Geocaching

“found my first travel bug today (209717)....

I will give him a ride across the Mississippi River tomorrow.”

“cool,

We went out again this morning and found a cache down a beautiful trail that ran between a swamp and a river. Cold though, low forties.

My kids are loving this.”

“Thursday after work I found 5 caches in the mountains above my home town...Kewl! Brings my grand total up to eight! LOL!”

“Sent the travel bug on its way west. I have moved to 20th place among Memphis geocachers.”

“You can check your rankings here .

Just change the state and it will give rankings. You can drill down to the city as well.”

“Just show me where the end of the line is and I'll start looking up from there.

2 cache finds for Team DragonCache. I can't wait till we someday scrounge up a GPS.”

“Well, thank you for sharing THAT, chili!! LOL!!

Now it took awhile to find my rating for Iowa, tied at **217th**. LOL!! (Aaaah, the foils of caching in a Tri-State area!! Hmmm, actually FOUR states)

I have only found 2 of my 13 caches in Iowa, and have placed one here. That's 3. (Reminds me, I need to check on it and make sure it's alrighty)

Of the rest, I think I've found 4 in Illinios, 4 in Minnesota and one in Wisconsin. That add up right?? NOooooooooooooooo

AAAAAAAAAAAACK!!! I feel a strange urge to now go nutzo and devote all spare time to geocaching. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!

(thanks a lot, chili.. ;-)”

“hmmm after a few moments research I have discovered that I am ranked tied for 856, but 1174 overall. I know of 6 more within 20 miles that I can find that will put Team DragonCache tied for 288. A worthy goal.”

“Finally got a FTF today!!! The guy who placed it works with F-18's so he left a Boeing F-18 patch and a Pin shaped like an F-18 too cool! My sons loved it!

Yucky”

“Wouldn't you just know it.

After looking for my GPS for six months, I went ahead and snagged one on ebay (E trex) so I could resume geocaching.

Two days after I pay for it, and before it ever gets here, I found my other one.

Guess my son is getting an Etrex for Christmas.

However, it did provide a great way to get the kids into the outdoors over the weekend.

We were a little rusty and went 1 for 4 on Saturday, but rebounded with a strong 3 for 3 performance on Sunday.

All in all, we had a great time.”

“LOL!! too funny, chili. You SAID that would happen!!

I went out and got one Saturday, another "first find." That's one thing about being a geocacher in the boonies. I bet I have a really high ratio of first finds to total finds. LOL! This was No. 42 for me.... but remember... I have done few in metro areas, where you find a cache every other mile.

This one was funny... they had a big name for it and it was a "bug bed and breakfast." LOL! It was sitting on the Root River Trail, which has a lot of B and Bs.

Two Sundays ago I got to find two in the area where I grew up. That was fun. Meanwhile, the tough one I placed on the Upper Iowa River, which had not been found since Feb., FINALLY got found again in Oct.”

“During my 12 month haitus from geocaching, lizs blew by me in finds. We are up to about 39 after this weekend. I think I can snag a half dozen micro caches this week to regain the lead.”

“NOOOOOOOOOOO fair! We must restrict you to some rural area! Or... I must spend my backpacking vacation hunting down geocaches. **SIGH**

I found a cool one in Savannah I'd like to try if it works out. Sometimes the cache or place it takes you is more important than logging a find, at least to me. This one will take a little time, from what I e-mailed a couple cachers, but sounds cool! There's a story there and I like stories...

Civil War tragedy”

“There is one in Memphis like this lizs, however it combines regular caches with the tour. A multi part challenge.

This is a great idea however and I might have to try to incorporate this idea into a virtual geocache in Hattiesburg when I visit my mother.”

“Well, I want to find that Iowa boy and where he's from!!!

Ohhhhh... I actually broke down and became a "premium" member at the geocaching website. One thing I like is they give you something like the state maps, zoomed in (well you zoom in as much as you want), with caches identified by type... then you can click on the map and it lists the 20 closest ones.

It also says it does something called "pocket queries," but I haven't tried that yet. (unless that's what I mentioned above amounts to)

Mostly, I want to find a (said in snooty tone) MEMBERS ONLY cache and log it!! LOL!!”

“Hmm,,,,I have considered the premium membership, but wasn't sure.

Now I will wait and see if you think you are getting your money's worth before I commit.”

“I thought "pocket queeries" hung out at the 30th St Train Station”

“Oooh, we're having Geocache races...gotta get back into it...I think I only have 12 finds or so.”

“Scrap that...I have 20 finds with one First To Find...user wvabackpacker I've never done a WV cache, I think I will over Thanksgiving Break.”

“We launched a travel bug hoping it would go west.

But wouldn't you know it, the damn thing went straight to Buddha Bear''s neighborhood, winding up here .

Oh well, the kids plan on using it next year for a school project, it will be interesting to see where travel takes it.”

“I am sitting on Gumbo Gumby right now. well... not literally. LOL!

I need to break down and get some of those travel bug tags. Better yet, I bet you got a lot. Send me some???? Pretty please?? lol”

“LOL. Ok, I will mail you the tag, you launch the bug, and we will see how long it takes to get to a specific Geocache.

I will send the specs.”

“Coooooooooooolio!!”

“Your travel bug is on the way.”

“Travel on over, bug baby!!

Thanks!! So you have instructions as to where it's to go/ it's mission?”

“No instructions. I left that up to your creativity.”

“Ok, the Trees are now indoctrinated into the geocaching thing. We found our first cache the other day. It was in the park across the street from our house in Staten Island. It was very well hidden in the rocks at the base of a waterfall. Lots of fun. I think this could become a habit!”

“It is addictive.

On my way to take my mother home in Hattiesburg, MS, the kids and I found 7 on the trip down there.”

“Cool, Chili. We were going to go find another one in Snug Harbor, but was already wet from crawling around in the rain near that waterfall. So, we will save it for another time and i am going to look and see if there is one nearby where I am taking the boy scouts in a few weeks...”

“I wanted to go on, but noooo treebeard was afraid of melting in the rain....”

“I have found 61 so far....and I haven't even come close to tapping all the ones in Memphis.”

“Lizs, did you launch your travel bug yet?

I am anxious to track its travels.”

“Nope, heck, I was just catching hell for sitting on a travel bug for a couple months. Which I then put in a NEW CACHE Sunday. Am waiting for it to get approved. I'd like to put your tag on a bug in another new cache. Hope ya can wait!! Would you believe a guy in Preston put a bug in a cache about 4 miles away and on its first pick up it went to Vermont???! BUT... then it got LOST... so it goes...”

“No hurry, just checking.

My brother found one the other day that is on a round the country race.

Began in LA (the California one)with the provision of the race that it had to visit Texas, Florida, Virginia, Michigan, Utah and back home. Apparently there were several launched at one time in LA.

Anyway, his caught the direct flight from LA to Miami, lol.

He was trying to figure out how to get it back to Texas (had to make each of the listed states in order, lol).

Anyway, let me know when it is launched.”

“Sure will. I was thinking of sending him to a specific cache around Memphis. Any ideas? One time I recall a cool travel bug mission. You had to do a riddle to figure out where it needed to go. It ended up having ties to Walt Disney and some hint to a tall cache... actually required some work. FINally I figured out it needed to go a cache near Taum Sauk on MO. Was fun, but maybe a bit much work for some!!

any ideas?”

“Lizs, I will work on it. Maybe by the weekend, I can come up with a cool mission plan for the little critter.”

“Great! Meanwhile, I await the "activation" of my new geocache, Root'N Toot'N... wish they'd hurry up with it, already!!”

“My latest geocache was just approved.

Root'N Toot'N”

“Lizs and Gumbo Gumby, LMAO. That is priceless, lizs.

I hope the little #&%!$er makes it down here.”

“no, no... that is not YOUR travel tag!!!!

Yours still awaits its launch. I had been sitting on Gumbo for two months.”

“I know that. No wonder gumby looked a little blue if you were sitting on him.

I thought the picture of you and gumby was priceless.

I want you to name my travel bug the "big pepper".

LMAO.”

“If you ever get the opportunity to do any geocaching in the French Quarter of New Orleans, take it.

Several outstanding hides there and the virtual caches will force you to take a tour of the out of the way places. Set your zip code search for 70130.”

“I dropped of a micro cache at the I-40 rest area about 70 miles east of Memphis. I go through here at least every two weeks to pick up the kids and for the past few years, I would estimate I go by here 35 to 40 times a year.

I just got an email from the "approval" department that I cant put one here because it is too far from home.

WTF is up with that? Hopefully, once they get my three page email about how often I go there, it will be approved.”

“That might do it. They have to be careful of people that put out caches and never check or maintain them.”

“Good googily moogily ... they have geocaching police?”

“Yes, geobeet, they do.”

“Chiggers, da cops!”

“I looked at geocaching.com. Not sure it interests me at this time, but who knows, it could change.”

“Ok, they approved it, but told me not to place any more that far away until they see how this one works out.

No problem, I know of several places in Marion, AR that are just crying out for geocaches.”

“What I like about Geocaching is it is as hard as you want to make it. There are many, many "drive by" caches...level 1's and 2's. But if you search, you can find some truly challenging level 5 caches. Around here we have caches on Mt Shasta, Mt Eddy and many others that offer a real challenge just to get to, let alone find. I have 3 winter caches that require some serious dedication to reach. If you know the area well, you might get to one or two of them in a day....a very long day. If you can't read a map well (just following the arrow will get you in some serious trouble sometimes) you could easily spent the night out.

The hardest cache I have ever done was one at Grizzly Lake in the Trinity Alps...it took 3 days, 2 days just to get to it.

The irony of that cache is I had to remove it. Geocaching.com had requested that it be removed because it was in a wilderness area.”