GPX file

[GrandpaFord]

I was on the Cookeville tour last week. George Akin supplied GPX files to me that I loaded in my Garmin GPS. These files are routes for all the days' tours. Normally when you enter a destination in a GPS, the GPS determines the best route based on time or distance. In order to control the route you have to program in intermediate way points. So you go from point to point defined by the tour route and not the route determined by the GPS.

Loading the GPX files into my Garmin GPS was simple once I figured out how to do it. I connected the GPS to the computer with the normal cable. The GPS appeared on the desktop as an external drive GARMIN. I then dragged the GPX files into the GPX folder in the GARMIN external drive. When I first turned on the Garmin GPS and went to the Where To and clicked on the trip planner it took a while for the GPS to process the files. Most were split into 2 or 3 legs because of the large number of way points.

I used the trip planner during the tour and did not get lost once. Several times the car ahead of me made a wrong turn, but I stayed on track. The only problem I had was when I missed a way point by going a different way. The GPS wanted me to go back and pick up the way point. There is an option to skip a way point.

The GPX file can be used to plan a trip with your Model T. You may want to go a route different than the one picked by the GPS. I don't know how to generate a GPX file in the computer, but I know there is an application for doing so. In the past I have made a hand-written list of turns for routes that I have driven across North Carolina and have gotten lost a few times.

If anyone needs help loading a GPX file into their Garmin GPS, PM me.

Neil