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We're also Mac users, both running OS X.  We download the queries as .prc files, and MobiPocket is happy to read those just as they are.  We get cache pages on our PDAs; the only thing we're missing is a way to connect our GPSr.  We enter every cache manually into it.

I resently solved both of my (Mac OSx) interface problems and now I'm a happy cacher...

 

For my GPSr, I have MagWayMan. It uploads, downloads and synchronizes all my gpx files. Quick and easy so now maybe my buttons will stay waterproof.

 

For the PDA, I have CacheMate. This program - which is freeware (limited to loading the first 10 of your gpx or loc file). It works on both PC's and Mac's. It's speedy quick - including a required conversion of your file to xml. Best of all, I can beam the program and caches to any other PDA. So if our paths run into each other, I can give your PDA the program and selected files!

 

Either of these were the find of the year for me. Now I can waste my time solving puzzles and hunting caches rather than doing all that computer work. :)

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By the way, does anyone know how to set it up in these new forums so that all messages for a particular message board (this one!) can be e-mailed to you at the end of the day? I think it was called an e-mail digest. The old forums did that, so I didn't need to check the forums to see if any new messages were posted in the Bay Area thread. That was an awesome feature.

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Happy Turkey and Family Festivity Day, Pepper! Hope you are out today, post-Turkey, enjoying caching outdoors in the great Northwest.

Yup sure nuff I was out caching with Little Lila.

 

A funny little story for ya.

 

Lila and I were headed out to get some caching done on the other side of the lake (Lade Washington) we don't get over to Seattle much so we decided since most folk were out shopping the parks would have plenty of parking and they did.

The first cache I went for was one I didn't have a cache page for and the IPaq went dead. So when we finally got to the cache site over and over and over the (Sats were in a bad mood this morning) I found a cell phone. I'm thinking COOL I'll just call my husband and get a hint on this pour lost cell phone. What luck it was for me that there was a phone laying right there waiting for me. :ph34r: Well Lila and I finally found the cache and went on our merry caching way. All along this phone was ringing off the wall I just ignored it. When I got home I had my husband try to figure out who's phone it was, he did and gave the owner a call. Just happens he was a cacher and was on his way to Redmond before heading home to Eugene OR. He asked for my home coordinates so instead I told him there was a cache at my front door for him to look it up. No an hour later he was here bagged my Bandana Backpack cache and picked up his phon.e

 

Weird.

 

Pepper

 

P.S. Sure is quiet down there in the Bay Area what gives?

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P.S. Sure is quiet down there in the Bay Area what gives?

Yeah what gives? The one week I'm not working and can approve your caches quickly, and very few are submitted :ph34r:

 

I've been taking care of ALL of California this week since SoCalAdmin was away, and there has been about 4 times as many caches submitted in the southern part of the state vs. the northern part.

 

Oh wait. It's not a competition :D

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Hey Pepper,

 

Good story about the phone. I have been messing around with the new software for the GPS (Map send direct route )from Mag, it has got the turn by turn thing.

Cool way to get around. And the USB-serial connector to get the gps to work on the laptop, and not much luck there and not much caching lately either. The wife and I are gonna be out the door soon to hide a cache. I talked to Lee and Ben this morning and they are up in my area today caching. I was thinking about calling them with the new coords or maybe not.

 

Hope every thing is well up there for you, Don

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Hey Pepper,

 

Good story about the phone. I have been messing around with the new software for the GPS (Map send direct route )from Mag, it has got the turn by turn thing.

Cool way to get around. And the USB-serial connector to get the gps to work on the laptop, and not much luck there and not much caching lately either. The wife and I are gonna be out the door soon to hide a cache. I talked to Lee and Ben this morning and they are up in my area today caching. I was thinking about calling them with the new coords or maybe not.

 

Hope every thing is well up there for you, Don

Don I have been looking at that new software myself, BUT I am skeptical. I here about the auto routing from all my "G" user friends. I guess i've done pretty good so far without it.

 

I too am interested to hear how you like it before I rush out and buy.

 

Don hope you race TB makes it's way to Flordia, was wondering if the missing cache in Bellingham messed things up for ya.

 

Pepper

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Hey Pepper,

 

The reason I bought the gps was for directions so when Donna & I go to the city or out and about we do not get lost or getting out of the city. You know how guys do not like asking for directions. It has a great data base for resturants and other stuff.

 

The M T.B. is still up your way, Dave's T.B. is now MIA.

 

Don

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Man, those big fonts are somewhat annoying...  ;)

BigFont?

 

Wasn't he a half-man, half-beast typesetter that has been occasionally photographed as he lumbered around in the woods of the Pacific Northwest and extreme Northern California?

 

I agree - such a creature can be incredibly annoying! :D

 

-Jif

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Man, those big fonts are somewhat annoying...  ;)

BigFont?

 

Wasn't he a half-man, half-beast typesetter that has been occasionally photographed as he lumbered around in the woods of the Pacific Northwest and extreme Northern California?

 

I agree - such a creature can be incredibly annoying! :D

 

-Jif

Yeah, I've heard of sightings near ink wells...

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There was a large group cache today going for The Two Towers. We got a smidgen of rain at stage 1 and had to bolt for cover, but the weather turned out to be well-suited all in all. It was amazing how fast the coordinates appeared for the later stages. One member at stage 2 had the puzzle for the next stage completed before we even got back to the cars. It was nice to finally put faces with some of the names I've seen - WeBeDnD, boulter, and all the rest. Someone should have thought to get an event cache approved. There was a big enough crowd.

Edited by The Rat
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I was out hiking/caching one of the Castle Rock loops with a friend this afternoon and the early morning rain contributed greatly to the already gorgeous scenery. We got to the valley overlook right after the rain lifted and the sun poked through. The fog rising from the river valleys was breathtaking, the colors were changing on most of the deciduous trees and the recent rain caused each leaf to glisten.

 

This is a mild California winter - no need to let the weather scare you away if you're even MILDLY prepared!

 

Or so I think!

 

/Lefty

 

P.S. Full Disclosure: Of course my family is originally from Seattle where nothing would get done if a little rain scared you away. :ph34r:

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Does anyone know if a Return of the King cache will be coming out soon? :( mbrill, do you lurk on the forums?

 

-Jif and Fy

I don't know if mbrill lurks on the forums, but I hear it is in the planning stages and could be out as soon as a week or two. We are looking forward to the noble adventure.

 

--Marky

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I got it from The Master himself. The answer is yes, Jif and Fy.

 

As The Rat mentioned, we had a great day doing "The Two Towers" cache yesterday. Get some friends together, take some books along and do this cache.

 

mbrill has been very helpful and it is a great pleasure to deal with a friendly cache owner willing to confirm coordinates and to exchange thoughts. (not that we ever asked for more than a verification of the start coordinates, but nevertheless)

 

Thanks!

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Hey everyone. Finally got around to looking at the new fora again. They sure are way better than the old fora!!! :D

 

I haven't been in #geocache IRC channel in a long time because I've been trying to actually get work done at work. But I miss talking to people there. Perhaps I'll try to pop in tonight during or just after the official chat.

 

And in other news, Nurse Dave will be down here almost-for-good in just 11 days. I can hardly contain myself. :(

 

And in related news, we're going to Disneyland right before Christmas. Does anyone have any TBs they want me to take to the southland? I'd be happy to do so.

Edited by beckerbuns
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Say, has anyone put together a DRG map of the entire Bay Area? I've been downloading 7.5' and larger maps from the U.C. Davis DRG server, but of course they all divide at the 122nd parallel, which is about *this* far from my house. I can probably find some way of gluing them together, but just thought I'd see whether anyone else had already done it. I can use TIF/TFW or PICT files; maybe some other formats would work, too.

 

BTW, Becky and Dave, I'm going to Disneyland just after New Year's, and then to Walt Disney World the following week. Yippee! I'm really looking forward to seeing the holiday theming on the Haunted Mansion and It's a Small World.

 

Patty

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If the Return of the King cache is out by December 19th, Fy and I will be glad to be part of any group going to find it on Saturdy, December 20th (we are flying to Minnesota for the holidays on Sunday, December 21st).

 

Good golly, Fy and I love those mbrill caches!

 

Hemlock - if you lurk on this forum, if you see Return of the King pop up in the to-be-approved list, I don't think anyone would mind you bumping it to the top of the to-be-approved list to let it become available quickly!

 

I'm actually looking forward to this cache as much as I am the movie!

 

-Jif

Edited by TeamJiffy
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...they all divide at the 122nd parallel, which is about *this* far from my house.

 

Patty

It's actually not a parallel (those are the latitude lines), but I know what you mean by the annoyance. We live within a few hundred feet of the 122nd longitude line, and it's annoying. We're always forgetting about it, and driving over it too fast, causing the car to bump, or tripping over it while walking.

 

I pity those folks who live on an intersection of latitude and longitude lines - the two lines must be constantly knotting up with each other.

Not to mention those annoying confluence project folks coming by and snapping pictures... :(

 

-Jif

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It's actually not a parallel (those are the latitude lines)

Ooops, sorry, you're right. I guess "parallel" isn't used for meridians.

 

We live within a few hundred feet of the 122nd longitude line, and it's annoying. We're always forgetting about it, and driving over it too fast, causing the car to bump, or tripping over it while walking.

:-) :-) Me, too! I wish whoever is responsible for latitude and longitude lines (some U.N. agency?) would smooth them out! Except maybe for the Prime Meridian and the Equator; you want to notice when you go over an important line like that. :-)

 

I pity those folks who live on an intersection of latitude and longitude lines - the two lines must be constantly knotting up with each other.

Yeah, it would be easy to get a foot caught up in the crossed lines. Wouldn't be too bad in areas where a lot of people go by, but a latitude/longitude intersection in the middle of nowhere--well, you could be stuck there for days before anyone came by to help!

 

Patty

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We live within a few hundred feet of the 122nd longitude line, and it's annoying. We're always forgetting about it, and driving over it too fast, causing the car to bump, or tripping over it while walking.

:-) :-) Me, too! I wish whoever is responsible for latitude and longitude lines (some U.N. agency?) would smooth them out! Except maybe for the Prime Meridian and the Equator; you want to notice when you go over an important line like that. :-)

 

I pity those folks who live on an intersection of latitude and longitude lines - the two lines must be constantly knotting up with each other.

Yeah, it would be easy to get a foot caught up in the crossed lines. Wouldn't be too bad in areas where a lot of people go by, but a latitude/longitude intersection in the middle of nowhere--well, you could be stuck there for days before anyone came by to help!

 

Patty

You guys clearly have too much time on your hands. :lol:

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Hi Bay Area Cachers!

 

This is just a note to let you know about the new Bay Area Dining & Geocaching Enthusiasts Society (BADGES). We're going to be setting up event dinners every other month in different locations all around the bay area. If one event is too far for you, just wait... we'll be in your area eventually!

 

Naturally, it's free to come to the dinners, just pay for your own food. The more people that show up, the cheaper it is for everyone!

 

Our first dinner event is scheduled for January 24th at 6pm at a Round Table Pizza in Sunnyvale. Please visit the event cache page to see more details and post if you are attending.

 

We love to get together and talk geocaching, and if you do too, then mark your calendars and we'll see you there!

 

- BADGES

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GC.com has continually improved its site. I have been thoroughly impressed with its user-centric approach. My recent favorite change is the addition of Unknown/Puzzle caches as a separate type. I can now generate a Pocket Query consisting entirely of U/P's. I have no more of these left unfound within 10 miles and the farthest away of the 50 closest is 61.8 miles. The $30 annual fee is the best money I've ever spent on entertainment.

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