Goecaching for Days Continued

Well I tried to blog on Monday using Picasa. It is a photo program made by Google. When I tried to upload to Blogger I lost connection to my router and Picasa decided to lose my draft. Thanks Picasa.

So anyway Saturday we grabbed 10 caches. First we went for a group of 3 where the first 2 had the coords for the third. It was a pretty nice hike but when we had to go off trail it was some of the most dense woods I have ever been in. That took us about 2 hours, so we ate lunch in the cachemobile.

After lunch we went for our first multi. It was a nice easy walk through the park. We were on walking trails until the final then we had to go into the woods where there are Lions and tigers and bears, OH MY! Here is a pic of the first stage...


We followed that up with 4 more. All of them were micros. Now I can understand micros in an urban environment, but when you have acres and acres of woods there really isn't a need for micros. Luckily we didn't trade Awesome to those Gypsies for some handmade beads. (those were some SWEET beads) This kid can smell out micros. We were 10 feet from the cache and he is finding these things. At one point we were at GZ and we yelled at Awesome to get out of a tree and help. As he was coming down he finds the cache.

We finished the day out with a couple of Earth Caches. I love these things.


Sunday we also knocked out 2 on the way to Grandma's for Easter.

Geocaching for Days

So where to begin. Since I can't seem to get my kids to go caching with me I decided to do a little caching after work. Add the fact that they are in a new after school program and they complain if I pick them up too early.

There have been a couple of new caches placed along a road that is about 1 mile away from where I am working. So I decided to go up there Wednesday and knock them out. The first was a cool hide in the side of an overpass. The next wasn't so easy. I don't think I would have found it had it not fallen out when I moved a piece of wood. The container was a little micro with some rocks epoxied to it. I made sure the next guy would have to work to find it. It won't be falling out. One was real clever. It was a fake mushroom that was stuck to a log. I was stumped for a bit, but I figured it out.I logged 6 on this trip. I had to pass 2 by because of muggles. but I went back Thursday and got those.

The highlight of the day was meeting up with another cacher to knock out 2 caches I didn't want to take the kids on. One was Adrenaline Rush, it was pretty extreme. The other was Operation Night Hawk. This one is a night cache. You have to shine a flashlight around and find reflective marks until you find the cache.

I got 2 on Thursday and I thought about snagging one on Friday just to keep the streak going. But I was just too lazy to plan that one.

So I logged 8 in 2 days with Saturday just around the corner. It is going to be a good week.

Geocaching Lull

Cachin' has been slow for me lately. It seems my kids have decided they aren't into caching as much as I am. I think I'll just load up the gps and hit 1 or 2 on my way home from work every day. I've been working overtime and with school 2 nights a week I haven't been able to do that yet.

We did buy an ammo can from the local army surplus store yesterday. I want to get some cammo paint so I can make it look as cool as Hick's. We also bought some swag to put in it. We got some mini motorcycles, some erasers and stuff like that. I an also going to put some Geocaching license kits with the laminating pouches in there. I'll probably put some code wheels in there too. Buttons, is another idea runnin through my head, but I need to shop for an affordable button maker. I have a great idea for the FTF prize but need to iron some things out on that. I'll give more information later.

On another note there is a team in my area named Slowpokes. This couple logged 5 FTF's
in one day! Now that must be some sort of record. If it isn't I bet I could put my twist on it to make it a record. They found: A Prize is Hidden in Black Partridge Park, A Quiet Spot in Eureka, A Quiet Spot Near Secor, A Quiet Place in Roanoke, and A Quiet Spot in ElPaso. Now that is some cachin'! Congrats to Slowpokes. At least someone gets to go out and get some cachin' done

Geocaching Ideas

I didn't make it out today to do any caching. I hope to get out tomorrow but.....

So I wonder if I can do a pocket query on "Park and Grabs" You know I hear they are like the "Drive-thru of Geocaches" I am growing to love these more and more.

I found a blog that contains some really cool ideas to enhance geocaching. It is tittled "Renzo's Custom Cache" and they describe Their blog as "Martha Stewart meets Geocaching"

They have lots of great ideas like geocache trading cards, Geocache license, and a cool decoder wheel for those mystery caches.

They have pdf files for alot of the items and links to other sites for things like the cache cards.

On another note:

Why, when I am composing a blog does Blogger underline words like Blog Blogger Blogging as if they were misspelled? You would think Blogger wouldn't tell you it's own name is misspelled. Just a thought. I'm just throwing it out there.

Not Geocaching but still very very Important

The President and Department of Homeland Security held a press conference today. It is very very important that everyone listens to what Pres. Bush has to say! Forward this to all your friends and family. This is a very real threat and we must be prepared for an attack of this kind! Please watch this video and if you need more info check HERE.



geocaching

Geocaching or Work?

Does anyone ever have to decide between caching or work. Sometimes I wonder if people in my area have jobs. It never fails I'll get an e-mail that there is a new cache in the area. Of course I have to work the next morning. Or better yet it gets published while I'm at work. So I'll check if anyone found the cache. And the FTF log will read something like this:

"I was laying around the house and I received the e-mail there was a new cache. So I summoned my driver to get the Caddy (hm hm hm I felt like slumming it today). My driver took me to the coords. We got to GZ and it was in a tree so Jefferies knelt down whilst I climbed upon his back to retrieve the cache. etc........"

I think I need to hire "people" to do my caching for me. I'll still be there, I just need like a spotter for those times I can't spot the cache. Then I'll sign the log and we'll be on our way. Or better yet a cache guard dog. You know one to protect the cache until I get there to claim the FTF prize.


Anyway I got 2 new cache e-mails last night. They were both along the route I take to work. So I loaded them into my GPS and went to bed. (not that I could sleep)

I went for the first on my way to work. It was an urban micro. Sadly I came up empty. It did feel good to know only 3 people logged finds. I'm sure I was there before all of them!

The next one I hit on my way home. It was along Kickapoo Creek. (If you are from my area you will know what I'm talking about) There are a lot of bluffs along said creek. This cache should have been named "Remember how out of shape you are" So I climbed up the bluff that is at an 89 degree angle. Nearly dead I found GZ.

I found nothing! It was overcast and raining so my GPS was all over the place. I spend about 30 minutes looking for the cache. I didn't want to give up but I had to pick the kids up at some point. I was just about to head down the hill when I decided to check over the first place I looked. After looking really hard I found the cache about an arms length down a log. I grabbed it. It was a cool container made from pvc. I opened it up and in all my cockiness I thought "What no FTF prize?" I flip the logbook to the first page and guess what? Someone else had snagged the FTF at 8:30 this morning. Somewhat disappointed I signed the log, replaced the cache and headed down the hill. Well it was more like a controlled fall.

Kudos to the guy who logged both of the FTFs. There truly are no hard feelings. I'll have my day, someday

So my first 2 FTF tries came up empty. I guess I just need to call in next time there is a new cache. I think I'll hide a cache then claim the FTF on it. I bet it's been done before!

Geocaching World Records Smashed!

That's right! This weekend all kinds of World Records were smashed by yours truly. Sadly the Guinness people were nowhere to be found. But the sound of these records being smashed could be heard for, literally, hundredths of feet.

Saturday, it was a balmy 35 degrees out so we hit a local park that had six or seven caches. Most of the caches were pretty easy but one. I decided to make it a four star terrain. Not to mention as we were climbing the "Illinois" mountains the melting snow made them rather slick. So we came home a little muddy but logged 6 caches. That was a record smashing day. We broke the "Most caches logged in February while driving my white Trailblazer, while wearing sunglasses, while wearing work boots that I replaced because they weren't waterproof, and stopping by KFC for lunch afterwards" record.

Here is a pic of the kids playing at the park.



Today we smashed yet another record. We hit a whopping 7 for 8 today. Which is the "Most caches found in a day when visiting a reservoir, in February, while chewing mint mojito gum, during a week where there was a lunar eclipse and the same week the kids get midterm grades" record. It's true, look it up.

So what is the total for the weekend?

Um, yes, you, dead possum we found on our porch.....
Oh wait you're dead you can't talk.

13

So I guess I need to award some points ummmm 265 million points if you got that right.

Anyway we logged 7 today. A couple took us to an old reservoir which was pretty cool
This reservoir is no longer used but the dam (sorry mom) is still there. There is also dam grass, dam trees, dam birds, dam fences, etc...
here are the kids with the back side of the spillway in the background


Here is a pic of one of the caches we found today


We did have 1 DNF for the whole weekend but overall we had a great time. There were quite a few ammo cans to be found. Which is always nice!

Here are a couple cool pictures I wanted to share!

If you missed it on Wednesday there was a lunar eclipse


And this is what happens when you shoot a hot burn barrel with a squirt gun

Geocache Handicapping

I've decided there should be some sort of handicapping for geocaching. Hick@Heart posted a question in Groundspeak Forums about "How many caches have you found in one day?" People responded anywhere form 7 to 114. 114! Are you kidding? Then I got this picture from Hick@Heart



Now here in Illinois there is nothing like this. This is borderline ridiculous.

This is the reasoning behind my Caching Handicap. You are given a handicap in bowling, as well as golf. If I had actually calculated my handicap in these 2 sports, it would definitely be a large number.

So I haven't come up with the exact formula but I think it should take into account:

1: number of caches per square mile, because as shown in the picture there are quite a few compared to here, where besides a few parks with about 4 to 5 caches in it you have to drive to the next cache.

2:Difficulty of these caches, because there is no way that any of those pictured can be more than a 2 difficulty. Or maybe they all are, but I doubt it!

3:Type of GPSr being used, some GPSr don't have as much memory as others. All those waypoints could fill up some GPSr.

Even Muggles shouldn't be a factor in this scenario. If there is a muggle by the cache you just move 50 feet to the next one.

Realistically there is only one way for me to resolve this problem! I am going to have to go on vacation to Hick's house for a week. We'll drop the wives and kids off at Disneyland while we log 500 caches. How bout it Hick?

Park and Grabs

Park and grabs are great! There is nothing better when the wind chill is -18 than being able to pull the cachemobile up to within 10 feet of a cache. It's basically the drive-thru of geocaching.



Today we braved the weather to grab a couple caches. I had to run down to the bustling utopia of East Peoria. Being the MicroMaster that I am I decided to take out a few of the umpteen million micros in my area. So I whipped up 3 caches that are right along the road.

The first one was about 50 feet from the car. The area was slightly flooded yet frozen. So I walked around while the kids skated across the ice. Ground Zero was a little clump of trees. We looked for about thirty seconds when the Mrs. said "Here it is!" We did a quick inventory and realized that we had no pen. So we took the cache to the cachemobile signed the log and I braved the wind alone to replace the cache.

Next we pulled into a parking lot and towards the back was a pay phone kiosk with no phone in it. I figured that had to be it. I didn't even get the GPSr out! I pulled up next to it and the Mrs. hopped out. After a little looking she found it. She hopped back into the car, we signed the log, then she replaced it.

The third, we decided to pass on because of the cold.

I am now no longer intimidated by micros, as long as the Mrs. comes along. I think she has more actual "finds" than I do.

That's only because I am too busy looking at the GPSr to look for the caches! (that's my excuse and i'm sticking to it!)

In other news I scored a Palm M105 on ebay for $2.39



so I can try to do paperless caching. I should get it this week. I will definitely have fun with that thing!

My Battle With Microsiscannotfindus

If you have read my older posts you would know that I have had some problems locating micros. Upon further review I have noticed that I have in fact found a total of 5 micros.

You may think "5 huh, this guy must have problems finding micros. I feel sorry for him. Although I shouldn't feel too bad since he was blessed with such stunning good looks."

Well thanks, for the compliment. You aren't so bad looking yourself. (wink wink)

ANYWAY, lets get down to the nitty gritty of the numbers. If you are observant you would notice that I have logged 15 caches. Now, take 5 (the number of micros) and divide it by 15 (total number of caches found) and tell me what you get.


I'll Wait......


You get .333333333333333333333
If you got it give yourself 22 points. If you are in Tennessee give yourself an extra 5!

Do you know what this means?



MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM Gravy!!!

NO!

This means that 1 out of every 3 caches I've found is a stinkin' micro. Now what am I going to complain about?

But all is not lost this is good news considering the micro-to-any other size cache ratio is about 15 to 1 in my area.

So for your listening pleasure I am posting 2 of my favorite micros I've found so far enjoy!

Sledding and Caching

It has been a slow couple of weekends for me and Caching. We scored an Earthcache last weekend when we went to Morton to go sledding. We went to a park where we had found a couple of caches. There was a pretty good sized hill there. The first time we were there, there was no snow but the kids wanted to roll down the hill. So when we got 8 inches of snow I decided to take the kids.

First things first we had to get an Earth Cache that we found before but had forgotten the camera. Not this time. We showed that EC who was boss!



Then we went sledding. Sadly it was cut short when Awesome took a sled to the face from his brother.



So that was our day. We had fun for the most part

Solo Caching

Today I was given the day off because there was"no work."

Actually there is work but the guy I'm working with was having a colonoscopy. I'll let him work solo on that one.

So with my free time guess what I did.

Got my oil changed!


I bet u thought I went Caching. Well I did that too! so 7 1/2 points to those who answered Caching.

I decided that since I didn't have any little Tinmen running around I would go re-visit some DNFs. But first I went for a cache I had not tried yet. It is located in a park in town.

The cache is a micro. I haven't been too lucky with micros but i was feeling pretty good about my caching ability so I wasn't scared! This was a pretty easy one. My GPSr took me to the farthest reaches of the park (about 50 yards from my truck) The only thing in the area was a signpost and some weeds. Hmmmmmmmmmmm. There was a reflector on the signpost. I moved this reflector and located the cache. The cache was easy to find but getting the log out proved to be a little more difficult. The container was a chapstick thingy and the log was rolled up inside. After a short wrestling match and a few power bombs I got the log out.


I signed the log and replaced the cache.

The next one I went to was one that I tried before but didn't get. It is located by the local CVS where my sister-in-law-in-law (my brother-in-law's wife) works. She knew where it was because they can see when people find it. I looked where she told me but alas it wasn't there. I don't know what is going on with this one. I logged a DNF. Maybe the owner will help me out.

The last one was a multi-cache that ends at a bridge. Well I looked and looked and looked but Like the guy in Spaceballs said

So, I logged a DNF for this one. I guess I'll wait until another person finds it, then go look again.

So there you have it, Not my best day. But not my worst. Sure beats laying on the couch eating cheetos and watching Oprah. (Not that I have ever done that)

Over the River

On Sunday we decided to go visit Grandma. So since I am addicted to Cachin' I looked up caches that are on the way to Grandma's house. I picked out 4. 3 of which are located in the huge metropolis that is known as Brimfield. And the other is in another huge community that goes by the name of Williamsfield (or Billtown)

We went to go find our first, Which is by the place "The Brother Of Tinman" works. It was located in a cemetery (not where he works) . We followed the GPSr to the back corner where there was a tree stump. We looked all around it but found nothing. I remembered there were a couple DNFs logged recently so we decided to take a DNF and move on. Had I remembered from the logs that it wasn't in the obvious spot we may have found it somewhere else. We'll have to go back and get this one.

Next we went to was a micro, but it was in the area so I figured we would try for it. This one took us to another graveyard . We followed the road around and my GPS r was reading 10 feet. This gives new meaning to park and grab.There was a tree right there so we started looking around it. We found nothing. We kept looking around but came up empty. Just as we were about to give up I spotted it hanging in the tree. We signed toe log and headed out.

Third on the list was located near the road and a creek. I parked and we all hopped out. I walked right up to it. It was kinda tricky to retrieve. It was located at my feet right at a drop off into a creek. Right after I grabbed it we could hear a muggle mobile heading towards us. I pocketed the cache and pretended to point out something to the kids. We signed the log and replaced the cache.

Our last cache of the day was in Williamsfield. As we pulled up to this one Mrs. Tinman spotted it from the road. This one was well guarded. There was a State Trooper across the street and a "guard" dog in the yard. She made a quick retrieval, signed the log, logged the travel bug, and off to grandma's we went

Changing a Lightbulb

How many Tinmans does it take to change a light bulb?

None! We stand back and say, "That's Electricman's job!"

But that doesn't apply to changing the light bulb on my 02 Chevy Trailblazer. What ever happened to an "easy light bulb change" when it applies to your vehicle? Remember when you had to replace the whole headlight when it burnt out? We were all so happy when some Engineer came up with the idea to just change the light bulb.



It was so nice and easy to lift your hood, reach in behind the light, twist the bulb, and pull it out. What happened to this super simple idea? Have you noticed parts places don't advertise free bulb replacement anymore? They probably don't do free battery replacement. I had a Volkswagen Passat that needed a new battery and the guy at the store told me, "There is an extra fee if you want us to install this battery." Which didn't surprise me once I started to change the battery.

But back to the point. I had to replace a bulb on my truck. It was unbelievable.

If you have a Trailblazer, listen up, here is how you change your light bulb.

First, I had to remove a plastic trim.

Then I had to remove the grill. That's right the entire grill.


After that I had to lift 2 metal sliders that held the headlight assembly. (actually a pretty smart design)

Then I had to remove 3 sets of wires from the headlight assembly. You know those pain in the but clips that have the tiny tab you have to push down to get them to release.

Finally the assembly comes out. all that is left is to remove the weather seal and twist the light bulb out .

Here is my truck disassembled


Oh ya I forgot to mention that it was about 4 degrees out when I did this. So hopefully I helped one person to change their light bulb on their truck. If not oh well I still made you read this whole blog.

Caching in the cold

So, the fam and I are just laying around the house Sunday afternoon. It was about 13 degrees outside. I was bored! So what do I do on the weekends when I'm bored? Geocaching! That's right! 15 more points for those of you who got points on my last blog. I hopped on good ol Geocaching.com
and snagged a few caches. We bundled up (because it's cold Josh) and headed for the first cache. The first one was by a Jeep dealership and is said to contain a couple Jeep travel bugs. We got to the parking area and I hopped out to get my GPSr ready. I told the Fam to stay in the truck to keep warm. (I know, nice aren't I) I found some satellites and we headed out across a field. We got to a wooded area, and kept following the heading. I decided to try something my father once told me.

He said, "Don't hit your brother!"
Sorry wrong flashback.

He said, "Once you get within 20 feet stop and let your GPSr settle down."
So I did this. About this time Totter yells out "Here it is!"
and there it was.



Sadly though there were no Jeep travel bugs. There was however another TB we said "HI" and signed the log and were on our way

Our next stop had about 20 TBs and/or Geocoins. We had no problem finding this one it was about 30 feet into the woods. Once I spotted it's hiding place, I stopped to let one of the kids make the find. Awesome found it in no time.



We signed the log and looked at all the TBs Then we took off.

Our last stop was an Earth Cache. So all we had to do was find a big rock and take a picture of it. Sounds easy right? Well if you know me I like to make things more difficult than they need to be. I pulled into the parking lot where I thought this thing would be but we didn't see it. I looked at the map on my GPSr and it looked like we were on the wrong side of the highway. So as we are about to pull out of the parking lot Mrs. Tinman says"Is that it?" and sure enough there was the rock. Minus Sean Connery and Nic Cage. We ran over and got the pic.



3 for 3 two weeks in a row. I'm getting good at this. I am starting to use more instinct than relying solely on my GPSr. It also helps to have a small army to search in a grid pattern. hope you enjoyed my new blog be sure to read my old blogs if you havn't already