U.S. Navigation the easy way

[Syd]

Hello Guys: My name is Syd Horn.Yes, a new guy. Well OK, new to the forum but 74 years of age. My coach is a 2010 Newell Coach #1408. I am a retired Louisiana Attorney. This is my second Newell. I had three Bluebirds before that. I am now Fulltiming with my wife Linda. That means I have alot of time on my hands so I have spent over 2000 hours building a navigation system. I have tried almost every GPS Navigation System on the market, but ended up liking Delorme Street Atlas 2013 the best.

In that regard I used to use the Big Rig book, but got disgusted in trying to find a campground by reading directions and sometimes another brand of Navigator would take me to the wrong place. That was bad for my blood pressure so I fixed the problem.

I took all of the campground directories, and added those campgrounds I had been to and located them on the map by using their address and aerial photographs. So far I have located 1029 campgrounds that will accommodate a 45' motorhome. I have located 852 Campgrounds that will accommodate a 40' motor home. Some of these can also accommodate a 45 but you have to call and ask specific questions. When I am sure they will meet my standards I move them to the 45' list. Being 13'4" tall I also located 1335 low clearance bridges tunnels etc.and marked them. I have added 385 road notes which include mountain grades, passes, roads that you not be sure are traversable in a Newell and added that information. I also located 331 Flying J (Now Pilot) fuel stops. 2722 Wal Marts that allow over night stays and 447 that do not allow over night stays. 161 Cummings dealers. 718 Corp of Engineers parks.3428 road additions that I have encountered that Delorme missed or left out. The Delorme program and gps sell for $49.99 and considering all the information contained in that program it is a bargain.

Some of my friends that have seen my program said I should sell it, so I now have it available on a CD for $50.00 including shipping.(I was told that $49.99 looks better but that insults my intelligence) In order to use the Delorme program you need a laptop running windows 7 or 8. Delorme will not run on Windows NT, or any Android.

I just got through talking to Boyd (Chief engineer at Newell) as I wanted to install the Delorme Program and my Camping information on a tablet and I wanted Newell to redesign the dash and put the tablet into the dash to compliment the glass dash made by silver leaf. No luck. Boyd said they were working on too many other changes. I used to sell the BF-250 water purification system to Newell but when my partner died and his son ran that part of the business into the ground I quit.

If anyone is interested in a very portable navigation system on a tablet, I would recommend purchasing a Windows 7 or 8 tablet, installing the Delorme street atlas and my data base and let your wife navigate with the tablet or if you are handy (very handy) install the tablet into the dash yourself. I recommend the Acer w-700 6499 with a 11.6" screen or you can use Microsoft Surface Pro but it has a slower processor and smaller 10.1" screen. I can purchase the tablet and install all the software for you if you want, but it will cost you $1,200 if I do it. The advantage of the Delorme program is that it will plot the route for you or you can modify it easily. It will also communicate with you and you can communicate with it via a blue tooth remote speaker/mike or one of those earbuds and mikes like you use on a cell phone.Or the above tablets have a built in mike and speaker.

When traveling you can command the computer to pan up or down on the map. Zoom in or out and even ask "where am I" or "Show next turn" etc. The Delorme program will also scan ahead of you for certain locations. You can designate it to scan the direction of travel or both directions.

If anyone is interested I can e mail you the set up instructions which will give you some idea of what the information looks like. For example: For the large RVs (45') I locate it on the map and I give you the name of the park, if it has wifi, how many FHU sites it has and if paved, Cost per day,week or month if advertised and finally their phone number.

Every campground is exactly where the GPS takes you because I located each and every one of them by using Google Maps. I can even turn the photos on or off using the Delorme program but I found out that because of the size of all the maps (Gigabites) it slowed the navigation program to a crawl when using my laptop which has a i7 intel quad core processor and 8 gig of ram. Therefore I don't include the maps. If you want to see what the campground looks like you can Google it to see the aerial photo. The tablets mentioned above also come with wifi.

I didn't know this web site existed and don't remember how I found it, but glad I joined. Before the internet I used to publish the "Bird Feeder" which was a news letter for Bluebird owners which did about what this forum does, but not as well.

Syd Horn