Iowa Tom
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Posts posted by Iowa Tom
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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"We are not doing this because it is easy, but because it is hard!"- JFK
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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.
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You would be more likely to find someone that could make a physical appearence by contacting any of these organizations or by contacting a geocacher in your area that has a lot a caches placed. At least s/he might be able to direct you to someone that could help.
http://www.angelfire.com/nj4/njgeocaching/
http://sjgeocaching.org/SJG/modules/wfsection/
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Both parts were a LOT different than I thought they would be...1st, leaving something "out there" was a lot more dramatic (in my head) than I thought it would be, and 2nd, seeing someone post that they actually FOUND it was a lot more exhilarating than I imagined it would be.
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.
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Thankfully I was never tasted by her pythons, though I believe they took a bite out of her once or twice. I hear it hurts!
When they got out that one time they were pissed off because they were so cold (the floors here in the winter can get pretty chilly!) so when I went to retrieve them they took a swing or two at me. Thankfully I was wearing my winter leather gloves, though they never bit, it made me feel better.
We made sure the lock on the lid stayed locked after that!
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.
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I wish we had more snakes up in my neck of the woods. I miss seeing snakes. Even seeing a Garter Snake around here is getting rare.
They're just so cool. My roomate in my second year of college had kept her two Ball Pythons on campus for four years without getting busted. That was, until they got out and scared the pants off one of our other roomates.
Then they went to live with my then boyfriend.
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.
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I will never forget the time I opened a plain envelope that contained one of those critters!
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Yet another discussion that makes me glad I live in the Pacific Northwest!
In the area that I normally cache, the only type of snake we have are garter snakes.
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.
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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.
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King snakes are ophiophagous (meaning they eat other snakes) including venomous snakes.
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.
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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.
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I love snakes....
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.
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http://www.amazon.com/Watch-Found-Boxcar-C...0369&sr=8-1
Book Description
But they're not the only ones on the trail for clues! When several of the treasure boxes go missing, the game is ruined for everyone. Who would steal the boxes-and why?
When I read that this book is about kids and geocaching the first thing that I thought was that the kids need to know that this sort of activity carries with it a lot of responsibility. They need to learn that people may take what's not their's and so on. Now I see that this is covered. Awesome!
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What gets me is when they lose interest AFTER they pick up a TB I'm watching.
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The fact that caches are in commercial buildings will require special permission from geocaching headquarters. I think you have sought that already. I doubt you will have any trouble there.
Remember that each cache must be a minimum of 528 feet apart. As far as I know they will not approve a virtual cache.
What I would do if I were you is make the process of finding fewer caches a matter of getting information inside the various stores and or gathering some sort of info from the buildings themselves etc, etc. I have done things with pictures that might work for you. I call them pictocaches. If interested here are two: GOTO-UNI and HE DIED FOR THE UNION.
You might want to make the task of finding a coord a puzzle using various aspects of the history of the area.
Good luck,
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I'm just used to Groundspeak asking people to add that text in the description. Did they not say this when you wrote to Seattle for permission? Maybe that doesn't always happen. The important thing is that you got the special permission.
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.
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to me hiding is a lot more fun then finding.
I agree!! I find that making (containers and puzzles) is a lot more satisfying that finding. When I used to play hide-and-seek I would always want to be the one to hide, on rooftops and in trees and so on. Around here in NE Iowa there's a not a lot of great back country so I have to make up for the lack of scenery with special containers and puzzles to find them.
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Normally when Groundspeak grants an exception and allows a commercial cache, they ask the owner to state this on the cache page. Those words must be hiding behind Ginger's curves or something.
This is in the text: "...there's no purchase necessary!" I thought that was enough. I'll gladly add something more. Should I say that I was granted an exception?
The store owners were a bit skeptical at first but because I have known them for over 20 years they ok'd it. Jim said he was excited about meeting "interesting people". I told them that they might get visitors from all over. They are amazed that we can know where the gator head is now - in California.
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Once a guy left a large TB with me but I didn’t have a cache large enough to put it in. So I made a treasure box cache, named it Gilligan's Island and hid it in a spectacular pet store nearby. The store is privately owned and is a treasure trove of animals and all manner of supplies. It’s a real maze. Once the geocacher finds the store, using their GPSr, they have to locate the treasure box within the store. It’s in plain site, on top of the candy machine by the cache register, but many people have a hard time finding it. One of the first visitors told a cashier - that didn't yet know about the box - that he was there for the cache.
One of these days I might change the coord to be what I think it actually is. Then when a person is standing at the front door they will see that it’s 30 feet, or whatever it is, inside the store and they will know in what direction to go as well.
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On the backside of a "No Trespassing" sign you could say "Geocachers Welcome". Then tell the geocachers on the web page to look at the back of the sign, if that would make them feel more at ease. I myself would feel uneasy unless I actually saw something at the site that I knew was meant for me to read. It'd be my luck, I would have accidentally entered the coord wrong and would actually be in a place where I was not welcome.
If somebody has only the coordinate and no other info, too bad.
unacceptable cache description
in General geocaching topics
Posted
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.
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