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TheAlabamaRambler

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Everything posted by TheAlabamaRambler

  1. I wish I had this picture to share, because it's always the first image of him that comes to my mind - After a long day of geocaching a group of cachers are sitting around a campfire, Joe is twenty feet away, sitting on the ground at the base of a tree with his laptop, making sure that everyone who hid a cache that day got their listing in a timely manner. Dedication! Here's Joe caching in style on my pontoon boat at my 'Pirates at Cherokee Lake' event. 22 boat-accessible caches on islands in Cherokee Lake in Tennessee.
  2. I just heard that we lost JoGPS. So sad to hear this. What a great man. He is who recruited me to become a Groundspeak Geocache Reviewer. I had a lot of fun with him at events and camping trips all over the country. One of the few men I truly respect, his advice and guidance was always spot on but never offered unless asked for. One of the few men who knew how to use the word "Cool!" He was indeed a cool guy who epitomized the word. Geocachers, Geocaching and Groundspeak are all better from his tireless work over the years. Bummer.
  3. The Online Geocacher hasn't had a new article submitted in six months and no one seems interested in taking it over so I am taking it down after ten years. If anyone wants the domain onlinegeocacher.com let me know by email to edmanley@att.net and I will transfer it to you at no charge.
  4. You are invited to post stories and videos to The Online Geocacher http://onlinegeocacher.com, your free ad-free geocaching magazine created by and for geocachers. Just email submissions to TheAlabamaRambler@gmail.com
  5. '57 Thunderbird. I've wanted one all my life... 55 years or so since I was old enough to notice cars. Bought it today, will take two weeks for the customizer to move the drivers seat back 6" so I can fit in the thing, then this will be my cachin' ride. https://www.dropbox.com/s/chqecnnm80uwphj/tbird.jpg?dl=0
  6. Yeah, they are in development, looking for more funding I think, but if they become a thing then I think we can use them. With the market being as it is I am sure an Android app will soon follow.
  7. I had a cache placed with permission in a city park. It had been there and visited frequently for about a year without problem when the landscapers trimmed some bushes around it, revealing an old rusted No Trespassing sign 10' before the cache. Despite the park reiterating that it was okay to pass it to get to the cache a number of cachers would not do it and commented in the logs that they left without hunting the cache. The cache lasted a few more years before being muggled one too many times and I would guess that five out of perhaps eighty cachers obeyed the sign after it was revealed, despite my statement in the listing that the cache was known to the city and had permission. The sign wasn't for folks staying in the park but rather served as a fence or boundary limit keeping kids from leaving the park by following a trail crossing a creek which bordered the park. I seriously doubt that a kid ever paid attention to it as the trail was an oft-used conduit to a residential neighborhood. As far as No Trespassing signs in parking lots or on buildings I can't imagine many cachers care. Geocaching's 'dirty little secret' is that the vast majority of caches are on private land with no permission or knowledge of the landowner at all. Most cachers seem to equate 'I want to put it there' with 'I have adequate permission'.
  8. Oops... meant to change forums before posting this. Will a Moderator move it to the Geocaching Topics forum?
  9. The Tile locator is a small transmitter which emits a radio signal for near-field tracking and can be found by any smartphone. Surely y'all can come up with some innovative ways to use a tile in geocaching. Let's hear your ideas! Coords to a spot 20' from the Tile, perhaps? GPS to get to GZ and the Tile app to make the find? That's close enough to find it with just the GPS but still adds a bit of extra fun. https://www.thetilea...om/how-it-works
  10. +1 What is the phrase? Illustrating absurdity with absurdity, or something like that? The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has it's limits. I think our host is quickly learning that you can't herd cats. Even if he got pointers on doing that from Keystone at the Block Party, it won't help - not with this crowd! There's a difference between trying to herd cats and walking around with an open can of tuna fish in your pocket. Pocket tuna is goooooood! Sometimes, most times, for the average folk its very had, if not impossible to recognize brilliance. For the brilliant ones it's a struggle but knowing that the day will come when the average folk will see the folly of their ways and realize how lucky they were to have someone not only brilliant, but tenacious as well resulting in a better world for all make the struggle worthwhile. You're welcome. Thank you, we bow to... wait, do you have a blue bow?
  11. The attrition rate for TBs is high, probably not a fun part of caching if losing one is painful. I have had some travel for years but they all eventually disappear. I've lost at least 40. My son's SEC Birmingham Baron's baseball championship ring traveled for six years and thousands of miles before coming back home, but it's more often the story that like my Groundspeak Takes Flight TB, a $100 remote control airplane, it just disappears never to be heard from again when the cacher who has it dropped out of the game. I think the ring traveled so well because it is so garish that folks likely thought it was a fake. It isn't; it's worth about $2500. It traveled via dozens of cachers over the years and accumulated over 20,000 miles and came home safe, so you just never know! On the OP, I feel you. It often happens that when I buy something I soon see the price drop, and the more expensive the item the more likely it is to happen!
  12. Buying two modern devices is expensive, so try this - buy whatever smartphone suits the rest of your life and buy an old used Garmin Yellow for a dedicated GPS. You can probably get one for under $25. I found my first 600+ caches with one 12 years ago and it's as good today as my modern 62st for just entering coords and following a compass to GZ.
  13. I use an iPhone 5s to get close, and for nanos and such I pull out my Garmin GPSMap 62st. Before these I did the same with a Motorola ATRIX 4g. I liked the ATRIX better than the i5s for caching, I think it was more accurate. I put it in a cache as swag when I bought the i5s. Wish I had it back. As far as pure phone the '09 Motorola flip phone the Red Cross provides me is a better phone than either the i5s or ATRIX 4g. FWIW my next phone will be another Android-based device. As far as caching with only a smartphone I wouldn't do it. Too many DNFs or too much time walking in circles takes the fun out of the game. I would never hide a cache with just the i5s as I don't want my finders mad at me for lousy coords. The real truth of the matter however is that with a phone or dedicated GPS once I get close I put it in my pocket and look around me. Cachers are far more predictable than devices... getting within 20-30 feet and asking yourself where you would hide it will get you the cache faster than trying to get on top of it with a GPS.
  14. I've used GSAK for years, it's perfectly safe. Be sure that you are downloading it from http://gsak.net/ If you are and it still gives you a warning you may need to whitelist it in McAfee.
  15. Earthcaches often do seem like tests. Email the CO with how the igneous rocks were formed, etc., etc... Makes sense, as unlike most traditional caches one raison d'être of earthcaches is to teach something. The owner can determine if the site was indeed visited and if the finder learned that something. I would think the former allows the cacher to log the find, the latter gives the owner feedback re how well his listing is written - if finders aren't learning the point of the earthcache he may want to re-write his description (lesson).
  16. Feature the site. Describe its historical importance. State what can be found there, and don't mention the Historical Society. They'll figure that part out when they get there. That's what I worked out with my Reviewer some years ago when a local historical society invited our caching association to put caches at 13 of their sites. I assume that would still work. If you want to link the listings so that folks can find all of them name them Old Places Trail #1 and so on instead of Historical Society Trail #1. You will still introduce finders to an interesting place without promoting the historical society that maintains them.
  17. I'm not sure that their saying "Now there's a guy who needs moderating!" is the same as actually making you a Moderator. Just sayin'
  18. I suppose the only way to know is to contact cache owners and last finders, something I do anyway when planning caching trips.
  19. DixieCachers.com found a new owner (thanks c3warrors!) but no one took my offer of taking over The Online Geocacher. I still get comments about how much people like reading geocaching stories so I am not willing to let it die. I will keep publishing articles as they come in. Subscribe for a free membership and you will get an email when each new story is published. Share your geocaching stories with others by emailing them to me, TheAlabamaRambler@gmail.com
  20. I'm a one-legged fat man in a wheelchair, with limited mobility on crutches. When I join a cache run team I am a planner and navigator but mostly the driver. Team-mates find and sign the caches. On numbers runs with say five members I drive, three jump out to find the cache while a navigator sets us up to find the next cache. We use a 2-minute rule... if it isn't found before that we're off to the next. The team stays together such that we're only looking for one cache at a time. The most I have done this way was 297 in 24 hours, with a total of 1000 for the next week. That was in 2005 before the proliferation of big-numbers 'power-trails', we found regular caches. I think the biggest series we did was 17 along a bridge. I usually don't log the caches, first because it's too much trouble but mostly because I didn't actually find it. I might log them if they are in sight of the van and I can see where the cache is. This means that 2500 in a week pretty much precludes biking or hiking or off-roading in mud or snow that would slow us down. It will have to be mostly drive-ups. We're looking at the last week of September and that's risky weather-wise for some areas.
  21. I bought the Elite Membership with PAF Contact List, Puzzle Solutions and a Sharpie included. Worth every penny!
  22. I think pussy caching would be real popular. Go for it!
  23. So you don't like power trails or the people who do them. Fine. Keep it to yourself please. This isn't a thread about whether folks like power caching. For the rest of you, if you were thinking about putting together a team of folks who would meet somewhere, rent a van and go find 2,500 caches in a week, where would you go? One of my team-mates has likely done most of the AZ - TX 1K trails. We're looking at the Denver area at the moment but could go most anywhere. Suggestions?
  24. There's my problem... identifying the one's that work! Like many fishermen my tackle box of 2oz lures weighs north of 20lbs it has so many lures in it that, at any given time, don't work!
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