MustangPhreak&Phate

ChrisS, think you are right... Pooh and the etrex might look better swapping sides. oh and could you 'fix' the big one too? Thanks soo much!! McWeb, we still liked yours too, just with different colors. Thanks to both!

That's cool too ChrisS! Okay, just one (maybe two requests) can it be a Etrex Legend? OR, If you could find a Pony (Mustang) that would fit, that would be great substitute. Either way we like both of the yinyangs we have seen so far! THANKS!

McWeb, looks pretty cool but could you (or someone else) possibly make the blue and green a little darker? Also, I'm thinking that our whole name might be too smooshed on the smaller one when used as an avater.. is there anyway you could just put MP&P on that one. No biggie either way, thanks so much for the attempt!!

Us too please! If easiet the yinyang could just be made with a splash of GC colors....

We're with Divine on this one... We'd rather see the true spoiler in the encrypted hint than on the cache page. That way if you really want to try to find it on your own first then you can. Kind of like spoiler pics that sometimes accompany cache listing, you don't have to look at them but if you know it's going to be quite a hike and don't want to be frustrated once you arrive at the destination you could peek at them before you leave. We'd hunt it either way, especially if the view was worth it!

Just posted another one yesterday! It's been raining the last couple of days but at the first site of sunshine off we went. Unfortunately the area was so muddy, and we were not appropriately dressed, that the hunt had to be aborted. But we looked and didn't find. <<sigh>> We just don't see the 'shame' in a DNF, it happens.

Whooops! Hi Debnmil and welcome to a great pasttime! (sport/hobby/adventure, whatever you choose to call it!) As you can probably already tell you just opened a whole can of worms! The debate about stats is a long-standing issue and you will probably see some quite passionate comments about it. Don't take any of this personally, it is certainly not aimed at you specifically. As was already mentioned you can check out keenpeople.com but doubt that it will give you much of an idea. In fact in for our area last time we checked it was mostly only the 'high numbers' folks that were listed.. don't let that discourage you! Also I believe I saw somewhere that some of the local groups keep stats but one of the more experienced forum regulars would probably be more help to you there. Anyway, just wanted to welcome you to the sport and warn you not to take any responses that might seem harsh personally. I only recently started posting and for the most part still lurk but the forums can sometimes be a rough place. Good luck to you! BTW - If you are interested in seeing what all the hallabaloo is about you can do a search on "Leaderboard" or "stats" and that should give you ample reading. Enjoy.

Wow, what awesome avatars!! We have been trying to toss around a few ides for a new avater/signature card graphic but have been falling short..maybe one of you amazingly artistic minds could come up with something for us. One of our favorite books is "The Tao of Pooh" (see current avatar) and our signature item is a YinYang Necklace (for now). Perhaps someone could come up with a cool GC related YinYang? Thanks in advance if anyone happens to bite.

Hey there ostrom808.. actually you should only have one 'Found ' per cache (except under special circumstances) but you can have multiple DNF's and/or Notes per cache. If you return to a cache you have previously found (such as to pick up a TB) then you can log a 'Note' to inform others what you did. Hope that helps!

I'm not sure who Nate is but he also helped us in the adoption of two caches recently. Total turn-around time was less than two hours... Fantastic and friendly service. Way to go Nate!!

Our 100th was a 9-stage multi that took us all over Austin with the final cache ending up with a decent hike on the side of a mountain. The view was awesome! We were second time finders even though the cache had been out for over 2 months by the time we finished it. It is still one of our favorites. We just did our 200th, it was a cache series of four caches with co'ords in each cache leading to the 5th and final cache. (much like a multi but it was set up to get a smiley for each cache) We saved the final for our #200 when we saw that the final co'ords were going to take us back up to the same mountain that #100 took us. Maybe we'll luck out and by the time we get to #300 there will be another cache ther. Good luck on whatever you decide!!

We just recently adopted two caches - one we had previously found and one we have yet to find. On the one we had previously found we had to go out and replace the container and moved it slightly.. all this we did by using a note. On the second one that we have yet to find we are still wondering which to do. The cache doesn't seem to need any work to it as there are no negative comments in the logs (besides the co'ords being off a little, but we've adjusted those based on a previous finders log that seemed to help others) but we plan to make a trip out there in the next week or two to "find it" and do some general maintenance. Since we have never found it before I guess it would be a legit find but still... it feels funny. We visit many caches more than once to drop of TB's, etc. but always post those as notes (except for Austin's moving cache).

Sounds to me like your FTF gave the best endorsement possible. If the last time they were in that particular cemetery was to say "good-bye" to someone yet they didn't find your cache offensive in anyway then I think you must have placed it in a tactful out of the way place. I'm always hesitant about graveyard caches but I'm sure we'd search it! Very interesting. (Hope people stick to the theme!)

This one Demise of a Dot Com has 247 finds. (as well as 39 notes and 14 DNF's). Interestingly, another cache very near this one that is only 4 months younger only has 160 finds.

Maybe some of us don't want our bosses to figure us out, especially on days we're supposedly running "errands" but instead out caching!! Oh, and neither of us are "scared" to use a credit card online, in fact that's our preferred method of shopping.

It appears that they're logging the temporary caches they found at the event on the page. I believe that is common accepted practice since the caches are "one time only" caches that won't have their own cache page.

We post our DNF's and we use them as a goal for ourselves to go back and get the darn smiley! Thankfully, we don't have that many but I think it's just b/c we're too dang stubborn to leave if we're pretty sure we're just 'missing it'. We've actually gotten a couple nice emails from the cache owners after a DNF or two encouraging us and offering hints if we wanted them. We certainly TRY not to take the hints though.

In our area we have Demise of a Dot Com with an even 300 logged visits. And there is also the ultra-popular Rock that Rolls with 620 logged visits (including notes of course), but it is a moving cache so gets alot of action. Wish there was an easy way to count just the smileys to see how many times its actually been "found" though.

I saw it too!

There are a few caches around here with a "bonus" cache similiar to what you are saying... They seem to be very well recieved with those that want the "bonus smiley" taking the time to decipher the clues and those that don't like the idea just going after the first. To each his/her own. I say it sounds cool, go for it!

We haven't had a problem with ticks yet (KNOCK WOOD)... but the other day we decided to grab a couple caches after work and the dang webworms were so thick that there was definitely some monkey grooming going on after we came out of the woods. Everytime you thought you got them all you'd look down and see another one crawling on you or feel one crawling on your neck....<<shiver>> I thought I'd have nightmares for days! On the brightside, they should be gone in a couple more weeks.. whew!

Work, yup that's us! (although we usually lurk and don't post ) Hey, we do get two breaks and a lunch, don't we??

Where we think our State is a Country... Deep in the Heart of TEXAS!!

We've been to one that was placed in someones front yard on their lawn furniture. Felt a tad strange searching for it since we weren't getting good readings that day and the GPS had us going all over the yard and up on to the front porch.. Of course we did choose to hunt it during the middle of a workday when we were hoping no one was home... Another one was a devious one at the hiders work place. That one there was NO being sneaky about, the owner drove up as we had just begun our search a told us to let him know if we needed a hint. Having the owner there was an extra bit of pressure but didn't stop us from hunting. (oh, and yes..we ended up taking the hint. although I wish we hadn't..we were SO close!) Anyway, both caches have been well-recieved so I say go for it! As much as going to the movies cost these days, who couldn't use some free entertainment??

Congratulations and God Bless!! Our prayers are with those that have yet to return home safe and sound.