Lost - and Found

After all the bad news about criminal activity in England and the UK, here something positive:

On this Saturday, 24.March, we had been in Skipton ("Gateway to the Yorkshire Dales")for a visit. As we walked up a hill behind Skipton Castle, I suddenly noticed that my GPS receiver which I almost always carry with me, was no longer in my pocket - it must have fallen out on the way up somewhere. Now this was the 2nd time that I lost this device: after I had bought it in fall 2003, I had taken it to a trip in Germany, to record all the travelled tracks. After boarding the flight back, making myself comfortable in the seat, I suddenly had noticed that the GPS was gone - I had left it in the rental car. Back in California, I called the rental company, and yes, they had found it. But it was somewho very difficult to send it back - because they would have to pay custom fees... after a few weeks of back and forth debating, my brother finally just drove to the airport and picked it up himself. At my next visit, he then gave it back to me.

Now, the GPS again was lost. I headed immediately back the way where we had come up, looking left and right where it could have been on the ground. But no trace of it. I looked at oncoming people, to see if they had found something, but no, their hands were empty, except with their own mobile phones. At the end of the path, where it diverted into two, a group of four people was walking through the fence door, turning away from the path. One woman looked back, and asked if I was looking for something that I had lost...

They had found the thing on the ground, and had picked it up to bring it to the next police station. What a nice surprise!

So I had my GPS device back - the old Garmin GPS 76S had now gone lost twice.