Ok, so I cleared bookmarks and recents. Directions still showed. Selected search, then back. No luck.
Then I selected a new destination. The old route then disappeared from the screen, finally.
The new destination pin was blue, the old one red. While I was not able to select the red pin and choose delete, the blue pin allows for deletion.
As to my second question, I am not finding how to turn off the GPS blue pulsing locator?