I actually got to go out and do some geocaching this evening as the weather was so nice. Unfortunately I only found one cache, Wyandot Trading Post due to the number of muggles at the other caches I tried to do. However I posted some pictures at flickr and whilst doing this I noticed that the time on the gps was wrong as it hadn't updated automatically. I thought that the gps's got their time from satellites (which I still think they do) but they don't know that Daylight Saving has kicked in. Once I turned it on in the gps the time was correct. I also had to change the time on the camera, but that was because it was set to 8.24am and not 8.24pm which meant the process of geotagging the images was very painful.
I did upgrade my gps by using the Garmin Web Updater which upgraded me 4 versions of firmware - some of the newer garmin gps's have new firmware available.
I won a Legend C with North america maps on ebay last night which is great - the autorouting should come in very handy for work too - and if the route just so happens to go past a cache - well "I am only following directions gov" ;-)
On a slightly similar note, the weekly notification of caches arrived today (the uk cache notification!) but it had the interesting news that you can now get a query of caches along a route. If this works, it's going to be great news for geocaching. Firstly there will be great rejoicing from the caching community and secondly this seriously reduces the need to horde cache information in gsak. Now I can get live cache data from a route online rather than having to download all of ohio into gsak, export all the caches as streetmaps pushpins, import them into streets and trips, create the route and then show caches within .2 miles.
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Kristen and I had the day off so I tried to find a couple of geocaches - but unfortunately one was unreachable as they were doing work on the bridge, and the other one was just hidden too well (or missing).
I did manage to find the virtual peace Bell, but then as its about 30' high it is a bit difficult to not be able to find it. We originally heard the bell chiming at midday but when I went to see the bell later in the day they were actually testing the bell so I got to see it in action and heard it chiming and chiming and chiming - I feel sorry for anyone who actually worked in the vicinity, especially if they were working nights. I did manage to get a video with the camera of the bell which I've uploaded to YouTube
On the way home from Cincinatti today I had the gps on the dashboard of the car tracking our journey. I turned around to get something out of the back seat and there was a bang - the gps had fallen off the dashboard to the floor - I didn't think that was a problem as it has fallen on the floor before. However, as we got out of the car I picked the GPS up and the screen had cracked AND it had also damaged the LCD crystals so I now have a functional gps but no screen that I can actually use.
I'm going to be looking for a new gps now - the garmin autorouting ones look great (but expensive) - in the meantime I'll just have to cache with some buddies and use their gps.
I won an auction on EBAY for TomTom and a gps for the pocketpc which should make navigating around the uk in search of those customers (and geocaches ) a lot easier. Basically the software is free of charge based on the prices for the CompactFlash GPS card and connecting cable. Looking forward to receiving it. I've found that one of the things that makes Geocaching harder is finding out where to park or even how to get to the place that I'm looking for and which street to take. Hopefully this software and hardware combinationg will help.
The GPS is back from repair. I sent it off last Thursday and it arrived back in the office on Wednesday (when I was out) so I picked it up on Thursday. They didn't repair it but replaced it with a new one. The new one comes with a UK basemap which is great as I only had the US one on the old unit and the new one has all the neat things like motorways and A-roads (and train stations) on it. The weird thing is the selection of roads that they put on. The A road from Congleton to Sandbach is on, but the one from Congleton to Holmes Chapel isn't. The road map should make it a lot easier to navigate around when I'm driving, although it does make the screen a bit more cluttered. We'll see how it goes tomorrow when I go to the Northwest meetup in Bury. I hope to get several caches in as I've a weeks worth of catching up to do :-)
GPS sent back this morning - hope its back by next Saturday :-(