalds.com/usa/rest_locator.html) can help you locate all the McDonald's along the way."

That means no one will ever have to ask "Are we there yet?" — at least in reference to the nearest Happy Meal — ever again.

Why would Ronald create such a tool?

"McDonald's bailiwick has always been the traveler," says Fast Food News (www.foodfacts.info/blog/) blogger Ken Kuhl. "Nobody else has really gone after them like they have, and that's why you see so many billboards on the highway."

Besides showing up to 20 red-and-yellow locations in the direction you're going, the trip planner also indicates the type of McDonald's (freestanding, inside a mall, etc.) and whether there's a drive-thru, wi-fi capability and if they accept credit cards or have a Playplace or Playland installed.

But who needs to know about every single McDonald's on the way to their destination? Parents, apparently.

"McDonald's knows their demographic, and they want kids," says Kuhl. "That has always been their prime focus and why they've done as well as they have. They get kids young and keep them as customers for life, ideally."

There's one question the McDonald's Trip Planner doesn't answer about its listed locations, something many travelers wonder about: Just how clean is the bathroom?