Garmin vs I-Phone vs Tom-tom

Since I brought up the subject of checking out the potstirrer's new GPS, I thought I better follow up with that. She, actually bought the Garmin, for the car, but since it has lat and long coords, we decided to check it out for geocaching. The nice thing about her Garmin, is it speaks the name of the street to turn on....my TT, is 1 year old, and only says " turn right" or whatever. I know 1st Sgt would have loved if my TT said the street name, because as he will attest...when it said "turn right"...I turned right...right at that second! As, 1st Sgt is holding on for his life and screaming..."it said in 500 yards...that was not 500 yards, 500 yards is a football field!" Okay now...so I loved that feature. My TT has a bar screen at the bottom, when you are in walking mode...kinds lets you know if you are getting closer to the cache. Hers got better the more she messed with it, but... I think I like the TT better. Her walk screen showed the river, which I DEFINATELY needed when 1st Sgt "STOLE" that cache from right under me...just because HE was on the correct side of the creek. I will probably be 90 years old, and still remember that beaver dam incident.

But, the I-Phone is really second to none! That little sucker can put me RIGHT ON! And now that I can actually read, to a degree, the coords...even a bouncing satellite won't throw me off.
The down side to it all, is that geocaching with the I-Phone can drain your battery so fast! Especially when we are at a DNF for over an hour, just because it is the Alphabet man's...we think we gotta stay and look forever!

So, that is my findings...you decide. Potstirrer thinks she is going to "save up" and get a pre-loaded geocaching Garmin. In the meantime...she will be off to visit her family...and at least know what street to turn on!

Pay backs are hell!

I have been dealing with poison ivy or poison something for 3 weeks now, and the worst part of it... is I think I got it doing yard work in my own backyard! I, of course, wait 3 days to see if it actually something, so when it blisters, I break down and get the $36.00 Zanfel. Knowing that this will do the trick...I can't wait to tell 1st Sgt..how fast that worked! So, I do my usual shifts at work, wearing long sleeves, in the middle of summer, and stopping every couple of hours, to scrub with this crap! At night, I added the Calamine lotion, because waking up every 2 hours, scratching...is no way to get my much needed beauty sleep! I threw the Benadryl gel in the garbage, with a note to self, never to waste my money on that. The cortisone cream was not working...ok maybe it was old or something. I finally break down and ask the Doc for a RX for solu-medrol dose pak. Yep!....Cortisone. Now I hate taking cortisone, not that I think it will make me any more deranged than I already am, but why take the chance. So, now I am dealing with 3 creams, cortisone pills, long sleeves, day and night, and add a benadryl pill at night to help me sleep! So, when I wake up in the morning and see some on my leg...I start to have a little anxiety! Like maybe, this isn't poison anything, but I am being eaten alive at night by a spider or something! This leads me to completely strip all the linens, and de-fumigate the house! Of course, this is how I spend my day off!

The Zanfel tube is done...the cortisone pills are gone... the calamine lotion is empty...the "poison" area is dried... red... and scarred! But I can scratch anywhere on my arms, and a nice big rash appears! Just great! And boy, does it ever itch.

So, I go to the self-help section, in my mind...and remember when I had a reaction to Motrin...the very pricey specialist prescribed a 3 drug treatment plan, all meds you can get over the counter, all weird meds that really don't make you think of a rash treatment. But there was a scientific explanation and it worked! So, now I was off to Wallie World to get yet 3 more drugs, also picked up a calamine-cortisone cream for good measure, oh and ya, throw in that bottle of Aveno lotion!

I don't remember this treatment being such a slow process. The itch-scratch cycle is driving me mad...or maybe it IS the cortisone! Needless, to say I am at wits end. So, I break down and lower myself to ask for 1 more RX for the cortisone pills! Good Lord!

The following Tuesday was my first day of some relief...so I go out and mow the yard, after all, I am on every drug combo you can imagine! 2 days later, I am feeling much better, so I do my day of geocaching...in the woods...hey, might as well test this out! As I write this...the horror of itching is starting to fade, with just 2 days left of the pills...I may make it after all! On the other hand, this constant "grazing" in front of the refrigerator....is all Cortisone related!

Hey, what can I say...but...Sorry 1st Sgt...I really didn't mean to laugh at your poison ivy! Pay backs are Hell!

I will "cache" up with you later...got to get a snack!

A great day of caching

The potstirrer worked overtime, so our day starts a little later than usual. But I am ready, print-outs, bags, I-phone, the whole works. I pick her up in the "cache-mobile" and announce I am riding shotgun. I have always wanted to do this, instead of being the one driving, navigating, settting corrds, etc....After all, we are off to test out her Garmin. Since, I have the paperwork, she has no idea, we are doing the alphabet man's caches! Good thinking on my part. We started off in a town, she use to be a medic in, so she knows her way around. That saved us a lot of time. Beginning at the furthest of our " 2 town" day, at the furthest cache, we worked our way in. We stopped at 11 caches, only 2 of the caches were NOT the Alphabet mans. Only 2 were DNF, ( of course, they were the Alphabet mans) 1 of those 2...just was NOT there, and the other was my fault, with a dead battery. Ended up with 3 travel bugs, 1 being a total surprise. And dropped off 1 bug, that we had picked up earlier in the day. The highlights of the day, was probably when we got one of the Alphabet man's cache...rated a 3 on being hard ! But really blew our sails away, on the very next cache, being a DNF, with a rating of 1.5!! Our last cache of the day, was purely on description, as the battery in the I-phone was DEAD!....it was very much past DUSK! And for some reason of the grace of "Goldie"...I checked my "other right" and found this one....better yet it had a TB in there...had just been placed there that evening! We signed that log in the DARK...and literally had to feel our way back to the cache-mobile!

The low points of the day....hmmmm, maybe scarfing down 1/2 a hot dog while en route....or perhaps walking a trail for 2 miles out of our way, not realizing the battery was too low to even pick up a signal!! The dejuve' was at a roadside pick up, when the hint said the "south" side of the road. I am not sure how the conversation started...but I know it ended up with me saying..."Yes, 1st Sgt"...then we laughed! So, all is good. The sun sets way too early anymore. Cuts down on our number of caches for the day.

We have a whole stack, we didn't get to. So, something to keep in mind, the next day we go.
Oh...and how do I know the potstirrer is now addicted? Probably when she said, we better get some good boots for the winter!

The potstirrer and her new GPS

Well, the potstirrer has come a long way. First no interest in geocaching at all. Then...she goes along for the ride..so I don't get killed. Then she realizes that she is there...to drag my broken bones out of whatever woods I might be in. Suddenly she is starting to "follow" the blue dot on my I-phone. Next she is following coords...and looking at the compass! Before long...she is picking out wooded caches, and takes over the I-phone...while I am picking thorns out of my toes!!

And NOW...she is hooked. Tee-hee. She is taking a long distance drive to visit family...and tells me she needs a gps...but maybe she will get one that can do a little geocaching. (Yep!) She tosses that around for awhile, and finally just does it. She is now a proud owner of a Garmin...with lat and long settings, so she can go caching! She, of course, is also concerned that she won't be able to find the caches, with just the Garmin...but, hey I did a whole day of caching in Dwight, with just the Tom-Tom.....so we are good to go ( as 1st Sgt says).

So, today is the "test" day for the Garmin. I stayed up half the night, plotting and picking...just for a good day of caching. I got a stack of print offs, and am heading out the door.

What I didn't ( and won't) tell the potstirrer, is.....99% of today's caches ....are the Alphabet mans! Hey, I had no choice...he is EVERYWHERE!

I will keep you posted!

The Alphabet Man

I have been dealing with the alphabet man for some time now. That is not his name, of course, or even his geocaching name....but that is what I call him. I have never met him, but I know of him, from his caches. He is EVERYWHERE and he is TOUGH. And we are just a little bit afraid of him. When I first started caching with the potstirrer....we would pick caches in an area that had several nearby...no big deal...but if we took a lot of time to find one...sure enough it was the alphabet man. At first we thought it was because it was a micro, or even an nano. We have found other peoples micros...but his is tough. Then it got to a point...if we couldn't find it right away...we would check to see if it is HIS! Then we got to the point of seeing if it was his BEFORE...we even started looking.

When we DO find one of the Alphabet man's...we are feeling good...walk a little taller, like yea we got one from the Alphabet man! But when we don't...it is like WHAT???? The last couple ( with the lil one) the DNF's...were, of course, the alphabet man. I didn't even warn the lil one...about him, but what was I thinking? Letting her first attempts to be the Alphabet man! So, in disgust I log on as a DNF...I think he could "tell" somehow that I felt defeated, because HE GOES AND CHECKS ON THEM! OMG...and...of course...they are there and they are fine...and then, of course, all these other people find them after me! Now I really feel like a CHUMP!

I checked out a picture of the Alphabet man...and he looks normal. From some of his comments, I think he may have a sense of humor. Never seen a picture of him smiling ....hmmm. I noticed he has not looked for any of my caches...and I am sure that is because they are just too easy for him. And I am OK with that.

But the grand finale to all of this...is that potstirrer called and says we are geocaching in the am! Pick out some good ones. I ask if she wants to do the Alphabet man's that I DNF....she groans. Ok, I will pick out a whole new location....that is whenI realize that the Alphabet man is EVERYWHERE!!!

We go in the AM...stay tuned!

Caching With The Little One

My little one came to visit for the day...we decided to do a dinner and movie. The dinner was rushed (in order to get to the movie in time) and the movie was terrible...still waiting for a plot! The good news was that while getting ready for dinner, I check my mail and see that someone has found one of my caches! Great....but the lil one, wants details. So I go into detail, the drive to and from, the dinner, actually stayed quite for the movie, and then on the drive back. Yep, she wants to go do a couple in the morning. Really I think she doesn't believe me, but...we head out in the am. Let's just say the "caching aura " was completely off! Not a good day for caching. I started off screwing up, a cache name we were going for, but with the coords of a nearby cache. Makes for a long walk in the woods. And still a DNF to boot. After clearing our heads and filling our gut...we go for #2.....that would be #2 as a DNF! I am pretty sure at this point, that she thinks I am making this up. We head off for one clear across town...thinking the whole area has "bad karma", but I divert off to a little isolated one I was wanting to find. Thank God...we found it...or else I am sure she was ready to have me committed! All morning she kept eyeing me, like maybe I had more than 2 glasses of wine the night before....and perhaps I had stayed up all night drinking, or something. So, I was saved.....we head for #4, for the day, and it starts to rain...we get to the general area, it is now pouring...we are soaked...no way! We head back to the car. The day seemed like a bust! We are hot...we are soaked...we feel defeated...we crash at home.

Then it hits us...when you can't find them.......hide them! We throw 2 caches together....head off to the next couple of towns....and DONE! Feeling better all ready.