Geo-Johnson's

I'm so excited...........now I don't have to share with hubby. he he he! Here's the differences that I've seen just playing with it in the recliner last night....Please keep in mind that I'm no professional, and don't know the technical terms for any of this stuff. 1. It doesn't have the maps that the Etrex Venture has. It has the map page, but does not have the preloaded cities in it. 2. When you name a waypoint, it only gives you 6 letters to do it....... The Venture gives you more. So far that's all I've run into. It takes the same PC cable and Cigarette lighter adapter as all the other Etrex units. From what I've noticed, it appears to be a more simple unit made especially for geocaching. It's VERY tiny and can easily be stuffed in your shirt pocket with no problems. I've heard some Negative Nancies comment on it's games feature, however you cannot play the games by sitting in a chair. You have to go outside in a wide open space and walk around. In order to "smak the geko" you gotta walk over to him. he he he. Pretty neat idea.........perhaps Nintendo could come up with a few handheld games like this, our kids might lose some weight. I would recommend the Geko to those who do not want to spend the money on an expensive unit, and still get many of the features. Also recommend it for a second unit for spouse, or for kids that want their own. Oh, and I found the Geko 201 at GPSCity.com for $119.00.........about $20 less than I found it anywhere else. Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners.

I have also given the AT alot of thought. If you go to Googleand do a search for "appalachian trail journal" or something to that affect, you'll get a ton of web pages from folks who posted their entire trip journals online..........fascinating reading!! Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners.

quote: I mean, would you say "I salivateted over the chipped beef on toast"? Of course not. That stuff tastes like crap. Ummmm, I love chipped beef on toast. Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners.

I just purchased the Geko 201 online at GPS City for 119.00. With shipping charges it came to 127.00. PC cable can be purchased on ebay for 9.95 and the Cigarette lighter adapter can also be purchesed on ebay for 9.95............ We've been using the Garmin Venture for about 6 months now and are so far very happy with it. I'll let ya'll know how the Geko 201 works after I hike around in the back yard for a while. Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners.

We don't use the pocket queries or any of the other benefits that really come from being a charter member. But because we've gotten so much quality family time out of this website, and so many inexpensive outings, we felt the Geocache.com had earned our $30 a year and then some....... Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners.

I dont' know much about satelite signals, but I don't see how they can scramble them now, it seems too many things rely on them. Surveyors are using them, police are using them for tracking, and in Minnesota there's a town that's turning all of their street addresses into coordinates for the fire and police departments. Anti-theft devices in cars.......not to mention the aviation industry. Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners.

I think its a great idea! I'm not single, but if I were, i think it would be a good way to meet others. One could get tired of hanging out in the grocery store produce isle waiting for someone to introduce themselves. I also see nothing wrong with having their own forum. I don't read the Switzerland forums......and yet they havn't irritated me one bit! Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners.

Dont let the time a cache has been out fool you. The 3 no-finds that we've had to log were brand spankin' new hides. 2 were missing and 1 the coords were about 500 feet off. Don't let it discourage you if you get a no-find......it WILL happen. Happy Caching!! Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners.

We have the Venture too. We don't use maps, so we don't really need it. We generally click on the map on the cache page to get whatever information we need to get us to that general area.......after that is when the fun begins!! Some of our best hunts have been without knowing what road we need to turn on. Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners.

We just got the new Cabelas Spring Expo sale catalog. They have the yellow Geko 101 for 99.99 and the green Geko 201 for 139.99. We checked out the internet, and so far these are the best prices we've found. Cabela's doesn't have the Geko on their website catalog however.......These prices only good through their Spring Expo Feb. 28 through March 2. Here's their store locations. Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners.

Good point! Obviously I didn't consider it from the caches point of view........ Now how do you determine who in the group has to log the no-find..........here's how we'd probably do it in our group.........Last one to the car is a wrotten egg and has to log the no-find!!! he he he!! quote: If anouther cacher is planning to visit, and sees that the six latest logs are all Not Founds, they might skip the cache all together. This could effectively KILL a geocache, unless the cache owner steps in and posts a 'Its still there, folks!' log Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners.

We paypal'd our $6. Please use part of that to cover any paypal fees. Thanks so much for organizing this.........We'll see what the total works out to be, if you need more, we can help out..... Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners.

Ditto on the warm fuzzy feelings with this thread!! I'm thrilled to see Lysa's enthusiasm spark. It's so difficult these days to find a family activity that everyone loves and doesn't cost alot of money. After the initial GPS investment, and of course gas money, you're ready for some free play time. I have 3 boys that up until October had to be forced to go hiking with us. Since we discovered Geocaching, they pester us to go all the time. My 15 year old even likes it, and he's at that 'cool' stage in his life where anything that has to do with his parents is uncool. he he he! You don't have to spend $250 on a fancy GPS.....You can find a $100 Magellan that will do nicely. Hope to see you in the woods!! Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners.

count me in on a few bucks too! Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners.

We've been to one ski area with a cache on it Seagull, and are aware of another. The cache was hidden on the property of the ski area, but had a back entrance to get you to the cache without having to use the ski lift. The other ski area is the same idea. The ski areas in our area don't charge an entrance fee, you only have to pay for the lift ticket. I would say as long as you have permission to hide, and the cache does not require folks to walk across any of the runs or take the lift then you should be OK. When you get permission, make sure folks can access the cache even in the summer time. Another ski area near us is open in the summer to mountain biking. The coffee shop idea may be too commercial, however we did a puzzle-multi where a coffee shop was one stage. One wasn't required to go into the shop to do the cache, but many of us did indulge. Here's that one.. Mission Impossible Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners.

If I lived in the area of the mother and son, I would volunteer an afternoon to take them out to see what Geocaching is all about..........reward the young gentleman for being honest. Kudos to the Mom for keeping her son honest, and kudos to the son for being honest. Most kids would have said they found it on the playground. Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners.

In some cases, the numbers don't reflect how active a cacher is. One needs to look at when they became active. Sure they have 70 finds, but how long did it take to get them? Some folks have full time jobs and 3 kids involved in sports and other activities........Time is a major issue. We havn't hidden any, but we are planning too. There are only a small number of parks in our area....some of them are fee parks and some of them are protected......no geocaches. Getting permission takes time as well........yada yada yada. For now, we're satisfied with giving back in other ways as Bloomcru mentioned. We trash out on every cache we go to and we've paid our $30 to help financially suport this site in which many others are using for free. Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners.

We used to stop at the nearest gas station and pick up cappuccinos and beef jerky. But with hubby and 3 kids, we were going through too many bags of jerky. We finally bought our own dehydrator and make our own......... Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners.

Hmmmmm, interesting how some feel its ok for both parties to log a find, but not a no-find. Is this a double standard? I guess I go by what others have said in other posts........if you go to look for it, and you don't find it.......it's a no-find. By the way Smokey_Burnout......welcome to geocaching! Glad to see new members in our neck of the woods......... Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners.

We log it on both accounts.......as do others in our area. We just make a note 'found this one with so-and-so'. Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners.

The harder, the better! We LOVE the caches we have to work for. Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners.

We've noticed mild trails to some of the caches we've been to. We've researched where we want to place our cache when we do hide it, and have decided to put it near a fork in the trail. That way instead of everyone taking one route to the cache, there will be at least 2. We figure that will cut down on normal foot traffic by 50%. Also......and I don't know if the parks are crazy about it, but it seems that the farther off trail the cache is, the less likely it is for a trail to be worn......Just our observation anyway. Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners.

I would love to do one where you have to ask people for clues, but there is the closing times that would be an issue...........but don't give up! Perhaps you could use the address numbers at certain places? That way you don't have to go in you simply park your car and look around for the clue. It could be something as simple as the third digit on the phone number of a pay phone. The airport gate would stop us from doing the cache unfortunately. Airport security right now is at it's peak. Our airport wont even let people park on the side of a road to watch the planes take off anymore, and they're doing random searches on vehicles. My guess is there's a lock on that gate for a reason......... Keep working on it!!! Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners.

Treelo, We camped for 5 days at Indian Lake State Park near Manistique. They have nice clean showers and bathrooms. Highly recommend camping back in the trees however, as it gets very windy right on the lake. Kids got a kick out of being able to swim in Lake Michigan and Superior. LOTS of waterfalls to look at. Honestly, there's so much to see up there that we couldn't fit it all in in one week.........hence our trip back. Here's the link to the geocache map of Michigan..... Good luck! Maybe we'll see ya up there! Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners.

Many national parks will have water and electric, and showers with restrooms. When our family camps for more than a couple of days, we tend to go to national park campgrounds. They're also less expensive than state parks, and their campsites are generally bigger........so you're not whispering in the ear of the guy in the tent next door............ Since caches are forbidden in national parks, your job will be to find a park you can stay in that is relatively close to a number of caches. If you want to drive a ways, the U.P. of Michigan is gorgeous in the summer and has some awsome sights to see. Our summer vacation plan is to hit every cache in the U.P in a week.........think we can do it? he he he! Good luck!! Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners.