Rob, that was exactly the route we took.How did you get google maps to make that blue line?I want to do that for a route for the Rendezvous in September.
Milo,
Open Google Maps and click on "Get Directions" in the upper left corner of the screen.
That will give you two new blank fields - "A" and "B".
Type in your starting point in "A" - probably your town.
Now you mentioned three points, so I clicked on "Add Destination" below the A & B fields and created "C".
In the case of the map above, your first mention was Gatlinburg, so I put that in "A".
Then you mentioned Townsend, so I put that in "B".
Then you said "Deals Gap", but there is no town by that name, but Google offers some suggestions and you pick one for "C".
Then you click on the big blue GET DIRECTIONS button, and it creates the route.
Just to the left of that is a "Show Options" link that allows you to "avoid highways". Â I did not use that for the map route I created.
But the route created by Google did not match your route exactly. Â They had you going North through Pigeon Forge, because that is the "most efficient" route. Â I tried the "avoid highways" option, but it did nothing in this case. Â That option mostly removes Interstate highways from the picture.
To create what I assumed was your route (looking at the "curve/elevation change factor) I put my mouse pointer on the blue line near Pigeon Forge and "drug it down" to the highway cutting through the National Park.
Well, that still didn't quite do it. Â It popped you back North again to get you away from those nasty curvy roads! Â So I "grabbed" the blue line one more time at it's northern peak, and dragged it down to the curvy road in the Nat'l Park again.
And that was it! Â A total of two manual changes.
Now for a really cool change, hover your pointer over the large icon in the upper-right of the map and select "Terrain" (you can't be zoomed in too close for this option). Â That will change it to a topographic map, that to me, is some of the most beautiful artwork created by man.
For instance:
http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Gatlinburg,+TN&daddr=35.67192,-83.57996+to:35.6667132,-83.6848911+to:Townsend,+TN+to:Deal%27s+Gap+Motorcycle+Resort,+Tapoco+Road,+NC&hl=en&ll=35.62828,-83.73024&spn=0.373936,0.617294&sll=35.63543,-83.759905&sspn=0.373903,0.617294&geocode=FdP0IAIdbLwF-ymJpQjL6lNZiDGoebd-rtexSg%3BFXBPIAIdyKsE-ylBM-vou1RZiDGGMFbXFfOQEw%3BFRk7IAId5RED-ylxLl6JTqleiDGXJR7RcjQPrQ%3BFeZcIAIdMP0B-ykD6cQICKVeiDG4L8IkuMrdqg%3BFWstHQIdrX3_-iEwGrFPgjTibylR1WlCML5eiDErPu6_W5gNug&mra=dpe&mrsp=2&sz=11&via=1,2&t=p&z=11One of my biggest complaints with Google Maps is the lack of identification of water ways - major or minor.
We are not done yet!
Over on the left side of the screen there are turn-by-turn directions spelled out.
Scroll to the bottom and you will see a link "Save to My Maps". Â If you have a Google account set up, it will save this to your list of maps.
Once you have a map saved in your account, you can go in and edit it and install place markers with descriptions, like I did for our Members Map. (Zoomed in for clarity)
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=209571359172950267307.000483701643b3f8becdc&msa=0&ll=36.949892,-84.287109&spn=23.456558,39.506836Many different colors and icons from which to choose.
To LINK to a map in a forum posting, click on the little link icon in the upper right corner and copy the highlighted http address and paste it into your posting.
