ckmanning

DNF is "did not find" what other criteria can there be. The name says it all - extenuating circumstances or not! You go and look, even for a minute, and are unsuccessful then you DNF. It makes it even better when you go back and say you did find it, in my opinion. We most appreciate that which was most difficult to acquire (profound thought for the day ). Although I must admit getting the kids to accept that logic is proving kinda hard. To them a DNF is almost the end of the world, but we're working on that.

Pretty sure that would get me more attention, not less! Very cool, though.

First off, I feel your pain. I have three kids, two of whom are involved in very time-consuming activities, and I work. I just started geocaching and have been bitten by the bug badly, so I have come up with some strategies that will hopefully provide me with more time to pursue this new hobby. We do, of course, try to fit it in on the weekends as a family. In addition, I have started grocery shopping on-line. If this is an option for you, check it out! It saves you money (less impulse buys) and time! Also, I work like crazy 4 of the 5 weekdays to get all my errands, chores, paperwork, etc done which leaves me (in theory) 1 whole day to scratch my geocaching itch. Of course, as I said, I'm new to this too, so time will tell if this is something I'll be able to continue (I hope so!!!!!!!!!) and multi-day excursions are not on the radar screen for me right now, but I'm enjoying what I can do. Hope you figure out a way to enjoy it too

Many thanks to all who answered. I too have decided honesty is the best policy (and I would never have lied to any officer of the law - can't imagine why you would when their job is to protect and serve!) I also have a much better GPS en route to us so that will hopefully minimize some of our aimless wandering. We were trying to use our Tomtom - not too accurate. I did drag the canine companion for a short trek also. That made me feel safer and looked more natural, in my opinion. He (the dog) did give me a few dirty looks for interrupting his day-long nap, but I informed him that even seniors need exercise! The kids can't wait to find our next treasure Hopefully the weather will be cooperative this weekend.

Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunately many won't work while with kids i.e. fire scouting, WiFi spotting, etc., but we will keep at it, and maybe try some more parks for a while. Kinda makes me wish I had a dog to hike with (we do have a dog, but he has decided he is "retired" and is no longer able to do long walks). I would think walking a dog would be the perfect "excuse" to be most places, and to pause and wander in circles sometimes

Is unobtrusiveness even a word? Here's the situation: We live in a suburban area and have just started caching. I am a SWF and go out with 2 or 3 of my young children. The times when we are in parks we have no problem, but other times we seem to attract tons of attention. Our first trip we had a fine fellow come running out of his garage to inform us we "couldn't go that way". We were at least 500 yards from his home, on public property! Our most recent trip we had two vehicles stop to ask if we needed help and a police officer drive by to find out what we were doing. We enjoy the search, but don't like to be made to feel like criminals , and also don't want to be limited to caches in very remote areas/parks. We dress to "take a walk", don't obviously carry our GPS (sometimes not at all!) and don't look guilty, or like criminals (I think!). So, any hints on what we can do so as not to attract so much unwanted attention? We really do want to continue this.

I did have my kids do a room search for swag items. It's an added bonus of caching for those of us with kids - we get to them to clear out some of their clutter! I did, of course, explain the difference between a trade and giving someone garbage I'm trying to pre-scout a few of the easier caches so when I bring the kids back they will have success and want to continue. However, my hubbie has our only GPS for 6 days of the week while he works, so that doesn't allow the rest of us too much time. I think another GPS might be in order for the holidays. We'll see if we can scrape together the funds. And here I thought geocaching would be a good, INEXPENSIVE way of doing something together as a family! I guess after the initial expense it will be

Many thanks for your responses. I will move the signature items along, since I have no reason to keep them. Planned on moving the TB this weekend, but we have rain, rain and more rain here! So hopefully when it dries out some. My son FULLY understands the concept of even trade now. I think my aghast expression upon discovering the items he took was enough for him to grasp that it was not something he should have done. But just in case we had a talk, too! Thankfully, as I said, we had left plenty of other swag (and no, not food of any kind ) so we didn't have to feel guilty about that. We are definitely looking forward to our next adventure. Hopefully this will something the kids can continue to enjoy for years to come.

My kids - ages 10, 9 and 7 - and I went on our first geocaching adventure today. We found 1 of the 2 caches we were seeking, enjoyed the beautiful autumn day, and saw lots of wildlife. However, at the one cache we found my son pocketed some items without my knowledge, and now I don't know what to do with them. The first is a small, wooden "coin" with a geocacher's name (I assume) and the date he started geocaching on the front. The back has a pic of our state and the geocaching slogan. No instructions or tracking numbers I see. Is this meant to just be moved without being logged? Also he swiped "The Hermit" card. This one does say we can move it to another cache, but are we supposed to log this somewhere? The Travel bug we took, with my hesitant approval, and, I believe, I have logged that one correctly. We will relocate that one ASAP. We left a ton of goodies behind, but this was quite a haul for us "newbies" and now we are perplexed. Please help!