azurecrayon

ive been having this same debate over the past month. yesterday i drove 160 miles round trip to finally pick up the oregeon 400t i decided on. they had both tho so i looked at them, and still wanted the oregon with its larger/touch screen, smaller overall size and weight. i am a complete touch screen freak, trying to use my husbands non touch screen cell drives me nuts when ive used a touch screen cell for almost two years now. so the oregon was the right one for me. that combined with the 399.99 price tag, which is an excellent deal on the oregon. i got my oregon 400t at rei. i bought a membership as well, and after tax it came to 444, and has a $50 rebate so will end up being $394. i went with rei because they have a lifetime satisfaction guarantee on what they sell. could have gotten it a little cheaper online after the rebate, but that guarantee is worth money to me.

so far my family has just one account, mine. weve made a few finds, and later today we are setting up an account for our middle child who has enjoyed the geocaching. we will fill in the caches hes been along on even tho they were from before his join date. he searched, he found, he signed (not well, but its there), he gets to log it. so far my oldest and significant other arent really into it, but i am keeping track of my own finds and who was with me at the time. someday maybe they'll be into it, and if so, we'll set up an acct, and they can log all the ones they've done with me. i know the guidelines for listing physical caches says "Geocaches can be logged online as Found once the physical log has been signed." doesnt say the person has to join the website before they sign the log.

we just started caching this past weekend, and before our first find i hit the local walmart to stock up trading swag. i got a plastic container to keep in the car and filled it up with mostly kid type stuff since we have 3 boys that will be doing most of the trading. silly putty, playdoh, stencils, bubbles, girly hair stuff, card games. i also threw in some more adult toys like carbiners, magnets, little notebooks. we dont have pets but i know lots of people bring their dogs along, so we stocked up on some tennis balls too. i think total it was about $30 for the swag kit to keep in the car. we are new, but trying to keep with the spirit of the game. we did find some caches this weekend, unfortunately they were too small for swag anyway. i like the idea of the batteries, think ill put those in the kit next time i restock. currently we are trying to come up with some kind of signature item to leave behind wherever we go. i wouldnt mind some ideas on these!