GeoMom

I just renewed today. Membership is not due to expire for another week. (Around May 6th) Now it says that it expires on 11 April 2012! I tried to email a question about this, and the page says to type in the "special words". There aren't any and no place to type it in - so email cannot be sent to them. What the heck happened? I have been a premium member for 10 years and it seems each year there is an issue when I try to give them more of my money! Any bright ideas on how to contact them?

I have a Garmin Rino 120 and I had no problem caching in Europe - even in the city with lots of big buildings around. I did have to reorient it, just like I have to when I go more than a good distance away from home. (maybe a couple of hundred miles?? I forget how far it is recommended to reorient it...)

There is a cacher around this area that uses a contraption that embosses his sig on the page - something like a notary would use. It's pretty cool.

I met my geo-buddy at a cache. She was caching alone. Since I want to go caching on a nice day when my husband is at work, I have gone out by myself too. After getting the creeps a couple of times, I contacted my new geo-buddy and asked her if she wanted a geo-buddy. We have been out once (5 finds) and plan another trip soon.

I Have a Rino 120 as well. It has been kinda of loony lately too. I'm chalking it up to my inexperience. My son is coming home from college next week. I'm going to have him take a look at it and compare it to his Rino. His is the next step up - a 130?

I had the same question for England. I put the question on the UK board and the answer I got was to try Streetmap.co.uk I plugged in addresses and got the reply in the standard Long/Lat, but only to two decimals. That should be good enough to find the big castle down the street.

Thanks. I did that and found nearby caches. I wasn't sure how "pin pointed" UK postal codes were. (it appears that they are address specific). Here in the states, when you put in the zip code for my city, the caches are shown the distance from the eastern city limits - not from the center of town - a mile or two makes a big difference if you are hoofing it. Our zip codes can cover a very large geographic area. Anyway, I also wanted to waypoint landmarks for touring and the streetmap site filled the bill. Thanks again, Keith!

Thanks Keith and Tigger for the super fast answer and the tips! I am certainly going to try and find time to sneak out and find some caches while I am there. GeoMom aka Sue

Can anyone help me fiind the coordinates for an address in London? I will be visiting there this summer from the states. I won't have much time for caching, as I will be supervising my Girl Scout Troop. I hope to do a web search based on the corrdinates of where we are staying, so I can log at least one or two nearby finds. The address is: 12C Lyndhurst Road, London, NW3 5PQ I understand we will be near Hamstead Heath. Is the place huge or can I plan on taking 1/2 hour to run out and grab a cache?

I've been thinking about getting a premium, but it would be nice to test drive it first. Put my name in the hat too!

My husband and I found another woman looking for a cache when we arrived at one last summer. It just dawned on me this past week when I went out caching alone, that I should contact her and see if she wanted to have a cache partner. It's never a good idea to cache alone, especially women. I sent her an email and she wants to buddy up when the weather gets warmer. I made a new geo-friend!

I love caching, but can't get out as often as I'd like. I guess Genealogy would be near the top. Isn't it just another form of caching anyway? Instead of swag, you find dead ancestors! (now, if they only left the coords for where they were buried, then we'd really have something here!) Girl Scouts, travel, crafting all sorts of useless stuff, camping.

My husband has a Nextel and he needed a bit of maintenance on it, so he took it into the distributor. They offered to install the GPS software for free, which he did. Now, being winter and over a foot of snow on the ground, we haven't used it yet for caching. He did fire it up and I fired up my Rino and his accuracy was reported at about 7 feet, while the Rino reported 21 feet. Soooo, I guess we just have to wait and see, but caching with two units should increase the overall accuracy. It's still fun...

I went out this morning, hoping to be a FTF'er. Someone beat me to it, but interestingly enough, their tracks were not near the cache (?). They signed the log book this morning and there were tracks in the area, but how the heck did they do it without leaving tracks at the cache site? I did leave tracks and I walked around quite a bit, but it will be pretty obvious where the cache is anyway. Big snowfall predicted for tonight, so only the people going out today will get clues from MY tracks.

Ok. Where do you people live, that you see spiders like this? I have to make sure to cross that place off my list. Most critters don't bother me, but huge spiders? NOOOO WAYYY! The little ones are bad enough in Michigan! I think the biggest spider I have ever seen in the U.S. was only about 2 inches from the end of it's sticky little foot to the other. I don't wanna see anything bigger!

As a mom that probably has homemade play-doh permanently imbedded under my fingernails, I don't think home made dough is a good idea. In the warmer months (or in a warmer climate year-round) that dough is going to grow all kinds of science projects, since there are no preservatives in it. Flour dough will still have a scent to animals, although baking soda might not. Go to the dollar store. They ususally have those mini cans in a package of 4 or so. It's easier and safer and still inexpensive.

My husband has a GPS on his Nextel. I don't know how or if this will affect Geocaching in any way, but it should certainly increase our accuracy when we try finding a cache or hiding one! (I have a RINO 120)

I saw a post last week too, that I can't find anymore. In a post under an unknown topic, somebody had a link to a web page that had TONS of GeoCaching links - like stores and such. I was looking at it and getting lots of ideas, but then I had to leave the computer. The computer was shut down before I could bookmark it. I even looked through my history and STILL couldn't find it. If anyone knows what the url was, please post it! GeoMom

I remember playing outside (on weeknights) until the streetlights came on. Going out to my aunts farm to get field corn, taking it home to get the kernels off, and tossing it on neighbors aluminum awnings on Devil's night. And my Dad taking us out on our first Devil's night to show us "how it's done". Sitting on the skateboard and sliding down the "big hill" because we were all too chicken to stand up. - then hitting the big bump at the bottom of the hill and scraping your knee. My Mom sitting on the front porch, waiting for me to come home from school. Then going to the drugstore for a hot dog lunch and lemonaid. Sometimes Mom would make too much in the shake machine and I would get the leftovers. Getting a job so I could buy my own first car! Camping with a sleeping bag that wasn't warm enough, and having my dad find big rocks and warming them in the fire to put in the bags with us. (I still remember this and I was only 3 years old!) All of the camping trips with a smelly canvas tent! My favorite book was "Tonys Treasure Hunt", where you hid clues that went from place to place. We played this all the time. My brother would make clues for me and I would do it for him. I guess this was one of the first multi caches! Wonder why I love GCing? Gosh, there is so much that you have brought to mind. I still do lots of things that I enjoyed as a kid. I love showing kids how to hypnotize a frog and to enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of the forest. I wish GC came around just a little bit sooner. We did introduce it to our son when he was about 14, but he doesn't GC much anymore (19 now) even though he has upgraded his GPS three times, now to a Rino 130. If we would have been able to start it earlier, we might have had more great memories of it. Now it's just GeoMom and GeoDad!

I have been looking into having a coin made, but it's too much $$ right now. I was looking into the wooden nickels, but ... Anyway, I was at City Hall today and they just got their fresh shipment of dog tags in. (You know, for Fido). The clerk gave me the ordering info. The price is pretty darn cheap. I know the coin will look it, but $31 for 100 - and numbered to boot? I think I may take the chance. If I leave the center blank, I can come up with something cool to put there. The place that she told me about doesn't sell on their website, but I found another company at www.nationalband.com, that sells them too. If I remember correctly, they can stamp BOTH sides for around $25 extra. Just thought I'd share my discovery! ENjoy!

I bought my Rino 120 from my son when he bought the 130. As I turn on the Rino, it decides to shut itself off. This happened repeatedly. The GPSr was 1 month out of warranty. I called Garmin and asked how much to get it fixed. They said send it in, we'll take care of it. They ended up sending me a brand new GPSr AND a car power cord! ($50 at REI)! THAT's what I call service!

One of the Civic groups in town were selling them at a town festival for a fund raiser. When the kids lost all of the marshmellows, they found gumballs, rocks - whatever they could find to shoot off. Needless to say the PD had quite a collection of them late in the afternoon after lots of people complained of getting hurt. The ironic thing about this - guess who was selling them? The Lions Club! (you'll put an eye out with one of those things, Ralphie!) --- for those that don't get this - the Lions Club big thing is raising fund for the blind

I think we have all experience the occasional stick in the eye. I have tried wearing sunglasses, but it seems as soon as I take them off to search for the cache - boink!! Right in the eye! The worst I have had is last week when I walked into a low barbed wire fence. Called the doc and found out that the tetnus shot was up to date!

Thanks! I wanted to have a record of everywhere I went too!

I have lurked off and on (more off than on!) for quite some time. Thanks for taking my call. Long time listener..... First (or second) time poster! I really like the forum to get more out of the game!