My gym had another raid today.
Thank god you don't have to win for it to count in the research log because this boss, a Jinx was too difficult. Couldn't even dent the damn thing and it dropped my Pokemon like flies with fucking draining kiss.

So now I completed my two raids and just need two regular gym battles to finish this stage of the story research.

My app will work just fine on my house wifi but often not on public ones. I just assumed that whatever network I'm on has some download limit on how much I can use and PoGo runs over it. Once I switch to my data, it's fine.

No Pokemoning today though. I had to update the app while I was away from home, so I had to wait until I got home again and passed all the gyms!

Also, anyonen else find it a little annoying that the researches only refresh at stops and not at gyms? By fluke, the gym is closer to my brother's place than the stops are.

Got my stamp for today though. You can hold out on accepting completed quests until the next day for more stamps. :)

Aaaand now it won't let me on again.

It doesn't really bother me that much. Probably because you can only have 3 at a time anyway and pokestops are more frequent than gyms here. Of course, I have to walk almost 4 miles, round trip, 3-5 days per week to get to my one job, sooo....less of an issue for me than it probably is for a lot of people.

Maintenance ate my post and now I'm miffed and don't to type it out again.

Short version.
= Walking to stops is hard sometimes. No walkable stops from here. Few stops in town. Sucks. No pokemon at all at house. Might try incense for rare-ish pokemon trick. The end.

Personally, Stops are more accessible and more plentiful for me than Gyms.

Apart from the one a two-minute walk from my house and the one I was able to finish the 'battle in 2 raids' assignment for the story at, I've never actually spent time at a gym location. I've only been able to use their Pokestop functions in passing.

The aforementioned is also the only gym in my neighborhood. Whereas I've got three stops walking to my local grocery store and two at local walkable parks (one of them is also one of the three grocery store stops).
And that's just to my knowledge.

Success with the incense experiment, of sorts. Got a mankey, a more-aggressive-than-normal weedle, and a breloom. I don't even know what that last one is.

Of course, this does present the issue of me not being able to get any more pokeballs until I head into the nearer side of town and hit a few stops.

Are rare candies still a thing? Didn't get any my last raid. Thought that was where they came from.

Raids do give Rare Candies, I received one from the raid I won the other day.

Yeah, raids do give rare candies, but it's not a guaranteed item.

Most raid exclusive items are exceedingly rare from what I've gathered.

Just a heads up, if you have a magikarp, put it as your buddy NOW. When you eventually hit stage 6 of the special research, one of the tasks is to evolve a magikarp (and already evolving one before you get to it doesn't count).

Thanx for that.
I'm still on stage 3 and the Magikarp I have is relatively new so I need all the time I can get.

One of the stage 6 tasks is also to be at trainer level 25, so you'll have plenty of time. Figured I should give a heads up though.

Also good to know.
I am not too far off, I'm at level 19, almost level 20.

This afternoon I caught my first Ditto disguised as a Ratatta and got my first research breakthrough package which included a Moltres encounter! It was difficult to catch but I managed with a Pokeball.

Yep, my first one was also Moltres.

I feel I'm not making a lot of progress...

Level 25 but my magikarp has a ways to go.

Got Howitzer in a gym today. Took out the ailing Mystic group that was there. I think one even dropped in the time it took me to walk from my car and across the street. Still plugging away at the 'evolve 20 pokemon' research task.