I have had a few people ask me how the map for AGirl's 4-Corners tour was generated, and she mentioned that numerous people had asked her the same question.  Since it isn't a secret, and at her request, I decided to set up this web page to describe how I did it.

First, I needed a background of the USA and southern Canada, and it had to be something that wasn't copyrighted.  I looked around on the internet, and while there is no shortage of maps available that I could have used they all either had too much detail or not enough detail.  I finally used my GPS software and zoomed out far enough to show the USA and southern Canada.  This is what the background alone looks like:

Next I loaded the background map into Paintshop Pro, my favorite software for manipulating graphic images.  Among the many features of PSP is the ability to place graphics on individual "Layers" and then manipulate the entire layer.  For the background I adjusted the opacity to about 50% so that it looked washed out.

Now I'm ready to start adding other graphics.  PSP has a lot of built-in "Shapes" that can be placed, and naturally the ability to add graphics, so that's what I used to set up the corners.  I added her proposed route by drawing lines from corner to corner, and then adjusting them by adding breaks in the to take them along her proposed route. A little additional text and some "Callouts" to show the corners and the preliminary map was done.

Now things get a little bit trickier and a bit more complicated.  AGirl has GPS tracking enabled and was good enough to put me on the list of people allowed to access it.  Basically it provides GPS positions about every 10 minutes when she is within range, and provides a table of locations at times throughout the day.  A sample of the information is shown below:

The two columns at the right are latitude and longitude of where she was at a given time.  I took those points and created "Waypoints" in my GPS software.  I then connected the waypoints as a "Route" and I could tell exactly where she had been.  A sample of that is shown below.

Some may notice that these are the same maps I've been posting showing her route for a given day.  I just do a screen capture of my GPS screen, load it into Paintshop Pro, crop the image part out, and add a little text.

Once the route for a day is plotted in the GPS software, or when I've had time the route for a partial day, I have a couple of choices for getting that information onto the actual map.  Since the map scale is so large, roughly 3,000 miles onto a 1,280 pixel wide image, a little error in placing the route isn't going to matter.  After all, the lines depicting her route are about 25 miles wide.  When her location is between major highways that show up on the map, or near coves or state boundaries that I can easily see, I just estimated the position.  When that wasn't the case, as when she was going through the northwest corner and the northeast corner of the country, I had to get a little more creative.

In areas where I couldn't accurately estimate her position I used the GPS map itself.  I zoomed out until I could see several major interstate intersections, did a screen capture of the image, and then copied it into Paintshop Pro as a new layer in the main map.  Once there I could calculate how much I neeeded to rescale the image so that the major interstate intersections in the GPS map and the main tour map would overlay properly.  I could then draw an accurate line showing her route for that day.

The sample above shows part of her route of 09/23/06 overlayed onto the main map.  Her current route is along the coast and shown in yellow.  It isn't real plain because I had to reduce the image by about 85% but it is clear enough that I can draw a line along the route.  I add a little text or a "Callout" with some text at the end of each day, and the map itself is done.

It wasn't difficult at all, and normally took about 30 minutes each day.  The most time consuming part was plotting each of the GPS coordinates, but since I usually managed to sneak a few in during the day at work it wasn't a lot of work.  In actuality it was a lot of fun (actually still "Is" since she isn't there yet!) and it really felt like I was riding along with her.  Personally I'm grateful for her letting me do it!

If anyone has any questions about the process I'll be more than happy to answer them.  Just drop me An Email and let I'll get you an answer.

Scott Craig - 09/23/2006