Thank you this what I hoping for, insight to the planning and tracking...
I'll post what I messed around with yesterday & probably a bit more over the weekend on my blog, but this isn't too tough...
Much like you, I had asked these same sorts of questions a couple of times; and I did get a reply or two. When you look at either the dataset or the method(s) used, you learn something. Once you've done this a time or three, you get your own ideas on how things should be researched, organized and "presented".
In my last career, I was in 'logistics engineering'; fancy term for figuring out how much stuff do I need to fix how many widgets for how many years.
So in LD riding, your "presentation" is simply how you plan to use - and in what format - the data you researched and organized. It can be simple, it can be complex - all depends on the ride.
You have certain ride parameters you want to stay in - fuel range, rest durations, things like that. Again, once you've done this a time or three, you know what you're comfortable with, and you also know what makes you squirm.
Friday-afternoon major metro area traffic, early-morning deer-country ride start, things like that.
In my case, I'd deconstructed that 48 state route into daily chunks as I mentioned before. I know what my fuel range is, I know that I want to cover a given distance daily. Since the majority of the route was pre-defined, simply verifying each stop using Google Maps was accomplished. I made my changes to the route, plotted fuel stops, tied 'em together, then went "Wow! Can I do this?"
That was pretty much the end of 'research'. 'Organization' was done in parallel with research, and my first post in this thread was my means to organize the data sets into something 'presentable', something that I would have access to during the ride.
A common management phrase used during my career was "organization is the key to success." It has worked well for my LD excursions so far.
I've probably thoroughly flogged this topic here; more on the blog.
hope it helps!