Maybe on of the things you'll want to practice is how to load a course and follow it. You can create a course from various places like RWGPS, Strava, or even Garmin. Once you get the basic idea down you'll probably want to set up some custom screens that have data like 'Distance to Next' displayed and if you want the 1030 to reroute you or not automatically if you're off course.
You can then create daily courses for your 500 miles, or probably download them if it's an organized or popular route, and load them each day to the Garmin.