Thread: Travel committee - route info?

Could someone on the travel committee post details on the routes here? It would be nice to have the full list of the towns that we're staying in each night (I understand that it may not be finalized, but whatever the current list is would be fine).

The reason I ask is that I have a friend who has offered to plot the route's elevation profile and generate a few maps for me (actually, he already made a rough pass at it) and it would be nice if we could base it on a more exact route. I also plan to collect some data on the usual weather patterns in the areas we're traveling to so that we know what to expect.

I'm looking into getting an amateur radio license for emergency communications, and it's important to know what the route is so I can try to figure out what radio coverage is like. I also have a plan to set up a GPS system that will broadcast our current coordinates over the radio, which will allow them to be uploaded to the internet so we can have a map of our position in near real-time on the website.

I would be grateful if any other materials like maps, etc. could be emailed to me, or even better, uploaded in the members area of the website.

yea hey travel people, are we stopping in olympia washington. i have a friend up there who has offered beds and bike matience when/if we pass through

holy moly, sounds pretty cool. What are the exact days we'll be gone? June 1st - ???

My boss wants to know so he'll know when to expect me being gone (and I can put in for my leave of absence).

I have this other idea related to the GPS stuff, involving the Garmin Rino GPS, which can be had for maybe $150:

One of the Rino units sits in a support van. It has an internet uplink, which is achieved by some radio voodoo which I'll spare you the details of.

Anyone in the group who wants to buy a Rino can; they also sell bike handlebar mounts, and the unit is waterproof. The cool thing about the Rino is that you can share your location with everyone else who has one in range, so you show up as a blip on their GPS maps. The support van also shows up as a blip.

Here's what I think is the coolest part: Whem the Rino in the van receives your position, speed, etc, it will upload that data to the internet, so everyone in the group gets plotted on a map that your friends, family, etc can look at on a website.

All this may or may not be possible... I'd have to learn how to program a microcontroller and probably build some circuits and whatnot, so I've been talking to some people online who know more than me, and we're trying to figure out how to make it work. It's also possible that the radio communcation for the data uplink will be sketchy once we get out in the middle of nowhere, but there's also the chance that we can get set up to talk to a satellite which has pretty much ubiquitous coverage.

Here's a question: Is anyone (on the Rockies route) actually interested enough in this to buy a GPS for $150? Or will I be the only one?

that looks pretty cool, but since i'll be quitting my job in a month, $150 is kind of steep. i'm down for helping with any electronic wizardry that needs to be done, though. i could finally put some of that ee knowledge to use.

still need dates.

I think the dates are June 1st - August 7th

awesome

Guys,

I posted a file on the members only section that details the route (ROUTE.XLS).

Cheers,
Abram

Sweet. Thanks, Abram.

Originally posted by S+eve
awesome