You are right about drift aligning (love the simulator by the way) its the best way to go but it can be a bit time consuming especially if you are new to astronomy or like to socialise whist you observe as I do (oops one drink too many and my brains not working properly
).
To get around this I have placed a concrete pad in my back yard which is reasonably level (too much ethanol again) and carfully marked out the north/south and east/west axes on top of the pad allowing for magnetic declination. All I do now is cart the stuff outside, line the tripod up on the lines, level and square everything up and do my 3 star allignment.
This works well and on sunday night I put Jupiter in the centre of the eyepiece at about 9.00pm. I went inside and waited for it to rise above the trees and when I went out a couple of hours later it was still near the centre only showing minor drift (26mm eyepiece on meade 80ED @ F6). It works with the LX200R as well although the process is a bit more complex when setting it up on a wedge as well as being a whole lot more physical (bloody thing weighs a tonne). I usually need a rest (or a hernia operation) after lugging the thing outside and I really really need an observatory
. Needless to say I use the ED80 or ETX 125 a lot more than the LX200.
I also bought a nice digital level from my local surveyors outlet. It was a bit pricey but it reads very accurately and can be pre-set to any fraction of a degree. When you approach the set angle it beeps at you at an increasing rate until it becomes a solid sound. This makes it easy as you do not need to look at it and it gives different tones depending on whether you need to go up or down. I consider it an essential tool when setting up and never place any faith in the scales or bubble levels supplied with the mounts.