AquaDad

I am hosting a family TB race and have several TBs in my watchlist. 2 of them are known to have moved and although they show a history of caches visited, they do NOT display mileage (either total or on hop). One is TB2HPFZ and shows Trackable Item History at the top of the cache list. This is different than others in my watchlist that I DO see mileage for and which say Tracking History at the top of the cache list. Is there some preference setting that controls this and if so is it TB owner or on my watchlist that it is set? Thanks, AquaDad

Sioux Falls Travel Bug Racing Cache A different twist on races I have seen. 2007 Eastern South Dakota International Travel Bug Race. This one sets a finish line cache in the US and somehow got the entry TBs all released in designated caches in Australia. As incentive to bring the TBs to the finish a mystery cache was created and the only way to get coords was to find a bug and drop it at the finish cache.

hmmm.. first post seems to have timed out somehow. Sorry if ends up as duplicate. Great idea to collect geo-stories. One of the things I really like about this is meeting new people and hearing about different adventures people have had. Thanks for setting this up. Our story --- I read about geocaching this summer in What's Up Annapolis magazine, a local rag about events and actvities in Annapolis, MD. It sounded like something I could get the kids to do that was outside and away from video games and computers/tv. I had in the past tried to teach them about compass use but wasn't really successful in grabbing their attention. They are now 10 and 8 so I thought to try again with the added incentive of "treasure hunting." I had to plan it all out though to capture thier attention. So... I told them of the artical and explained the geocaching game to them at dinner that night. After dinner I brought out the compass and made a little game for them to play that made them use the compass to find something in the house. I explained the basics of the compass and how to use it and then gave them each a sheet of paper with directions on it. My littlest had to start at the back door and walk 5 paces at 270 degrees, then 5 more paces at 180 degrees, then 5 more at, did you guess it, 90 degrees, and last, 5 paces at 360/0 degrees. That last one needed a little explanation about how many degrees on the compass. But she got to the final destination, looked up from the compasss, and with her hands on her hips said, "But Dad, I'm right back where I started at!!!" To funny was her indignant look. But I WHOOPED! and told her she did it exactly right. She beamed at me then and asked if we could do another one. Between the two, I had to setup a few more "courses" before they would even hear of bedtime. Now that they knew how to use the compass to follow a bearing, the next night, I hid a test cache in the backyard and showed them how the GPS worked to give us a bearing to a mark and distance. Starting off from the front door, they had to learn they couldn't always follow a straight line to the mark. Turned out to be a good lesson but I really hadn't thought that out. Just kinda stumbled into that lesson. They eventually found the cache and immediately wanted to do it again. After about 2 hours of hiding and re-hiding the test cache, I announcecd that they were ready to go into the wild and find real caches. They were jumping up and down to go but it was, yup, bedtime. That weekend, I looked for caches at GC.com and found two hydro-caches on the river near us. We love boating so I got the little inflatable boat out and had them plug-in the coordinates to the first cache. I new the cove this was hidden in as it was right next to a house of some friends we play on the water with so felt pretty confident of the find. We shoved off from the beach and they navigated prefectly. One had the compass and the other had the GPS calling out bearing changes and distance to the first. They were sooooo excited!!! When we got to the cove (couldn't do the straight line thing so first test cache lesson was a success), they recognized thier friends house and from the cache description knew where to head from there. They found it within about 2 minutes in a hollow under a tree along the community beach they had played at many times without even knowing it was there. Yeay!!! The second cache we also found that day was further up the river than we had ever gone and by now the kids were WAY HOOKED! Check out our profile and gallery for the sunset pictures near this cache. Since then, we have bought the premium membership, cached along a route to Niagra Falls for a vacation trip where we became "international geocachers, been 2nd to find on another hydro-cache, traded for a Pirates of the Cheseapeake geocoin (Way cool coin!), created our own cache to give back to the game, released a TB, started a TB Race for our family members to suck them into our new world, got 5 new geocacher families hooked and playing, and are starting 2 challenge caches in MD (All counties, and new MML Geo Trail). What a fun game this is and such a great family activity. Thanks to everyone who has helped make this such an enjoyable new activity. AquaDad and the Magothy River Aqua Trekkers crew

Great idea to collect geo-stories. One of the things I really like about this is meeting new people and hearing about different adventures people have had. Thanks for setting this up. Our story --- I read about geocaching this summer in What's Up Annapolis magazine, a local rag about events and actvities in Annapolis, MD. It sounded like something I could get the kids to do that was outside and away from video games and computers/tv. I had in the past tried to teach them about compass use but wasn't really successful in grabbing their attention. They are now 10 and 8 so I thought to try again with the added incentive of "treasure hunting." I had to plan it all out though to capture thier attention. So... I told them of the artical and explained the geocaching game to them at dinner that night. After dinner I brought out the compass and made a little game for them to play that made them use the compass to find something in the house. I explained the basics of the compass and how to use it and then gave them each a sheet of paper with directions on it. My littlest had to start at the back door and walk 5 paces at 270 degrees, then 5 more paces at 180 degrees, then 5 more at, did you guess it, 90 degrees, and last, 5 paces at 360/0 degrees. That last one needed a little explanation about how many degrees on the compass. But she got to the final destination, looked up from the compasss, and with her hands on her hips said, "But Dad, I'm right back where I started at!!!" To funny was her indignant look. But I WHOOPED! and told her she did it exactly right. She beamed at me then and asked if we could do another one. Between the two, I had to setup a few more "courses" before they would even hear of bedtime. Now that they knew how to use the compass to follow a bearing, the next night, I hid a test cache in the backyard and showed them how the GPS worked to give us a bearing to a mark and distance. Starting off from the front door, they had to learn they couldn't always follow a straight line to the mark. Turned out to be a good lesson but I really hadn't thought that out. Just kinda stumbled into that lesson. They eventually found the cache and immediately wanted to do it again. After about 2 hours of hiding and re-hiding the test cache, I announcecd that they were ready to go into the wild and find real caches. They were jumping up and down to go but it was, yup, bedtime. That weekend, I looked for caches at GC.com and found two hydro-caches on the river near us. We love boating so I got the little inflatable boat out and had them plug-in the coordinates to the first cache. I new the cove this was hidden in as it was right next to a house of some friends we play on the water with so felt pretty confident of the find. We shoved off from the beach and they navigated prefectly. One had the compass and the other had the GPS calling out bearing changes and distance to the first. They were sooooo excited!!! When we got to the cove (couldn't do the straight line thing so first test cache lesson was a success), they recognized thier friends house and from the cache description knew where to head from there. They found it within about 2 minutes in a hollow under a tree along the community beach they had played at many times without even knowing it was there. Yeay!!! The second cache we also found that day was further up the river than we had ever gone and by now the kids were WAY HOOKED! Check out our profile and gallery for the sunset pictures near this cache. Since then, we have bought the premium membership, cached along a route to Niagra Falls for a vacation trip where we became "international geocachers, been 2nd to find on another hydro-cache, traded for a Pirates of the Cheseapeake geocoin (Way cool coin!), created our own cache to give back to the game, released a TB, started a TB Race for our family members to suck them into our new world, got 5 new geocacher families hooked and playing, and are starting 2 challenge caches in MD (All counties, and new MML Geo Trail). What a fun game this is and such a great family activity. Thanks to everyone who has helped make this such an enjoyable new activity. AquaDad and the Magothy River Aqua Trekkers crew

This TB ( TB2B1T3 ) showed up in our cache today and is in a race of it's own. The Goal identifies the following point scoring activities: Current GOAL: Please help me. I am in a race with 3 other family member’s travel Bugs. We are being judged on the following items: 1. Who travels the farthest 2. Who travels the farthest in on hop 3. Who travels the farthest from Houston, TX 4. Who travels the fastest 5. Who visits the most Caches 6. Average time spend in a Cache I like some of the new ones I haven't seen before. Not sure exactly how #4 will be calculated as I can see a couple of ways to define that. #6 seems like a great stat to track for with lowest time over course of race being winner.

Looking for interesting ideas for TB races you have seen and how they worked. Topics to include scoring, time limits, tracking, and anything racing. Thanks, Auadad

Since you were able to make yours work and suggested GSAK, I installed it and imported same GPX file that didn't work in Google Earth. Nice feature in GSAK showed zero waypoints imported. This clued me in to look at the GPX file which seemingly only has the Google Earth waypoints and no GC cache objects. I think that this is because I was to impatient to wait for the emailed GPX file from the PQ and used the download GPX file from the route page. Now that I have a proper GPX file from the PQ email and have loaded that into Google Earth, I am able to see the GCXXXX name in the list of waypoints associated with this route. Some of the objects displpay o the GE map using GC image kml/2/png but most do not. Any ideas on why some but not all caches display on the GE map? properties check on those that do and those that don't look exactly the same. I did click a button on import to create clickable items which I think should relate to this view. I wonder if on one import I did not and not on another (I deleted all and re loaded). Maybe there is some reference left over in GE somewhere picking up on don't create clickable image.

First post. Loving this new game and all the info available. Have looked carefully but not seeing direct answers so am posting this to the group. It may be more on topic at GPS and Tech forum but as I am not sure, am putting here. I am trying to use Find caches along a route and have got it nearly right but wanted a little more. Hope these 2 questions are related enough to include in one post. 1) Created PQ and view results shows cache hits but not in geographic order along route. Not sure what order they are in but is there a way to have these ordered other than through importing into another GPSapp? 2) Exported PQ in .gpx file and imported into Google Earth. Seems to have downloaded points along the route (viewed as blue squares?) but not mapped to GCXXXX ID. I would like to have the ability to click on the icon in Google Earth and be linked directly to the GCXXXX object in geocaching.com. That would make it really easy to pick a place along the drive. Alternatively, even if I had the proper GCXXXX ID, I could easily find it myself in a separate window. I did note in a tutorial in another similiar post that the .gpx files are very accurate and the .kml or geocaching listing was rounded a little for accuracy that may account for Google Earth (lets use GE) view objects not being right where they should be. But I am seeing it the other way around. One GE object is a couple of miles from the park and ride lot where the nearest cache to the GE object coordinate put it. At least as viewed in GE to find the park and ride street interesction mentioned. Any advice on best way to take driving directions for our family vacation to Niagra Falls and get a view of fun caches along that route appreciated. Sorry for the length. Thanks all, Magothy River AquaTrekkers