This is very off topic, but it's my blog, so I'll post it anyway!
Being a technician, electronics easily distract me. But electronics that change my world are few and far between. The Personal Computer, DVD players, HDTV and surround sound are a few. But it had been a while (in electronics years) since anything grabbed my attention.
Then one of our sons gave us a GPS unit for Christmas. A Garmin nüvi 200W to be extact. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles, but it does provide information and even some entertainment. OK, so GPS units give you directions from where ever you are to where you want to go, right? Ah, but they do so much more!
We named ours after Carmen Sandiego from the kids detective show years ago.
Want to find a restaurant? Garmin shows you what is nearby and will take you there. And by type of food: American, Mexican, Chinese, Thai. You name it, she's got it in her memory. Local attractions? She's got them. Points of interest, parks? Yep! Them too.
And then there's Geocaching. The first night we had it, I connected it to my home computer and downloaded updated maps and other stuff. And I stumbled upon links for Geocaching. I learned that a new hobby had sprung up to hide caches of stuff and post the coordinates for others to find them using GPS units. They are everywhere!! There were at least 10 within a 2 mile radius of our house. The first one we went hunting for was at a park near down our street.
They say marijuana is the gateway drug that leads to harder stuff. Well, GPS units are the same for Geocaching. Some people spend an entire day searching for them each week. Now, we haven't gotten hooked. We found maybe 5 or 6, but haven't even looked for some time (over 5 months).
Like any tool, it can be used for good (finding places) or evil (wasting your life searching for stuff). But it is a great tool for traveling.
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