I was stupid and didn't research as well as I should have before buying a new GPS. I realized today that the Garmin GPS 60 has all the features of the eTrex Legend except the built-in basemap, but it also has a few extras. The GPS 60 has a USB PC interface rather than serial, it has an external antenna, and there's no stupid rubber gasket or click-stick that'll fail in two years.

I'll be returning the Legend that I ordered to Amazon whenever it arrives (should be next week), and I'm just waiting for the price of the GPS 60 to get lower on Amazon before ordering (it seems to fluctuate daily). Right now the GPS 60 is $25 more than I paid for the Legend, but the Legend went up in price $10, then came down $15 in the two days before I ordered it.

It's good to see that the Utah DMV has their priorities straight (hahah, get it, "straight?")--they'll allow individuals to advertise their sexual orientation on a license plate. Of course, I see nothing wrong with the word "gay" appearing on a license plate, but is "Udink" really worse?

A part on my GPS broke a few weeks ago, rendering it mostly useless. There's a rubber gasket that surrounds the entire unit (you can see it in this picture), and the buttons are molded into the gasket. There's also a flap that extends toward the back of the unit that covers the data port. Since I'd been using the data port while driving a lot lately with the GPS hooked up to my laptop, the flap ended up tearing from all the bouncing and sliding back and forth on the dash of my truck. That tear extended into the rubber gasket and eventually the entire thing just came off. I've tried gluing it back together, but no glue that I've found will stick to the rubber. Since the buttons are part of the gasket, it's very difficult to operate without it. I can still push the actual electronic buttons that are recessed inside the unit itself, but before long I'm sure dirt and wear will take its toll on them as well.

Garmin has a $99 flat fee for repairing my GPS, which is ridiculous for a simple, easily replaceable part. I first called their tech support to see if they'd simply sell me the gasket, but they said they couldn't do it, but if I sent it in they'd repair it for half price. Still, $50 was too much, but I'd read here that some people had gotten theirs fixed for free even though the GPS was long out of warranty--maybe they could be bargained with? So I tried emailing their tech support (since I'm not good at haggling over the phone) and asked again if they could either sell me the gasket or repair it at a greatly reduced price. I also hinted around that if not, I could always simply buy a new Magellan GPS. I heard back from Garmin tech support today, but I got the same answer I'd gotten over the phone. Actually, this is part of the bullshit answer I got: "Since it is against ISO regulations to send out subassemblies of GPS units, we can not send you a new rubber gasket." In other words, they make much more money by charging a flat fee.

I'm not willing to pay $50 for a refurbished GPS, especially when I could buy a new one from Amazon for $123.49, so that's exactly what I did this morning. I also ordered a handlebar mount so I can more easily take the GPS with me on bike rides (it sure beats using bungee cords). I plan on selling my old GPS as-is on eBay, and I'm sure somebody would be willing to pay $50 or more for it, especially if they have a non-functioning GPS with the rubber gasket intact.

I actually researched all the newer GPS models, but I couldn't find one that was remotely worth buying. I'd like to dispense with the laptop altogether and simply have a GPS with good mapping capabilities, but apparently no such thing exists. The best topo maps available for Garmin units are pretty much worthless, with a scale of about 1:100,000. The Magellan map software is a little bit better, but they don't provide any screenshots of what the maps will look like on the actual GPS screen (they only show the computer screen version). I heard from one person who said they still have to plan out trips in advance using the maps on their computer because the Magellan maps still don't cut it.

I also considered buying a Magellan simply because I don't want to replace my Garmin every two years when the rubber gasket gives out. The cheapest Magellan that had all the same features as my Garmin eTrex Legend was the eXplorist 400, and it was nearly $300. For way less than that I figured I could buy two new Garmins, and hopefully in the next four years there would be better options available.

When Michael and I were walking home earlier, he pointed to somebody's carport and said, "Look daddy, they have a go-kart." I said to him, "No Michael, that's just a Geo Tracker." Then I proceeded to laugh my ass off. :)

The weather was relatively nice this morning, so I went for a mountain bike ride. I took Luke's Trail again, but this time I took a side trail that I hadn't noticed before. It ended up going west and south, then eventually turned back east and looped back to Luke's. It was mostly downhill, and it was the most fun I've had on a mountain bike in a long time. When I was almost back to the trailhead, I ran into Fuzzy, who is the head of PASS and is responsible for most of the bike trails in this area being built. We talked for just a couple of minutes, then he headed back up the trail and chatted with some other bikers who were riding downhill behind me. I'd never seen other people on the trail before, but today I saw quite a few.

Later this afternoon, it started snowing, and I was bored and restless so I went for a walk with Michael. We walked to Pioneer Park, and when we left home the snow was barely starting to stick to the ground, but by the time we got back there was a nice white blanket covering everything. There about an inch out there now, and I hope it keeps coming. I think it'll all melt by tomorrow afternoon, but at least it's nice to see some white outside, if only for a little while.

Christmas was great for all of us. Usually Traci and I don't spend much on each other, but this year we were able to afford quite a bit more than in the past. I got mostly clothes, and I've got several gift cards and some cash (and a mystery gift from my grandpa that hasn't arrived yet--can't wait!). I'm going to have to exchange most of the shirts I got. Apparently I don't fit inside a size Large anymore. At 5'11" and 195 lbs., I wouldn't consider myself to be Extra Large, but clothing sizes don't really correspond to people sizes, I guess.

So much for a white xmas. It got up to 54° today, and the miniscule amount of snow we've already gotten this season has melted as soon as the sun came out. Not that I'm necessarily complaining, because 54° is nice hiking weather, especially in December. I'd like to see some snow, but not the mud that'll follow.

I'd originally planned on hiking or biking yesterday, but when it came down to it, I just didn't feel like it. Instead, I took my family down to Buckhorn Wash with the hopes of seeing some bighorn sheep. Jason told me that he'd see some there recently near the pictograph panel, but we unfortunately didn't see any. We saw a small herd of antelope far off in the distance just south of Little Cedar Mountain, but that was it. I love going down to the Swell on a weekday--we only saw two other vehicles the entire time, and both of those were on the main graveled road closer to Castle Dale.

Besides the traditional family get-togethers next weekend, Traci and I don't really have any plans for the rest of the year. We don't even know what we're doing yet for New Year's, though we will probably spend it at Mike and Ali's in West Valley City. I'm getting antsy for a long winter hike, but that will likely have to wait until next year. What I really need is a hiking companion, but that's been hard to come by lately, and I hate going solo in the middle of nowhere. Going to Buckhorn Wash gave me some ideas of where I could go (the very southeastern tip of the Wedge sounds fun), but I'm thinking I'll have to bide my time for this trip.

I spent today in the far western portion of the San Rafael Swell. The short days during this time of year make it difficult to do much outdoors. I ran out of daylight and found only five of the eleven caches I'd planned on visiting (Edit: I forgot to mention that I hit 250 cache finds today as well!). It was still a worthwhile way to spend a vacation day, and I've still got an excuse to return to the same area again later.

Another reason I didn't have time to find more caches is that the BLM has closed off the road going up Short Canyon through Molen Reef. That changed it from a drive-by cache to a 2.9 mile hike. Apparently the state of Utah and Emery County have a R.S. 2477 claim against the BLM to try to reopen the route, and I hope they succeed. I can't imagine why the road was closed. I was tempted to drive around the sign, but I just didn't have the balls, even though it's extremely unlikely that I'd have been caught--I don't think any BLM personnel would be out patrolling on a Monday in the middle of December. Judging from the fresh tire tracks on the road, at least somebody's been using it regularly.

I washed my truck today for the first time in months. I hate washing it because I always end up getting it filthy again within a week. And lately it's been too cold to wash it, but today it made it up to 40°F so far and I couldn't pass up the opportunity. I'm just afraid that my doors will be frozen shut tomorrow morning when I leave to do some geocaching down in Emery County (where I'll undoubtedly get the truck dirty again).

Traci and I have spent the last week and a half recovering our couches. They weren't the nicest couches to begin with, but our kids have absolutely destroyed them in the last six months. They've jumped on them, spilled food and drinks, picked out some of the stuffing, and all the other destructive things little boys do. I don't think we'll own anything really nice until the kids have moved out. Anyway, we bought the fabric a couple of months ago, but we only recently decided to get started. I figured out the best way to build the covers, then we both helped to make the templates out of plain brown packaging paper, and Traci cut out the fabric and has been sewing it all together. One of them is finished, and the larger couch (with the hide-a-bed) will be done soon. I'm pretty amazed at how well things are turning out--it looks like we have two brand-new couches, but we've only spent about $200.

I got so incredibly bored today that I decided to go for a bike ride on Wood Hill. There's a group, Price Area Singletrack Society, that's built several nice trails around here, and I've wanted to ride the trails for quite some time. December isn't really the best time for mountain bike riding, but it turned out to be a nice ride, despite the patches of snow on the trail. I got a late start, about 3:20 pm, which didn't give me much time to finish before sunset. I managed to drive to the trailhead, ride almost the entire length of the trail, and get home in about an hour and 20 minutes. I rode 3.8 miles total, unless you count the extra few hundred yards I rode to return to the truck to retrieve a pair of gloves. It was freaking cold! After riding for a bit, I felt pretty warm, but the downhill part was the worst because my body wasn't working very hard and the breeze in my face was a bit stronger. It was definitely a fun experience, and I'd do it again this weekend if it wasn't supposed to get even colder. :(

Oh great. I just got over having a sore throat and a cough last week, and it looks like the sore throat is coming back. I have a three day weekend coming up (for the next three weeks in a row, actually!), and I hope this doesn't hinder any of my plans. Not that I have plans yet, but I'd hate for it to hinder them. :)

I actually accomplished a lot today around the house, despite it being my first day back to work after a week's vacation. I saved it all up because I didn't want to lift a finger during my time off. I got the xmas lights up on the house, covered the trailer in a huge tarp, and brought all the snow removal crap (salt & spreader, shovel, broom, etc.) from the garage to the front porch. If it does snow soon, I hope it snows good. None of this light dusting that we had earlier in the week.

I bought a new cellular phone today. My first cell was a Tracfone, which has worked perfectly for Traci and me over the last year and a half, so I got another. The one I bought today only cost $20, plus I used the "Refer a Friend" program to refer myself and got 100 free minutes for both the old and new phones. It's very rare that we go through 100 minutes over the course of two months, so prepaid has worked quite well. I don't see myself ever needing a regular cell phone with a monthly bill.