Saturday, June 5, 2021

North by Northwest - Wanna Follow Along?

I've been asked if I will have my ride tracked while I'm on the road, so I decided to configure a following/mapping tool for readers.  It's not perfect, but when it works, it works well.

You can follow this link and enter shrug&hester if prompted for a password.  The interactive map allows for satellite, roads, or hybrid views and can be zoomed in/out as needed.  The app draws a straight line between coordinate updates from my phone, so if it appears I'm bisecting curves, it's just the update interval.  This is usually most visible when zoomed in tight.  Point hover or click on the tracking dots to see details at that instant.  If I travel out of cellular service (which is the plan) then the updates will pause until I re-enter coverage, upon which the cached data in my phone should be added to the map.  The image below is an example from my 2020 trip to Gettysburg.  The app have been completely rewritten, so I expect better representation of mapping.