Map instructions
12-23-08

My friend Keith Blount sent instructions on how to use Google maps to see where I am and what I am seeing. He said you might need a pretty fast connection but give it a try and see what you can do. Thanks to Keith….

For everyone who wants to follow Rex on the “Blue Puppy” motorcycle and doesn’t know much about Google Maps and Street View here are a few simple guidelines.

First, go to Google Maps (http://maps.google.com/)

Second, click on the Map tag in the upper right of the window (Map, Satellite & Terrain)

Third, enter in a Town name from Rex’s travel log into the search box and click “Search Maps” - for example: Denmark, WA   (WA is for Western Australia, SA for South Australia, NSW for New South Wales, etc.).

Google will zoom into the Denmark area and a popup with a photo will show up (not all the towns will have a popup), however, most of the towns Rex has mentioned so far have “Street View”).

Fourth, click on the picture in the pop-up and Google will take you into a “Street View” level of the town.

At this level, there will be two windows: the main window with the “Street View” image and a secondary window with a “Map of the Town”.

In the Map window, zoom in a little closer so you can see the streets in the town – click on the “+” symbol and this will zoom you in. Once zoomed in, there will be a little bronze colored man on a green platform. The green platform will have a point on one side – that is the direction you are looking at in the “Street View” window. If you move your cursor over the Little Man and hold down your mouse key you can and move him around. When you move the little man some of the streets will turn blue (this indicates there is “Street View” photography for these streets).  By moving the Man around, you can navigate up and down the streets of the town Rex is visiting.

In the “Street View” window, if you click on an arrow in the image, you’ll move up and down the street.  Also, in the upper left corner there in another control (a circle). If you click on the pointers in the circle you can spin the view 360 degrees or you can raise or lower the view.

Another control in the upper left corner is an icon of a Little Blue Man. If you click on this icon, you’ll exit “Street View” and go back to the Main Map.

Once you have exited “Street View”, the little Blue Man will turn Bronze if there are any areas with “Street View” imagery in the map area – zoom out to get a larger area.

This is a “Second Way” to navigate to another “Street View”.

In the main Map window, drag the Bronze Man icon over the Map - the streets\highways with imagery will turn blue. Next, drag the Bronze Man over to one of the Blue Streets and drop him on the line (there will be a circle on the bottom of the icon – use this for placement). The map will turn back into a street view again.

Hopefully, everyone can figure out my screwy instructions. Good luck...it just takes a little experimentation to get a hang of it.