+Harry Dolphin Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 One of my coworkers commutes in from Pennsylvania (about 40 miles.) She brings the Pocono Record to read. I was reading the January 27th edition. Saw an item: January 26, 2011 Police are looking for the man who robbed a bank in Westfall Township, Pike County, on Wednesday afternoon. At about 12:30 p.m., the suspect entered the Wachovia Bank on Pennsylvania Avenue and told the teller, “Give me all the bills, this is a robbery,” according to Eastern Pike Regional Police Chief Chad Stewart. The man did not display a weapon, and police do not know how much money he took, Stewart said. The suspect is described as a white male, approximately 6 feet tall with blond hair and blue eyes, wearing a hooded sweatshirt. He was seen leaving the scene in a green Mustang. Anyone with information should call Eastern Pike Regional Police at 570-491-4040 or e-mail tips@eprpd.org. The online Pocono Record does not have the photo of the bank that appeared in the paper. I took a look at the picture and exclaimed: "There's a benchmark at that bank!" LY2083 My coworkers said that I was very strange! It's about 40 miles from my home, but I visit the area once a month or so. Oh,well. Quote Link to comment
+LSUFan Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 Harry, I know exactly where you are coming from. I saw a picture in the newspaper of a vehicle wreck on a local interstate overpass. I knew there was a benchmark there set in the roadway, and was trying to see if I could make it out in the pic. If you end up going to a doctor to get professional help for our affliction, let me know what meds he prescribes. Quote Link to comment
AZcachemeister Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 I thought the guy was going to demand accurate co-ordinates for the 20 nearest scaled marks. Seriously though, my wife frequently has to put up with: 'There's a benchmark right over there.' 'There's another benchmark right over there.' 'You know, there's a benchmark right here in the center of this intersection.' Quote Link to comment
+Bullygoat29 Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 Harry, I know exactly where you are coming from. I saw a picture in the newspaper of a vehicle wreck on a local interstate overpass. I knew there was a benchmark there set in the roadway, and was trying to see if I could make it out in the pic. If you end up going to a doctor to get professional help for our affliction, let me know what meds he prescribes. I think the only cure is more cowbell. Quote Link to comment
+Klemmer Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 You should see the looks and comments I have gotten from guests (and security!) taking pictures of benchmarks in Disneyland. My favorite comment (several times) is: "People will take pictures of anything at Disneyland". Yeah. Same thing my wife said once.... There are something like 25 or so"Disney" benchmarks" in the two CA Disney parks. More in FL. Just keeping track of the destroyed / new ones gets complicated at times. But it's fun! Quote Link to comment
topflitejr1 Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 I know I've been Benchmarking too long when ..... 1) I go to a store that's several blocks further away than the closest one, in the hopes that I can spot another Mark. 2) I spend a long time looking at Google Earth to figure a way to get to a particular Mark that sits high on a ridge and hasn't been recovered since Monumented. 3) I want to cry when I see a Mark completely pulled from the ground, laying on it's side next to the road. 4) I've attempted to locate every Mark within a ten mile radius of my house. 5) I've walked or biked over 30 miles to locate every Mark along a stretch of the California Aqueduct. Quote Link to comment
TillaMurphs Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 You know you've been Benchmarking too long when ..... You continuously monitor the Department of Transportation's website and newspaper sources because you are keeping an eye out for road work in the hope that they will close a section of road where you have been trying to recover a mark that is too dangerous recover when the road is open. Quote Link to comment
2oldfarts (the rockhounders) Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 We know we have been benchmarking too long when..... we plan our vacation solely on getting a string of old benchmarks that is 250+ miles away, instead of going and visiting our family. Quote Link to comment
+shorbird Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 ANYTIME you go out of town, you look up the benchmarks in the area you're visiting, to see if you can find any when you're there. Quote Link to comment
+LSUFan Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 ANYTIME you go out of town, you look up the benchmarks in the area you're visiting, to see if you can find any when you're there. I am guilty of that. I have even went so far as loading every benchmark in the states of LA, AR, and MS into my garmin nuvi as poi's (using the gsak macro and also have the complete datasheet in the nuvi also). If I come within 500 feet of one while driving, I get an alert and pop-up on the screen. My wife hates it, cause I am constantly looking to stop and see if it is there. Quote Link to comment
+PFF Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 I have even went so far as loading every benchmark in the states of LA, AR, and MS into my garmin nuvi as poi's (using the gsak macro and also have the complete datasheet in the nuvi also). How many points can you add to a Nuvi? I use the NUVI POI DOWNLOADER, but have never tried loading more than 40 points for a project. More would be better--especially with the "alert" feature. Also, clue me in about the datasheets. I had no idea that this might be possible! (I use an older model Nuvi 250.) -Paul- Quote Link to comment
+Harry Dolphin Posted January 29, 2011 Author Share Posted January 29, 2011 We use a nuvi 255w(I think). I upload every geocache in NJ, plus every one out of state within 65 miles. That's 13000 caches, plus another 10000 waypoints. I've never tried benchmarks. Quote Link to comment
+LSUFan Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 (edited) I have even went so far as loading every benchmark in the states of LA, AR, and MS into my garmin nuvi as poi's (using the gsak macro and also have the complete datasheet in the nuvi also). How many points can you add to a Nuvi? I use the NUVI POI DOWNLOADER, but have never tried loading more than 40 points for a project. More would be better--especially with the "alert" feature. Also, clue me in about the datasheets. I had no idea that this might be possible! (I use an older model Nuvi 250.) -Paul- Paul, using an sd card, it's really unlimited to how many poi's you can put on the nuvi. I think you can put 10's of thousands (if not 100's) just in the internal memory alone. I think all of the datasheets for AR, LA, and MS use around 150mb on the sd card when converted over to poi's. And that is the entire datasheets loaded in your nuvi, so you can go paperless. Here is where you can learn about doing it for geocaches. I modified a few things to make it work for benchmarking (like changing the geocache icon to a benchmark one) http://geocaching.totaltechworld.com/index.html There are also some things you need to know on which stage of the process you need to change the names of the generated files at, so you can separate your poi's by state. Every time you run the gsak macro, you will get a poi file of the same name, which renaming it doesn't separate them. I have to get some year end stuff out today at my business (like w2's). I will type up a complete tutorial on using the above link for benchmarking purposes this evening and post it Edited January 30, 2011 by LSUFan Quote Link to comment
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