Alright, first off, I would like to apologize for not monitoring this topic more closely.
Also, since this applies to many posts, I am not planning on creating any circuit diagrams at this time. Apologies.
@The_Bongmaster: If I remember right, even if no GPS module is plugged in, it will still display the "Aquiring Fix". I am not sure as to your problem with the data actually being read. As long as you change the line "gps.begin(4800)" to "gps.begin(3800)" it should be good. That is also assuming you use the 2.1 code.
@nturpin77: The way it works is it takes one character at a time. If it finds a "$" it reads the next five characters for the GPRMC. You'll just have to find a way to cut the code after it does the check for that line in "chkStr". I am kind of disappointed in this code because its not as neat as I want it. If I do in the future build on it, it will probably be written in C for learning purposes.