Sue and Bernie

...our favoured caching transportation: We only use the front bags when we go on long trips - not caching stuff. We have "done" most of the caches within straight biking distance (about 30 mile radius is our max). Nowadays, we have to put the bikes on the back of the car and find a nice friendly supermarket part way to a cache to bring it into range. Do some shopping, dump the car and peddle off into the distance... Super!

...not me either - we are long term military! You are probably nearer the mark with the gadget geek addicition theory (that works for me mate)!

Unbelievable! I am in the Royal Air Force. See here: 54 (F) Sqn When you see the Sqn badge you will understand why our Sqn refreshment facility is named "The Blue Lion". I am travelling up to Bedale with a team to do some work locally (no prizes for guessing where). I will, in the course of my duties, feel honour bound to lead my troops on a visit the refreshment facility you have recommended. Cheers!...

I always take Sue with me.... ...except when I am away for work - up to North Yorkshire next week so might get time to dig out a few around Bedale. Funnily, we had a Jack Russel named "Jake" in the 80s. No more pets for us I am afraid, having only just managed to push the kids out of the house after they finished (successfully) at university, we are enjoying the freedom too much. No mutts or other commitments to be taken on for a long, long time.

I had the exact same problem! I use the solution you have already espoused on my home PC - a serial extension cable to effectively bring the serial port to the front. To this I connect my Vista, SP3 or organiser dock as the need arises. I connect and disconnect the GPS with it turned off (PC running), power the GPS on when connected, then run the host software. No problems for the past 2.5 years.... There is also another solution that I use for my laptop. I was horrified to find that a modern laptop does not usually have a serial port - they've been binned! The answer is a USB to Serial cable... and to save you looking, this is the cheapest UK solution I have found: eBuyer USB to Serial Cable ...£6.29 to you John, plus postage. Beats the stupid prices Garmin and others would stiff you for. No connection to eBuyer, just a happy and very regular customer. Hope this helps...

Sue & I are exactly the opposite! Living in Norfolk where the caches are quite some distance apart, we usually do them one at a time - by bike. If we are away visiting relatives, we do load up a few caches for a bimble round the area, dragging the whole family, across the age divide, out into the fresh air and away from the one-eyed monster. We also find that caches are ususally a brilliant way to find out stuff on your doorstep (or the relatives doorstep) of which you were oblivous and it enables us all to enjoy each others company while having a joint objective. The younger one enjoy the trip with the incentive of the "treasure hunt". We really relish our caching trips into the countryside and, if we do see two cache sites near each other, we will deliberately "save" one for a future trip. The mad dashing about, visiting umpteen sites, all within spitting distance of each other just for the sake of it does not appeal. What is the point of "doing" a hundred caches if they are all in your back garden? Still... keep a sense of proportion! Whatever cranks your generator! The whole concept of looking around for a tupperware box is pretty daft - albeit we find it does give a purpose to getting out into the world and it keeps the body moving, heart beating and... dammit, it is good fun! Enjoy it all - whichever, whatever way you go... have fun!

Hi, I am a Brit who owns a Garmin Street Pilot 3 (with Garmin CN) and a Garmin Vista (with MG Europe). Both are well used in travelling about and geocaching. We occasionally visit the States and naturally, we would like to be able to make use of this little lot while we tour. The purchase of CN USA for the SP3 is out of the question, it is prohibitatively expensive for the relatively little use we would get from it. I understand from the forums that MG USA V4 could be loaded into the datacard of the SP3 and it will provide auto-routing on it (but without the voice directions). The same software could also be used to load mapping data into our Vista. Hence, if this is correct, the one piece of software could fill both my requirements. Is there a friendly voice on the far side that could confirm this and better still, point me in the direction of a cheap source for this now superceded software. Cheers!...

As I often bang on about, Sue & I use geo-geeking to provide interesting and diverse destinations for our cycling. We echo the stentiments of "Mustard Devil" above (I was going to say "we can relate to that" but that was far too colonial)! Where cycling is the main thrust of our interest, we also find geo-geeking is a brilliant way of transcending the age thing. This weekend we went south to visit some in-laws and found ourselve in charge of their two young daughters (our nieces). While Sue is patience personified and can endure endless games of Monopoly et al, I as a down-to-earth, middle-aged engineer find it difficult to maintain enthusiasm in such things (it was different when ours were young). So in comes geo-geeking. With half-a-dozen caches loaded into the Vista, we took our two willingly charges off on a tour of their own locale... and like "Mustard Devil" notes, you see some really varied and interesting sights... and the girls loved it. What else could get two girls, 8 & 13 out and about with two 50-year-olds? We were out in the cool, damp and overcast day and spent 4 enjoyable hours together and saw bits of Essex that we would never have encountered otherwise. Great stuff! P.S. "Mustard Devil? does that mean you have developed a taste for the real yellow stuff on your visit to Blighty (as opposed to the squeezy custard stuff that is purveyed in the US). Sad to say, I always take a tube of "proper" mustard with me on my trips over there.

Dave, delighted to be able to assist you in your promotion of the game. Sue & I are mailing you one each of our small and large logbook stickers and one of our personalised keyrings. As we claim to be the slowest cachers in the country (since we usually cycle many miles to the caches, doing them one a day - on fine, sunny days only), these are really the proverbial rocking horse manure!

...especially if you're gonna use an ammo box! I'm in the Mob but, to be honest, I hope I will not be in a position to either place or go looking for a cache down there. Swerved it so far, only a couple more years to go - keep head down, keep quiet and tick the days off on your chuff chart!

Sue & I used to take long bike journeys through the back roads of Norfolk & Suffolk using the bog-standard OS paper maps. No problem - except having to stop every couple of miles to check you were taking the correct route. It really slowed down the whole process, stopping and starting, back-tracking because we hadn't taken the correct turn etc etc We'd seen sat-nav in cars and, after a bit of research, discovered you could get one of the wee beasties onto your handlebars. That solve that problem. It is really so much better to wizz about with the box doing all the work, telling you how far to the next turn, which way to go and all the rest. It is surprising how much more fun it makes the journey when you are liberated from constantly refering to the map. You can enjoy the view and bimble leisurely on your way. We then were led into geo-geeking through the GPS side of things and now, in the best British tradition of going full-circle, we now go cycling to go geo-caching! We now have a Vista for the hobby and a Streetpilot 3 for the car. A sign of the times - our son now comes in and asks to borrow the GPS to go visiting for the weekend!

NFJB - No Way! Auntie Betty would send Mr Plod round to bang on my door pretty sharpish if I were to do that. I am slowly building a stock for future use. When you see a big blood-red zit of new caches appear on the map in the Norfolk area, you'll know I have finally retired...

We have a wee off-topic variation on the stamping theme. I label a lot of discs and end up with a pile of unused rectangular sticky labels on the Pressit style A4 sheets I tend to use. The matt paper ones I simply stick on jiffy bags in order to re-use them, covering the original address and postage stamps. I was stuck for a good way of using the photo quality ones - then I though of turning them into personlised "stamps". A quick bit of cutting & pasting and nifty sissor work and the result is a load of sticky-backed "stamps" for use in logbooks at caches. We use our avatar (left) as the main graphic. The print quality on this type paper is really sharp and clear. I have just found another use for these otherwise binned labels, I use them for inserts into keyring blanks - this time for depositing in caches as a calling card.

You'll laugh at this - being in the military, I can get my hands on lots of ammo boxes in prime condition... ...and being in the military, I don't have a fixed location to start planting them from! We move house far too often! That's ironic Alanis... Nevertheless, we are building up a nice little stock of ammo boxes from "massive" to "tupperware", getting them painted out (removing all the nasty messages) and marked up ready to go. When Sue & I finally determine where we will settle and buy our retirement home, we planned to put 'em all out in the wild to provide some repayment for all the fun we've had locating our (23) finds. Til then....

Have you lot not heard of padlocks! We use one of those big "D" loop jobs coupled with a big flexible cable from Hal*ords. We feed the cable around a sturdy post/tree/fence, through its other end, then thread it through the frames of both bikes and finally secure the "outer" bike with the padlock, but you must know that! We done this all over the place, leaving the bikes unattended while shopping or caching for hours at a time without any problems... but then we do live out in the sticks.

Sue & I use the GPS (Vista on the handlebar) to guide our cycling trips all the time. Using caches as the destination for our trips gives us plenty of variety in our journeys. About 50 miles for a round trip is our norm, it's the only way to travel. Like Stuey, we have nearly "done" all the caches within range. We select a cache, peg out the route on the PC, we stick the bikes on the back of the car, drive towards a more distant cache and find a friendly supermarket carpark or a layby en route. Dump the car and, with the cache now within range, we pedal off into the distance. However, before you get all impressed, we are definately fair weather cyclists (though we do accept and are prepared for the fickle British climate) so most of our caching and cycling is done in the warmer, drier months... and this explains why we have only accumulated a total of 24 caches in several years. We also toddle along at a speed comensurate with our age... and enjoy stopping at the multitude of public houses that abound in the middle of nowhere in East Anglia. How do they make a living? Cycling and geo-geeking make a very good pairing, each gives a reason to do the other!

...at least it gets you out in the fresh air! Me! I find it's the job that gets in the way. Fortunately for me, retirement (at a spritely 55 years of age I hastily add) beckons in couple of years. Once we have stopped our nomadic life and finally settled down somewhere still to be determined, we can get down to some serious cycling around... and a bit more caching on the side too. Sparky, you just post away to your heart's content, we certainly will not mind on this side of the pond. Oh! Got to go, a Windows critical update has finally finished downloading (takes forever on a 56k modem)

Sue & I can relate to the originator! We have only logged 20+ finds in 3 years - and some of them were abroad! Why are we so slow? Because we normally cycle 20-25 miles to the cache and back again. This gives us different destinations and routes rather than bimbling round the same old places. Roll on Summer! Now that we have "done" most of East Anglia around us, we are now having to use the car to bring further outlying caches into range. We are not fanatical about it, when we have visitors, we often take them geo-geeking or to a previously visited cache because usually they are in good places to visit. The cache spices up the trip, especially for the younger members. As some-one else said "Each to his own" - as long as we all get enjoyment from the game. That's the main thing. ...and Sparky-Watts! over 4,000 posts in less than 6 months! That's over 750 a month! How do you have time to go caching? Perhaps we should start congratulating people on their 1000th...2000th... post? Hey! I'm coming up on my big 50.

...and for those laptop moments, may I recommend eBuyer: Click here to see the eBuyer USB to Serial Cable Very good and absolutely essential for connecting your serial-port-only GPS to a modern laptop that has had the serial port declared redundant!...and unusually, it is sold a very modest price £6.17 (+ p&p). No conflicts of interest, I am a very happy user who would like to point others in the direction of a solution I was well pleased to find. Enjoy!

It's eight for us. We've already cycled out to 3 of them and we're going to do most of the others this summer. None of them are together, they are all in different directions around the compass which suits us just fine. They're all about 15 - 20 miles away from us, a nice day out on the bikes. Mind you, one of these caches (Treasure Island) is a non-starter for us - we cannot manage a boat on the bikes! There are two caches located near each other by Cromer but we diliberately left one for this summer - we can finish off the trip by taking in the sea (and a meal and a beer or two). That's my excuse anyway... We plan to settle in the area once I stop moving around with the Mob so then we will plant a few of our own...

Geocachers do it standing in a field Geocachers do it technically Geocachers do it everywhere Geocachers do it anywhere Never lost: often directionless Geocachers love a good hard lock

I am a Brit who makes occaisionally visits across to the other side of the Pond. I own a Garmin StreetPilot 3 and Garmin Vista GPS units with City Navigator Europe and MG Europe respectively. I will not embarrass my Government or Garmin by commenting on the outrageous prices that are charged over here for this little lot. Naturally, I cannot afford the high cost of City Navigator US to load up the SP3 for the few trips I make. Therefore, when heading to the US, I usually load up the Vista from an old MG USA Version 2 software I've picked up in the UK. This is quite sufficient for my modest holiday needs. I have recently found out that MG USA Version 4, installed in my SP3, will provide me with autorouting! Therefore, I too am seeking a copy of this older software to enable me to use my SP3 in the States instead of the Vista. I would be grateful to anyone on the US side of the pond who can assist me in my quest.....

Like Chris & Maria, we use a SP3 in the car and a eTrex Vista for biking & walking. The SP3 is brilliant. We have now used it to drive blindly into deepest London several times. Apart from missing a few "get-into-the-correct-lane" bits, it is glorious to charge on in without a care about finding your way through - just follow the box. If you get it wrong, it re-routes you again and does not get ratty! We wouldn't have dared venture in there without it. On our last Christmas dash into the Smoke to pick up the daughter, we drove via a destination in Chigwell to collect a rather large eBay win - again, the marvellous box took us to the door and then into the City on uncharted (for us) roads. We started with a Yellow eTrex and went up the chain to the Vista. It's the 24 mb of memory for the hi-res maps that makes this the best choice. Very natty on the handlebars of the bike too for our long rides to family and caches - in the summer we hasten to add.

OzGuff, You would be welcome to borrow a bike from our collection (racer, grand tourer or utility workhorse complete with trailer tow hitch). However, we do not think it would be a good idea for a visitor to attempt riding a bike through London on "our" side of the road - you would not survive! Even we wouldn't attempt it and we were London born and bred. We are Norfolk yokels now. We like the international bit too - we did a couple in Las Vegas last year, some in Canada (Alberta) and next month Bernie is off to the Oman and will attempt some there - there are only 4 at the moment. It depends of the environment though, in Canada there were some natural hazards that we didn't allow for - bears! We did not visit as many Canadian woodland caches as we planned! I note that there are some volunteers to join you for your London blitz. That would be a good idea really, bumbling round the Smoke or any other big city, on your own in the dark is not a really good idea. Take a fellow GeoGeek with you.

Seasider, ...our turn to respectfully suggest that you are perhaps in the wrong thread! Ho! Ho! Tag! You're it!