Killer B's

I bought mine for geocaching but I find it really handy when biking as an odometer, speedometer, compass, etc.. I also do some side work installing low voltage stuff and I use it to record my route to a job site the first time. Then when I go back later to finish the job and I find that I have misplaced the directions to the house, (I ALWAYS lose them!) I just recall the route and I am on my way.

About 3 weeks ago my GPS unit was stolen from my pickup truck overnight. According to the police officer who took the report about 16 or 17 cars had been broken into by what they figured was a group of teenagers that night and he gave very little hope of getting it back. He and I talked for about 15 minutes about geocaching and he was very interested in the sport. About 10 days later, on the same day it's replacement arrived I had a knock on the door and there was a lady who wanted to know if someone at this house had lost a piece of electronic gear. I told her about the theft of my GPS and she handed it to me and said they found it in the parking lot of their business a couple of days previously. Seems someone there knew how to operate it and they found my waypoint marked "Home" and followed it to me! I got my unit back and a coworker bought the new GPS from me and is now a dedicated geocacher himself.

As a newbie who has been lurking for a few weeks reading posts I thought I would weigh in on this subject. I like regular caches, benchmarks and virtuals as they seem to simply be different facets of an interesting hobby. Which type I would hunt would simply depend on my mood that day. I realize that virtuals can be idiotic at times but, I think a whole lot of problems would be solved simply by making a new catagory for virtuals and then posting statistics for each catagory seperatly. This seems to me to make the most sense as then those who like to compete can do it on a level playing field and those who like to enjoy all facets of the hobby (virtuals) can do it without the rancor this subject seems to bring up. Having a virtuals catagory means that people can make them as intelligent or stupid as they want and it wouldn't bug the people who want "purity" for their stats. One of the reasons I like the concept of virtuals is that when we have a snowy winter regular caches and benchmarks aren't very easy and a virtual can still be fun then.