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