TheAlabamaRambler

Have some fun with it. I entered into a national challenge called Cache League years ago with a team, some of whom I knew, others I didn't, who were spread all over the US. We called ourselves the Butt-Kickin' CacheGetters and that's what we did!

FROM THE DESK OF: DR. DEHINDE DANIELS Dear notmuchtime, Greetings from my country, Nigeria. And by God's grace this is a warm embrace of a lifetime and mutually beneficial relationship between us, hence my writing you. Dr. Dehinde Daniels is my name, 52 years old and an engineer. Happily married with lovely children. Special Adviser on petroleum to the former Military Head of State and presently, Chairman of the Contract Review Panel (C.R.P) appointed by the new Civilian administration, with the mandate to re-evaluate, scrutinize, approve and recommend for payment all previously awarded and executed contracts for the Petroleum Trust Fund (P.T.F). You were introduced to me by a trusted contact in the External Affairs Ministry of Foreign Trade Mission to act fast by helping me and my colleagues as a foreign account holder transfer the sum of US$25.5M (Twenty Five Million, Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) into your personal or company account. You must treat this letter with utmost confidentiality and trust. We cannot afford to toy with this rare opportunity of a lifetime. It may interest you to know that this is no Scam or fairy tale. To intimate you on the source of this fund, we over invoiced the contract sum of US$500M to 525.5M USD with the intention of using the $25.5M for our personal use and investment should we decide to retire from service. The consortium of ABB Lummus J.G.C of Japan, Julius Berger and Fouguerolle were awarded the said contract in Engineering and procurement work in Rivers and Delta State of Nigeria on the 10th of January, 1998 which was approved and paid in full by the Federal Military Government. The contractors (Foreign) had since been paid and the excess US$25.5M is in an escrow account of the Nigerian Deposit Bank (N.D.. Because we are still serving and cannot own a foreign account for now as in accordance with the law of my country, that's why we decided to contact you, and more so, the contract was done by foreign contractors and payments were made in United State Dollars, the more reason we urgently need your assistance to receive this money for us. Dear brother, all modalities for the successful transfer of this fund including legal and administrative requirements in Nigeria as well as that of International Arbitration has been worked out. We hope to conclude this transaction within ten (10) banking days once you open communication with me to furnish me your willingness and by fax receive the following information needed for easy transfer of the fund: (1) Your company or full names (2) Company Address (3) Phone/Fax Numbers (4) Bank Name, Address, Account Name, Number and any other information. I shall bring you into the complete picture of this transaction and give you directives you ought to adhere to for the successful transfer. We have agreed that the funds will be shared thus: (1) 20% of the money will go to you for acting as the beneficiary of the fund. (2) 70% to us the Government officials (with which we wish to commence an importation business in conjunction with you). (3) 10% has been set aside as an abstract projection for reimbursement to both parties for incidental expenses that may be incurred in the course of this transaction. Be rest assured that this transaction is absolutely 100% risk free on both side. I await your call very soon. Yours faithfully, Dr. Dehinde Daniels fax: + (234) 1 759 9626 daniels@engineer.com NB. Mode of payment is by solar bank draft or telegraphic transfer.

The difference is how easy you make it for people to get a gun. Make it harder, and fewer people will have guns. Fewer people with guns means a lower chance to get shot at while geocaching (or whatever other activity). It's a simple equation really. No it's not. Your argument requires that all people are normal and level-headed. Fewer normal people with guns does not mean that the extremes will have less of them. Criminals and the paranoid will have them no matter what. Taking guns from the average gal or guy would do nothing to reduce shootings...they aren't the ones doing it.

What a shame. A lack of adequate permission for the hide seems implicit. The guy shooting trespassers without regard to who they are, especially a kid trying to run away, is beyond stupid. Lock him up. I'm a huge fan of gun ownership and self-protection but unfortunately you can't limit ownership to smart people, therefore lots of idiots have guns. Be careful out there. The replies to that article are particularly disheartening. Folks, you don't own anything worth shooting somebody over except your life and that of your family. If you don't think that you are in immediate danger don't pull that trigger!

Send me an excerpt when you get it ready for prime time and I will publish it in The Online Geocacher.

So far I have owned a: Garmin Yellow Garmin iQue 3600 Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx Magellan Meridian Gold Magellan Meridian Platinum Blackberry Curve 8310 Motorola ATRIX 4G Android Garmin GPSMAP 62ST Found hundreds with each one, except the Blackberry and the ATRIX 4G phones, both are so inaccurate and slow I got sick of using them to cache after 30 or so finds each. Replaced the Blackberry with the ATRIX, and then replaced both of them with the 62ST. The best, hands-down, in every area, was my 60CSx. I wish I had it back. I usually cache with others, often with groups, and developed something of a reputation to be the first amongst us to find the cache. The 60CSx is that good. The next best is my current 62ST. Tolerable, but I wish I'd bought a used 60CSx instead. Anyone wanna trade a used 60CSx for a Blackberry Curve 8310? If you like caching with a cell phone this should be right up your alley!

A picture of me at the cache doesn't prove I was there? Nor does an exact description of said cache? You can find the cache, take it from its hiding place, initial the container with a sharpie pen and rehide it, and many on here will still claim that you didn't find it...trust me on that one!

I grew up in the U.S. and moved to Canada over 20 years ago. I quickly got the hang of using kilometres instead of miles. Thinking in terms of Celsius rather than Fahrenheit took a year or so. But it has only been the in last few months that I finally started unconsciously saying "zed" instead of "zee." I still say "sked-jual" instead of "shed-ule." There are limits, after all. Zulu is the standard for all US Military radio communications.

what's got one to do with the other? the question would make more sense if one had a smart phone I have a smartphone (Android Motorola ATRIX 4G). I don't use it for geocaching. Like the vast majority of geocachers I use a hand-held GPS (Garmin GPSmap 62st). Trying to link PQs to smartphones as a reason for buying a PM is unrealistic. You CAN use a PQ with a smartphone, but that is certainly not the limit of what a PQ does for you. I started out with a basic Garmin Yellow. It allowed you to plug in coordinates and gave you a compass and distance and not much more. I would download a PQ of 500 caches (the limit back then) into GSAK and sort through them on my PC, selecting the caches I wanted to hunt. I would print out the listings I was interested in and go caching. Many folks cache this same way today. You don't need fancy expensive GPS receivers or smartphones, but that PQ is invaluable.

Serious answer? PQs. I get a phone call, a friend says "Let's go caching in Trussville". I create a PQ of 1000 caches centered on Trussville, load it to my GPS and I'm out the door in twenty minutes, ready to find whatever caches we choose to hunt. A friend said "Meet me in Rome NY, we'll go do some caching in Canada then cache our way down to PA for GW9". Cool, I run a PQ for 1000 caches around Rome NY, a PQ for 1000 around Niagara Falls, 1000 around the GW9 site, and run some Caches Along A Route from Alabama to Canada so I can break up the long drive alone by hunting a few caches. $30 a year? I'd pay $30 for either one of those! And I do those kinds of things every month throughout the year. For $30 my PM is the best value of anything I buy!

Premium Memberships keep the whiz kids at Groundspeak employed at Groundspeak, where they can do no harm. Without PM income they'd have to go out and get real jobs, and the damage could be incalculable. No, do your part to save the world...keep them on the Lily Pad for everyone's sake!

Are you using Firefox? Garmin Communicator wouldn't work at all until last week with my new 62st under Firefox and Windows 7. They 'fixed' it but it's still flaky. Try using Internet Explorer.

There may be a bookmark list of haunted cache locations already, if so I hope someone will point me to it. If not let's start one! I have two caches at places which are reputed to be haunted. Do you know of any? If you want to hide a cache at a haunted location this list might help - http://www.scribd.com/doc/51808251/Haunted-Places-in-the-USA Mine are: http://coord.info/GC126 http://coord.info/GCMB22

Delaware has a power trail placed by what I guess is a quasi government agency. They state right on the pages that there should be no DNFs. If you can't find the cache throw down your own so they don't have to bother with maintenance. Linky?

Now there's the real answer to life, the universe and everything!

Evidently all old logs were deleted at some point. His last log was, I think, in 2004. Now when you go to his profile and look for his logs it finds none. Too bad, I don't know what he did for a living, but he should have been a writer. He could give Carl Hiaasen a run for his money writing humorous fiction.

Here's a great article on the ability of a GeoTrail to promote tourism and spending in an area. Might be good info for those of you thinking about starting such a collaboration with your local government. GeoTrail Healthy Outdoor Adventure Renewed for 2011-12 Seaway GeoTrail site

The only speculation is when I said "I look for Garmin to drop the Oregon", except for that, every bit of it is fact. What specifically are you having trouble with? You also need to remember, if you are ONLY using these forums for source, there is a lot of speculation, and on top of that, its well known that gs DOES filter and deletes threads and posts that don't put them in a good light. Hey, settle down, OK? The only reason I ask is so if I quote you in conversation with somebody, that I can support what I am saying instead of saying that a Potato Finder told me. Oh, I'm settled. I just wasn't sure which point you were asking about, the sources vary. This and this I'm curious about all of it, but especially the bolded parts. I've never heard any of that stuff. What the dog said. If we are to accept your statements we want to know where it came from. Saying that something is fact but you can't tell us how you know it to be fact costs you credibility.

Something interesting that I have noted on a number of Challenges so far... Completions outnumber Thumbs Up votes!

I had a Garmin GPSmap 60CSx. Found a couple thousand caches with it and it is by far the best of the 8 GPS receivers I have owned or used. Sold it, and rue the day. I have a Magellan Meridian Gold, found a few hundred caches with it. Good device. Simple, solid, reliable and accurate. I bought an Android Motorola Atrix 4G to replace the MeriGold as my primary GPS. Not so much impressed. c:geo works well, the Groundspeak Android app often won't connect, and the accuracy of the Atrix leaves a lot to be desired. It's okay for finding caches, if you are patient, but it is not accurate enough to hide caches. This is a failure of the phone, not the GS app, as even when using the AT&T maps for navigation the Atrix shows me to be off in the woods alongside the road I am on! Bought a Garmin GPSmap 62st and recommend that you do too. Or a used 60CSx. Either would be hard to beat.

That's a pretty self-centered view! YOU may know about that place, drive by it every day, nothing new here, but the OTHERS who don't know about that place might enjoy the Challenge. Of course you play the game for your enjoyment, each of us does, but when thinking about the game overall remember that it's not about you, it's about all players. And as has been pointed out a few hundred times now, Challenges are not caches and completing Challenges is not geocaching. It's a totally different act, and thinking about Challenges means setting aside everything you know about geocaching.

Looks like we lost all the logs by geocacher named Oregone, they were wonderful. The logs on The Homeless Bathtub are often entertaining, though you must be a PM to read them.

The Online Geocacher is not content-exclusive. If you publish your stories elsewhere you are welcome to post them with us if you like, and you can post a link to your site as well. We just want geocachers to share their stories!

I watched the video you linked to. From the info in that video please tell me what cache that is. If you can't then it's not a spoiler. At worst if you find yourself hunting a cache and that location looks familiar you might remember having seen a video of that place, but that's the only way it could spoil anything. You cannot watch that video, identify the cache and go find it. Groundspeak made a request, and assured him that they had no recourse. They did not threaten to close his account or take any other action. Lots of hype in this thread, not many facts, despite the Groundspeak request and follow up being posted here for anyone interested in the truth to read.