hoagies

5702.47 Miles, The Bands #4 Cocteau Twins GC3GW3Z United States I don't think it was a moving cache... it was quite stationary in Orlando, and part of a series of caches with a band name theme. And this cache should actually be noted as "the plot thickens." The first cache that showed up with really weird mileage (around Christmas) was a definitely fixed cache in Lancaster PA - an event! The event disappeared as my "furthest cache" when I went to Orlando in January...

5702.47 Miles, The Bands #4 Cocteau Twins GC3GW3Z United States I don't think it was a moving cache... it was quite stationary in Orlando, and part of a series of caches with a band name theme.

I'm using GSAK and FindStatGen (latest version). My statistics generate fine, except... the distances are nuts. For the closest cache, it gives me one a tenth of a mile from here in PA - good. But for the farthest, it used to give me one west of L.A. (also good), but recently started giving me one in Florida... and claims it is 5702.47 miles from here! (it's actually 871.6 miles from here). Other statistics are messed up because of the erratic calculations. I've loaded only GC caches using the My Finds query. Pretty simple stuff, and FindStatGen used to work just fine... until just before Christmas. I've uninstalled and reinstalled FindStatGen, and uninstalled and reinstalled GSAK. I've confirmed my Home location is correct, and the "nearest cache" being correctly identified also confirms it. Help! Thank you.

We did a streak of 182 days in 2010. We did well, only having a few nearly-midnight evenings (and one police encounter on a rainy night at midnight in an empty parking lot!). We were scheduled to chaperone our local high school marching band to the Rose Parade in Pasadena, but we thought we could still keep the streak going. We cached through a nasty snowstorm two days prior, and then... it happened. Continental cancelled (two days after the snow ended and a day after all the airports restarted flights!) the two flights with 2/3 of the band. After a long 24 hours, 4 TV stations, many radio stations and the president of the Rose Parade contacting Continental on our band's behalf... they finally "found" a plane and sent the kids to Pasadena... with NO chaperones! The adults were left sitting in the band room as further efforts were made on our behalf. Eventually Continental turned the seats over to USAir, who found seats for all the adults within the first 3 days of the trip. We were lucky enough to be in the first group, but we still missed that long day in the band room and then the following day due to flights and exhaustion. Oh, well, all good things come to an end. And the kids got to march in the Rose Parade, and enjoy the ... freezing cold weather in Pasadena! Seriously! Record cold, and since we'd shipped our luggage weeks earlier with the band instruments, we ended up buying a LOT of Disney, Universal and other outerwear to layer up and keep warm. Welcome to rainy, cold Southern California! We did manage to find a few caches there, outside Universal and Disney and our hotel, so at least we took advantage of being far from home. Cache on!

Done thanks. I had trouble searching those forums last night - kept getting search errors no matter what I searched on, and only found comments dating 2010 or older - so I feared they'd been archived. Seems better today...

I think I've done everything right. I have the Challenge.gsk macro, which I ran, making sure to update the output field to USERDATA. I'm certain it's looking at the caches I've found (the default setting). Then I ran the FindStatGen3.gsk macro to generate my statistics, downloaded the two Delorme state maps I wanted (DE (part of MD) and PA), and updated each of these maps to make sure that they were looking for their data in USERDATA. The statistics generate, and I get my new DE and PA state county maps (yup, done all three counties in DE this weekend!) and I see the Delorme state challenge maps, too. Except... the Delorme maps are blank. No map grids filled in, no matter how many caches I have found in a grid square. I found and followed these directions elsewhere in these forums, though they were dated 2008 or 2010 (I found several sets). But I'm using the up-to-date macros, so I wouldn't imagine that was the problem. Problem is... I don't know what my problem is. Thanks for your help! Carolyn a.k.a. Mrs.Hoagie

Yes, any map, but we'd love it to show the caches AND us. OK, we only have Trip & Waypoint manager from Garmin, and MapSource TOPO U.S. Makes sense, but for now, no new purchases. OK, so that's out. Can't tether an old flip phone I think we've got a reasonable solution. The largest problem is that she's seen my Droid, and really loves the easy / casual / quick geocache while you're waiting somewhere ability of it..... But we can see US on the Garmin, and the caches on the Garmin, and the caches with loads more detail on the GSAK macro... we really do have nearly everything she wants. Thanks for all your help!

Ah, Streets & Trips seems to cost (more) money. That's the problem - if we had more, we'd get a Droid/iPhone for this bit. <sigh> Thanks for your input Vagabond, we'll keep an eye on old software sales.

Oops! It's an eTrex Vista HCx, not a Legend (mine at home is a Legend, but I only have my Droid with me on this trip). Thanks again!

Will Google Earth (or Streets & Trips) also show all the caches? Or is there a macro for GSAK that will give all the caches on the map at once like the macro we loaded last night, AND put US on the same map? Thanks!

We're trying to move my friend GeoLund to a netbook / Garmin eTrex Legend / GSAK combination. We've got things pretty well set up and working, but we have one or two things we'd like it to do, and suspect it can... we just don't know how. 1) We'd like to have a map with all the caches in an area, that also shows us where WE are on the map, using our plugged-in Garmin 2) I think we found the best answer to the second question ourselves, but we're open for input. We want to see the map with ALL the caches at the same time, instead of just one at a time. We found a add-in for GSAK that seems to do the trick. So... how can we get the Garmin to tell the map and the map to show us where WE are? Thanks! Mrs.Hoagie and GeoLund

You sound like the right person to ask. We're trying to move my friend GeoLund to a netbook / Garmin eTrex Legend / GSAK combination. We've got things pretty well set up and working, but we have one or two things we'd like it to do, and suspect it can... we just don't know how. 1) We'd like to have a map with all the caches in an area, that also shows us where WE are on the map, using our plugged-in Garmin 2) I think we found the best answer to this ourselves, but we're open for input. We want to see the map with ALL the caches at the same time. We found a add-in for GSAK that seems to do the trick. So... how can we get the Garmin to tell the map and the map to show us where WE are? Thanks! Mrs.Hoagie and GeoLund

Thanks, BlueDeuce. Do you know which seller is closest to the manufacturer? Or if the manufacturer IS one of the sellers? I can't recall where we got this one, though it has to be one of two places, so I'll contact them, too... Thanks.

I need to replace my magnetic car tag Travel Bug, and I'd like to either 1) have one made with the same TB number, or 2) transfer all my logs from the old to the new number because the car tag TB was our way of logging where we've been. Does anyone know who I can contact about 1) having a new bug made with the old number? Or is there an easy way to do 2) transfer all the activity to a new magnetic car tag bug when I get it? Thanks for your help! P.S. our use of the magnetic car tag TB is to log it into one cache on each caching trip we take, mostly just one-day local trips, but sometimes long trips across country. We also display it proudly at Events, where folks do tend to log seeing it. Thanks!

Elderly relatives are good for medicine jars of various sizes. Or me - I have too many. Or folks with sick cats, that's me. They're not entirely waterproof, but great for protected caches. Talk to the few remaining local film processing centers in Target / Costco / CVS for empty film canisters - they usually throw them out or recycle them, and would likely hand you a dozen with a smile. Or talk to a photography club in your area - we've got one that still used film last I checked in the next county. The aforementioned camo tape from Wal-Mart is a good investment. Or get your bison tubes pre-camo'ed from a kid I met at an event this weekend... www.geocachingstuff.com I don't have a lot of experience, but his prices looked amazing to me. We've picked up a couple as prizes at local geocaching events. Did I mention I love events? Meet new folks, my kids meet other geocaching kids, enjoy company and find new places / caches. And events count in our streak (38 days in a row so far!). I hope this helps.

My daughter took a costume jewelry necklace from a cache, and wears it. Not even sure it was new, but I dipped it to clean it up. She's a teen, and happy with her find. She went for a friendship bracelet in another cache, but it was gone before we got there. So that's a yes. For grown-up me, the bag would help.

Our GPS broke for a while (I had it in my back pocket when I "fell" down a little grade <sheepish grin>), and we spent a few weeks caching with Google Maps. As others have said, it works for all but the deep woods caches. I've counted trees in a park, and light posts in a parking lot, and blocks on the sidewalk, all to zoom in on a cache using Google Maps. And you can type a lat/long into the "Search" field on Google Maps and it pulls up an arrow right on the location. Before you buy a GPS, consider your cell phone use in the next year or so. Any chance you'll be getting a smart-phone? We got Droids for business reasons, and rendered our GPS obsolete - good thing we had just soldered the old one's antenna back on and not sprung for a new one! Also consider your car GPS use. A friend has a mid-range Garmin car GPS, and I used it when I visited her in Seattle without my GPS (pre-Droid). Many car GPS (but not all - check before you buy) have the ability to use them outside the car, especially if you don't kill the rechargeable battery by keeping them plugged in all the time for months/years on end. You'll need a way to enter lat/long coordinates, and a compass feature. Welcome! Glad to hear you're enjoying yourself! We sure are!!

FamilyDNA hit the nail on the head: IF you have iPhone service. If I understand correctly (and part of the reason we went for a Droid rather than switching to AT*T for the iPhone) the iPhone doesn't have a GPS chip, instead depending on the network to estimate your location. So without service, you've got nothing. And with service, the estimate of your location depends on how much service coverage you have - the less coverage, the less accurate the estimate. The Droid still gets low service some places, but since Verizon is more likely to cover rural areas than AT&T (which covers *people* not *area*) we tend to have more success that way. We do have a 20yo sailboat GPS in our bag for backup, but we haven't booted it (a long, slow process) in many caches now. I just introduced another family this week, and their kids (upper single digits through low teens) are having a BALL, and "forcing" mom to go out nearly every evening! I was careful the first day to pick caches that I knew the location of, and that had widely varied features - size, camouflage, muggle factor, difficulty. We didn't have time for a multi or a full-size ammo can, but we'll do that when we get together again next week. Starting on your own, with kids, you might want to stick to caches with low difficulty ratings and especially those that specify "good for young kids." And the thing I learned early is to check the logs before I leave the house! If the last few logs are DNF, I don't even try it unless I'm up for a challenge / possible failure. If the logs say it's really difficult, I read through all the logs for little hints - sometimes the smallest comment can help once you get there. And if I suspect I'm going to lose smart-phone service, I make sure to print off the "hint" (even if I try not to read it) before I leave home. These things are important with my (impatient) kid, even though she's 15. Good luck! Geocaching is a life-long sport, IMHO. So far Geocaching is only 10 years old, but I can see myself doing it forever! And since it's activity, and out of doors, it's good for all of us, and all ages. If we make the first bunch enjoyable, our kids will get hooked and keep going and going. Go for it!

Sorry to mislead - she is 15, and already has Hoagies Jr. as her ID. She's not diligent about logging her caches, but that's her choice. Sounds like I'm not the only one confused by the possibilities. As you say, Mrs. B, I'm more of the logger, though Hoagie says he wouldn't mind logging. And I do occasionally travel without him, though he has definitely had no occasion to geocache without me... I guess because I leave him home with his hands full of Hoagies Jr. ;-) But the phones are a definite reason TO split. And I do like the idea of logging our own caches - we're not out to get high numbers, and I agree that to do so feels like "cheating." With my disability, we really do cache as a team nearly all the time. Thanks for all your ideas. I appreciate hearing different points of view, even though we're just about as undecided as we were before. And 200 cometh... we found our 199th cache just before our rehearsal, and I'm hoping the weather clears while we're in here so we can do grand number 200 this evening! Thanks, all!

We're the Hoagies, a geocaching family. Our little one is Hoagies Jr.since she wanted her own ID and of course, some day she'll grow up and move out. But the question is about us. Yesterday we went to a 5K event for a couple nearby, and got a variety of advice. The most obvious was "Split now while your numbers are low." Agreed. If we are Google to split, under 200 is the time to do it. Another said "stay together so your numbers go up faster." Sounds a little like cheating and it won't help much anyway. I'd already been considering splitting since we got our Droids, because to log into Geocaching.com on both phones we either kick each other out, or my hubby (Hoagie) logs in as our daughter. That works for now, but I can see long-term potential drawbacks. On the other hand, I rarely drive (disabled) so we're nearly always together when we cache. Of the ~200 caches, I've done about 10 traveling with others and 190 w/ Hoagie. If you were us would you split? More important, why or why not?

Congratulations! You brought tears to my eye. You'll have a great life together! Maybe we'll run into you some day.... we're the Hoagies just south of you (Exton).

Welcome. I've been caching for a couple months, so by no means an expert, but... A poker chip with an e-mail is just "swag" - stuff you can collect. Just like all those McHappy meal toys, etc. The kids love to take some of this from a cache. A geocoin or travel bug is a uniquely identified item, usually a coin or dogtag shape, or a coin or tag attached to something else. It's got a unique number that you can register with geocaching.com to identify that you saw it, retrieved it, or placed it. You should move geocoins and bugs from one cache to another, quickly if possible, and in pursuit of their stated goal. Some coins have the goal right in with the coin; others have the goal on the geocaching site, and still others have no goal except to wander around from cache to cache. To find new caches, use the "hide and seek a cache" button on the geocaching.com site. The only time a poker chip or other item might point to another cache is in the case of a multi-cache, where the first location leads to a second, and perhaps a third or more caches. In this case, the poker chip or other item would have information that, used in conjunction with the clues in the cache description, will lead to the next stage of the multi-stage cache. I hope this helps, and I hope I've got it figured out correctly. the hoagies

I've got a bunch of geocoins, and I've carried them from cache to cache at home, and I'd like to log them so that they start out at home. I'm told this is called "dipping." But... I went to the log visit feature, and I went to the log trackable feature, and I can't figure out how to log that this trackable has visited but not stayed at this cache. Can anyone fill in the blanks? Thanks! the hoagies

Thanks, all. I don't mind the ALR - and we are thinking of going for it. We're planning to go as a group, and to stay together so that we can all log all caches, but none of us has cached in this area before. We are already planning, and considering getting a campsite for our RV and/or a couple tents for the nights before and after, to eliminate the pre-dawn drive - the area we found is semi-rural, and I'm fairly certain there are nearby RV sites. What I was hoping to find were some additional recommendations on cache-heavy areas in south eastern or south central PA, or anywhere reasonably close to us here... Thanks.

Hi all, We're newbies, but eagerly getting involved. We've started geocoins, traveled to several states, and found over 30 caches. I know, we're geo-babies. But we got this idea in our heads... One of the caches we "found" (but cannot report as found yet) requires a Century, 100 caches in a day. We found an area east of Hershey PA that includes 130 caches in a relatively small area, forming a nice backwards "C" shape. The "Century" cache is in the Hershey Park parking lot, so it seems reasonable that there must be a place around here to actually accomplish this feat. But we're doing the math. 1080 minutes (18 hours) divided by 100 caches = 10.8 caches per hour or less than 6 minutes a cache. This area just seems too spread out for that - it's about 7 miles by 10 miles square. My question is... are there other areas that are more condensed for attempting our Century?? What other hints / tips / tricks can you offer? We figured this would be a great way to forget unemployment for a couple days... Thanks!