Toidy

Hi everyone! Hubby and I got into geocaching almost a year ago in California, but we were sidetracked this summer by a move to the great state of Texas! During the move, my Magellan Explorist 500 was lost...(sob!) and we haven't gotten to cache since. I bought the expensive Explorist because I'd received a $300 Best Buy gift card at work...and I added to it to make up the difference. But now that it's just MY money, I'd like to buy a more economical unit. Can anyone recommend an economical AND simple GPS to operate? I miss caching...I'm eager to get back to it. :-) Thanks much!

Yeah...what's a FOAF? LOL Also, I would love a link to that story...that's pretty scary - and worth reading to stay safe no matter where you live.

these are all pretty cool! glad I found this thread!!!

Me = 41 Hubby = 37 Funny looks? YEP!! We just started...if it's not my hubby walking around with the GPS in front of him like he's Captain Kirk with his trusty tri-corder, it's overweight me in my VERY conspicuous red car. LOL We stick out like a sore thumb. I still feel a little weird when people look at me but if anyone asks, we just tell them about geocaching and they do usually shake their heads and walk away. LOL And all the extra walking around...and the new hiking we're doing...is motivating me to take care of the overweight part! And hey, THRAK!!! Mushroom, mushroom!!! Snaaaake! Snaaaaaaake!! :-)

Well...helloooooooo boys! LOL Nice pics!

Wow...I just started and I'm on this forum AND the Southern California geocachers forum. Everyone here is so friendly....I've never been jumped on or sniped. I've felt stupid for asking a question but that was ALL ME...not something anyone here made me feel. LOL You guys are so helpful and welcoming it's hard for me to imagine anyone thinking otherwise, but everyone is different. I think it says a lot for the type of people you guys are that you're discussing whether it's an issue and seeing if you can make anything better. I'm part of a forum for an online game I play and those people are RUDE, CRAZY and just generally MEAN. Some of you may be CRAZY, but I've never seen you rude or mean. I think you're all a bunch of righteously fabulous dudes and dudettes. :-) Group hug!

OMG...those pictures are ADORABLE!!! LOL What a little sweetums!!!!

I'm a newbie too and I'm sure that if some of our more experienced geocaching brothers and sisters could have seen me out in the California desert last weekend they would have died laughing. LOL I have plenty of DNF's already and I'm still having loads of fun. The most frustrating thing for me has been learning how to properly use the GPS and getting my PDA to read pocket queries...but I think I've got the hard part done now. Give it another try...you'll see how much fun it is. I made two attempts before I found my first cache and once I found it I was bouncing off the walls the rest of the day....all over a little black box hid in some ivy. LOL Welcome to the game!

I'm a big fat newbie and have no experience...but I just downloaded mobipocket to read my stuff and it works beautifully! www.mobipocket.com

I needed to see this too...I'm a newbie and the question has been rolling around in my head for a while. Hubby is NOT good at being stealthy. LOL. I had to corale him back to the car one night for walking around the Best Buy parking lot with the GPSr in front of him like it was a tri-corder from the Star Trek movies. LOL Muggles were Christmas shopping everywhere and he did everything but point the thing at THEM. LOL I'm still practicing my super ninja stealth mode!

This made me feel better...reading all these stories. LOL I'm a newbie too (8 finds) and I've already had a run in with a security guard. LOL. I didn't tell him why I was really there and I'm sure I acted suspicious because he was rude & making me nervous...but now I see I should probably have just TOLD him about the game. I was being overly cautious when it comes to letting muggles know what you're up to. LOL Live & learn. I will follow the advice here in case it ever happens to me again. After my caching adventure in the California desert on Christmas day with my hubby, I'm more worried about encounters with creepy crawlies than with law enforcement anyway! LOL

Hi!! Welcome!!! I'm a rookie, too! Just found my first two caches last Sunday. Everyone on these forums has been super helpful and soooo welcoming. What a great group this is...I hope you get addicted just like me!! LOL

Just started caching with my hubby on Sunday....we found 2 of 3 caches we went after. All day at work today, I kept thinking about the one that we didn't find and plotting my next attempt to go out there. LOL I think I may be hooked...uh oh!

Thank you all so much! I found the files...I did have to go to menu/preferences, etc...and edit the geocaches. I still don't understand what I did, but the waypoints are there... Since Dallas doesn't seem to be PLAYING against the Redskins and they're just laying down on the field, hubby and I are going back out there to try again. Thank you again, everyone...what a helpful group!!!

Okay, so I mark my location and then edit it? Good to know! I'll try that as well....thank you so much. All other tips/tricks welcome as well... I'm having fun reading the "getting started" forums too....so much to know!

Hi everyone - Hubby and I set off on our first hunt today...I was so excited. I just bought the Magellan Explorist 500 yesterday. :-) We get in the car assuming that we can enter the coords manually...then find that there's nothing in the user manual about that. So I go back in the house and try to figure out how to download waypoints. I learn that I need a program like "Easy GPS" or "GSAK". I download "Easy GPS" but when it asks for my model #, it doesn't even list the Magellan Explorer series... To cut confusion, I downloaded GSAK. I imported a bunch of sample files from Australia that are of no use to me. LOL. (I'm in Southern California). So then I figured out how to import .loc files from www.geocaching.com into GSAK...great! I figured I had this problem beat. Not!! :-) Now Magellan isn't communicating for some reason. I get it into file transfer mode iwth no problem. When I tried to transfer the waypoints, I was getting an error that it wasn't communicating. Then I noticed when I'm in GSAK and I go to GPS, then Send Waypoints, then GPSr set up, it tells me "For Explorer, please go to File > Export > Explorist to download waypoints. Okay, great! :-) So I do that....and there is STILL nothing in my POI's or in my Geocaching in my Magellan GPS. I was all set to have fun hunting today with my hubby but this is quite a bummer. He and I both consider ourselves fairly PC savvy...but....c'mon! LOL We did find one virtual cache today just by tracking the coords on Magellan...but I would like to download waypoints and do this normally...because when we tried a second hunt today I cut it short when there were too many muggles around and we looked conspicuous walking around with a GPS and a punch of PC print outs. LOL If anyone can help, I would truly appreciate it...I'm gonna go watch the Cowboys game and if they lose I'm REALLY gonna freak. LOL