Joypa

I just wanted to let everyone know that the Hickory Grove cemetery here in Tippecanoe County was vandalized over the past weekend. I had placed a microcache in this cemetery a few years ago and it became an ISQ. A while back the cache was lost and the posting archived. This cemetary had been restored a few years back and contains a small plot of very old markers. The markers were pushed over and broken. A neighbor has offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrators. It is my sincere hope that they find and prosecute whoever did this. If any of you have any information, please pass it along to the authorities.

Hey Joypa, I just saw you on Channel 18 news. How about that. I spent my fifteen minutes of fame on a 15 second news clip about the smoking ban. Darn.

I was curious so I went back and counted. I have 64 ISQ finds.

I'm going and I'm caching along the way. Woopee!!!!

If any geocacher is reading this please take any of my Travel Bugs with you to the next cache, please. There is no such thing as being greedy when it comes to moving Travel Bugs, they are meant to Travel and you are helping them and the geocachers who own them when you pick them up and take them, all of them, all the time. The more Travel Bugs you move along the more Travel Bugs and geocachers you are helping. Some cacher picked up my daughter's TB along with a bunch of others and has walked them through four states, logging them through caches, posting group photos, telling stories. This has been the best treatment I have ever seen for a bug released by my family. Is this guy being greedy by collecting a bunch of TBs and holding on to them while he caches? Hardly. He's doing exactly what we hoped would happen, someone is enjoying our bug and is sharing the experience. How lucky you are!

There is no good way to follow that. What a world.

I wanted to reply because we had 500 exactly two years after we started. Looks like we're half the cachers you are!

YAY! More rules.... How bout this instead. Before anyone sends a bug out into the wild, they LET GO of any feelings they have for it and let it live its own life. I have well over 100 of my own and I haven't had so much as a drop of acid reflux over the ones I have released that have gone missing, been held too long, or whatever. A TB is an item that was basically thrown away and placed in public trust. Wanna know how much I trust the public? Better to divest yourself of all feeling for it and enjoy the good parts when/IF they happen. After logging 1250+ bugs, I can honestly say that the absolute worst parts of the TB game are the owners who hold on too tight/TRY to exert control and the interested parties who take it upon themselves to watchdog everyone else's for the common good. Sheesh. Is it any wonder I call this forum the "whining and unrealistic expectation forum." EDIT: Hmmmm, to prove my point, one of your own missing bugs disappeared from one of my caches that was in a VERY secure location atop a volcanic knob at nearly 9,000 feet in elevation. It wasn't a TB cache. Some locals found the cache and left a message on my sister's answering machine asking for $4,000 to return it. This is an excellent perspective on travel bugs. I have seven of them. Three are listed as unknown location. Two have been sitting for several months. Two are moving pretty well at the present time. When you get a notice that your bug has traveled, it's a nice tidbit for the day. Otherwise, you get on with your life.

I established a travel bug hotel in my area. I did so because people wanted it and encouraged me to do it. I took care to place the bug in an area where few muggles are likely to go but still convenient to the Interstate. I wanted to make it fairly easy to get on and off the Interstate yet not likely to get muggled. Finally, I made it a members only cache. I did this to further minimize the possibility of abuse. It has been operating pretty well since placed a few months ago and I'm hopeful that it will continue to serve the area for a long time. Travel Bug Hotels serve a useful purpose if done right. There are a lot of us out here that would strenuously object to a ban.

Great Salt Lake is a mediocre lake at best.

Congratulations, Doobies. Where's my frying pan?

Congratulations. It looks like you beat me to #500 by a day!

This one http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...51-5b9fc25c0854 ISQ 447. Another ISQ milestone.

Gee thanks! I couldn't have done it without the little people who provided so much support for my great achievment. I'd like to thank the Academy....woops, wrong speech. Anyhow, it's great to join the 500 club and I look forward to beating you all to the next cache.

While I am interested to know how many counties I have finds in I'm not going to do it because... 1- I'm too lazy 2- No one but me really cares and 3- I don't have the time So... I have found caches in all the counties.

Yes. That pan belongs to RPW. I got it for him to use. Thanks for the heads up.

Yes. I want some. I have two damp logs in micros that need replacing. Your paper is excellent and you should go into business selling it to cache hiders.

I like CSI (the original), Lost and 24 on network TV. I'll watch any series HBO does because its commercial free. I also confess to being a registered Democrat in a state full of Republicans. I guess I'd better duck!

Thanks. That worked. I have done it before but could not remember how.

I know but I'm not telling.

Enabling notifications of reply. See how quickly I forget?

I have a question. I previously was able to move my lost and destroyed TB's to "Unknown" to put them in permanent limbo. This move enabled me to avoid recording false mileage of transporting the bug to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. When my latest lost TB became known, I could not remember how I transported my bugs to "Unknown". I put them in the Atlantic graveyard but I'd still like to know the procedure for getting them to "Unknown" since I apparently have a short term memory. Can anybody enlighten me? I promise to write it down for reference this time.

Prophetstown is a good example of how a park might handle cache placement. The one big concern I have about caches in general is that people will place them, lose interest and quit the hobby, leaving their geolitter where they placed it. Some will inevitably do this despite the fact that others may be willing to take them over or even dispose of them. This action has the potential to "ruin" geocaching in public lands that have bad experiences. Prophetstown's requirement that the owner come and remove his/her caches after a period of time is a very sensible solution to this problem.

Cybret, There was an article in the local paper about the clean up of this cemetery last week. That article prompted me to go and have a look and place a cache there. The cemetery was in very bad shape and, through the efforts of some locals it is now accessible. During the work, they cut down a lot of trees and brush, which, no doubt, increased the wind through there. However, I'm quite sure it does not bother the inhabitants.

Thanks for the welcome. I look forward to planting a few more ISQs. Happy caching. Earthdog Patrick---Sorry, my wife is the only one who kisses this ugly mug.