Rapparee

When I read through this thread my first thought was that living in the Southern USA (I am not even from the USA), I find that in general, most people here will smile at you or greet you even if you merely make eye contact. I mentioned this "friendly" factoid to my wife, who is a full blooded GRITS (Girl Raised In The South). She looked at me charmingly and said "Hun, that's because they think there's a chance you might be related to them." Well, you can't say they don't have an excellent sense of humour "down south" either. And the "southern" cachers I have met while out hunting are are all of the above... friendly, gracious, entertaining, and usually quite at home with wry country wit.

quote:Originally posted by Jeremy: quote:Originally posted by Pantalaimon: quote:Originally posted by Jeremy:Not exactly a geocache if you don't have to go there, is it? Well, that's not exactly true. I don't __HAVE__ to go to any sites listed on Geocaching.com, that doesn't mean that just because I don't have to go there those sites aren't "geocaches." You must be daft. Answering questions on a web page doesn't make it a geocache. The whole point is leaving your desktop Jeremy Irish Groundspeak - The Language of Location ALERT! ALERT! Flame war! Flame War!! If we really wanted to get picky I guess we could say a virtual is hardly a CACHE in the strict sense of the word either. But Jeremy has a point. The spirit of geocaching.com has been the get off your butt hide and seek principle. On the other hand, anything that brings further attention to, and acceptance of GeoCaching in general can't be bad either. If someone else wants to run their searching from the comfort of a PC, well, let them. Those who won't leave their seats will never do it for other reasons either. Those of us who will... well we can be found tramping round the most obscure places, sometimes at the most ungodly hours, and, since we are having the fun, it matters not what others think or do.

quote:Originally posted by DocMagoo:And for those who have not converted.... Geoheathen _____ http://members.shaw.ca/dmorelli/smile-l.gif And in the same vein... IdleWorshippers

DW – I found your story fascinating. I am a pretty skeptical person, and often need a lot of evidence to convince me of something that seems a little unnatural, but there are some things that simply cannot be explained in our rational terms. The following is not an animal story, but it does come from that same “unexplained” realm. I also realise that the skeptics out there don’t know me, and can come up with a whole bunch of supposedly reasonable assumptions of why this is not unnatural, or why I might have eaten the wrong mushrooms for breakfast, etc. Some years ago a good friend’s wife was hospitalised. It was serious, and my wife at the time, and I offered to look after their two girls aged 6 and 9 so he could go to work and the hospital without having to worry about the kids, and their daily routine of school, homework, feeding, etc. Unfortunately, his wife had two brain tumours, and she died about 7:30 pm one Sunday evening. My wife was putting the girls to bed, along with our children when he phoned just after 8 pm to tell me that his wife had died. He asked me not to tell the girls, and not to let them go to school the next morning, as he would come by and tell them himself about their mother. The next morning my wife was making breakfast when the 9 year old walked into the kitchen, and said, “My mother died last night.” My wife was stunned and asked her why she said that. The girl then told her that her mother had come to her and spoken to her for a long time, telling her that she had to go away, but not to worry, and to look after her little sister and her dad. If you knew her mother, this exactly what she was like towards her children. The kid went on to say “it was like it was a dream, but like I was awake too.” She said a whole lot of other stuff, that seemed to make sense when you took into account her mother’s nature of being close with her children. Now, there is no way I can tell you why this happened. All I can do is relate as accurately as possible what did happen. My wife and I looked at the possibility that perhaps the daughter could have overheard me telling my wife about the phone call, but we both think that was a no go explanation. Other than that one small possibility, there is no other rational explanation for this occurance, and certainly not for all the things she said her mother had told her.. One thing was for sure, that girl was as composed and serene like you could not believe during the whole process of the next couple of days, and also at the funeral. No matter what anyone else believed, she was absolute about what she said her mother had told her, and she was an amazing strength to her dad, and her younger sister.

First thought… Gee! We all have SUCH vivid imaginations!! Do we watch too much TV? Or is the news always so bad? Other thoughts… Guns. As far as I am concerned, they are just another tool, like a GPS. Its how we use them that decides what we are as individuals (OK – slight lecture, but…). If you ARE going to carry a gun, then I think its your civic responsibility to make sure you know how to use it. That means not just how to pull the trigger, but also how to make sure you don’t knock off some other innocent individual. Otherwise leave it at home and consider something else (below). I go for the GEOcaching in a “group” idea as the number one choice. The more people around, the less likely that any nasties will try anything. On that point, I don’t think the remote woods are full of said nasties in secluded places waiting for a potential victim to just happen by. Think about it. I know we are talking about weirdos, but do they really go and sit out for days at a remote location hoping for a victim to chance by? I would say the majority of trouble in remote places is probably a combination of many factors, not the least of which is present opportunity. Hence the “group” philosophy. Even two people together will probably be enough to deter the casual opportunist. A good, sturdy walking stick is also a nice companion. I have one of those little collapsible clubs in my car, but if you carry one of those around, you might run foul of local concealed weapons laws. No one considers a walking stick a concealed weapon, and its very presence can be a deterrent too. It also comes in very handy for poking round in foliage first, where there might be a snake, or other crawly, taking his nap. Also, I find it most useful (I live in Florida) for sweeping in front of me in heavy brush to take out spider webs. I’m not skittish about critters and bugs, but I don’t like the thought of walking through a banana spider web and having him drop onto my shoulder. That one does get to my vivid imagination. Oh – and it IS a walking stick, so it helps on rougher trails for giving that little extra point of support and balance. Lastly, GEOcaching is considered by many to be a family sport. If you have a decent sized dog, take him along for the outing. He will enjoy it thoroughly, and he doubles up as an extra bodyguard. I have known female joggers who ran through areas noted for casual attacks on single women, but with their Doberman or Rottweiler jogging along next to them on a leash, they never ever got singled out. The nasties might be weird, but very few of them are utterly stupid. Sorry this got slightly off-topic. But IMHO, some thought about what you are doing and where you are going could avoid many, if not all, “worst nightmare” experiences.

Right now, the best value for money is probably the refurb Magellan Platinum at Harmony, found at this link. Most importantly, its also within your $200 limit http://www.shopharmony.com/product.asp?i=MAGMRD59803RB I got one two days ago and I'm not sorry at all!!

My Harmony refurb Platinum arrived this afternoon (Wednesday). It was ordered Monday, so I'm not complaining. The unit looks "as new" with no scuffs, marks or apparent signs of previous use. It is not packed in a Magellan box, just some bubble wrap, but that's OK too. It has the PC cable, wrist strap, quickstart manual, CD (containing the full manual), and they chucked two loose Energizer AA's in the box with the rest. Once you've unpackd it all and its lying on the desk or table, you can't tell it from a brand new one. That's it till I've run it for a while and made sure that it keeps on going. It powers up fine now and aquires sat signals with no problem.

I have a "beach bag" that has all the stuff like suntan lotion, towels, swimsuits, waterproof key container, small pair of binoculars, etc, in it. I am now making up a caching "backpack", which will have the stuff I figure I will need. This makes it much easier to "grab and go", and not have to go through some kind of checklist for each outing, and maybe taking the chance of forgetting something important. Just thought I'd add this in case it is a helpful idea for some of you out there.