The GeoGadgets Team

HERE is my Geocoin list/trading list I'm hoping to get my hands on a Tracking Time and Prime Meridian coins, and any coins we don't already have from the states we traveled through on our move from Northern California to Maine. On the list are questions about states that may or may not have coins for 2006, or at all. Any info on those (whether they exist or not) would be helpful. I'm not a 'collect every single coin' collector (not knocking it, though), but if you would like to offer one that I don't have listed for one I have available, I'll consider the trade. Thanks!

Being a relatively newbie GeoCoin collector (but rapidly making up for lost time!), I saw a reference in this thread to "displaying" coins. I've seen the wooden display trays, but I'm more interested in something that will hold a large number of coins, and has some sort of protection for them, like a plastic covering? Do any of you have a suggestion for a binder, or some sort of carrying case to take them safely to Events? TIA, Lori aka: RedwoodRed of The GeoGadgets Team -= The Maine Californians =-

Anyone else?? It seems like there was only one other person let in on the location. Yes, Ed... er, actually TWO other people. Please read my statement about the LACK of local cachers...

I think I agree with Alabama Rambler 100%. When the kids are along, they always want to 'see' what is in the cache. But, if they haven't brought anything of their own, they rarely get to trade for it. I'm trying to teach them that 'things' don't grow on trees... just like how Happy Meals toys are what makes a HM cost money... it sure ain't the food! If it is just Steak and I, and their isn't a TB or GeoCoin in the cache that I specifically went there to trade for, we usually TNLN. But, once we went for a cache because the FTF prize was a PDA... a used one, and as it turned out, one that didn't have any of the cables or peripherals that went with it, not even the manual... but it was still a cool find. We left about twenty dollars worth of swag in that cache in exchange, too. I feel that even if the swag is incredible, one should try and leave something appropriately nice (even if the dollar value is less) in exchange, or else leave that super cool, highly desirable item for the next cacher. Of course, FTF certificates, ribbons, medals, awards, etc. don't count. If I'm FTF, I always take those things to add to my trophy case... and even though they are our 'due', I still leave something in exchange.

I've never met anyone while Geocaching that I wanted to have a permanent relationship with... but I've met some cool folks that have become good friends, if that's the kind of relationship you meant, which I'm sure you didn't. HOWEVER... I have played the part of a sockpuppet that got a few guys here worked up enough to talk about leaving their non-Geocaching wives over... which was NOT my intent, nor was I the instigator. But that's a story for another Event... sitting around a fire... praying no one is taking aim at me...

Yes, I was given only the initial coords and told to go for it. I suppose I should have clarified that he'd given the same coords to another cacher who couldn't find it, before giving them to us. So, essentially, we started out the same as anyone else, but with the addition of a request of "could you do this now for me?" Also, keep in mind that this was five+ years ago, when the number of Geocachers where I lived was, well, our Team and two other people. First-to-Find prizes were more to get folks to actually go and look for the cache, not something to compete for. The only person we ended up competing with was a group from 100 miles away who used to drive out to our neck of the Geocaching geography in order to one-up us on finds, and we'd have to get up at 6 a.m. to beat them to our own neighborhood caches. They don't even cache anymore... sad. And yes, not only did the person who asked us to beta-test his cache ask us to do it again on another cache, but asked us to adopt those caches after he'd moved. Go figure...

Send me your mailing addy... there are about ten within a 10-mile radius where I'm caching...

So, what do you do when a Geocacher friend asks you to beta-test a cache? This has happened to us on numerous occasions. The first time it was on a nine-stage multi that actually took three days to find, because the coords on two of the stages were incorrect. The final cache had a combination lock on it, and when the owner realized that he'd transposed two of the numbers, we had tried three times to open it with no success. Good thing he was a licensed Amateur Radio operator (as are we) and we shouted for him on the radio to ask WTH? Then it took him two days to come to the conclusion that the error was his, and that we weren't doing something bass-ackward. Yeah, we claimed FTF on that one. We earned it, and no one would have been able to find, no less log it, had we not done the leg work. On another occasion, a friend asked us to test a cache he'd placed near a business. We found it, signed the log, but the cache was never approved, so regardless, there was no FTF. But I've never helped another cacher hide a cache that I didn't get credit for helping hide (as in, my name is on the hide, too). I do have an issue with husband/wife teams who go out, hide a cache together (sometimes two or more in a day) and then the spouse logs it as an FTF while he/she helped hide it! The second it would go live on the GC.com website, a FTF log would pop up. To prove it, I went out the next day and sure enough, the other spouse had never signed the logbook. I put in my log that we were the first to log it, as no one else had signed the log, and it went on my FTF list (for my own personal gratification). Another team that caches with them does the same thing, and I just think that is BS, and not only because I'm an acknowledged FTF Ho (Hello, my name is Lori... ). It would be no different than if I claimed to hide a cache, got it approved and published, let just my friends log it as a find on the first day, and when no one else could find it (it didn't really exist you know), archive it... but my friends all got to log a find. Might as well start logging pocket caches... sheesh. Say what you want about Teams, but we hide as a Team and I don't send my kids out with new user names to log them as FTFs.

No one can claim you didn't, but did the rest of the team do the cache? If I was on your team I would feel cheated that I did not have a chance to at least participate in the hunt. ....but whatever feels right to you. Okay, then maybe you should look at my the overall numbers for my Team since we started in '01? Not 1k, barely just broke 600 finds in all that time. How do you think that CCCooper Agency works? Do you think that only one person has found... what is it now? 10k in finds? by themselves? Uh, no... especially when you see that they have multiple finds in two or three different states (each) all on the same day. That is how they have garnered those numbers. Now, the numbers means something to them, obviously. Do you think that my two sons feel cheated when they get to go to a friend's birthday party and Mom and Dad decide they'd rather spend some quality time Geocaching? No. Should we not use our time alone together to do something we enjoy? I think not. You know what my nine-year old says when we tell him we've been out night-caching? "Did you bring me anything?"... but then he says the same thing when I come home from Wal-Mart, too. Is the rest of the family cheated then? A 'corporate team' like CCCA and a 'family team' like we GeoGadgets are two completely different critters. Obviously, to us the numbers are a nice added extra. It doesn't mean that we are better or worse than other cachers. It does mean that we have some great memories of our caches done together, and those done with/without the kids. My oldest son spent three weeks in Texas with his biological father. My ex and his family are Geocachers, too. They went out and found a cache to place a Travel Bug that wanted to go to Texas. Yes, we counted that as a find... kind of had to. I picked up the TB and Red XIII doesn't cache enough alone to get his own account. I'm sorry if you think that we all cheated, but I didn't hear anyone complain when I logged it as a find. A member of the Team was there, photos were taken, swag traded, and the log was signed with "Red XIII of The GeoGadgets Team". Are you going to tell me now that I have to do more than one cache per state to consider saying that I have Geocached in any particular state? Whatever...

Wow! Everyone who responded is inspiring me! I'm amazed. I did try to lose weight on my own, with a diatician, under a doctor's care, etc. and even if I lost some, I'd always gain back more than I lost. One of the most interesting things that I had to realize when deciding to do this surgery: that the surgery is only a TOOL to speed along the weight-loss. My brain got me into this mess (eating because it made me feel -something- ...comfortable, satisfied, whatever... ) and it is going to take strong brain power to get me to keep losing weight. I've almost worked my way through what the doctor calls my "honeymoon period", the first 18 months after surgery is when the majority of the weight comes off, and only being down 200 lbs. means I've only come one third of the way of my goal. This means I'll have to work even harder to lose that last 100 lbs. I'm sure not drinking sodas anymore, and only drinking one cup of coffee per day, plus only being able to eat 4 ounces of food at a time will go a long way to make that easier, but I'll still have to work. I live on the third floor now that I live in Maine. Climbing two flights of stairs multiple times per day sure is making a difference... and when it gets too cold to cache (*sigh* is that possible?), going up and down the stairs will be one of my major forms of exercise... but it is still something I couldn't even DO a year ago! Now, if I can just put the refrigerator out in the hanger instead of up here (the hanger is 500 feet from the house), getting a snack would be so much of a challenge that it might be worth the calorie burn just to attempt it... even in three-foot snow drifts! Keep up the great work everybody and Cache On!

My family and I have been caching together since late 2001. We did pick a team name, though all of us have individual 'screen' names. The very first cache found was by just Steak and I, but we logged it under our Team name. There were times when my youngest would get freaked out around certain terrain (berry vines, yuck), and with him being only 4 years old, I'd head back to the car with him. Does that mean that Steak and Red XIII, even having found the cache, traded items and signed the log, cannot log it as a find? I think not. When my kids are in school I sometimes cache alone. I still log it as a Team find, because I do not have, nor do I see a need to have an individual user name or account. If your 'rules' applied to all Geocachers, CCCooper Agency wouldn't be able to claim a fraction of their finds. If you are an individual and you feel slighted by this, maybe you should re-think your perspective. If for example, each of the four of my family Team get into four different vehicles to go on a Geocaching Expedition, all heading in a different compass direction, and we all find different caches and sign the log a "The GeoGadgets Team", who is really going to know? A member of the Team found that cache, signed the log and followed 'the rules" (by rules I mean, found it, logged in the logbook - those are the only 'rules' I've ever been made aware of for Finds), then why shouldn't it be logged by the Team? May sound like cheating to you, but if I climb that hill, fight off those skeeters and manage to find the cache and log it, who can claim I did any different?

promotional bump

45 (my birthday is the 17th of this month... send presents to P. O. Box 11, Alfred, ME 04002) RedwoodRed; 35 (his birthday is the 23rd! 10 years and 6 days apart) Steak N Eggs 13 (going on 30 - he thinks) Red XIII 9 (and Geocaching grows on him the older he gets) Copperhead So, as a team, our average age is 25-1/4... Has anyone averaged the ages posted so far (including adding a year for those who posted their ages a year ago)?

You still haven't said which cache you were on. I'm concerned as you aren't all that far from my QTH (location). Come on... spill it.

The only consistent issue that I have noticed in relation to this: Both teams mentioned spend very little or no time posting in the forums; Those who discuss it, sweat it, worry over it, and can't seem to get past it spend WAY, WAY too much time reading and posting in the forums. My point? Push yourself away from the monitor, get out there before it begins to snow and get caching!

It is so cool to read about the successful weight loss of others who've used Geocaching as an inspirational way to lose pounds and get conditioned. I thank you all for your responses! 2Q inspired me to post my before and after image: The 'after' was taken in June of 2006, and since then I'm down to 290, so I've lost more. Steak (my S.O.) says that I picked the wrong shirt to wear, but it is hard to find things that fit for more than a week or two. I really hope that more people will pick up this thread, but it is great to know that I'm not alone. Actually, I'm glad to be back! I'm hoping to get down to my pre-injury (in 1991) weight of 165 lbs, when I looked like this: I wish all of you luck, and hope you will continue to wish it for me! Actually, just wish me the continued energy and enthusiasm to cache! That seems to be working! RedwoodRed

Tell your Mother I said "Congratulations!" Good for her! I actually drink a gallon and a half of water a day. Most people find that hard to believe, but I have water with me constantly. I don't go anywhere without a 1-liter bottle. Tell your Mom to sip, constantly sip. It still hurts if I gulp water, so just be cautious. And no, I don't go to the bathroom constantly. Amazingly enough, I spent more time going to the bathroom when I drank two cups of coffee a day than I do drinking 120 oz. of water. Caffiene dehydrates, and according to my Surgeon, for every 8 ounces of coffee I drink I have to add another 16 ounces of water to my daily intake in order to wash out the negative effects of the caffiene!

Boy, that's true. When putting together a PQ for our trip cross-country, keeping the terrain rating at 3 or below left few if any caches along our route through Utah (just one example... others results may vary). This was a bit disappointing, but then if you actually LOOK around Utah (any part other than SLC), the terrain is either completely flat (for miles and miles), or very, very steep and rocky. I think we only did two or three caches in Utah along the I-80, and I'm sure we could've done more had Steak been willing to stop more often.

I hope this isn't OT. My family and I started Geocaching in 2001, and instantly became addicted. Back then I was 42 years old, with two small kids (oh, and Steak... he might as well be a kid). I also weighed nearly 500 lbs. I saw Geocaching as a way to get out and move, hopefully to lose weight. Unfortunately, much of the time found me sitting in the car giving directions to the others who were out caching because I couldn't do anything more strenuous than a 1.5 on terrain. Way back then I was trying to talk my Drs. and insurance Co. to let me have Gastric Bypass surgery. They kept telling me, 'no, you need to eat less and exercise more'. As much as I loved Geocaching, hiking 2 miles to a cache carrying a camera, a backpack with trade items and all of the weight I was packing just did more damage... but I was having fun! Finally I found a group of Drs. who would help me, and I had the surgery in May of 2005. I weighed 470 lbs. Now, a little over a year later, I weigh 290 lbs. (and still losing!), cache every chance I get, I'm the first one out of the car and down the trail, I'm walking from 2 to 5 miles daily, and I've completed Geocaches rated at 3.5 on terrain because of the strenuous hike up mountains to the cache site. I even placed a cache to celebrate the first one hundred pounds that I lost (Hundred Down), with an explanation as to why. Since then, I've met and talked with other Geocachers who have since gone out and had the surgery. At our Third Annual Cool Coastal Retreat Event in July, there was another Geocacher there who'd had the surgery (and looked great!), and another who'd actually been thinking about having it done, and came to the event to meet with me and talk about it. I'm sure there must be other Geocachers out there who've had it done or are considering it. Yes, this post may be a blatant trolling for praise, and some of you may even think I took the easy way out... if having a six-hour procedure to rearrange your digestive tract and recovering with a ten-inch incision down the middle of your abdomen is 'easy', then you can think what you will. But I did something to change my condition, and I am changing every day. My 13- and 9-year olds struggle to catch up to me on hikes, and the older kid is in track. GB patients, speak up! I'm thrilled with my new condition and hope to meet other Geocachers out there who want to use this fun sport as an additional tool to improve their physical condition. RedwoodRed (now 180 lbs. lighter)

This might be mildly OT, and I'm sure it has been discussed before, but when I type the word "Whore" into the search nothing comes back... (insert joke of your choice here) I've discovered that not only am I an FTF whore/ho/addict, but I'm also extremely addicted to GeoCoins and travel bugs. It has been explained to me that there is something new called "discovering" TBs and coins, and I've also been directed towards 12-step programs, but I LIKE being a HO! I don't keep the TBs or coins of others, I'm happy to move them along. But it is tempting to spend the grocery money on coins and TB tags. Is there a support group out there (so that we self-admitted whores/hos (is that spelled 'hoes'?)/addicts can get together to support our addiction?), besides events, I mean.

Somebody who finds one stage of a multi-stage cache and logs the whole things as a find. If it's one of mine they get deleted real quick-like. Or somebody who can't find a cache after three or four attempts, and with each DNF log they bitch about how inappropriate the cache is, or the area is dangerous. But dadgum, do they keep looking because they want to have that dadgum smilie! That's a Numbers Ho. Now me? I'm a FTF Ho, and a GeoCoin Ho, and a TB Ho... Ask me what a GeoCheater is! Oh, go ahead, please ask!

Thanks for the help, Hynr! Your links to routed PQs sent to my email have worked like a charm! I really appreciate it. Now at least I can do some caches across the 3,500 miles I'll be driving! And with some hair left over! Thanks again! Lori

I agree. The guy with the bad comb-over will never know how ridiculous he looks if no one ever tells him. Sadly, most people, for whatever reason, would rather let the person walk through life and snicker behind his back than help him understand what is wrong. I mean, how would you feel if it had been hours since you'd visited that public restroom, only to find the streamer of toilet paper stuck to your shoe and no one around you bothered to utter so much as an "excuse me"?

Again, I'm bumping this topic... I have read with great interest and whole loads of hope all of the interesting ways the "40-lb. brains" have used to make the route-thing work... But I'm still stumped. My brain isn't anywhere near 40 lbs., and if you combine that with the stress of packing and preparing a resistant household for a cross-country move, the results aren't very pretty and involve a great deal of blood, sweat and a high level of tear-duct activity. Part of me wants to ditch the whole thing and say we'll just power our way from the left coast to the right, but then the Geocacher in me jumps up and down and does a great imitation of a Neverwinter Nights character doing the *spasms* command. Will anyone out there take pity on a over-stressed mother trying to make this one-shot trip the most enjoyable ever for her family of Geocachers? If anyone who considers this a fun exercise would like to attempt it, I'd be happy to email you our route. As I stated before, we have Google Earth, MapSend Topo 3.0 and DeLorme Street Atlas 2006 for iPaq PDA. Keep in mind that I am on a very limited budget, and we'd prefer not to drive more than 400 miles per day. I don't know what I could use to barter with... Postcards from every major city we stop in? Pictures of The Giant Ball of String? Obscure Geocoins that I probably don't have? A t-shirt from our Third Annual Cool Coastal Retreat Event two weeks ago? My first born son (he's turning 13... take him, please!)? I'm desperate, and yet cannot stomach the idea of passing all of the caches along a 3,400 mile route and not stopping to look for any of them... TIA...

Yep, we call them 'tour-ons' here in the Redwoods, too. This time of year you see about a thousand idiots, usually visually impaired to begin with, driving a motorhome so big that any other vehicle that size on the road needs a special permit, and the driver is only going 20 mph in a 55 zone so that they can crane their necks up to try and see the tops of 150+ trees. Why they can't pull over at the ample number of pull-outs, take photos (you know? they last longer!) and get the hell out of everyone else's way, I don't know. We have a saying around here: most folks that come here from somewhere else left their brains by their front doors when they locked them to leave. Now, saying that, I still love having tourists here, ESPECIALLY Geocaching tourists! In fact, most of our caches include historical data that most tourists (even locals) don't know. I hope they come away from this area with more than killer beach/sunset photos and McToys swag... That, and the area I live in is considered impoverished, due to the fact that without the local prison and the fluctuation of tourists this town we have gone broke completely when the fishermen and loggers left. Sad...