Out of town

It was initially hard for me to wrap my head around the idea that being "out of town" or "out of the city" is quite an easy thing to do.
If you are confused, consider how long it would take you to be in an area that is surrounded by trees, a forest-like setting. Yes, you might have that where you are now, maybe even in a town or city, but what I am referring to is outside of a built up area.

When I first started playing with Google Earth, I was fascinated by the detail that some areas showed. Then, I began to explore locations that I thought seemed pretty small, at least, by looking at it from miles above, a forest can seem pretty small. That is, until you use the ruler / measuring tool. Dragging from one end to another of a wooded area, you can quickly see how much land you are dealing with. It might look small on the map, but inches on the computer screen can mean kilometers or miles. And this is what intrigued me. There are more wooded areas around town of significant size that I was only partially aware of. Having noted the location of some of these areas, I hope to visit them very soon.

I have, in the past, endeavored to visit some of the lesser known "local" forested areas and woodlands merely for the purpose of examining the habitat and environment, I've always marvelled at the deer crossing signs that I see on some roads, only to find that my closest dear is probably is a zoo, or even in a super market.
How close do you feel to the great outdoors? Has city living ruined it for you? Are you just itching to move into a more rural and laid back area? Well until you do so, take comfort in knowing that most people do not act upon their wishes, goals or dreams. Why? Well, money for one reason. The second is that I really do feel that we are a fat and lazy society of convenience and that we only do stuff if we absolutely have to. No, I'm not speaking for everyone, but again, it is merely just an opinion.

So when you get a chance, get out there. Enjoy it while you can.

J

Entourage CIS

This is a neat product, called Entourage CIS. It's a GPS tracking device that is subscriber-based ($179 per year or $14 /mth). It uses your local GSM / GPRS cellular network to relay the GPS data to the control center (Blackline GPS) and allows you to track the location of the device anywhere in North America.
The advantage of having such a device became clear after hearing about the horror stories of people losing equipment, trail cameras, equipment trailers, ATV's, etc.

Very small and drawing only 20mA of current @ 12 volts, this is definetely something that could run for a very long period of time in the bush, possibly forever, should you incorporate a small solar panel to keep your 12v battery charged.

The unit also incorporates an internal battery to give it a few days of run time should the external battery fail. A simply 2-wire hookup is all that is needed (positive and negative) and arming / disarming is done by a RFID key-fob that works up to about 20-30 feet away. Basically, the GPS device senses the presence of the key-fob and it disarms when it is near, and arms when it is no longer detected.

The monitoring costs might seem a little steep, but the features are plentiful. Through a web interface, you can see the exact position of the device, the battery condition (strength) and if the object is moving, the direction/heading and speed.

While it is still new, I am going to run it through the paces and see how well it performs.
It was a web deal from "The Source" that was being offered at an AMAZING discounted price of $49, regular $374 (The Escort GPS Site has it listed online at $399!!!!!)

Yes, it's not a typo - as of today, Dec 21, 2010 it is still available while quantities last @ $49. When I ordered mine I had it shipped to the store and it arrived 2 days later. Shipping to store is free of charge.

Here is the link:
http://www.thesource.ca/estore/product.aspx?language=en-CA&catalog=Online&category=GPS_Locators&product=1914522