Iowa Tom

I use cm and mm but Km have far less meaning because of the fact that all the country roads in the flat part of Iowa I live in are laid out in mile squares. The thought of having to convert in my mind the number of miles in X number of km would be a pain to say the least. I could get used to it I suppose but there is little need. I use metric when measuring parts for a new geocache container I'm making because it's far easier to divide and multiply decimals. No standard ruler uses decimal inches. -it

I remember the 1st time that I read, easy find and predictable in regard to a person's finding my geocaches. That was the best geo-irritation I have received up to this point. Now I make a lot of caches that are not hard to find but that have the log hidden away in the cache itself. Some people never do find the log but claim credit anyway. That was not my intent. Another thing that comment energized in me was to make lots of puzzles. Yeah it may be an easy find, once you figure out the coords. I've created some containers that are very camouflaged. That helps, especially with the micros. Lastly, sometimes the caches are a challenge to reach and require a tool to make reaching it possible. For the one you have now I would think that you could develop a new scheme and archive the current one then employ the better idea. The people that have already found it will find it again cuz they know where it is (assuming you use the same place), but oh well. Be glad you have visitors. Mine are hard enough now that I don't have many at all in some cases; like 4 a year. Then again I live where there's not a large population of geocachers either. -it

Glad to read of your excitement. I think you will get a lot more responses for help if you write to the general forums. I use Magellan myself. -it

I was in another part of the state of Iowa with my son once listening for the 17-year cicadas that were out at that time. We made our way to the top of a tall screened in tower and while at the top I droped onto my back to look underneath a white bench up there. Just as I began to say. "This would be a good place to hide a cache." I found a cache! Actually it was only a coordinate written on a piece of card that was taped in place. It was one stage of a multicache. Last year a local guy was looking for a good spot to hide a new cache along a bike trail. He popped the lid off a hollow metal fence post and found a puzzle cache of mine that he hadn't been able to figure out the puzzle on! He then walked a ways down the trail, found a neat looking tree, climbed up into it and found another good place for a cache. He reached in and pulled out another one of mine. That one required that he find a key to get at the log. He managed to find the key 10 feet away in a hollowed out branch at ground level. I allowed him to take credit for finding both. -it

That one is a classic.

When I recently saw this satellite image I happened to notice the name of the river along which many caches were probably flooded recently. I never thought to look to see if any places where named cache or had the word cache in them. I have since found three towns: Cache, Illinois, Oklahoma and Arkansas. At topozone.com I found a lot more places with the name cache in them. Beware, this topozone link takes at least 1.5 minutes to load, but it has a long list of cache locations that will help you to take the challenges I present below. Now let’s see if you can figure out what cache is located at the red X here. Another challenge - can you locate the name of the cache marked with the X along the Cache River in AK? I think a bunch of mine may have ended up here. Can someone tell us the name of the cache nearest to this location? It’s near Cache. Does anyone know of any other geocache near something that has the word cache in it? Here in NE Iowa there's one under a big sign that says Cache; it's a salon or something. I thought that was hilarious. -it

I myself grimace when I find a cache that's almost indistinguishable from trash. No wonder some people don't want us to hide things. I hate to bring this up but I have thought about the need of having containers approved before being set out. I make almost all of mine from scratch and have found that keeping water out is almost impossible. It's better to have them off the ground for sure. -it

Before I began reading these forums I never really thought about the word agenda. At this point I wish I never would have seen the word. In my mind the people with the agendas are the ones trying to abolish what they perceive as being agendas. agenda at Dictionary.com: 1657, from L., lit. "things to be done," from neut. pl. of agendum, gerundive of agere (see act). Originally theological (opposed to matters of belief), sense of "items of business to be done at a meeting" first attested 1882. If getting something done that is good is an agenda, than more power to it!! Every time the geocaching community gets involved in doing something good, the activity becomes something that is [[FAR]] more meaningful than a game or a sport. I myself am glad to be part of an organization that stands for ideals that make life better. If supporting our men and women in the military is a good thing, then count me in. If trying to find a cure for the diabetes that my daughter has is a good thing, then count me in. If giving people a reason to get out of doors is a good thing, then count me in. If encouraging people to love their neighbors is a good thing, no matter what their agenda....then count me in. What is good is a matter of opinion. If people disagree about what is good, great. Agree to disagree and move on. -it

I saw this little guy looking back at me when I was looking into an old hollow broken off telephone pole. I put a tubular cache in there on top of where he lived. Feeling badly about that I decided to make a mouse-sized living quarters in the bottom of the cache. His "spaceship" includes a door that can be temporarily closed before extracting the tube from its hiding place. That way, given that it has a window through which a person can look, we can see if the "captain" is at home. When visiting the location I ask people to place corn, that I have in a container nearby, into the ship to keep the captain happy.

At a private school I teach 8th grade earth science, 9th grade physical science, 10th grade biology, 11th grade chemistry and 12th grade human anatomy/physiology. Also taught bible one semester. "Fortunately" I'm not qualified to teach physics or I would be teaching that too. My wife's income provides enough income to have Internet access at home. Otherwise I'd be going to the library to get online to find coords etc. Since I spend far more time creating caches with colorful web pages and puzzles rather than finding geocaches I don't use much gas driving around.

Considering what you teach, I wish you could get your hands/feet/elbows or whatever on the thieves. Let's hope that they get caught and still have the treasure. This might help in a pinch.

Take a guess as to the flower type and the circumstances under which I captured this apparition. For three days I had the park all to myself and took a risk in getting the image. BlueDeuce, you need to let someone else take a stab at this. I'm sure you know cuz you've already seen it. -it

I'm not trying to be vain here. I am just curious. Today I was contacted by Dakota Jim about his dropping off a TB on his way past my town. That got me wondering about how many other geocachers use their first or last name along with something that ties them to a particular state in the Union. I was once contacted by Indiana Bill too but now I cannot locate his name in the system. The reason that I chose the nickname I did for geocaching is because when I first started writing to an astronomy forum several years ago I needed to differentiate myself from the other Toms in the group. I signed off as, Tom Iowa USA. The nickname I chose for geocaching evolved from that. The seven letters that I use fit also perfectly in a vanity license plate.

It was/is that way with me as well. Try hard to make it worth their time and you will be rewarded with great posts by great people. -it

The other times I've been bit it didn't hurt much, even the time when I received 17 holes from my Columbian red-tailed boa. I describe being bitten by a large snake as reminding me of the sound that I hear when I tear through a spider's web. What I feel (I don't think I hear it) is the tearing of the collagenous fibers in my dermis. It's like the crunch sound (I detect via bone conduction) that I detect while a hypodermic syringe is plowing through my gums at the dentist office. The one time that I was startled by a snake "getting out" was when I woke up one morning and saw my pet rattler half way out of his cage. A mouse had chewed through the window screen and the snake got through the half-inch hardware cloth. Fortunately he got stuck. The first thing that hit my mind was, "My dad is going to be soooooo mad!" The cage was at the foot of my bed. By the way, I tell my students that a reptile does not get angry. They are either striking because they think you are the food or because they are defending themselves.

Emphasis mine. I too have noticed how dramatically the snake population has decreased, at least here in NE Iowa. I never see them in town anymore. That is sad. My ball python, even though relatively small at the time, holds the record for how many teeth holes I've gotten in one bite: 27. Like an idiot I held a small dead mouse up to Bud's nose in an attempt to "hand feed him." Hand feed is right. My thumb was a tasty warm target. Ball pythons have heat sensors along the upper jaw. He wouldn't let go. That was a first for me. All the other times they bit they let go right away. I called out to my daughter to get a Popsicle stick out of the force feeding kid so I could pry his jaws off my thumb w/o hurting him. Man that hurt! My girl started crying because her dad was in agony. It was the worst bite I've ever experienced and I've been bitten by a lot of things. A crow is the second most painful bite. It's like a pair of scissors clamped down on a person's fingers.

I will never forget the time I opened a plain envelope that contained one of those critters!

My first snake bite was from a garter snake. I deserved it however. I would rather be bitten by a garter snake or by a fox snake or by any other nontoxic species that poop on a person than be pooped on. The smell is awful! After grabbing a large fox snake on a field trip with a bunch of kids I had to hold my hands out the bus window on the way back.

I have been surprised by fox snakes and bull snakes vibrating their tails against dry leaves. In both cases I thought it was a rattlesnake until I looked.

Once when I entered my classroom and noticed that my 10-inch scarlet king snake (Ozzy) was far bigger in diameter than what he was two days before. I wondered what was going on. As I looked through the aquarium I noticed that my little fox snake was missing. I thought, "Oh no!" Not long after that Ozzy barfed up his over-sized meal. It was too large for him to digest and the fox snake had rotted in Ozzy's gut; hence his unusually large size. I learned from that one.

This was not while geocaching but, years ago I was driving for Lanter Courier and while cruising down a country highway I spotted a large bull snake on the road ahead. It looked like it had been run over. I looked in the rear view and saw the coast was clear. Slowing to a crawl, I swung the door open, leaned out, snatched it off the pavement and dropped it onto my lap. It started to move, but just a little. The poor thing had been hit and was not going to live long. By the time I got home it was almost gone. My 7-year old daughter got to hold it for a while before it gave up the ghost. Because of its dire condition I was able to photograph it w/o hindrance. One of the shots I took is shown as a scanned slide below.

Words from my own heart. To me snakes, including my own, are some of the most beautiful creatures on earth. I've had two pet rattlesnakes in my time and numerous other species. If I see one, I consider myself blessed. There are far fewer than there used to be. -it

What gets me is when they lose interest AFTER they pick up a TB I'm watching.

I was advised by the IowaAdmin about what to include. The process was delayed until I included "no purchase was necessary". Thanks for the help! I appreciate it.