Weekly Winners: YOU Take US There, Week 8

Aloha nüvi
I recently purchased a Garmin nüvi
to use on our vacation in Oahu, Hawaii.  We’ve never been to Oahu
before and knew that it would be a challenge to get around and find all
the sights. So far we’re halfway through our vacation and can’t brag enough about
how our Garmin nüvi has made our vacation travels worry free.  So far
we’ve used it to find our hotel from the airport, nearby restaurants,
remote beaches and many of the local sights.

Today we used asked Jill (that’s what we call the nüvi since we use the Jill voice) to take us to the Kualoa Ranch
.  The Kualoa Ranch is over 150 years and has been used for filming
many movies and TV shows in addition to being a working ranch.  Jill
took us down the I-H1 and I-H3 up the windward side of Oahu to the
ranch. We took the jungle tour and the movie sightseeing tour where we
saw where scenes from Jurassic Park were filmed.  It was amazing, the
dinosaurs were so friendly they even let you pet them!  They also
filmed scenes from Lost there.  But of course we’re never lost with
Jill. 

On our tour we met another nice couple who was also on vacation and was
complaining about how hard it was to get around, especially all the
one-way streets in Honolulu.  I had the nüvi with me and proceeded to
go into sales mode and sold them.  That makes two, my brother-in-law
already bought a nüvi on my recommendation.  So can I work on
commission? We have 4 more days left in Oahu, we can’t wait to see
where Jill takes us next!

Daniel & Angela B.
Raleigh, NC

7th Graders On The River

I first learned about what a GPS was and about geocaching, when I attended a NH Geographic Alliance teacher workshop back in October of 2005. Each participant at this workshop was given a Garmin eTrex Venture to use. From that time on, I have been hooked!  I was fascinated, intrigued and very excited about the possibilities of using this educational tool in my classroom! I took my seventh grade classes out for a walk along the local river  with historians from the town, viewing sites of old and current mills along the Sugar River. The eTrex Venture went with us, as we marked coordinates and became familiar with the machine. In preparation for this upcoming school year, I’ve finished attending an institute where I learned more about using the GPS to mark sites and how to use the Arc View GIS mapping program. My plans are to have the students mark the location of the mills, do research and create a map that will show the river, the mills that have existed on this site over the past 100 years, photos of the area today and from years ago and written narratives about change over time along the Sugar River. The GPS will enable us to locate the sites and to enter the coordinates into a computer mapping program!

On a personal level, I have been using my eTrex Venture to geocache with my family. I started at the end of October of 2005 and have almost visited 100 caches! I love going out on these adventures. To prove to you how “sold” I am on this sport, I went out geocaching instead of shopping, the days after Thanksgiving and Christmas! I am attaching a photo of my children, with the eTrex Venture in front of a beaver lodge on from of our first geocaching adventures.

Laura K.
Newport, NH

Garmin – Never Leave Home Without It

My eTrex Legend C has been an invaluable tool for my pursuit of outdoor activities. It keeps me going on my addiction to Geocaching and allows me to scout new hunting and fishing territory with great ease and confidence. However this is only part of the work this valuable tool does for me.

The Quehanna Trail is a 75-mile loop trail that runs through the largest Wild Area in Pennsylvania. I have developed a Web Page for the Trail to assist hikers with information and also for me to monitor trail conditions.Many hikers now contact me to let me know of problems on the trail. Many now carry a GPS and can alert me of exactly where to find the problem. This has proved to be invaluable when searching for blowdowns in a wilderness area. There is no more wasted time walking for miles to look for the problem. I can go right to it.

I also do volunteer maintenance and construction of new trails in cooperation with the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry, who also use Garmins. Using our GPS’s and mapping programs we can much more efficiently layout and construct new trails through this area. Our ability to communicate back and forth about proposed trails or maintenance issues is now down to an exact science thanks to the use of our Garmin GPS.

I also photograph a lot of the natural wonders on the Hiking Trail and during my Geocaching adventures. When people ask where a particular place is I can now give them the exact location to the picture so they can enjoy the area also. I keep an online photo album of many of these places where I invite people to look at the photos.

Attached is a picture of me near our last 2-mile relocation in the Marion Brooks Birches Natural Area. If I am going to the woods, I never leave home without my Garmin.

George L.
Morrisdale, PA

Lunch Break With Garmin

A couple of months ago, a friend re-introduced me to Geocaching.  He’d just bought himself a new GPSMAP 60CSx, so he loaned me his old GPS, from a different company.  I was hooked and I started researching GPS receivers myself.  From all my research I determined that most geocachers prefer Garmin.  From watching him use his new one and me trying to use his old one, I determined that I too, needed a Garmin, and I bought a GPSMAP 60Cx.  I’ve logged over a hundred caches since then, in four states.  Geocaching.com has spun off a sister site, called waymarking.com, where the GPS coordinates of various points of interest are being recorded.  In the photos attached, you see me in the process of waymarking a Sundial and a Time Capsule in Euless, TX, at lunch.  Yes, I even use my Garmin at lunch!

Mark O.
Fort Worth, TX

On The Trail

Hi! We’re Joe & Judy a.k.a. “NJHikers” and recent proud owners of a Garmin GPSMAP 60Cx. We love to hike, but after being lost in a very remote area I vowed that would never happen again. So after doing a lot of research and getting much valuable input from experienced GPS users we made our purchase and happy we did. Having a GPSMAP 60Cx has allowed us to expand our hiking experiences to a whole new level, namely Geocaching. More importantly it’s given us the confidence to go looking for those hidden treasures in the same remote areas we shied away from. Recently we went to one such area and found our first cache. As you can see from the photo we had a fair bit of climbing to do and loved every minute. We’re looking forward to many more hiking adventures. Thanks Garmin!!

Joe & Judy G.

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