Okay, CacheMate, you can come back in the house. Good boy.

Last time I mentioned CacheMate, I chained it to a stake in the backyard, because my Palm IIIx (made out of wood) was taking a HALF-HOUR to load a pocket query through a USB-serial adapter.

The other day I realized that I am not in fact under contract to Nextel, and so my wife and I switched to Sprint, and I got a Palm Centro. Put CacheMate on it, uploaded a pocket query, and the entire HotSync took less than 20 seconds. No more loading notes on to an iPod.

Thus, CacheMate is back in the fold. So is MacCaching, though I'm not totally happy with that interface (for example, it doesn't automatically choose the .gpx file that you have just loaded), because it'll load my GPSr and at the same time create the .prc file to HotSync to the Centro. All just in time to process my PQ "along a route" to Chicago later today.

My only concern is that I may have to quit geocaching just to learn all the cool things you can do with the smartphone. It definitely feels home-y, because I've had that Palm III since 1999.

One other thing -- I picked up the iGo car adapter, and that is really cool. With a splitter, I can power the 60CSx through a mini-USB connection and the phone or the wife's phone or an iPod through the other connection.

Here's hoping my wife and the mini-double-bass are still on board with stopping for Wisconsin and Illinois rest stop caches!