TMDMom

Thanks for clearing that up for me...I learn so much on these forums! *off to wally world to buy bleach and brake fluid...must log LPC whilst there...*

I know I'm still new at this, but I heard that you could use the Mentos and Diet Coke method to eliminate micros. Is that wrong? *disclaimer...before someone checks my finds to determine that I have in fact actually logged micros, I will state for the record that while they are not my favorite, when I am running errands an occasional micro helps make my humdrum existance more exciting while planning my next major woods excursion. They are also included in our GNOC events as we usually need a break between climbing trees and rolling down hills. We ain't as young as we think we are.

I'm wondering how you get next day shipping on an item that hasn't been released yet...

I like puzzles, and I have done a few that required simple field solving. If it requires going to stage 1, then going home to do work on the computer or confirm coords, I don't think I'd like it. If there are puzzles to solve, I would want them to be simple because I'm not going to want to spend an hour standing in a field or in the woods trying to solve a puzzle. A lot of people don't like puzzles, so if you are giving coords to stage 1 on the cache page, they'll want a warning that a puzzle is in their future.

I like www.freetranslation.com. I use that one alot.

have a safe trip home! Next Girls Night Out Caching should be a breeze with two new high sensitivity GPSr's! I decided to go ahead and get the Topo maps because in my experience I'm usually better off to go ahead and plan on getting what I want (when I'm ready to make the purchase) instead of making do, then trying to upgrade later, because for some reason I never seem to make the upgrade. Then I'd end up getting a new gps in two years instead of upgrading. That's my prediction, anyway. So I bit the bullet, spent the $$ and got the whole bundle. The 60 is even more spendy than the Vista, so it was easier for me to get the Vista + topo right now.

I went on and ordered topo 2008 and the Vista Hcx. I really was torn b/w the 60 and the vista. So after reading numerous posts all over this forum about both units, I decided on the slightly less expensive model. I'm excited and I should have it on Monday. Thanks for all your input!

a pair of garnets

locally...GNOC Girls Night Out Caching

Yay! this is good to hear, since I just ordered a Vista Hcx and Topo 2008 today! Woohoo! I am so excited and I should get it Monday. Thanks for the reviews!

Help! I'm shopping for a new GPS. I've been waivering between the 60 csx and the Vista Hcx. I've heard and read good and bad on both. My question is this...Do I need to buy the maps immediately for either unit? Would either unit do just fine without ever adding the extra maps? I'm a little confused about this whole issue. Any help would be appreciated. I want to keep the cost down, so if the maps are necessary, I need to make sure I've taken that into consideration. Thanks!

I would venture a guess that someone searched for this cache during that lag time. This is why everyone needs to log their DNF's and not see them as a failure of some sort. I know. Slightly off-topic. My apologies.

Another bennie is for a mere $30 a year, you get to help support GCdotcom so we can all keep playing. I went through the same internal debate....do I pay to join or no? After geocaching for a month or so it became apparent that I wanted to do this for a while so I just figured I needed to pay my dues.

How interesting! Did you go in search of it or did you just happen upon it? Was there a log to sign? Any info about it at all?

I completely agree about the family thing. The workaround is a good idea for that. And even caching with a buddy, there's a workaround. Great. But someone posted that they want to do away MOCs. To me, it's kinda like people not liking micros. If you don't like them, ignore them. No need to get rid of them. No big deal.

I don't think this is a big deal. There are fees for premium cable channels. If I don't pay extra to have certain premium cable channels I don't get them. It's a choice. I don't begrudge the people who pay to see the shows, or the people who paid lots of money to create the shows. Costco and Sam's and BJ's warehouse stores have a membership fee. If I don't pay it, I don't shop there. It's a choice. We face this concept every day in the real world. We make choices. If a non-premium member goes caching with me and while we're out we find a members only cache, we might look up the workaround for her to log it. Maybe not. So far this hasn't come up because it never occured to me to take a non-member to a members only cache. My caching buddy doesn't seem to care either. There are still plenty of caches to hunt. In the grand scheme of things, I just don't think its that important for people to see MOC's if they haven't paid. And yes, I realize that it's a money issue for some who might choose to pay if they had an extra $30 a year to spend, but when I was a broke college student I had to go without things I might have liked, but gosh, who hasn't?

Yes the D and T click on your name on gc dot com build pocket queries check the boxes for difficulty and terrain, and select the level of cache you want to find. You don't have to download it, you can just click "preview pocket query" and look at the caches, then play with the settings until you get what you are looking for. Is that what you wanted to know?

Do you mean the D/T ratings? You do that with a PQ. *is confused*

pm sent

I do too! And if there is a twelve step program, I'm sure it leads right to the cache!

I'm having a blast geocaching. Saturday I drug a friend along who I knew would enjoy it, and she did, but along the trail I heard a yelp. I hollered back "are you okay????", she calls up to me, "Yes, I just lost my wig to a brier bush!" And me without my camera... I've bounded down a hill toward a snake that I was convinced was the cache until my 7 year old said, "uh, mom?" and I thought, oh, yeah, that could be real. It was. I talked my friend into hopping up on my back to reach a cache, and as she reached for a cord to steady herself, discovered it wasn't tethered to anything and it whipped around and flung her down a hill. We are still laughing about that. I did ask if she was okay before I burst out laughing. We've now started "Girls Night Out Caching"about once a month. We laugh ourselves silly and dig through swag like it all came from Tiffanys. I am constantly amazed at the creativity of people who carve numbers into rocks, saw railroad spikes in half and drill out enough room for a log, cover film canisters with camouflage well enough to make me walk right past it, and all sorts of other things. I have ALWAYS loved a quest. I have all of my adult life been on the quest for the perfect pair of earrings, which have a mystical criteria only I will know when I see them, but they will be in an antique store or a garage sale, or maybe now in a cache. I just love searching for things. Always have. This hobby meets some sort of need that only rabid cachers have in our core. My husband doesn't get it at all. He loves that I do it. He gets a big kick out of the stories and how excited I get, and even went with me today at lunch to make sure a coin got dropped off because it was in a race...but he has no interest in walking around in circles in the woods poking at pine straw with a stick. Go figure. Now I need to go clean my kitchen so I can spend my evening making more greeting cards for swag.

Just the other day I was on the cell phone with my sister (who lives in another state) and walking to the trailhead by myself. I told her if she didn't hear from me in an hour, call my husband and tell him I was at that park (he'd know where) and I'd call her in 30 minutes. I kept an eye on the time to make sure I called her within 30 minutes, even though it meant a DNF. I went back the next day with my caching buddy and told my husband and kids where we were going. We found it that time. A lot of times I don't know that I'm going into a certain area for a cache, so I don't have any plan. If it's a hike, I prefer to take a buddy, so that usually involves some planning. I guess I need to make sure every time I go out someone knows where I am.

Unless there are extenuating circumstances, I'd have to stick to the original promise. However, I might ask Buddy A if they mind if Buddy B comes along. With my group it's usually a "more the merrier" attitude, so the only problem is scheduling.

I realize it's shutting the gate after the cows are out but could you put a lock of some sort on the final cache and the participants would need a code from you to open it?

I'm not superstitious, but I probably would have taken a few more readings...just to see what I'd get. Off topic, but my son went to a birthday party yesterday for a boy who turned 13 on Friday the 13th. The theme? Superstitions.