TeamZebra

Thanks for the link, but I'm afraid I'd have to purchase the US Version since I'm not in the UK. The same cable from their US website actually costs MORE (about $10!) than the one I looked at in Staples (grumble, grumble - I REALLY don't want to get it there). I'm getting ready to check with Best Buy and Circuit City. Hopefully they will have a better deal.

I keep seeing stuff about adapters being incompatible with Garmin. Can someone point to me to an inexpensive serial to USB adapter that DOES work with a Garmin? In particular I have an Etrex Legend and a Gateway laptop running WinXP SP2. I have no serial ports and need to connect my Legend to my laptop. I had a cable at one time ... thinking it cost me about $15 at the time I bought it. I have since misplaced it and went back looking for another. They want almost twice that much for them now! There's got to be a better way.

I had an environmentally friendly vehicle.... or at least I thought it was until it took out that tree. OH well. Seriously, I'm going to be hitting the road again with the hubby (OTR team - refridgerated freight) and I'd really like to be able to hit caches in the places we drive to/through. But being unfamiliar with the areas, I doubt I'll be able to snag very many since we'll be in the truck all the time. Itw ould be really nice to have a searchable designation for large vehicles such as tractor-trailers. Wishful thinking I suppose. 'Specially considering people are still so biased against big trucks. They don't want us on the roads as it is... I'm sure they don't want us in the parks.

Only to another obvious dork! I wouldn't have realized that cache was there if I hadn't seen you down there. I had put the waypoint in the GPSr quite a while ago and forgot about it. I saw ya down there and started wondering if perhaps I'd missed one. Glanced down at the GPSr and saw a little treasure chest RIGHT next to me! Woohoo! Another cache... and a team of cachers to boot! Yeah, you have an advantage over me there. Having no kids to use as cover, I have to resort to trash bags and my digital camera. I had a lady walking her dog spot me next to a cache in Farragut. I had my camera with me and started taking pictures of the tree the cache was hidden next to. Doing a plant study for school... yeah, that's it. Nah, wasn't anything you did. Just that my GPS was pointing to the hollow tree that was closer to the road. I stuck my arm down inside it... DEEP hole! I was making a common newbie mistake I guess... putting too much faith in the GPSr and not really looking for the cache.

Yeah, us cachers can stick out like a sore thumb to other cachers.... Can't they Team Wampus??? I had just left a cache because the muggle population was way too high for stealthy pursuit and was driving around looking for my next attempt. And what do I see? A man with three kids walking around in some brush down below the bridge I was driving over. Hmmmm..... Just as I start to ask myself THE question, he turns and I see him looking down at something in his hand. OH YEA... that's a cacher alright! So I pulled in next to an obvious cachemobile just around the corner and check the GPS, sure enough, I had just driven past a waypoint I'd stored much earlier. I scrounge through my printouts and find it. Being VERY new to the sport, I decide to introduce myself and hopefully gain a little help on a find. As I approach the spot where I spotted them, they emerge from the woods. "I know what you're doing!" I proclaim. A quick introduction and some words of encouragement on the task before me and they are off... (the youngest member of Team Wampus had business to take care of). We won't discuss how I managed to tag a DNF on a cache that had just been handled less than 5 minutes before I got there. Anyway, on a later find I discovered the camo effect of TRASH! I had located the cache, signed the log and was waiting for the quiet moment to emerge from the tree cover and back onto the paved greenway when I spotted an empty shopping bag and some assorted trash laying around. I grabbed the bag and emerged from the woods stuffing garbage into it. Nobody even batted an eye. In fact, on the way back down the trail a couple kids helped me add to my trash collection.

SWEET! Another great find! And after the GC.com search extension I thought life could not get any better... but I was wrong! I haven't been using Firefox long, but it's really starting to grow on me. Too bad I had to turn down my pop-up blocker settings to get the photos to show right...

Hmmm... My cachemobile needs some new tread... With this one and the Spare Tire TB... I'd be halfway to a new set!!

Umm... I'm confused now. I have the same type problem with Firefox. The cache log photos don't show up like they are supposed to. In fact, in order to see anything bigger than a thumbnail I have to switch over to my Maxthon browser. I am running WinXP (SP2), have AVG free and ZoneAlarm Pro. I'm not sure what Popup blocker you are talking about disabling... I REALLY don't want to do that. Please tell me there;s another way.

This is sweet! Ditto to the poster who commented on the stealth/turbo install. I almost clicked it again because I never saw it happen! Once I remembered to LOOK, there it was. Just had to try it out... awesome job! As for IE... What IE? I have 4 browsers installed on my laptop. Unfortunately some things just don't seem to work right with Firefox. (Seems to be something it doesn't like about viewing photos in some people's cache logs??) When I run into an issue with the Fox I bring out Maxthon. Yeah, I know, it's an IE based browser, but at least it has tabs and it doesn't automatically throw me to Microsoft sites everytime I load it up. IE and Netscape are hiding around here somewhere but I hardly use them anymore. I avoid IE whenever possible. It's bad enough I have WinXP, OfficeXP, Outlook, etc. etc. etc. Hey.. by the way.. how's that Thunderbird email work?? I'd love to get rid of the Outlook monster and the constant fear of it bringing home a virus. But the main reason I still use Outlook is because AVG works with it to automatically scan every incoming/outgoing message for viruses. I don't know if AVG would recognize Thunderbird.

I've only been caching for a little over a month, but I'm already hooked. For me there were a few reasons... 1) I like the whole mystery of it. Wondering when I drive past a new place if there's a cache hidden there, the surprise of finding out there's a cache hidden somewhere I pass every day, and knowing I'm one of few people who know about it. 2) I need more exercise, don't we all? But I get bored way to easy to be satisfied with walking the same trail everyday. This way I have been introduced to several parks and greenways I never would have knew even existed... and get a nice workout with every cache. 3) I had this Garmin eTrex Legend sitting around collecting dust and this is a way to let it feel needed again. The hubby and I bought it a couple years ago and had used it for routing when we were an OTR driving team. 4) The hubby still drives truck and I have alot of weekends home alone. Caching gets me out of the house and gives me something to do other than veg-out on the couch watching TV. Fun, exercise, adventure, stealth, secrets.... what's not to love!

WAY TOOOO CUTE!! I want a cache pup too!!!

Thanks Keystone. I had read through the stuff on Groundspeak's page and a few other places... Markwell hit on a few questions I had in his FAQ. Good information... (Another bookmark to the list)

Ahh... OK.. Cool deal. I should have grabbed it then. (Wonder if trying to revisit that cache in the dark is a bad idea... Hmmm.... I might just be able to return and pick it up and move it tonight since it's REALLY close to my home). There's a really busy cache close by that I think the bug would find beneficial. Bugs move in and out of there all the time. The cache it's in right now is only available to paying GC.com members and it's not really busy. It's not a TB hotel so there shouldn't be a 1 for 1 rule. Thanks for the info.. I gotta get some jeans on now... briars to traverse to rescue a TB in need. Hehe... Seriously though... I've seen cache where people return to caches (usually the owner, but not always) they have already visited to drop off/pick up TBs... is this considered OK? In other words, can I go back and pick up the TB I did not pick up earlier and drop it in a cache I have already logged as found (by posting a note when dropping the bug) so the bug will get more action? Or do I have to place it in a cache I have not found yet... or should I just leave it alone?

*WARNING: NEWBIE POST FOLLOWS* I ran across a TB today... the first one I'd seen since I started caching about a month ago. I was going to take it with me and log it, but was not sure what the rules were regarding trading for TBs. Obviously I had no other TB to swap for it. I've seen logs where people pickup and drop off TBs... but what I'm wondering is... is it OK to take a TB without leaving one? If I have already traded like items in the cache, and I don't have a TB do I need to leave more trade items in exchange for the TB? And... If the TB has a specific goal, do you take it even if you aren't planning on going far in the desired direction? Basically, this one was wanting to go to a northern state, but I am still working on local caches, so I wouldn't have been able to move it very far. However, I could possibly place it somewhere where it would be better able to move (a busier cache - not as difficult of a find, etc). Is there a page somewhere that lists rules for TBs? What kind of trades are allowable, etc.

Now that's an original TB! I ran across a page for a mobile cache that was attached to someone's car once, but never thought about a mobile TB. As far as the upgraded YJTBs go.. I think the yellow ones are cool. I really like the addition of the TB logo on the hood of the first one. The paint job it did have was horrible. I tend to agree with someone's comments that the mods (big tires, etc) are in the spirit of Jeep and I don't think they'd care. I wouldn't if it was my TB, as long as it looked good... it'd be nice to know someone was taking such good care of the TB.

Now here is something that I have never seen. Do people really use glass containers for a cache? That would seem to be a disaster waiting to happen. Oh yes, there's several in the Maryville area. A series of them in fact. They are basically placed underwater from what I can tell (haven't had a chance to actually hunt them yet)... and tied to trees, and other things to make them retrievable. At least one has been found broken however. GCGWEB, GCGWEC, GCGXCX & GCGXCY (The Riparian Zone series) features mason jars as cache containers.

Well, that's just lazy. Actually this tool in GSAK leads to me leaving more descriptive and probably much longer logs that I normally would because if I have my laptop with me I can write a log as soon as I get back to my cachemobile. While the find is still fresh in my mind. Otherwise I have to try to remember specific details about a cache I found 5 hours ago once I get back home. I haven't gotten into those "power trips" yet, I usually pick up 3 or 4 on a day. I started out carrying a little notebook with me to scribble notes about each cache, but I've found the automated logging option much easier... and one more step towards saving trees. Cool, didn't realize this. Saves me another couple clicks.. Thanks!

Something else about GSAK. If you have it on your laptop and take it with you, you can write notes (i.e. log entries) about the cache as soon as you find it (or get back to your computer). Just double-click the notepad icon for the cache listing in your GSAK database. Then when you are back on the net and ready to log your find... pull up your notes, click the button that says "Log Find" and it zaps you directly to the Geocaching.com form to log a find for that specific cache. Copy/Paste your log you wrote earlier, hit "submit" and you're done.

Odd thing though. I have SA 2003 and have NEVER updated it via the Netlink tab. I tried to today just for the heck of it... it kept saying I wasn't connected to the internet although I have a full-time connection at home via my wireless network. Next thing I know I'm getting that "Find Tab failed to Initialize" error. Just tried the Netlink update again... this time it worked and my SA is fully operational again! Finally. Hey.. speaking of SA... is there some way I can copy all the files from the "program data" CD to my hard drive so I don't ahve to leave the disc in the drive when I take the laptop out caching?? I like SA better than Streets & Trips but at least S&T doesn't require a CD at all times to get maps.

Can't we all just get along?

OK I think I got it... I had the picture uploaded, and set as my photo but not my avatar. I hope that Lion isn't still around!

I don't know if this is old news or not, but I just ran across some interesting policy www.wheresgeorge.com has come up with regarding WGs being left in caches. Once a WG is logged as being found in a cache that bill is marked on the WG site as a "Geocache Bill" and even if it's returned to normal circulation by the finder, the bill is banned from any summaries and Top 10 lists on the site. Maybe I'm misunderstanding something here but they seem to think people are using WGs strictly as travel bugs and therefore creating "false" hits. Seems to me there's no reason why a normal unmarked bill couldn't make it's way into a cache and continue to be traded... so why is trading a WG considered cheating? I'm registed on WG and have entered several bills... none of which have gotten ANY hits in the past year. I thought "Hey! I'll stick a few in some caches and see if I can't jump start 'em that way"... but now WG is threatening to cancel the accounts of cachers.

I have an eTrex Legend and at one time had all the necessary cables to hook it up to my laptop... but have apparently lost/misplaced it. Anybody know where I can get another one? The cable that came with my Legend was a serial cable and my laptop didn't have a serial connector so I had to use a serial to USB adapter cable to make the connection. At the time Garmin told me this was the only way to accomplish this connection... is this still true or has a direct USB cable been made for this device?? I ended up paying somewhere in the range of $20 for the adapter cable (at Staples I think). Any insight is appreciated. I've been managing with manually entering the waypoints, but it'd be much nicer to be able to just zap 'em all into the GPSr in one quick shot. Not to mention the additional support I'd have being able to take my laptop along with my routing software. My little legend doesn't offer much help with the road portions of the hunt. I've used the GPSr/laptop before to track and route trips, but I'm still pretty new to caching.