Click to download Piaggio MP3 Google Earth RideMap 1
While Google Maps are fast, convenient and easily linked to our blog posts, to get the full day-by-day geographical experience of Buddy and Bob’s quest to find the heart and soul of the Lincoln Highway…
Google Earth is the answer. If you’re not familiar with the application, here’s a simple three-step primer:
1. Download Google Earth. Don’t fret, it’s available for free. Download it and follow the installation instructions.
2. Download and install our RideMap #1 KML/Z. KML (Keyhole Markup Language) is the lingua franca of Google Earth. Packaged/compressed — in this case — as a file with a .KMZ extension, it contains everything you need to follow the journey in Google Earth.
3. Now you can choose whether you’d like to follow the tour as a movie or click around to individual points on your own. To follow it as an animated tour, select the folder you want to view in the left-hand menu and then press the play button below the “Places” menu. You can pause and restart the tour at any time, or click forward and backward between the waypoints. Alternately, you can use the “<< PREV” and “NEXT >>” links in the content balloons to navigate sequentially between waypoints. You can also use the Layers menu to activate various other functionalities in Google Earth, including 3D buildings and terrain (recommended only for those with very fast computers and high-speed connections).
4. If you already have Google Earth, then make sure it’s version 4.3 by clicking on the Google Earth tab on the top left of your Google Earth window, then clicking on "About." If it isn’t version 4.3, then you may download it here.
From there, feel free to explore the journey, the map and even plot your own transcontinental trip.
If you still prefer viewing Buddy & Bob’s Progress and Pictures in Google Maps, here’s our full directory to date, along with our Day 1 post on how best to view them.
