With my new Xterra, and my new GPS, I had been awaiting the arrival of one last piece to my arsenal to permit me to begin my new era of paperless caching - my T-Mobile 4G Personal Hotspot.
With it, I can now view Cache Sense on my Galaxy S3 where I had prevously been offline. I am paying $30 for 3 GB monthly, and I would leave the hotspot on for this whole trip to see how much data would use. This would be a benchmark test, so to speak.
Assuming I might make one full-size Geocaching trip on a weekend, so at no more than 4 a month, assuming I might also grap an odd email here and there, but not use it for streaming music or audio, I would hope to use less than 500 MB on this trip. I could make six 500 MB trip to add up to the 3 GB I could use in a month.
So when I got off work, I stopped first by UPAG #102 (my 61st cache) in the nearby Target parking lot. These UPAG ("You Park And Grab") caches are a new, never-ending series of easy to grab caches that are great for increasing your smiley count. Lifting a lamp post skirt isn't my idea of a good time, but it was nice to get my first cache in a while after being stuck on 60 since last summer. It's also nice to cross Greenville County off of my county list.
Map of Saturday's journey:
I conitnued west on Harrison Bridge Road and did a quick drive-by of Bird of Prey, but there was a parent and child playing soccer on the church field, so I moved on, west on Rocky Creek Rd. I made a left at W Georgia Rd, decided not to bother with the firehouse challeneg cache at that intersection, made a quick left at Fork Shoals Rd. and gave "oh I found it, maybe not" a quick effort. I looked for about two minutes, but there was traffic driving by, so I didn't give more than a cursory look.
Continued on W Georgia Rd, made a right on Highway 25, and grabbed UPAG #124 (62), another LPC in a parking lot. :( Went West on Highway 86, drove into the town of Piedmont, SC, made a cursory drive-by of J.P. Stevens, but there were muggles around and wasn't able to make an attempt.
The view of Saulda River Grill, when exiting back on to Highway 86, making a left over the Saluda River and entering Anderson County.
Had traffic and muggles on and around Hwy. 86, so wasn't able to attempt UPAG 123 or UPAG 125, but I did grab UPAG 126 (63) for my first cache found in Anderson County. This one was a magnetic key holder on some equipment, so a little better than another LPC, but not by much.
Crossed I-85 and went on to find Help From Above (64) for my fourth and final find of the day, it was nice to be a little bit more out into the country, not much traffic around here. I did a brief attempt of Frank and Ernest, but too much traffic around, so I headed back to head south on Highway 81 towards Anderson.
Was going to attempt I-85 Exit 27 6-in-1, but some big biker dude with nothing better to do than just hang out in the parking lot was there so I couldn't. Crossed back over the interstate, stopped at McD's for some breakfast (Out of bagels, cmon?!), and then back on the road, a quick drive-by of Ohms but a couple delivery trucks were there and couldn't attempt, drove by a challenge cache I don't qualify for and did a quick drive-by of Carolina Cache: John Bonham, but there was a Wendy's employee sweeping the parking lot and watching me so I went on my way.
Made an excursion to the Wal-Mart, then stopped by + or - and attempted this one. Spent awhile looking for it, and I think I found it, as I found something that shouldn't be growing in a tree, but I didn't have the appropiate tool to retrieve it. Had it been further from my home, I probably would have tried harder, but since I live close to Anderson, I figured I get back here sooner or later.
Four caches found, but also two more of the nearby counties, Greenville and Anderson, achieved.
I think I will target Pickens County next.




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