We got up around our normal time and I took care of some email before we packed up our computers and left in the Jeep around 8:20.

We headed up Pine Creek in Wasatch Mountain State Park and I stopped to photograph some of the red and orange maples on the hillside (below left). The sky was clear, so I focussed on just the hillside and didn't include any of the boring blue sky. We continued heading up the road and entered the Wasatch-Cache National Forest and left the maples behind and started driving through yellow aspens. Shortly before reaching Guardsman Pass, I stopped to photograph some of the aspens (below right). We headed back down the road and ...


Went to the McDonald's in Heber City around 11:00 to use their Wi-Fi and to have lunch. I uploaded the selected images from my last stock submission and J uploaded images to her photography website.

We had lunch around 11:55. I had a Big Mac meal and J had a Fillet-O-Fish and fries. We continued to upload images and I did some computer work. We eft around 2:45.

We went to the Smith's grocery store in Heber City to do a major grocery haul. I went in and picked out my lunch stuff then let J continue shopping as I went out to the Jeep. I went online using my USB stick and ran Garmin WebUpdater on our Garmin eTrex Venture HC GPS. The software said it was going to update the software from 3.10 to 3.30, and it appeared to be going OK until the progress bar showed it was complete but the dialogue box said to wait a few minutes while it completed the process. Well, after at least 15 minutes of waiting, I searched the web for problems with the updater. I found some reports that when a similar condition had occurred to some users, they just unplugged the device, cycled the power, then ran WebUpdater again and it completed the process within 3-4 minutes. I was a bit leery of interrupting the process, but after another 5-10 minutes, I unplugged the GPS from my MacBook Pro and tried to cycle the power. The power button didn't seem to do anything and "LOADING" stayed displayed on the device. I took out the batteries, and when I put them back in, the device was dead. When I hit the power button, I got the standard short flash of white on the display, then it went blank. The power button didn't do anything after that, and when I plugged the unit into my MacBook Pro, WebUpdater didn't see it. I took the batteries out and put them back in again, and the same thing happened: a flash of white then nothing — I had turned our Garmin eTrex Venture HC GPS into a brick. :( J finished shopping around 4:05 and we filled up the Jeep at Smith's at $2.699/gal using our just-obtained 15¢ discount! We left around 4:15.

We returned to the RV around 5:00 and the sky was still clear so we decided to stay in for the evening instead of going out to photograph. I downloaded the images I took this morning and did some computer work. I discovered that I could get a good Verizon Wireless Broadband Access signal with my USB727 stick using J's external antenna pigtail but not mine — with mine, I got practically no signal. Oddly, I got a usable signal without the external antenna. So, I'll have to get a new pigtail so I can use the external cell antenna again. I started the grill and J started to make some rice.

We had dinner around 6:55 of marinated pork loin chops, long-grain-and-wild rice, and peas. The Kroger (?) lemon herb marinade, that had been on the meet for weeks (the marinating meet had been frozen for most of that time), had imparted an overwhelming tanginess for me, but J liked it.

After dinner, I downselected the images from this morning then looked at Garmin GPS units to replace our eTrex Venture HC brick. I started looking at the Garmin eTrex Vista HCx to see how it handles turn-by-turn directions on roads, then I looked at the highly-recommended, and discontinued, Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx, which can also to turn-by-turn directions, and then I looked at the Garmin Oregon 450 which is a touch-screen model. I downloaded the manuals for each, and I ended up being excited about the Oregon 450. Being able to use the touch screen to enter text instead of the joystick and enter button on the other models would be really useful. I found a new-in-box Garmin Oregon 450 on eBay that was ending tomorrow morning, and set up a snipe through Gixen. Then I looked at reviews of the Garmin 450 — a little out of order, wouldn't you say. The guy at GPSreview had reviewed the similar Garmin Oregon 400t, and he said the screen was very hard to read compared to the Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx — hmmm. I cancelled the snipe because the Garmin eTrex Vista HCx is a nice small unit that I'd be able to operate (mostly) with one hand which is useful when carrying my tripod in the other hand. I would have to use two hands to operate the Garmin Oregon 450: one to hold it and one to touch the screen. I finally went to bed around 1:00!