Author Topic: New Tool For Planning Your Tour  (Read 6913 times)

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Offline dayjack119

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  • 2025 Key West to DC 'DOGE' Bike Tour
New Tool For Planning Your Tour
« on: March 22, 2014, 07:42:00 pm »
New tool for planning your tour.
I enjoy sharing my on-tour experiences on Facebook with updated photos and brief stories while pedaling my route. One thing followers have been asking for is a 'single-click to see' zoom map where they may pinpoint my location on the road while also looking at the route ahead to where I am going, and even looking back to where I have already been.
Google Maps Engine Lite is free and fills that purpose very well. After playing with it for awhile, I purchased the Pro version which allows for much more information to be included. ($5 per month) I'm still playing with it but it will also import data from Google Drive where I keep a spreadsheet of my host information and overnight stays.
It requires some work during the planning phase but later while traveling, it just takes a little wifi now and then to keep up and make adjustments. All I have to figure out now is how to import it to my Garmin GPS unit. ...See my 2014 in-progress tour map below.

https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=zobmp9RdFhRI.k2SE9GEV_SHI

Offline DrewB

Re: New Tool For Planning Your Tour
« Reply #1 on: March 23, 2014, 06:31:16 pm »
 That is a very cool program! I enjoyed clicking nearly every point, and viewed all your photos (some inspiring shots).  I am new to ACA and bike touring and hope to learn a lot from the community. Anyway thank you for posting your ride progress. I started following your face book page, and I look forward to the updates. Ride on!
Mashing pedals one day at a time.

Offline dayjack119

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Re: New Tool For Planning Your Tour
« Reply #2 on: March 23, 2014, 06:50:01 pm »
Hey Drew:  Thanks for the kind words.  Actually, the map is a layout for my plans this summer.  I'm not on the road until June.  By then the map should be filled in with tons of information and ready for anything the ride throws at me.
Jack

Offline WonderMonkey

Re: New Tool For Planning Your Tour
« Reply #3 on: March 24, 2014, 10:52:47 pm »
I love my maps but I've not taken the leap to a subscription like you have.  Did you figure out a "Where I Am Now" feature?

Offline dayjack119

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Re: New Tool For Planning Your Tour
« Reply #4 on: March 24, 2014, 11:01:34 pm »
I didn't know there was a 'Where am I feature.'  I was just going to move a bicycle icon along the map as I went.  Thanks for alerting me to that.  I'll look into it.

I also have a Spot Connect satellite tracker which works really well.  The drawback is, it doesn't show much history if you are on a long tour, so that's the reason for the Google Maps Engine.