Rest Areas on Interstates

On this site, there are rest area files for 6 states. I would start there.

I have tried creating my own rest area POIs, but we talk in Lat/Lon and the rest area world talks in Mile Markers!!! Here is a link for all the interstate rest areas you can think of:

http://www.roadnotes.com/interstate/index.htm

If anyone knows an easy way to convert mile markers I would like to hear it. I even tried Google Earth but that didn't work for me either.

Well, I wouldn't call it an easy way, but I was looking for information on Mile Markers and county line boundary coordinates recently in this thread

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/1750

I found the following links helpful for my project:

Melissa Data https://www.melissadata.com/lookups/index.htm

Highway Browser http://cmap.m-plex.com/int/

Upper Midwest Freeway Exits Guide http://www.mesalek.com/exits/index.htmlshows

Boulter http://boulter.com/gps/

If I were doing it I would probably use MapSource to enter waypoints and then cut and past them from there to a .csv files. I think each states highway department webpage will have information, but as you have found out they are dealing in mile markers. I think Mile by Mile http://www.milebymile.com/ just shows the mile markers, but the specific states highway department might have enough descriptive information to find coordinates.

Road Notes http://www.roadnotes.com/interstate/index.htm
similarly has mile markers, but no coordinates. If you don't have MapSource maybe one of the online maps like the ones mentions on the lower right of this page will have them http://boulter.com/gps/

I have actually thought about e-mailing my Minnesota Department of Transportation to suggest they post coordinates or even offer a POT on their webpage to assit travelers.

Good luck!

By the way, given your name, have you ever ran across any custom POIs that show the locations of tourist trains and museums around the US? Like I just mentioned in another post, having that with the telephone number and frequency that the train uses would be very handy. The GPS wouold navigate right to the deport and if you had a radio it would give the frequency to tune to or AAR channel number if you prefer. Or better yet, both!

For example:

Minnesota Zephyr
601 N Main St
Stillwater, MN 55082
651-430-3000
AAR Channel 12 160.290 mHz

If you wanted to create the entire file in MapSource you can. Just save as a .GPX file.
- Poi Loader will load the file just fine.

I have not found any PIOs that even comes close. You might try http://www.touristrailways.com/ they have a lot of info on what you are looking for, hope this helps.

Not PoI's but a good reference. Has address and phone numbers.
http://www.railmuseums.com/namerica/index.html
The directory of North American railroad museums. The rail museums are listed by states.