2010 03 26 – It has been an interesting few days

I say interesting few days.  But maybe only interesting to me. A few geocaching things didn’t work out this week.  If it happened to you, you would probably say it was no big deal, but I tend to be a worrier and I hate it when problems arise.

As I mentioned before, on Saturday we are heading to NS with Chignecto Duo for the Spring Kickoff event.  We plan on geocaching   on the way and in Truro so in preparation  we looked at caches, solved a few puzzles and then we got on the laptop and updated GSAK to a more recent version.

Yesterday we got a couple of pocket queries and put them in GSAK.  After editing the information,  we tried to download them to the GPS but we ran into a problem. We couldn’t get it to work and GSAK wouldnt close. Of course I got frustrated, but we went to our other computer and repeated all our work on an older version of GSAK and managed to load the caches in the GPS. But we needed to fix the GSAK problem because we will be using the laptop during our 3 week caching trip in QC.

I asked a few individuals and posted the problem on ACGA. I got information about making my laptop go back in time to the old GSAK and about getting GPS driver, etc. Not being a techie, I found this to be intimidating and even more worrisome than the GSAK problem. I finally decided to post the problem on the GSAK forum and here is the result.

http://gsak.net/board/index.php?showtopic=14904&st=0&

So problem solved.

This week MA saw an item about folding bikes at MEC and thought it would be interesting to have two in our trunk during the QC trip since a lot of the caches are on bike paths. I asked about the bikes in emails to friends and at ACGA and got some helpful information, including a link to Canadian Tire which had folding bikes for about $500 less than MEC. Obviously not of the same quality, but we did not plan on doing serious biking with them. 

We went to the Shediac CT and beat the spring rush and got two of them which they assembled for us. We spent yesterday afternoon folding and unfolding them s few times so I would feel comfortable with them. They are likelya bit larger than the MEC bikes and what I expected but they will be a great option for caching.  The bikes were an interesting break from my GSAK worries. 

This morning when we checked the bikes, one of the tires was flat. OH NO. More worries.  Since we had not even used them, I was not going to try and fix it. We brought it back to CT and they will fix it. I am still waiting.

When we got home from CT, we decided to print a geocaching map of Truro.  We will have the laptop with Nroute for the trip, but we thought a printed map to pass around would be helpful during the day.  Unfortunately, today our printer decided it was time to kick the bucket. Try as we may, we couldnt get it to print. So more worries. Printers are so cheap, we will likely just buy a new one.  I hear I just have to plug a new one in and the PC will figure what to do with it. If not, MA will have to figure it out…or..  what is Jim’s phone number again?

But some things did go good this week. We played with Nroute to make sure we could get it operating correctly for our Truro trip. We hadn’t used it in a while, so the refresher was good. Worrisome but good.   On the negative side, I had read on ACGA that caches could be transfered directly from GSAK to Nroute but when we attempted it, we had no luck.

Other geocaching items.

Mrs CD did not get her Truro PQ in a timely manner so rather than worry, she contacted me. THANKS. Marilyn. But it all turned out OK, as she got the PQ the next day, I hear her Supply of Rum dwindled in the meantime while she  (ahem) patiently waited.

We received emails from cachers finding our logic caches and also some asking for hints.  Hints are supplied depending on which cache is involved and the nature of the question.

Got a few calls from Belladan who was out looking for caches in Kent County and needed some info. At the same time, he replaced our missing Kouchibouguac cache for us. He called again this morning to ensure that none of puzzles are hidden nar where he plans tohide a multi.  Always great t chat with our buddy Dan

Tonight I will watch the Sens beat the sabres and tomorrow early in the morning we head to NS.