I swear this just happened to me tonite----You know you're a geocacher when you see the remnants of an old dried up loaf of bread on the kitchen counter and you say to yourself "I've got to archive that."
I second that for the Garmin Etrex Venture HC. I'm new to caching, too (started August 2010.) This has been a great unit for me. I kept my eye on them at Amazon and hit a great sale for about $110. Good Luck and enjoy!