Belplasca

Oh. Aren't you supposed to do that? I logged finds on a number of caches yesterday, and I brought the logs sheets/books from seven of them home to read. Umm, did I mention that these are all my own caches, and I put in new sheets/books because the others were full or wet??? (And I was logging "finds" because I have taken them over, and hadn't found them before...) Bob Aldridge

Well, I mentioned him in another thread, and I'm still here. DodgyDaveD posted a follow-up message mentioning Sunningdale... Bob Aldridge

Well, I found it through Robin Lovelock's website... Found my first (FTF) cache without a GPSr. Soon afterwards I went to a Bucks meet, and met Robin plus Dan, Pid, Tim & June, The Hornet and many more... Bob Aldridge PS Hope this doesn't get me banned for mentioning him :-) )

You want an argument? That's in the next room...

As another previous record holder, I'd like to add my congratulations. This sort of thing takes a LOT of planning and a lot of stamina to carry out the plan - though it must help to have more than one car driver on the attempt (I did it solo...) So, very well done! I'm sure that your record will stand for a lot longer than mine did! Bob Aldridge

Well, I'm off to Imber, and there's a nice, shiny new Mystery that I can grab on the way Then I'll be consuming huge quantities of the usual fare at my sister's in Poole... Hope you all have a good one - whether you get out caching or not! Bob

One of the few "Congratulations" threads that I've bothered to read! Well done! A true milestone Bob

Well, I am currently in possession of two EU Geocoins that I picked up from caches. They have aims related to botanical subjects and I've taken one to Germany and Portugal and the other just to Portugal so far on their quests, but I'm planning to return them into circulation soon so others can take them onwards... Bob Aldridge

Exactly! Bob

And I'll be staying with Magellan! Not least because I love the way that I can transfer my maps / Routes / Waypoints straight to the SD card using a card reader, which is MUCH quicker than connecting through the cabled interface... This, of course, only applies to the Meridian models, not the Sportracks. Oh, and the Directroute mapping even gives street routing on my handheld GPSr... No spoken directions, but it works remarkably well - well enough to be used in a car to get to the cache. Bob Aldridge

If you don't have the basemap then the Mapsend products will be lacking in town names and other details... I keep both North American and European basemaps on my SD card, and can swap them fairly easily... Bob Aldridge

I've never had a Garmin, but I have used three Magellans: a Sportrack, a Meridian Platinum and a meridian Gold. All were great under tree cover - keeping a reasonably accurate lock when nearby Garmins had given up. They do seem to suffer from an "overshooting" problem - until you discover that, when the Magellan says you are still 100 feet from the cache, you are actually pretty much there. The solution is to start looking for likely spots once you are within 100 feet. The GPS will gradually show you to be closer - even if you've stopped! I've also used a couple of SIRF III chipset units with my iPAQ and they also keep lock well in adverse conditions (except over the weekend when my Bluetooth unit had to be forced to do a cold start before it would believe that the satellites weren't all lined up in a straight line... ) Bob Aldridge

My Magellan Meridian hads been giving me that for years! <runs for cover> (and still gets reception...) Bob Aldridge

I did exactly what you describe when I got my EU coins. Sent a message to GC.com and it was sorted before I hit "Send". Well, almost! It was very fast, anyway! Thanks Kerry (Groundspeak Inc) Bob Aldridge

Right. I'll do that, then. After all the postage shouldn't be too much for you to send it to me, should it? Bob Aldridge

...and it arrived over the weekend. Many thanks Bob, much appreciated. Peter No! Thank YOU! It gives the phrase "Thanks for the cache" a whole new meaning! [] Bob

I've taken over a few caches, and made a few changes to the listings to reflect the change, whilst still honouring the original placer. I've simply tacked something like "maintained by Belplasca" on the end of the "placer" line. One of these just happened to be the first cache placed by "The Hornet", and coincidentally the log book was full. I've put a new book in the cache, and sent the old one to The Hornet as a souvenir. But I scanned it first, and you can find it at www.Belplasca.org.uk... Quite a few well known cachers have graced it's pages since March 2002! Bob Aldridge

Sorry to hear about your problem. I was slightly concerned today when I decided to go on from one cache to another, having left my cabriolet with the roof down... But all was well when I got back to it, and I even did a third cache with it in the same place... And it didn't even rain. The only "intrusions" were a couple of leaves Bob Aldridge

Well, mine seems to be about Traditional Caches* 241 = 66% Multi 75 = 20% Virtual Caches* 5 = 2% Event Caches* 17 = 5% Unknown (Mystery) Caches* 22 = 6% Locationless (Reverse) Caches* 1 = 0.3% Earthcaches* 1 = 0.3% Total 362 But what I really go for is FTF. According to GeocacheUK I have 153 0r 45%... Bob Aldridge

I've never organised an event cache, but I did recently put on a Congress for nearly 400 3-D prhotographers over almost a weeklong period... The golden rule, as far as I am concerned is to remembr that they are all coming to have a good time. They are NOT coming to jeer or laugh at you if it goes wrong! They WILL all muck in to sort it out if something goes wrong! So, do your absolute level best to get the organisation right, but certianly don't worry yourself into an early grave! It's only a hunt for a lunchbox or pub or whatever! Bob Aldridge

Coming in a bit late cos I've been out of the Geocaching circuit organising a 3-D congress, but that's over now (I'm exhausted, but it went well) so count me in too! Bob

Another first cache FTF here. And well over a hundred more since... Bob Aldridge

There's a nice little town, more or less in the middle of England, called - err - Woodstock. Perhaps if your meet was in that area, you could call it "Geo meet, Woodstock" or something similar. Surely no-one would object to that, if that was where it was? Bob ALdridge

Me? Take great offense? Ha! I like to think that I know how to keep things pretty much in perspective, And, right now, your small soft toy is not as important to me as several hundred 3-D photographers descending on Eastbourne next month and expecting to be give a printed program for which I have to give the printers a Quark File by the end of this week... And then I have to finalise several shows for the gathering etc etc etc (I'm sure you don't need to know all of this, but I mention it just to illustrate why I'm not trotting off to my local cache and depositing your little piggy! It will be released into the wild at some point. It's just thet it's really not going to be today. Or tomorrow! Patience is a card game. Or something. Oh no! I think I've lost the plot... Bob

Of course I'll move it on. But, as this is only a game, I really don't see it with the smae importance that you do. And since this is just one of many with that number, you can't say you're not getting your money's worth out of the bug tag! :-) I will mopve it on "as soon as possible" but, in my case at the moment, that might be a little longer than you would like. One un-answered e-mail, and you ask obout "outing"! Do you need to "lighten up" a little? :-) regards Bob Aldridge