Blue Bomb

Why should snow interfere with your caching? It just makes it a little more challenging is all.

1. 34 2. 2 years 3. male 4. 318 5. About 4 on average, I think. 6. Usually 30 milesor less, sometimes more. 7. Netherlands (living in USA). 8. 4 listed, 2 active. 9. 1. 10. Ex stepfather-in-law's retirement magazine. 11. no 12. $350 canadian, 16 years ago. Upgraded some parts every yearl since then. 13. 9 14. $30,000-$35,000 US 15. divorced 16. 2 daughters 17. My 9 year old daughter joins me occasionally. She has 50 finds.

I paid US$80 for a Yellow E-Trex at Aldi. It was one of those one-time only items, but that was the new version (with WAAS), in the factory packaging, with full factory warrantee. I gave my old one to my girlfriend for her birthday. I might be a stickler, but after finding this deal, I think even US$88 is too much. I did just notice someone in Australia is selling a used one on Ebay for AU$75 opening bid. That might be worth looking into. I also noticed an Ebay listing stating that an Etrex will float. I know from experience they only float after taking the batteries out... Good luck and welcome to the addiction.

I just tried to connect using X-Chat (a Linux IRC client), and I thought it was going to time out. Right as I was about to close the program did it connect. I'm guessing it took about 3 minutes or so to connect to the server from Adelphia Powerlink in Ohio. A traceroute went from servers in Cleveland to Buffalo to Chicago to Baltimore without a problem. Then it got time-outs. So for the people who can't connect: it seems there's a slow (overloaded) node on the internet between you and irc.slashnet.org that might be causing your client to time out waiting for the connection. That's not much more than a semi-intelligent guess, though. Marce

I second the yellow Etrex. Data/cigarette lighter combo cables could be had for $11 US from Ebay. Best buy I ever made other than the Etrex itself.

Just checked my hitch receiver this morning to make sure it wasn't bent. Was on a 4x4 trail doing a cache yesterday, and dropped the hitch receiver on a big ol' rock when the rear wheels went into a mud hole the front wheels were just climbing out of. This is in a 6000 lb vehicle. Even if it had been damaged, better to be the hitch receiver than the gas tank. Losing 40 gallons of gas at today's prices might have bankrupted me... So no geo related accidents or damage yet, although I've had a few close calls. None involving (or even near) any other traffic, though.

Being married.

34. Been caching since I was 32. My daughter sometimes accompanies me; she is 8.

Two weeks ago I found black bear tracks within .5 miles of my cache. The only reason I recognized them for what they were was because of dealing with them almost daily during my college summer job in northern Ontario. I hear there are between 10 and 15 of them in Ohio. My buddy has seen one on his hunting property near a state park a few years back. But living in Ohio, I don't feel the need to carry any kind of protection from wildlife unless you count insects. Protection from weirdos in the woods is something else, though. Oh wait, we're geocachers. WE are the weirdos in the woods.

Went Geocaching Saturday, planned to start at daybreak, but missed that by some 5 hours. Still hit 26 caches (plus 3 DNFs), where my old personal best was 9 in a day. Met three other cachers out on the trail, two of them in the same park. I did drive the Geo Prizm instead of one of the gas guzzlers, though. Today (Sunday) I spent half the day recovering, then got on my bicycle for a 20 mile trip and spent the rest of the day recovering from that. I need more of these weekends before the pool warms up enough to go swimming. Then Geocaching will be pushed back to priority #2.

Go benchmark hunting. No GPS required for those, as they have detailed descriptions about their supposed location. After you get your GPS, go cache crazy.

$2.19 here in Ohio. Hasn't slowed me down, but has caused me to change my first choice of vehicle. Caching mobiles used to be the '79 truck or 4X4 Suburban. Both about 15 MPG. Lately it has been the Geo Prizm, which goes more than twice as far on the same amount of gas. If I run the Suburban dry it'll cost me $92 to fill up. That's a LOT of trade swag... Heck, that's what I paid for my Etrex!

I decided to use my GPS to find out the top speed of my Suburban when I happened to be on a deserted straight stretch of highway a few months back. I was kinda bent over the steering wheel so I could see the road as well as the GPSr which was laying on the dashboard. The displayed speed was climbing in 7 to 8 mile per hour jumps. About ate the window with the GPSr showing 99.7 MPH. Turns out the ignition is programmed to cut out at 100. At that speed that's like putting the brakes on. The seat belt sure hurts when you don't expect the slowdown. Oh and it wouldn't dream of getting 30MPG going downhill with a tailwind. I have a different car for that.

I keep my old college backpack packed for caching at all times. It is probably overpacked for most of my needs, but I'd rather be over prepared than needing something and not having it with me. I take it with me on nature hikes, leave it in the car and stash trade items, TBs and a pen in my jeans pockets for short urban park 'n grabs.

It seems people are mixing up dynamite (nitroglycerin mixed with an absorbent) and trinitrotoluene (TNT). Besides the fact they are both explosives, they are completely diferent beasts.

I usually use Dollar General alkalines. Their "heavy duty" batteries last only about 4 hours, but their alkalines go more than a full day in my yellow Etrex. The reason I tried them to begin with: $2.50 for an 8 pack. Never had a problem with one of them leaking out of probably 100 or so used over the past year in various toys for the kids, remote controls and my GPSr. Kinda wish they made larger packs, like 24 or 36. I now have a combination cigarette lighter/data cable and always use it when in the car. Can't remember the last time I changed batteries.

Excuse me if I am wrong, but isn't 2004-1991=13 years?

Too bad I didn't see you earlier. Some COGers had a semi-official event down at The Wilds last Saturday. That wouldn't have been all that far. You can still sign onto the forums and mail lists for NEO and COG. We all have stuff happening closer to you that doesn't get talked about at GC.com. And sometimes those events are worthy of 5-10 hours of driving anyway. Too bad about the WIlds. Haven't been there in years. Thanks for the heads up on the mailing lists, I think I will subscribe to them. Blue Bomb

We had out first event this morning, and allowed all attendees to get the jump on 10 or so new caches we put out. We requested them to not be activated on the site until tomorrow, but had print outs ready for all who attended the event. First attempt to add a link: Wilderness Center Geocaching Event

Bummer.

Background info for the (very few) people who may not know: I had the honour of meeting CCCooperAgency and SBUX at an event last May. SBUX is CCCooperAgency's daughter (as well as Starbuck's stock market symbol). I thought 5000-some caches found was insane. CCCooper has found 2000 more since then... I can only dream of some day having the time and resources to cache like that.

Strasburg. 90 minutes from Cleveland, 2 hours from Columbus. The two closest organizations with regular get togethers are both too far away...

I just turned 33 last month, my wife who's only been to the "Timeline Tree" cache in FLorida with me so far is 36, my oldest daughter is 13 and has been to only one cache with me in Canada. She is too busy with her boyfriend to be interested in anything else. My other daughter is 7 and has done quite a few caches with me. She loves it, I think, mostly for the possibility of finding a new toy to play with.