Try adding this to the map activity in your manifest xml and see if it does what you need - it doesn't save them anywhere but it does keep your graphic layers from being wiped when the device orientation changes, if that's what you're after.
<activity android:label="@string/app_name" android:name="your.package.activity" android:theme="@android:style/Theme.NoTitleBar" android:configChanges="orientation">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN"/>
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER"/>
</intent-filter>
</activity>
with this I didn't have to use onRetainNonConfigurationInstance()/getLastNonConfigurationInstance() to rebuild the map, onCreate gets called once, etc. Found it in the HelloWorld example after doing some digging.
