nutkin81

Wow! I'm glad Cerberus explained that - I was like what the heck is a PQ? and GSAK? The link to the list of oldest ones is really cool. I will have to keep that one! As there is one in Boston which is on our itinerary! And yeah - I keep contemplating becoming premium member - I did buy the app, so I'm upgraded on that, but every time I go out and don't FIND it, I get discouraged. So I haven't totally sold myself on being premium yet. As a family we keep saying "this is supposed to be fun" but after searching for 30+ minutes without finding anything, we are all grumpy. I will say this weekend, even though we did not find the what was an "obvious" cache and should take less than 15 minutes to find... we did explore the woods a bit and found a pool (would not call it a pond) of tadpoles and eggs - so we took some home and put them in our pond. So we didn't leave without some gratification, but after looking at the photos of all the folks that found this one.... we still feel a lil dumb. Now as long as the eggs don't turn into snake heads we are all good!

So first I'd like to suggest a category easier than easy: caching for dummies! Because yes, while you will notice that we did manage to find some cache's we are still dumbfounded when we get to "easy" ones with comments like "takes less than a minute" and we still can not find them!!!! ARGH!!! But more importantly - let me ask - if you are taking a road trip do you plan your trip around caches or do you just like open your App and find nearby caches while you are on the road? We recently went to Chincoteague and when we got there we obviously opened the app and found a few caches. However, on the way home, we didn't quite figure out a method of caching - we did stop for lunch and found one there - but along the roadway - we just didn't quite plan ahead maybe? I kept opening the app, but there seemed to be no method to the madness so we drove by several and didn't stop. So what kind of planning do you do on roadtrips? We will be going from Annapolis to Wareham Massachusetts this summer. Any tips, good caches we must see? etc? Hoping to get at least a state badge for every state we travel through.... just haven't wrapped my head around the planning (I get distracted/overwhelmed easily). Thanks for any tips! Nut

Thanks again all for being so welcoming and friendly. I still have NOT found that stupid cache. We've been back like 6 times and just can not find it. I'm thinking it might be the snow. From the clues and comments it "should" be there. But I went ahead and marked "did not find" and perhaps someone will comment that I was just being dumb. And I'll give it another whirl. *sigh* BUT - my son takes Parkour in the city so while he was in Parkour I went and scoped out some nearby cache's and found 3! So then I took him back and let him find them..... I will say one location I was a lil skeptical - it was hidden near an ATM machine. And there was a camera there - - I'm sure they were watching us lurk around, probably thinking we were going to rob someone. After we felt comfortable and proud with finding 3 in the city. We went right back to the strip mall - but still didn't find it. I'm betting it's the snow. Or perhaps it's gone. Hindsight I probably should have waited till spring, but we at least know we can find them in the city and there are tons in the city - so that's a good thing! Nuts

Thanks all!! I have located another one close by that says it is so easy you should be able to find it in 1 minute or less....... comments showed that most people found it fairly quickly - only one took 5 minutes. SO - hopefully I can find it in under 10 minutes. and I won't take things apart.... .my bad - I just wasn't sure! :)I'm sure the muggles thought I was mad....... I just read the comments for the one in the strip mall and folks are saying things like they saw it as soon as they pulled into the lot!!! *sigh* I'm going to do a dry run of the find in under 1 minute without my son and then if I find it, take him back and let him find it....... cross your fingers! I am so excited to try this like EVERYWHERE! On vacation and travels etc..... I just have to get everyone else as excited! Thanks Again! Wish me luck! Nuts

So - I learned about this geocaching from a friend. I mean, I had always heard the word and I thought it was just people walking around the woods and finding flags. But BOY was I wrong. It's like Awesomeness and a great family activity. However, I have to admit after downloading the free basic member version for my Iphone, I was ready to go find my first cache! I convinced my son, he's 8, that this would be fun, the weather was a bit warmer and we'd been stuck inside for days. He was a little leary, but eventually agreed. Then he thought we'd get arrested for loitering. He's such an paranoid OCD lil dude..... Well - we searched and searched and searched - - and I had to convince him to give up. He kept saying "no we can't leave until we find it!" Luckily it's in the same strip mall that he goes to Tae Kwon Do in so we have multiple chances to look again......but I'm wondering if maybe I don't quite know what I am looking for? If I'm reading the compass wrong? OR? It was a fairly simple one, in a strip mall type place - "easy park and find" - and I believe it was small with only a log book. The clue said we would not have to dig in the bushes - so I assume that meant snow was not a problem. But maybe I am wrong. My son was mortified as I took apart the trash can and the smoking can; I probably didn't have to do that, did I? So are all cache boxes the same looking? Or could it be any container? I did look online and the last time it was found was February 8, so I assume it's still there. This is going to take some trial and error isn't it? Any advice or help would be great! I now have my son at least thinking it is fun, but we have yet to find anything. Any first timer tips, advices etc would be GREAT! Thanks so much! nut