nyvram

I'm organizing a cache hunt for our scout den and so I was looking for some ammo cans. I called this place: http://www.detectors-surplus.com/ And the guy quoted me: $3.95 for 50mm cans $2.95 for 30mm cans He gave me roughly a 30% discount since I planned to buy 10 and it was for a good cause (sold me the 50mm cans for $3.25 each! However, when I stopped by the store I could only find 9 that were in good enough condition to give to the kids to paint up but he gave me the discounted price anyway. There were a few 'surprises' in a couple of the cans! He says he's got a TON more in storage if I need them and he had 30mm cans stacked floor to ceiling in the store (hundreds of them). Anyway, consider this an FYI if you live in the Nashville area & it appears that he does sell online as the webpage mentions 'ask about bulk shipping rates'. PS I also got a new P-38 since my son lost the one I had on my keychain for 25 years for 69 cents.

Ammo cans!! Nothing beats finding a painted-up camoflauged ammo can hidden in an old tree trunk. There's something magical about having your 6 year old open it up to see what's inside. You don't get that sensation from a tupperware with a blue lid. It just ain't the same. I'm always disappointed when I hit a cache only to find its a tupperware container instead of a ammo can. From the looks of things, those "bison tubes" seem to be the bomb for micocaches. Especially those with the caching logo on them.

"I use multibillion dollar military satellites to find tupperware containers hidden in the woods filled with McDonald's toys..and steal them."

..and here I am! My ears were burning. Yes, I've got quite a little adventure worked up for 9 unsuspecting (well 8 unsuspecting) 1st grade Tiger scouts. Our den leader rocks...he's a lighting engineer (he just did the Oprah set last week) and has a really nice woodworking shop so the kids have been getting to help out on real projects; no paper animal faces for us. We are having the kids make walking sticks out of red cedar (cut right from a tree..sssh), etc. so the projects are fun for both parents and kids. Anyway, so I'm planning to go all out. Thanks to the cache-friendly environment here in Nashville; our local Warner Parks actually was the 2nd in the nation I believe to authorize the placement of dozens of caches around the park (its a big wooded park) I think we can pull off a caching trip where the kids will get to design & put together their own stamps (thanks for the 'den logo' suggestion, LSUfan), learn how to register on geocaching and log their visits, learn how to use a GPS and hopefully each find a cache! Its going to be a lot of fun and if anyone has any suggestions here to add to it, do tell. NOTE I'm trying to find a cheap source for 9 ammo cans and I'm more than happy to pick up the bill for the stamps (and possibly bison tubes too) just to get them all hooked on this (and their parents). I also plan to have the kids paint & stencil their ammo cans with their info so they can use in the future as their caching toolkit. They're all going to share my eTrex so I might need the 'battery bandolier' as well. Anyway, I'll have a big write up complete with pics after our outing. I'm sure I'm not the first to think of doing this but with everyone's help, I want it to be the best one. We're shooting for sometime in late October. Please email or shoot me other (cheap) suggestions for this I might not have thought of!

We've found 8 caches in 3 days...3 micros, a multi-cache that took 2 1/2 hours to find & picked up a travel bug as well. My son wants to plant one before we go back home so we'll see. I should probably slow down before I burn everyone out. Just enthusiastic.... We've done several micros and while not as fun still have been interesting enough to entertain my 6 yr old.

I've almost got 10 now. ;-) Personally I like the eTrex I bought ($99) and has the possibilty of using a cable with it down the road if you ever think he can handle that. To be honest, I think the sport begets the tech. I have found that my interest has already gotten me hooked on GSAK and I haven't even recieved my cable to the eTrex yet. This, coming from Mr. 'I found 1 cache so far'. Tip: in GSAK set your 'double-click' behavior to launch the web-based URL. That way you can get the most of the benefits of tracking your caching without incurring the 'premium member' cost right away.

PS No 'first find' victory picture It was already completely dark and my silly little camera phone has no flash.

Viva success! Moon Lake log entry The log pretty much says it all but we had an awesome first find. Thought it was a total bust; the terrain was HORRIBLE the way we were going, but finding the right path made all the difference. The eTrex worked great out of the box..it was right over the thing when it said "you're here". Thanks for all the suggestions & comments (including the tip about extending the gps battery life) so far. Now I got some serious mud to go clean off my shoes.

So I'm getting my little yellow GPS ready for delivery today to my 6 year old. I noticed the version is 2.11 (I think). Is there any real advantage to trying to update the firmware..is it required? Does anyone have comments on the relative stability or bugs fixed that would warrant going through this process? Can't wait to see his face. As much fun as we had for 3 hours yesterday finding 3 rusted nails with a little $20 metal dector we bought at Target, this is going to send him to the moon. We'll probably start the hunt tomorrow (he's getting the unit today at his sister's bday party) and Monroe is ripe for the picking! :-P I've rechecked the 6-10 sites we're going to try to hit over the next few days about 5x each. He has no idea what he's in for. I know he's going to think its magic to just 'follow the arrow' to treasures.

Thanks again, wolf. GSAK it is. :-) I'll grab me a cable too. Worst case scenario I go to RadioShack & buy the offiical Garmin one. Just want to have a good time next week and if the cable makes things easier..then I'm all for that.

OMIGOSH! http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...32-aea943dde22b Elgin springs!!! ELGIN SPRINGS!!! My mom's family takes care of that place. I can't believe there's a cache there. We were going up there for some water when I was in town anyway. How unbelievably cool. I've made 1-2 trips there every year for 10-15 years. Boy oh boy oh boy is this stuff gonna be fun.

Thanks Wolf! Actually I'm going for 71203..but close enough. The one at Moon Lake & the airplane display sound like fun ones. We were planning to hit the airplane exhibit anyway. So as far as using the PC cable; is there any preferred software to use with it? I'll just be using a standard Dell PC w/ a serial port but didn't know if there was some software better than others to use..or anything special about clicking on the downloadable GPS file & having it send to the unit. I'm so spoiled w/ bluetooth on my phone that going back to serial is going to feel like a giant step backward.

Thanks Brian. I can't wait to start. He doesn't know we've bought him a GPS yet so it will be a surprise on Saturday when we pull it out for him. I'm thinking of doing the 'first' one near our house to (a) get some knowledge of using the GPS (I'm limited to the NAVI in my Honda Odyssey as for GPS experience) and ( so I know it will have a good treasure in it. I'm thinking one of those gold dollar coins in a film container would work. Ooo, I can already tell I'm going to get obsessed with this stuff. I'll report back here as soon as we do our first one & relay the experience. I might even snap acouple of picks w/ the phone & upload them.

I just bought the eTrex yellow ($99) for doing this with my kids this summer. My 6 year old loves to 'find' things in teh woods (last year he 'found' a lollipop tree with real lollipops growing from the branches ) Anyway, I would appreciate any advice you can give me. I'm a bit of a techno-nut so I'm hoping the eTrex won't be too confusing for him. Then again, he can take my Nokia 3650, dig through the menus, find the game "Bounce" & play several levels before dying so he's pretty good at figuring stuff out. Any advice on what the frustrations may be encountered by young-uns doing their first caching? I've read up on the acronyms & such but I think until we've done a test 'cache' there's probably alot I won't do properly. How about a PC cable. is it ok to pick up a $10 special on eBay or should I stick w/ the Garmin cable? Is a cable really necessary in the beginning? I am thinking that might just complicate things & I'd like to start out w/ simple 'enter the coordinates & go' stuff. Any 'out of the box' recommendations to change on the eTrex the first time we pull it out? I am so stoked about this stuff. I know he's going to love it. Our first caching exercies will be in Monroe, La. where my parents live. That should be a hoot. What a great site. I just love the Internet.