Travelling on Google Earth

[ce929wax]

I was curious if anyone else traveled on Google Earth?  What I mean by traveling is either using their flight simulator or zooming into ground level mode and following a route.  I am currently driving from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and I typically travel in conjunction with my simulation sports leagues, meaning that I pick a team and make a schedule for them and then play the games on MLB The Show or Madden or whichever sport I am doing.  If the trip is less than 300 miles, i'll drive it on Google Earth, if it is more than 300 miles, i'll fly it on Google Earth.  Currently I am playing the Cubs baseball season (I make my own schedule, so it isn't exactly the same) and they just got done in Los Angeles against the Dodgers.  This week is All-Star week, so I am going to Las Vegas on the Goog for a pretend vacation.  I don't have a lot of resources to travel for real, so this is kind of my escape. 

 

[Max Rockatansky]

A lot of times I'll scout routes in advance if I'm doing some photo taking so I don't miss signage or other photo worthy opportunities I don't want to miss.  Granted this is far more useful on surface routes, with freeways there is a lot of consistent uniformity which really makes it easy to know what to expect.  It would be pretty time consuming to sit through an entire route much less do something like view an entire Interstate between cities.  I've found the Google Car extremely useful spotting ghost towns and railroad stuff that might not be visible from satellite.

[WR of USA]

I used to do this a lot when I was 10 years old for fun. I once drove all the way from Los Angeles to San Diego by zooming in on I-5 ground level.

[Henry]

Who here among us hasn't? It's fun to navigate through the different places from the comfort of your own home. I'm thinking of driving from Chicago to Denver (where my brother currently lives), and then back to Seattle.

[ce929wax]

That sounds like an awesome idea Henry.  I'd have to plan "stops" if I was going to do that long of a trip, because sometimes my attention span isn't that good.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

I like to travel not on Google Earth but on Street View. Currently I'm doing the Tour de France route, about one week ahead of the real race and skipping rest days (and also doing time trials with another stage). I started on July 1st from Noirmoutier island, and I plan to finish on July 19th with the individual time trial in the Basque Country and then the triumphal ride to the Champs Elysees. I'm currently halfway through in the Alps.

[ce929wax]

I've done that before too.  It was nice to know where I was instead of guessing like I do on Google Earth. 

[abefroman329]

Yes, I did this when I was planning to drive in England from the Southampton Airport to Oxfordshire. Believe it or not, it made the real thing much easier.