T-storm

The time delay is only part of the deal, of course. In addition to the 30+ day approval period, please also submit your $85 fee for salary replacement, your $25 fee for benefit replacement, and your $35 expense offset fee to help cover the cost of traveling to your cache site. Fees must be paid by cashier's check. Of course expense fees may go up if the approver suffers divorce, child abandonment charges, child support costs as a result of said divorce or abandonment, court fees, and extra costs for job-related medical and mental health care. I can think of at least 3 approvers who might actually wind up with a larger salary this way, but I don't know that it would be worth giving up their lives for...

But the rule DOES say 528+ feet from other caches, and you apparently DID think to check.... Umm... I had a laminated business card made and bought a micro pen at an office supply chain less than a month ago. Cost less than $1 for both! And with a new cache, you might well have to go reconfirm coords anyway, so a couple of brief trips for a new hidy hole and a quick visit to swap a card shouldn't be too onerous. After all, you stated that you'd be happy to visit caches awaiting approval in person, and we're talking about the maintenance of your OWN cache here! If the cost and effort was truly so great to create the cache, surely a small inconvenience is worth the effort to actually see it in action? Seems a bit much to be quite so bent over....

Hi, Jeremy-- I sent a message to the "contact" address late last night. Hope it's something easy to fix... my brain can't deal with anything involved right now! Thanks...

While I'm mightily glad for all the RR folks who are now getting communications, another Wednesday has come without my PQ. I guess I'll be contacting TPTB directly, as the fixes that have helped others out recently are apparently not for the problem I'm having...

Hey, parkrrrr-- My dad tried the program you suggested and it still produced a point about 0.4 miles from what his paper map showed, so he kept asking different folks until he got another answer. The only difference was in the freebie converter program they suggested to him. The coords it generated for him produced a TopoZone map marker within about 300 feet of what the paper map showed. So I thought I'd post the link to the other converter here too, just in case you or anyone else is interested in it... http://crunch.tec.army.mil/software/corpscon/corpscon.html Also, in case anyone cares, the project the map is for is listed at http://www.passportintime.com/. They're archeological surveys and restorations.

You mean like this?

Another way you could do the same thing suggested above and yet remove the excess info immediately is to copy the text of the log into an e-mail to the cacher (and copy yourself as well for reference) explaining the issue and inviting him/her to re-submit their editted log. Then go on and delete the existing log. Be friendly and make it clear that you don't have a problem with their find or that they wanted to offer their experience, just that it defeats the multi by posting actual coords. Suggest that if they think their coords might be helpful to instead just tell folks they felt the final coords might be off and that they found the cache XXX feet to the <insert direction/bearing here>. That way they can still share that info without goobering up your cache. I've done this before when someone posted a complete giveaway to my 4 star difficulty cache and they did repost with fewer details. Best of luck!

Thanks very much, yes, it is well into northern Arkansas, so you would think the zone you chose would be correct. I had guessed maybe I was looking at feet vs. meters, but still had no clue what system it was. And given what you said about map dimensions, the system choice would make sense. I'll guess the little piece of map he has was taken from a forest/park system map of the Ozark Nat Forest and the Buffalo National River as a system... much larger east/west than north/south. I don't know enough about his project to know how what you've provided will coincide with what my dad expects. All I know is he worked with a similar project in a Texas forest last year or the year before. I'm sure he'll be quite pleased to have any more info! Oh, and roughly.... he looked at a TopoZone map and moved the target marker around until it got close to the one set of coords he thought he knew about where to find, took the number provided, and said, "There, that's kinda close!" So I'm sure that your calculated numbers will move him closer. Thanks again, T-storm

My father sent me a message asking for help converting some coordinates to what I recognize as UTM in either NAD27 or WGS84 datum from a coordinate system that appears to be UTM or like UTM in some way. However, I can't figure out exactly what the coords he has ARE to find a conversion! Background: In correspondence with the USFS, he received a map marked with the coords in question. This is not simply one of the USGS maps you can order online. It may be taken from the same source, but it is just the portion of a map related to their correspondence rather than a standard quad. There are no notations on the map of what format or datum were used. Knowing where the area was, he went and looked at a TopoZone map, zeroed in on the approximate spot, and has some best guess UTM coords. SOOOOoooo... Can anybody tell me what to properly call the type of coords that follow and how or with what resource to convert them to the sort of UTM I'm used to seeing? USFS Map: E 1,973,399.85 and N 627,107 Which Dad says relate to roughly: UTM 15 582621E 3990385N (NAD27) or UTM 15 582605E 3990594N (WGS84/NAD83) apparently along the Buffalo National River. Education and guidance, please?

Interesting info, but isn't an across the board problem avoidance. My one regular query runs once a week on Wednesdays (at least it's supposed to). Of the last 5 Wednesdays I have received it once. The other weeks it didn't come at all, not even late. I did double check it, and it is still set up as it has been for months. T-storm

Hee hee... ummm, I don't know whether to say DOH!! or just blame placenta brain. You know I never even noticed the switching of cache for cash until you pointed it out for me with a big flashing arrow! Good grief... I'll have to go tell my birth BB that we have yet another moron moment to add to the tally.

I see the wink, but could take it more than one way? Even if there were that many paying members salary ain't the only cost, and $277K for all salary expenses for 5 folks living in the Seattle area seems rather undershot to me! Yikes! Better Jeremy and pals' pockets than mine! I hope he wouldn't sell even if the chance presented itself, because like some others, I suspect the site would turn into something I wouldn't want to bother with or the membership rate would go up so much I couldn't do it. I think I'll just stick my head in the sand and not worry about it until we really see it coming. T-storm Smiling a goofy, happy smile with eyes wide shut!

Well, I'm not on RoadRunner, and I noticed a week ago (when I suddenly got my regularly scheduled PQ file) that I had not gotten any others the whole week of December! I'd been too busy to notice until then. So I did get one 12/24, but I did NOT get one 12/31. I'd been receiving them smoothly for months prior to December. I also have not gotten 3 others that I scheduled for Mondays before Thanksgiving and would normally turn back off except that they never came anyway, so I forgot they were on! Very odd stuff...

Y'all really did a great job showcasing the beauty you've enjoyed as a part of caching. I'll have to show Brokenwing.

Criminal-- I have a friend that works for the Humane Society further up the peninsula from you. If you would like, I could forward a message to her on your behalf to see what local resources she could recommend to you for whichever way your decision must be made. Then if she thinks she has helpful info and y'all are both willing you could communicate directly. I don't know her work e-mail, and I won't share her personal one without her permission. She's currently in route between Texas and Washington, so I can't ask just this minute. From what I know of her and her relationships to animals, I think she would completely understand both sides of your issue. Just a thought...

So you're saying you don't have a desire for a personalized plate, or that you HAVE personalized plates for your strollers and mountain bikes? We like to hike and do this as a family activity too. In fact, since we DO like to do this as a family thing, we take our SUV the 15 - 275 miles to the general cache site before we hike in together. Our 4 year old really isn't up to riding her bike that far yet, and at 7-mos pregnant, neither am I! But you're right, most land managers really would hate it if they saw my Expedition drive within 30 feet of a cache, particularly the type I favor hunting. Okay, so I'm teasing and poking a bit of fun at you.... Your post seemed to suggest that drivers of combustion engine vehicles aren't family folks, can't possibly be truly enjoying the outdoors, and aren't REAL geocachers. I thought that was kinda a departure from those posting messages deriving a bit of fun from endulging their geocaching craziness in a personalized license plate. On the topic at hand, someone mentioned wanting to use FOUNDIT, but only having 6 character slots available? What about FINDIT or FND IT, a couple we considered. Or (not as good) FNDBOX, FINDBX or FND BX.

Hmmm ... on the original post, yeah this guy needed to have his log under control. He could have said what he did in a less harsh way and still get his point across. And though some of us might have may the logical leap... hmm... wildlife santuary/nature center... not the best spot for my dog, or at least call ahead to ask... the referenced website has a list of guidelines for visitors that specify all sorts of things not to do, but do not mention dogs/pets at all. By the way, don't bring your child under 4 with you either. Final thought, the offended cacher(?) doesn't mention whether or not his dog was on a leash either. Certainly an unleashed dog would not be a good idea in such a location. You win some, you lose some. The cache owner could do something or not with the log, and though a link was provided to the center's website, but they might also mention any prohibitions that DO exist on the cache listing to help cachers be more location friendly... and possibly less obnoxiously grumpy!

It varies from state to state. Here in Texas I paid $40 for the personalized part... it's good for one year. The specialty conservation plate cost an additional $25, a good part of which goes to the Dept. of Parks & Wildlife. If I keep the personalization, it'll be a new plate without the specialty image. I like to support the parks, but our financial circumstances have changed and they've raised the cost of the conservation plate another $5 now too, and all of that goes to the DOT for "administrative costs".

'Cause I don't put stickers on my cars... EVER. I do have the license plate ring, but I'm going to have to remove or try to modify it or it's not legal here. I have the cling sticker, but it doesn't show through the tinted glass on the back of the geosled. No one has ever asked me about the stickers, only one about the license plate ring, but I get questions about the plate frequently.

2004 Texas State Geocaching Extravaganza I wanted to start promoting this event. Brokenwing and I went last year and had a GREAT time! It is a weekend long event. Friday afternoon/evening arrival if you like, but all the events don't start until Saturday morning and run through Sunday afternoon. The location is the Sid Richardson Scout Camp on lake Bridgeport, just west of the town of Runaway Bay. There is no Geocaching.com listing yet, but the archived listing for the 2003 event can be seen here. The Extravaganza is an orienteering meet that has been modified to include geocaching events. The meet is a joint venture between the Boy Scouts of the Longhorn Council and the North Texas Orienteering Association. There will be a competitive GPS course as well as 20 new caches with clues to an ultimate bonus cache with a (hopefully) nice first finder prize to be awarded at the closing ceremony. There are also 20 existing caches, plus last year's bonus cache still in place for your caching enjoyment. Another event open to GPS users last year was the Night-O… a competitive orienteering course run at night, usually with a twist of some sort. I have offered to help whoever designs the Night-O modify it to offer a GPS class like last year. The theme last year was a Clue type game. There were ten control points, a map/clue/coord sheet, and a 90-minute time limit. At each control point (indicated by multiple strands of bright contractor flagging tape) there was a small cache box to be found containing a set of clues to help you eliminate scenes, weapons, and suspects. Some clues were duplicated such that you did not HAVE to find all the controls, but a bonus was scored by those who did, verified by punching each control's listing with a unique punch included in the cache box. This was a blast! Of course it helped that my team won the GPS-user class! Each first place team member was awarded a prize. Really cool… Now about courses. Competitors come from the Scouts, the NTOA, ROTC and JRTOC groups, school groups, adventure teams and other orienteering groups, and, of course, geocachers! There are 6 different levels (white, yellow, orange, brown, green & red… in order of increasing difficulty) of orienteering courses (run with a map, a compass, and a limited cluesheet) divided into 6 classes based on gender and age plus one GPS-Only course. The GPS-Only course is considered to be comparable to a brown course… that is, 3-5km in straight-line length, a hard difficulty, and up 12 control points. It had no class divisions last year, and I would expect none this year unless a large enough and diverse enough registration is achieved. It is a two-day competition… two different courses are laid out for each course level. You run one course on SAT, the second on SUN, and your cumulative time is your score. Fastest times win. A GPS-Only course is kinda like 3.5/3.5 timed multicache of micros. At the start line, competitors bring their score card (received at registration) for the appropriate day and are given a cluesheet. It will list the coordinates of the start line, main hall, and water stations for reference, plus the coordinates of the first "stage" or "control point". There will be 10-12 control point numbers on the sheet with 1-4 word clues and nothing else except the first control coords. Just like in geocaching, you navigate to the first stage and find the coords to the next stage. The only description or clues are those on the cluesheet. At some of the stages there will also be unique punches hidden with the coords, and you won't know which until you find them. You must punch the score card in the appropriate control's square. At the end of the race, you turn in your score card. To stay in the competition you must have stayed under the maximum 180 minute time and have all the correct punches in the right places (if you mispunch, mark it IMMEDIATELY). Orienteering courses generally have punches at each control for verification since they get a map that marks the location of each control when they start, and the upper level courses require the use of an "electronic punch"… a little gadget that you match to an electronic reader at the start and each location. Results are posted as times are calculated and score cards verified, so you'll be able to watch your standing throughout the day. You can also choose to participate as a map-hiker… that is, you can get a copy of one of the lower difficulty course maps and hike it on your own schedule, just to see what it's like. You may wish you'd signed up for competition! Of course, you are very welcome to attend just for the cache hunting and maybe the Night-O and all the company. Last year there were a few clinics offered as well… several introduction to orienteering and related skills, a couple of intro to geocaching, and one or two more topics were offered like, cache containers & working with land managers. Accommodations are available onsite as camping, dorm bunks, or a LIMITED number of cabins, and there are a couple of motels within a reasonable distance. Facilities for campers are toilets in the area and open air showers… there are stalls & hot water, but the building is not fully enclosed nor heated. Depending on what they open, the nearest toilets may be latrines, but there are flush toilets in some locations. Cabins and dorms have bathroom facilities inside, but I don't know details on specific facilities as I was a tent camper last year! Meals can be an on-your-own sort of thing or purchased with your registration. Purchased meals are quite simple and served buffet style. The site opens on Friday afternoon/evening and closes Sunday late afternoon after the awards ceremony. Hopefully there will be an event cache listing up soon and Cliff (Wretsub) will find time to drop in here and offer more insight and details (like dollar amounts!) as they become available. I hope y'all will save this spot on your calendar and pick one or more of several ways to participate!

How many characters you get for customization in Texas depends on whether you have a standard plate or one of the special plates but is pretty limited regardless. Special plates, such as the conservation plates have graphics that take up a portion of the plate and limit characters to 5. Any alphanumeric, space, dash or period may fill those slots. A silhouette of Texas may be used but will take 2 slots! Standard plates allow up to 6 alphanumeric characters. Spaces, periods, or dashes may take one of the alphanumeric slots or up to 2 additional slots. You may replace one special character with a silhouette of Texas. I have a personalized specialty plate... it's a conservation plate featuring a large-mouth bass. The tag spells CACHE. When I got it this past summer, I could find no way to search to see if my choice would be available. I had to fill out the form, mail in the check, and wait and see. We had a whole list of things we considered, but I can't find it now!

Try the Texas Historical Commission website. You can search historical sites in a particular county or near a certain address as well as the full text of all historical markers. THC Historical Sites Hope that helps you!

Jamie-- Was it dusty? I've seen that kind of thing happen on dirt/gravel roads when you stop pretty quickly and the dust kicked up bellows on past your car, I guess carried by the air disturbed by the recently moving car. The effect seemed strongest on roads with lighter colored gravel and light dust, and I've only seen it at night. T-storm http://www.cordianet.com/geocaching

The Geoferret Clan has used a cloisonne lapel pin in the shape of a ferret as our signature item since the very first cache we found. This one is like the pins we place in caches we hide for the first 3 finders to take if they wish. The ones we leave in caches we find have all white enamel rather than the browns, black, or gray colors. They've become a bit of a "collector's item" among local cachers, which has been very fun for us! T-storm http://www.cordianet.com/geocaching

Well this is really darned annoying! I thought it was said a long time back that they wouldn't change the existing waypoints (though I admit I wasn't sure how that would be achieved). In all honesty, I think the only reason I really care much is that just last night Brokenwing & I spoke to a local outdoor adventure group about geocaching. To encourage their membership to try geocaching, they had us prepare a list of 12 caches for their members to hunt, and they will provide an award to those finding at least 5 from the list in the next month. If they find all 12 they get something extra. Now how do you suppose I instructed them to search for the cache listings on geocaching.com? Yes, by the waypoints! Now I need to try to get in contact with 30+ folks that I don't know and give them new lists! AAAaaccckk!! T-storm http://www.cordianet.com/geocaching