I always ride with a Garmin satellite phone and GPS transponder. Just in case I end up in a ditch somewhere and can push a button and first responders will pluck me out of the cactus. But the main reason is for the GPS transponder feature. Every ten minutes the phone pings the satellite with my GPS location and forwards it to a web page. Friends can follow along and know where I am on the adventure. But, every now and then when I am in a location for a day or two and not moving, the phone keeps pinging the satellite and sometimes the pings bounce around buildings and give erroneous readings. One of these occurred in Boise. I was at my buddy Kevin’s house for a couple of days and received a concerned call from Janine asking if I was okay. She had received a call from one of our friends who was following the trip and saw the GPS pings going crazy and that I was at a hospital. Well, it turns out that Kevin’s condo complex is across from a hospital alright, the State Mental Hospital. I thought the irony was fitting.
