Mission improbable

For those of you who didn't catch our quick post on Saturday, our SPOT tracking device was stolen. The following is a primarily non-fiction account of THE LOST, THE CHASE, and THE RECOVERY MISSION.

The lost:

As we typically do, we arrived at our place for the evening and activated SPOT. This unit requires a clear view of the sky so we left it near a corner that didn't have tree cover. Over 5 minutes two people picked up the unit and started walking with it.....we were approximately 15 meters away (we are in the metric part of the world now!). Being a little slow to learn, we tried a 3rd time by placing it on a fence across the street. Several people walked by without noticing.

Around that time our warm showers host's parents arrived to let us in. In our haste we left the SPOT on the fence.

Three hours later I was checking e-mail and noticed we kept getting signals from SPOT.....ummmm Christie, do you have SPOT? The unit had grown legs and found its way to another part of this 7 million person city (Guadalajara, MX). Then another e-mail popped in and the race was on.

The Chase:

We quickly grabbed the GPS coordinates of the last signal. The coordinates are in decimal form and our GPS is Deg-min-seconds (this conversion and rounding would play a critical role later in the evening). We entered the coordinates and found the unit was about 5 miles as-the-crow-flies away. With our host not home yet and no motorized vehicle around, Christie and I got quick directions and rushed to our unloaded tandem.....the chase was on.

This was the first time we actually rode an unloaded tandem since Wyoming. Between the rush of potentially catching the culprits and the lightness and agility of the unloaded bicycle, we flew through traffic and up hills. The sun was setting as we attempted to navigate the traffic, Christie monitoring the GPS (note we don't have detailed Mexico maps in the GPS) and following her rough map scratched on the back of a napkin.

Our excitement and determination quickly got us within 3 miles before we took a wrong turn. As we backtracked our half mile, and darkness and traffic increasing we realized we were out of our league in this unfamiliar city with nearly twice the population of Los Angles. As any married couple has had, intense words went back and forth at the stop light. Christie, with tears streaming down her face said, "let's just go back". With less intensity, but still with great speed we tore off in what we thought was the right direction. Again, a half mile down a different road we turned around and slowly worked our way back to our host's house.

With our host home we dropped the tandem for a motorized vehicle and sped off into the dark. Assuming our GPS coordinates would be perfect we only briefly looked at the google earth map. The rounding errors in converting to DMS had resulted in a .25 mile difference from the actual location. Going by memory we walked up and down the block where the signal was sent from....no luck. Our needle in the haystack turned up a few squirmy teens but no way to press the issue. We left saying we would return in the morning if they found anything.

The Recovery Mission:

Upon returning home we dug a little more deeply into the last SPOT transmission. We printed the map pinpointing the exact location of the unit. Following a semi restless night of sleep we woke up with SPOT on our mind. At 9 am our gracious host and I took off, colored map in hand. We went to the location and found a small food stall with a woman and her two daughters selling tacos. After a quick description and pinpointing her food stall on the map she simply asked, "What do you want that for? It doesn't play music, make phone calls or do anything." We walked to her house.....yes the same house where the teenage boy got nervous and squirmy the night before.....and produced the SPOT! Her daughter works at a diner near where we are staying and simply picked it up. We drove off thankful and relieved.

In the end, we received a gentle reminder that items can grow legs and any material items we have with us can be replaced and are less important than our safety. And tonight I get to tell the great tale of THE LOST, THE CHASE, and THE RECOVERY MISSION.

And maybe tonight 5 miles away a lady is telling the tale of how two bearded men came to her food stall and produced a map that said she had this worthless orange gadget with 4 buttons and doesn't make phone calls or even play music.