gulf south rest area versus restareascombined

On the older Rest Area POI files the Coordinates were typically those of the Rest Area Buildings themselves which were sometimes a fair distance from the start of the entrance ramp and sometimes several hundred feet off the highway. The Rest Areas Combined file attempted to set the coordinates at the start of the entrance ramp so the Proximity Alerts would work !
That could explain the difference ! Some Rest Areas are set way back off the highway !

Ken,
Take a look at the extension of the file. Somehow, probably after viewing in a text editor, an added txt extension has been added.

Which file ???????

Sorry -- in the post right above you were talking about the Rest Areas Combined and I thought it would be obvious that this was the problem file -- especially since the entire filename (RestAreasCombined.csv.txt) with the double extension was shown by the OP. My bad.

Hello Ken, while driving thru Alligator alley I spotted a missing rest area in the combined file.

It is not what is expected at traditional rest area since it has no facilities but there is plenty of parking for a quick leg stretch.

The location is posted as Big Cypress National Preserve access area; I got the coordinates of the west bound side entrance ramp as N26.16730 W81.19324, the east bound is right across the road.

I noticed that on the far east end of alligator alley there are some boats ramps with picnicking facilities and they appear on the GPSr as TOURNOUT, maybe the same can be done with the area at Big Cypress.

Here is a picture
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=26.1673,-81.1932&spn=0.02,0.0...

I've been using RestAreasCombined for several months and I am amazed at its' accuracy. When I get to the start of the entrance ramp the proximity alarm goes away almost to the foot (I have it set to start at a mile from the rest area). I have yet to see one that's more than a few feet off.

I answered this via e-mail response.

As you will note, the OP referred to the Combined Rest Areas file as having a double extension. I looked at the file via my Mac and saw the same thing -- it opens in a text editing program as opposed to my spreadsheet program which is associated with csv files, so the computer really believes it to be a txt file and not a csv. After many communications with the file administrator and other Mac users, it has come to light that all except one Mac user have the file show up (after downloading -- not when viewing the filename on the site) as having the double extension. I know of no Windows machine, including my own, which shows the txt extension, but then I haven't communicated with many Windows users on this either. What causes this could be guessed at ad infinitum, but I'm wondering whether any of the highly technical members here would know for sure what causes the txt extension to show on some computers and not on others.

I know that the admin for the file, MrKenFL, has a Mac, but I'm not sure whether the Mac was used to build the file or download it; he made it abundantly clear that he cannot see the txt extension when he downloads the file. Please understand, I have no problem deleting the extra extension to make the file work, but not everybody doing a download will understand the problem.