Stance and Balance

It has been ~6 months since I last posted on this topic, mostly because I have been flummoxed with trying to work honestly with Garmin’s locking techniques for maps I own and simply want to combine on one card.  Perhaps their entire approach will deserve attention on the Inspector General of the World blog.  Time will tell…

While seemingly on topic, but not:  I was very excited and pleased by the team finish of Garmin-Cervelo in Tour de France and the success of several individual riders, among them Tyler Farrar for his stage 3 win.  Alas, the HTC setup for Cavendish is beyond compare.  Watching the last two minutes of stage 21 and listening to Phil and Paul as Thor peels off really makes the point.

But this isn’t about biking.  It is about my struggle to download “Alaska Enhanced Topography” that I purchased from Garmin, for Tobae and my upcoming Alaska trip.  I tried several times on Friday, always seemingly stopped midstream.  Eventually I sent a note to Garmin Technical Support which gave me an answer.  The only way to achieve success is to have a card in a card reader, not the device itself, which is an eTrex Vista HCx, and let the transfer to the device itself fail!  Then I would have an option to write to the card reader.  Even though there is never a diagnostic that tells one this when having the card in the device and seeing plenty of open space.  Nor is there an FAQ on the Garmin web.  Nor does one get any knowledge from Googling all sensible combinations of words.  So as I finish n+1 transfers of 1.7 Gb of data on my office connection at ~1.1 MB/sec, I will post this if the transfer is successful.  Then to home, to bed, and to Vancouver for a couple of days.

May this post help somebody.  I rarely use tags, but this one is tagged Garmin.  Love/Hate!