I bought a little handheld GPS. I need one so I could enter the coordinates of the four corners of the property we're buying in upstate NY. When we clear it, I want to make sure that we stay on our own land.
I really didn't care what kind of a GPS I bought. We won't use it on the boat because we have a chartplotter, and we won't use it in the car because we have a GPS for that. I just want to mark the corners of the land. I looked at online stores, even eBay, but wound up buying one from Sailnet.com. I've been buying stuff from them for years. These guys have good prices and great service.
The one I bought is a Magellan eXplorist GC. No, that's not a typo. That's a capital X. This GPS is set up especially for geocaching. If you're not familiar with geocaching, it all began about a dozen years ago. Geocachers hide little containers of trinkets and post the GPS coordinates on websites such as www.geocaching.com. Nerdie types go there and download cache coordinates and run around looking for these things. There are now close to 2 million geocaches all around the world.
Pam and I found our first cache as muggles (someone who does not geocache). We were hiking in Rocky Neck State Park in Connecticut and took a path along a cliff to watch birds soaring. Pam looked up and there it was in a tree. When we got home, I signed up at geocaching.com to see if I could find out something about it (no) and then promptly forgot all about geocaching, that is until receiving the GPS I bought especially set up for geocaching.
I went back to geocaching.com the other day and downloaded a few caches to the GPS.
That's the Magellan and my laptop connected via a USB cable. And that's my crumb on the table.
The GPS's accuracy is good enough to get you within ten feet or so of the cache. After that, it's all up to you to interpret the hints the cacher gave you to find it.
So far, I've found two caches. One was right here in Brunswick Landing Marina and the other at the Mary Ross Waterfront Park, both within easy walking distances. There are a couple in downtown Brunswick I'll have to go look for.
Like boaters, geocachers have their own lingo. Why? I dunno. Maybe it's because the first geocachers were all computer nerds with GPSs. If you're a muggle and you'd like a few laughs, go to Geolex: The Lexicon of Geocaching.
It seems to me that cruising and geocaching go hand in hand. It's a good excuse to get off the boat and walk the area you're in. You may not ever get your comma, but you'll have a good time. And if you hook up with us here in Brunswick, we can huckle buckle beanstalk.
I really didn't care what kind of a GPS I bought. We won't use it on the boat because we have a chartplotter, and we won't use it in the car because we have a GPS for that. I just want to mark the corners of the land. I looked at online stores, even eBay, but wound up buying one from Sailnet.com. I've been buying stuff from them for years. These guys have good prices and great service.
The one I bought is a Magellan eXplorist GC. No, that's not a typo. That's a capital X. This GPS is set up especially for geocaching. If you're not familiar with geocaching, it all began about a dozen years ago. Geocachers hide little containers of trinkets and post the GPS coordinates on websites such as www.geocaching.com. Nerdie types go there and download cache coordinates and run around looking for these things. There are now close to 2 million geocaches all around the world.
Pam and I found our first cache as muggles (someone who does not geocache). We were hiking in Rocky Neck State Park in Connecticut and took a path along a cliff to watch birds soaring. Pam looked up and there it was in a tree. When we got home, I signed up at geocaching.com to see if I could find out something about it (no) and then promptly forgot all about geocaching, that is until receiving the GPS I bought especially set up for geocaching.
I went back to geocaching.com the other day and downloaded a few caches to the GPS.
That's the Magellan and my laptop connected via a USB cable. And that's my crumb on the table.
The GPS's accuracy is good enough to get you within ten feet or so of the cache. After that, it's all up to you to interpret the hints the cacher gave you to find it.
So far, I've found two caches. One was right here in Brunswick Landing Marina and the other at the Mary Ross Waterfront Park, both within easy walking distances. There are a couple in downtown Brunswick I'll have to go look for.
Like boaters, geocachers have their own lingo. Why? I dunno. Maybe it's because the first geocachers were all computer nerds with GPSs. If you're a muggle and you'd like a few laughs, go to Geolex: The Lexicon of Geocaching.
It seems to me that cruising and geocaching go hand in hand. It's a good excuse to get off the boat and walk the area you're in. You may not ever get your comma, but you'll have a good time. And if you hook up with us here in Brunswick, we can huckle buckle beanstalk.
Interesting post, but why isn't this on the new "Living the Good Life on Bleecker Mountain" blog I'm so looking forward to?
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