[Jeremy]

Incredible Cinderella story. This unknown, comes out of nowhere, to lead the pack… in the DeLorme Challenge. He’s at his final cache. He’s about 455 yards away, he’s gonna use his Garmin 60cx I think. The crowd is standing on its feet here in Wisconsin. The normally reserved WGA crowd, going wild… [pauses] for this young Cinderella who’s come out of nowhere. He’s a Cinderella boy. Tears in his eyes, I guess, as he lines up this last cache. He’s got about 195 yards left, and he’s switched to, looks like he’s switched to a Magellan eXplorist. This crowd has gone deadly silent… Cinderella story, out of nowhere, former greenskeeper, now, about to become the DeLorme Champion.

I was informed I was in a “race” with Ralph on Saturday. I contacted him Sunday and told him to slow down… when he got around to responding on Monday he said it was too late to slow down as he now had all 84 pages. 😯 🙂

Congratulations Ralph… definitely an impressive run for the record books to grab all the pages and caches you did over the past week. It is quite fitting that the guy who has an excellent cache series that runs through the entire state of Wisconsin (Yellowstone Trail Series) is the first one to complete this challenge requiring you to geocache in all the corners and nooks and crannies of the state.

[Jeremy]

@Really I’m Not Lost wrote:

I was wondering if there was any PC software out there to add stuff to the calender and edit things like the welcome screen. ❓

I think the reason no one is chiming in on this one Dan is that this software doesn’t exist.

If you ever can’t sleep some night, you can try reading the device interface document describing the communications interface between your Garmin GPS and a PC, available here:

http://www.garmin.com/support/commProtocol.html

A quick scan of the document shows no method for reading or writing calendar or welcome screen data from a PC. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t a way to do it, but it is not publicly documented. So any method of doing so would have to come from Garmin (since only they know how to do it), and as far as I know they haven’t built this into their MapSource software yet.

On a somewhat related note, has anyone seen any PC software that lets you delete all the existing waypoints when downloading to a Garmin unit? Again, the command to do this is undocumented, but I think I remember a utility that did this for my old GPS 12? 99% of the time when I download waypoints I want to clear out the ones that are in there…

[Jeremy]

@SLASH354 wrote:

But I was wondering if it makes a difference if my GPSr is set at true north or magnetic north as far as caching goes? Or is that just for mapping? I haven’t had any problems finding the caches I’ve been after, but just wanted to know if having my machine set on one or the other might put me a little closer or if it changes how the machine reads the waypoints.

This setting (magnetic vs. true north) only affects the “heading” and “bearing” type numbers that the GPS displays (and maybe the north shown on the map for mapping units?). Setting it one way or the other won’t put you closer or farther away from a cache unless you use a compass with your GPS. If this is the case, I would set this to “magnetic north”. (But since the difference between magnetic and true north in WI is so small you’d probably never notice the difference. If you are caching in Maine or Washington this may be a problem.)

For example, you should be able to set your GPS to show the magnetic bearing to a cache in degrees (example 255 degrees) while going to one. If you pull out your compass and determine a bearing of 255 degrees and follow this bearing exactly, you (theoretically) should step right on top of the cache. Following a compass bearing instead of the “arrow” on your GPS is more accurate (unless of course you have a model with an integrated compass).

Which brings me to one of my pet peeves… cachers who don’t use or even carry compasses. But I will save that rant for another day. 🙂

[Jeremy]

There is about an 80% chance I will attend and will bring a couple bags of pretzels and chips. Hopefully they don’t get too broken up while in transit. 🙂

Anyone up for caching before or after the event? I’m always looking for someone to drive me around… send me a PM if you are interested.

[Jeremy]

Ouch! At least a medical professional was there to assist you after the fall. 😉 And way to “play hurt” and grab this cache and one more on the way to the ER.

Rest and recover Gary… the caches will still be there when you are back to 100%.

[Jeremy]

@tyedyeskyguy wrote:

I’ve been uploading some images to my photo album here today. I got the first 15 to upload just fine, but after that I have unsuccessfully tried uploading another 20 photos. I keep getting a message after the upload that reads “we’re sorry, that module is not available”.

Are you trying to upload 20 photos at one time? If these photos are large, the request to server might time out before all the photo data is sent from your machine to the server. (Several other people have seen similar problems when uploading many large images at a time.) Try only uploading two or three pictures at a time and see if this works successfully.

If you still have problems, send me a PM describing exactly what you are doing and I’ll figure out what needs to be done to get it to work…

[Jeremy]

@K0rpl wrote:

For this, we are going to put on a Event/Get Toghether at the Nashota park in Manitowoc County. Unfortunately, due to timing, we will be unable to have this event posted on GC.COM.

Justin, what day will the event be held? Or are you guys going to wait until you get close to the 500 milestone mark before deciding (it shouldn’t be long with the pace you are setting :))?

[Jeremy]

Way to go Justin! Glad I could be there when you grabbed some caches Way Up Nord while on your way to this milestone.

Looks like it will be a race to 500 for Justin and Lindsey. Anyone want to place a bet on who will get there first? 🙂 Might be time for someone to make a BoB run and blow the other one out of the water? Or maybe plan it so that the two of you get to 500 simultaneously?

Official Lindsey vs. Justin Scoreboard:

[Edited to fix scoreboard images]

[Jeremy]

@marc_54140 wrote:

Well, the old Sheila has wandered off to live in Green Bay. I went out shopping, and found a bolder, brasser version. Like a lush redhead, Sheila II comes with some interesting …ah … augmentations!

Funny that this change comes after taking my Sabrina for a “test drive” last weekend. You swore that Sheila, while old, plain and lacking the assets of others, was perfectly fine for you and that you two still had many years of good times ahead. Next thing you know you are out shopping for a new companion and your beloved Sheila is in the arms of another man. 😀

Enjoy the new companion Marc!

[Jeremy]

Congratulations gals!

Spunky, you’ve got to release those pelicans as TBs on a mission in honor of your milestone. “Spunky’s 100 Jail Birds” TBs? “Hot Property: Spunky’s Century Mark” TB? 🙂

Shortblonde, I know you wanted a motorcycle ride but I had to help pick up the temp caches Sun morning (I couldn’t wait any longer for you to get up ;)). Anyway, consider this a rain check and you can hop on the next time we cross paths.

[Jeremy]

@MajorBrat wrote:

As for the rest of your reply…do you want to start the next thread, or should I?

I don’t want to acquire a reputation as a rabble rouser, so I’ll let you start it. 😉 Probably something in the “Suggestion Box” about improving Board member to WGA member communication, and getting the membership more info about the Board’s actions. I have some ideas in this area that I can post for discussion once you get the ball rolling…

[Jeremy]

@CB&MB wrote:

So in all your babbling, you’re saying you know 9…is that right Jeremy?

Glad to hear that since you’re the webmaster! You should know all of them.

As for the US reps…I don’t vote for all of them, so…
I know I missed one of the WGA BOD…oops…I’ll do better next time.

No hard feelings MB… I never considered your response an attack or rude. (I wanted to use a kissing emoticon here but we don’t have one on the WGA site. :))

My point in all the babbling was that for communicating with the Board, it doesn’t really matter how many Board members you know and therefore those who are unable to name all 9 shouldn’t fret. If you know one Board member (just like you normally only know your own US/state/local representatives), they should be able to communicate your question/concern/idea to the rest of the Board.

Now if you know all 9 personally and can maybe influence their decisions on things or they listen to your opinions this is great… but in my book you are then a lobbyist, not a normal member. 🙂

Knowing all 9 may be somewhat helpful when deciding who to vote for or re-elect in the BOD elections. But right now IMHO there is too little transparency regarding the actions being taken by these 9 to help members (even those know them all) make the best choices when electing BOD members. Who is doing what work on the BOD? What has the BOD voted on recently, and who gave the thumbs up or down to certain proposals? But discussing this and what we might do to improve this situation probably should be done in a completely different topic…

[Jeremy]

@greyhounder wrote:

Having never sent an email to the board, I think this is it:

wgabod wi geocaching com

This is the correct address. Sending something to this alias will cause an email to be sent to all Board members.

This was supposed to be a semi-private method for the Board members to communicate in the event that private Board forum on the WGA website was inaccessible (because of a server crash, nuclear war, biblical flood, etc.). But now that the cat is out of the bag, I guess it is OK to use this email alias to contact the entire Board.

The alternative to doing this would be to send your idea to a single Board member, and they would relay it to the entire Board. As I mentioned in the General forum, this method has worked well in the past.

And sometimes it is best to publicly address the Board (by posting something in the public WGA forums). Stirring up a hornet’s nest sometimes can cause the Board to jump into action… in some cases without this public prodding they’d be inclined to sit on their hands.

[Jeremy]

For future reference: You can change the title of a topic by editing the subject of the first post in topic (assuming you were the one who created the topic by making the first post).

Anyway, I knew 9 of 9 Board members including first and last names, plus all former Board members and founding fathers. 8)

But the number of Board members you know is really unimportant. Do you know all or 435 US Representatives or all 99 WI State Assembly members? Probably not… most people don’t know their own representatives.

Hopefully there are at least a couple Board members you know from events or because they are from your local area. (From the responses to the original question, this would seem to be the case even for relatively new members.) You should be able to contact any Board member and they should (if they are doing a good job), relay or represent your opinions/ideas/concerns/questions to the entire Board. This happens quite frequently… a member emails a BOD member, the BOD member posts something about it in the Board forum, discussion and/or a vote takes place, and the BOD member originally contacted sends a response to the member.

[Jeremy]

@Cache_boppin_BunnyFuFu wrote:

Are each of those downlaodable?? I have heard of some of the Garmin.. (lower end).. that you can’t downlaod WPTs too.

All are downloadable (yellow eTrex, eTrex Legend, and Foretrex 101). The yellow eTrex and Foretrex don’t come with the download cable, so you’ll have to spend another 5 or 10 bucks on a serial cable to download waypoints.

If the Foretrex isn’t a refurb, this is a really good price and I’ll probably try to pick up a backup unit.

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