[TheHermit]

Disappointing results with the mini laptop on a 150 highway mile round trip today.

Google Earth Desktop tracks live with Glo 2, but required " image update " after only a few miles. The track still showed up, but became a fuzzy mess. The laptop was offline.  Google Earth cache is max 2048mb, thus requiring constant internet connection 

Using Gaia in Firefox - it will find my location, but does not live track on laptop, only on a stupid tablet.

This was major bummer / letdown, as I got all excited when testing everything stationary at home, and both would detect my location and zoom in. when I started this thread.

The Glo 2 ended up being a waste of money, as I can tether the laptop (and / or a non-gps tablet) to my phone gps using hotspot feature, and have internet access. I REALLY wanted to be able to have gps tracking without internet dependency, on a laptop, like back in the day with Delorme Street Atlas USA. 

[NMKawierider]

Bummer. I wonder if you can download off-line maps in Google Earth like you can with Google Maps. I like Google maps for directions and have it on the 8" tablet I have in the truck, but it too is useless without an internet connection...unless you have offline maps it can use. I have them from here(home) to everywhere I ever go along with way points. I use Backcountry Nav Pro and Oruxmaps for the off-road stuff and again, useless without WiFi so I have to download maps with them as well.

[TheHermit]

From the research I've done so far, Google Earth only uses what data is in the cache, so no way to download maps for fully offline mode viewing. Google just needs to combine Earth & Maps for desktop, since they are nearly identical anywayz.

I've seen a program called ExpertGPS, just learned that is supposed to function completely offline. It has a 14 day free trial, $33 annual sub. I never looked at it before as I already have a sub to Gaia, don't want to pay subs for a whole bunch of different programs / apps. I have another 150 mile trip coming up Monday, so will download the ExpertGPS & test it on the trip. Will also see how it compares to Gaia & OnX for off road mapping.

I just learned there are Android emulators available for windows 10 that run Android apps. If ExpertGPS doesn't work for me, I will look into an emulator to run Gaia app on laptop. I created three offline maps in Gaia Android, a northern & southern map that completely cover the area in the adventure map satellite photo I uploaded earlier, and one offline map covering the Great Plains getting me from MI to the west. The Great Plains map seemed to track live offline today with fine, nearly street level view.

[TheHermit]

While I wanted to have just the mini laptop, I gave up, pushed the easy button, added 2nd mount for 10" tablet to run Gaia.