I was looking around some more for something to load into my Garmin Zumo that’ll help me find camp grounds and I think I might have found it.
I was all ready to do something myself (see the previous post), but I was running into all sorts of problems with the source data that I got from www.recdata.gov. The information that they have on the site is quite messy. It contains incomplete and redundant data. In some cases there are two rows for the same camping area: one with a descent description, one with an accurate location – and no key to tie them together. Given what I was up against, I tried searching again.
Lo and behold: POI Factory!
They have several different camping point-of-interest (POI) files. I chose the one that had all of the state and federal campsites out there. This is better than I would have even thought would exist. I checked a few of them at random to see how good the data was, and everything I checked was dead on.
While I was at it I updated the list of BMW dealers I had too.
So, once all’s said and done, here’s the POIs I have the Zumo:
- Full camping list
- BMW dealers
- KOAs in the US and Canada
- National Parks
- Off-beat tourist attractions
- Restaurants that were on Diners Drive-Ins and Dives
- Someone’s list of the best mom-and-pop burger joints
- REI stores
- Walmarts
As much as it pains me to say Walmart, sometimes that might be my only choice. Knowing where they are could save my butt if there’s nothing else around for some much-needed camping gear or something. I’ll just use that as my last resort.
I feel a lot better equipped for the trip now. I think the one thing I need to do next is find a list of camping areas in Canada. Once I have that, I’ll be all set with the GPS!