adovbs

I got my ammo boxes from Cheaper Than Dirt. They got here in less than a week, and although they are fairly heavy, the shipping was only 6 bucks for two of them. The base price was 3.99 for the .50 caliber size. That makes them about, hmm, 7 bucks apiece. Maybe half again as much as a heavy duty tupperware container, and a LOT more sturdy and serviceable. Not too bad, and if I had been willing to wait for my next trip to Dallas, I could have had them for even less by visiting the store. So if there aren't any surplus stores in your area, this place might be a good alternative. Teresa (Adovbs) P.S. And yes, I plan to start these two caches out with a decent collection of "treasures." The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth.

I got my ammo boxes from Cheaper Than Dirt. They got here in less than a week, and although they are fairly heavy, the shipping was only 6 bucks for two of them. The base price was 3.99 for the .50 caliber size. That makes them about, hmm, 7 bucks apiece. Maybe half again as much as a heavy duty tupperware container, and a LOT more sturdy and serviceable. Not too bad, and if I had been willing to wait for my next trip to Dallas, I could have had them for even less by visiting the store. So if there aren't any surplus stores in your area, this place might be a good alternative. Teresa (Adovbs) P.S. And yes, I plan to start these two caches out with a decent collection of "treasures." The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth.

I use my Visor Platinum to take notes with me on the cache or benchmark I'm visiting (basically, I just cut and paste the whole text content of the description from the web page into the memo application in my Palm Desktop, hotsync and take it all with me.) I also use the built in memo app to take notes for my caching logs. I use the Magellan GPS Companion springboard module and the Nav software that came with it for the GPS part. I am still learning it but so far I like it a lot. I have an eyemodule springboard module for taking pics, although I often have my digital camera with me and use that when I do. I also have a really *cool* flexible rollup keyboard for typing in comfort from Man and Machine and a backup module in case I have to hard reset at an inconvenient time away from my computer. I've had to hard reset once far away from home and was dead in the water without my data and applications till I got home and could hotsync. Not fun, so I bought the backup module to carry with me and now I don't have to worry about it. I also have an Active Armor case for my visor, and use the neck lanyard to keep my hands free and keep my visor from being dropped while hiking. I've even put it to the test - accidentally dropped my visor on the concrete in a parking lot the other day while taking it out of my backpack and it didn't even faze it. I use Mapopolis on occasion, mostly for finding my way to the general area. I have AvantGo installed and use that to take weather reports and such with me. I uninstalled it for a while, but after getting stuck out in the boonies not too long ago, I decided that it would be a good idea to have it back again. My Visor is definitely my number one geocaching tool - it does pretty much everything to get me there and back again except drive the car. Teresa (Adovbs) The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth. [This message was edited by adovbs on August 17, 2002 at 07:34 PM.]

I use my Visor Platinum to take notes with me on the cache or benchmark I'm visiting (basically, I just cut and paste the whole text content of the description from the web page into the memo application in my Palm Desktop, hotsync and take it all with me.) I also use the built in memo app to take notes for my caching logs. I use the Magellan GPS Companion springboard module and the Nav software that came with it for the GPS part. I am still learning it but so far I like it a lot. I have an eyemodule springboard module for taking pics, although I often have my digital camera with me and use that when I do. I also have a really *cool* flexible rollup keyboard for typing in comfort from Man and Machine and a backup module in case I have to hard reset at an inconvenient time away from my computer. I've had to hard reset once far away from home and was dead in the water without my data and applications till I got home and could hotsync. Not fun, so I bought the backup module to carry with me and now I don't have to worry about it. I also have an Active Armor case for my visor, and use the neck lanyard to keep my hands free and keep my visor from being dropped while hiking. I've even put it to the test - accidentally dropped my visor on the concrete in a parking lot the other day while taking it out of my backpack and it didn't even faze it. I use Mapopolis on occasion, mostly for finding my way to the general area. I have AvantGo installed and use that to take weather reports and such with me. I uninstalled it for a while, but after getting stuck out in the boonies not too long ago, I decided that it would be a good idea to have it back again. My Visor is definitely my number one geocaching tool - it does pretty much everything to get me there and back again except drive the car. Teresa (Adovbs) The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth. [This message was edited by adovbs on August 17, 2002 at 07:34 PM.]

Here are some excerpts from my journal for that day....edited a bit for length. -----August 11, 2002 - 1:00 pm ------ Well, here I am, stuck "out in the middle of nowhere" (at least, that's what I've named this - my first saved waypoint on my GPS) so to pass the time, I figured I'd write a "nattering journal entry." :-) [Aside: I think it's about 95 degrees or more right now - outside anyway. It's probably hotter here in the car. How hot can I expect it to get before I'm "rescued?" Good question, but I don't know - I forgot to check the weather forecast before I left. Insert "rolled eyes" here...and I'm making a mental note to set up an automatic weather report download for this thing again.] I set out in good spirits today. The first thing I did - it being nearly noon - was to grab some lunch. So, fueled with some batter-dipped fish and a large cup of ice water, I set out on the first leg of my trip. First stop, the Wichita Falls Virtual Geocache. A short but very pleasant walk, another GPS reading, and a few jotted notes later and I was back in the car and heading north to the second cache on my list for the day - City View of Burkburnett, about 10 miles north of town across the Red River and a short distance into Oklahoma. I was still in Texas, just about a mile south of Burkburnett in fact, when the red temperature warning light suddenly lit up on my dashboard... I pulled over immediately, shut off the engine and opened up the hood. The water reservoir on the side was full of radiator fluid - not just a bit in the bottom as is normal, but completely filled to the top, and the reservoir itself was bulging with the pressure and the radiator was making ill-tempered hissing and burbling sounds. Even my non-mechanical brain was able to assess that this was "not good." I got out my cellphone and called my oldest son. He told me to let the engine cool down and then carefully open the radiator cap, with something as a cushion between it and me just in case it spewed. Then, when the pressure was released, to fill it up to the top with some of the water I always carry with me for emergencies. I followed his directions and then got back in, started the car back up and turned around at the next exit, heading back towards town. I didn't get very far. This time the hissing and knocking and burbling noises were even more alarming. Another quick phone consultation with number one son and I was told to "sit tight" and he'd come out there and have a look at it in person and we'd see what needed to be done. So, that's what I'm doing, sitting tight. :-D I started off passing the time by playing with my GPS and learning how to set a waypoint in the Nav software. I took a reading of where my car was sitting out in the sorta-boonies at the side of the road, and set a waypoint called "out in the middle of NoWhere" - which amusingly enough, showed up in the waypoint menu as simply "NoWhere." Then I started trying to figure out what else I could do to pass the 45 minutes to an hour that I expected to be sitting here before my son arrived. I thought about calling someone on the cellphone and yakking some of that time away, but I figured I probably should keep the line free in case he called to check up on me. So, that left my Visor handheld, with it's myriad of possibilities, to occupy my time. Since I was still in a good mood in spite of what had happened, I decided that writing a nattering journal entry would be fun. So here it is. :-) -------------- Final verdict - a blown head gasket. But, on the bright side, I did get one cache in before things went south. ;-) Teresa (Adovbs) The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth.

Here are some excerpts from my journal for that day....edited a bit for length. -----August 11, 2002 - 1:00 pm ------ Well, here I am, stuck "out in the middle of nowhere" (at least, that's what I've named this - my first saved waypoint on my GPS) so to pass the time, I figured I'd write a "nattering journal entry." :-) [Aside: I think it's about 95 degrees or more right now - outside anyway. It's probably hotter here in the car. How hot can I expect it to get before I'm "rescued?" Good question, but I don't know - I forgot to check the weather forecast before I left. Insert "rolled eyes" here...and I'm making a mental note to set up an automatic weather report download for this thing again.] I set out in good spirits today. The first thing I did - it being nearly noon - was to grab some lunch. So, fueled with some batter-dipped fish and a large cup of ice water, I set out on the first leg of my trip. First stop, the Wichita Falls Virtual Geocache. A short but very pleasant walk, another GPS reading, and a few jotted notes later and I was back in the car and heading north to the second cache on my list for the day - City View of Burkburnett, about 10 miles north of town across the Red River and a short distance into Oklahoma. I was still in Texas, just about a mile south of Burkburnett in fact, when the red temperature warning light suddenly lit up on my dashboard... I pulled over immediately, shut off the engine and opened up the hood. The water reservoir on the side was full of radiator fluid - not just a bit in the bottom as is normal, but completely filled to the top, and the reservoir itself was bulging with the pressure and the radiator was making ill-tempered hissing and burbling sounds. Even my non-mechanical brain was able to assess that this was "not good." I got out my cellphone and called my oldest son. He told me to let the engine cool down and then carefully open the radiator cap, with something as a cushion between it and me just in case it spewed. Then, when the pressure was released, to fill it up to the top with some of the water I always carry with me for emergencies. I followed his directions and then got back in, started the car back up and turned around at the next exit, heading back towards town. I didn't get very far. This time the hissing and knocking and burbling noises were even more alarming. Another quick phone consultation with number one son and I was told to "sit tight" and he'd come out there and have a look at it in person and we'd see what needed to be done. So, that's what I'm doing, sitting tight. :-D I started off passing the time by playing with my GPS and learning how to set a waypoint in the Nav software. I took a reading of where my car was sitting out in the sorta-boonies at the side of the road, and set a waypoint called "out in the middle of NoWhere" - which amusingly enough, showed up in the waypoint menu as simply "NoWhere." Then I started trying to figure out what else I could do to pass the 45 minutes to an hour that I expected to be sitting here before my son arrived. I thought about calling someone on the cellphone and yakking some of that time away, but I figured I probably should keep the line free in case he called to check up on me. So, that left my Visor handheld, with it's myriad of possibilities, to occupy my time. Since I was still in a good mood in spite of what had happened, I decided that writing a nattering journal entry would be fun. So here it is. :-) -------------- Final verdict - a blown head gasket. But, on the bright side, I did get one cache in before things went south. ;-) Teresa (Adovbs) The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth.

...a thin piece of paper and a crayon to make a "rubbing" of the marker disk? That might make an interesting souvenier of the find and you could also cut it out and past it into a scrapbook later if you wanted to. (Black paper and a gold, silver or bronze crayon would really make an interesting rubbing, I think!) Add a photo of the surrounding area, and a note on the date and time you found it on the same page and you would have a cool show and tell item to bring to geocaching events. Just a thought. Teresa (Adovbs)

...I won't be able to make it to this month's meeting (didn't hear about it in time to make plans to go) but I'll try to make one in the next couple of months. I visit family and friends in the DFW area fairly often so I had planned to do some cache hunting in that area next time I go. I'll keep an eye open for news of the next get-together. Teresa (Adovbs)

...I won't be able to make it to this month's meeting (didn't hear about it in time to make plans to go) but I'll try to make one in the next couple of months. I visit family and friends in the DFW area fairly often so I had planned to do some cache hunting in that area next time I go. I'll keep an eye open for news of the next get-together. Teresa (Adovbs)

Hey, thanks for the info. I'm planning my first cache placement, and a local state park (Lake Arrowhead State Park) is my first choice for a place to hide it. I'll see if I can do some surfing this weekend and find out who to contact. Teresa (Adovbs)

Hey, thanks for the info. I'm planning my first cache placement, and a local state park (Lake Arrowhead State Park) is my first choice for a place to hide it. I'll see if I can do some surfing this weekend and find out who to contact. Teresa (Adovbs)