var side_bar_html = "";
      var gmarkers = [];
      var htmls = [];
      var i = 0;
      // arrays to hold variants of the info window html with get direction forms open
      var to_htmls = [];
      var from_htmls = [];

      // === Array for decoding the failure codes ===
      var reasons=[];
      reasons[G_GEO_SUCCESS]            = "Success";
      reasons[G_GEO_MISSING_ADDRESS]    = "Missing Address: The address was either missing or had no value.";
      reasons[G_GEO_UNKNOWN_ADDRESS]    = "Unknown Address:  No corresponding geographic location could be found for the specified address.";
      reasons[G_GEO_UNAVAILABLE_ADDRESS]= "Unavailable Address:  The geocode for the given address cannot be returned due to legal or contractual reasons.";
      reasons[G_GEO_BAD_KEY]            = "Bad Key: The API key is either invalid or does not match the domain for which it was given";
      reasons[G_GEO_TOO_MANY_QUERIES]   = "Too Many Queries: The daily geocoding quota for this site has been exceeded.";
      reasons[G_GEO_SERVER_ERROR]       = "Server error: The geocoding request could not be successfully processed.";
      reasons[G_GEO_BAD_REQUEST]        = "A directions request could not be successfully parsed.";
      reasons[G_GEO_MISSING_QUERY]      = "No query was specified in the input.";
      reasons[G_GEO_UNKNOWN_DIRECTIONS] = "The GDirections object could not compute directions between the points.";



// A function to create the marker and set up the event window
      function createMarker(point,name,html) {
        var marker = new GMarker(point);

        // The info window version with the "to here" form open
        to_htmls[i] = html + '<br>Directions: <b>To here</b> - <a href="javascript:fromhere(' + i + ')">From here</a>' +
           '<br>Start address:<form action="javascript:getDirections(' + i + ')">' +
           '<input type="text" SIZE=40 MAXLENGTH=40 name="saddr" id="saddr" value="" /><br>' +
           '<INPUT value="Get Directions" TYPE="SUBMIT">' +
           '<input type="hidden" id="daddr" value="'+name+"@"+ point.lat() + ',' + point.lng() + 
           '"/>';
        // The info window version with the "to here" form open
        from_htmls[i] = html + '<br>Directions: <a href="javascript:tohere(' + i + ')">To here</a> - <b>From here</b>' +
           '<br>End address:<form action="javascript:getDirections()">' +
           '<input type="text" SIZE=40 MAXLENGTH=40 name="daddr" id="daddr" value="" /><br>' +
           '<INPUT value="Get Directions" TYPE="SUBMIT">' +
           '<input type="hidden" id="saddr" value="'+name+"@"+ point.lat() + ',' + point.lng() +
           '"/>';
        // The inactive version of the direction info
        html = html + '<br>Directions: <a href="javascript:tohere('+i+')">To here</a> - <a href="javascript:fromhere('+i+')">From here</a>';

        GEvent.addListener(marker, "click", function() {
          marker.openInfoWindowHtml(html);
        });
        // save the info we need to use later for the side_bar
        gmarkers[i] = marker;
        htmls[i] = html;
        // add a line to the side_bar html
        side_bar_html += '<a href="javascript:myclick(' + i + ')">' + name + '</a><br>';
        i++;
        return marker;
      }

      // ===== request the directions =====
      function getDirections(i) {
        var saddr = document.getElementById("saddr").value
        var daddr = document.getElementById("daddr").value
        gdir.load("from: "+saddr+" to: "+daddr);
    	gmarkers[i].closeInfoWindow();
      }


      // This function picks up the click and opens the corresponding info window
      function myclick(i) {
        gmarkers[i].openInfoWindowHtml(htmls[i]);
      }

      // functions that open the directions forms
      function tohere(i) {
        gmarkers[i].openInfoWindowHtml(to_htmls[i]);
      }
      function fromhere(i) {
        gmarkers[i].openInfoWindowHtml(from_htmls[i]);
      }