ValleyRat & TillyMouse

We're heading from Texas to S'pore, then on to Brisbane in Mid-April. Be in Brisbane for two months. Any ideas about down-under caching. We're also looking for a small (2-room) accomodation while there. Share is okay. Anyone have suggestions? Buck and Tilly Buchanan writer29@sbcglobal.net

Quality 3"x11" Full-color bumper stickers. I bought them for our geocaching club; still have a few left over. 20 bumper stickers for $20 Free Shipping. 100 for $75

Our group, Valley Geocachers, had them made about a year ago for ID and to place in caches. Can't print less than 1,000, so we ended up with some extras. Now we're trying to recoup some of our expense. Let us know if you need some. http://valleygeocachers.com/

We bought 1,000 of these stickers for our group (Valley Geocachers) and still have a few hundred left to share with other cachers. "WE BRAKE FOR GEOCACHING" Bumper Stickers are 3"x11", screen printed on waterproof vinyl, have peel-off backing, and are very durable. We usually just roll them into a 1/2" roll, paper-clip them and insert them into our caches. They are available at our cost to cachers for 10 stickers for $10 including first class postage. If you want ten or more for your caches or for your geocaching friends, you can email writer29@sbcglobal.net for payment instructions or just credit that PayPal ID and we'll send them right away.

I still have some of these FREE -- just pay $1.50 shipping. PM or email writer29 at sbcglobal dot net. Thanks

Thanks to all for helping me dispose of the bumper stickers. I still have a few left. email writer29 at sbcglobal dot net. Buck

They are quality vinyl, waterproof, screen printed, peel-off back, 3"x11" Thanks

Just pay the shipping. $1.50 by PayPal to my PayPal account email writer29 at sbcglobal dot net for ID.

We still have a few bumper stickers like this They're quality vinyl, waterproof, and screen printed. Just pay the shipping of $1.50 each to our PayPal account and your bumper stickers are on the way. email writer29 at sbcglobal dot net for PayPal ID.

Humpty Doo is about 50 miles SE of Darwin. Does anyone have a map that shows coords for this area of the world. TIA

A Dutch-treat dinner is planned for March 5th in McAllen. Please check here for details.

Here's a good example of Barnahasbeen's comment. Click here. I've reactivated my Shanty Town cache because it's a good cache. The cache's name indicates where it is located; some trash has been thrown into the ditch nearby, but it is NOT A TRASH HEAP. Anyone who's afraid after arriving at the parking coords should walk the one block back to the cantina and have a beer.

Have a look here .

Check http://valleygeocachers.com/Meeting_files/slide0001.htm for more details.

Please visit http://valleygeocachers.com and click the email link to put your address in our address book for info on Valley events. You can also email writer29@rgv.rr.com It's still not finished, but the "Activities" page shows an event that's planned for 1/29. Let us know if you can come.

Meet and Greet on 01/29/05 by Valley Geocachers in Donna, TX. Click for details.

We have a local cacher who is a teacher in one of the Rio Grande Valley's elementary schools. They recently received a Government grant to buy TEN GPSr's. He takes the kids out every week for a group hunt and says it's the best teaching tool he's ever used. My granddaughter, Ashleigh (ID Ashbrook) is 9. She and SonMike are frequent cachers in the Houston area. Yes! it's perfect for school-age kids.

The new website for Valley Geocachers is up and needing input. Geocaching.com will always be the site of choice for cachers around the world, and we have no intention of becoming a competitor to our favorite. We will never be a listing service for caches, just a meeting place for addicts who live in Texas' Rio Grande Valley. We're asking for advice from both professional web authors and users for finishing the site. If you have suggestions, please PM or eMail writer29@rgv.rr.com. If you're in the vally and would like to attend our next meeting, please email us. BTW, we collelct NO DUES; it's all just for fun. Thanks Buck and Tilly

We picked up a Garmin Legend on eBay for Tilly. It has lots of features and is a great first unit. Cost $105 including shipping; that's now mine. Tilly received a Garmin Legend C (dozens more features) for Christmas. New cost: $283 including shipping. Our 4-year-old Garmin Street Pilot rests on the dash of our search vehicle, interfaced to the laptop with Delorme Street Atlas 9 when traveling or caching. This featureful model is bidding at $102.50 on eBay, expiring at about noon on 1/16/05. We recommend all of them for similar uses: Expert -- Legend C; Noob -- Legend; Vehicle mounting -- Street Pilot. Google for "Garmin Legend Comparison" if you need a feature-by-feature comparison.

My reason for the question: We have a couple of caches that are just off US-77, farther from home than we're able to travel on short notice. We recently heard that one of them had apparently been muggled. My hoped-for solution was to post these caches in the "Trade Cache" or "Cache needs Adopting" thread/forum with a request for a Corpus Christi or Kingsville cacher to volunteer to take over maintenance for them. I know that some CC cachers have caches in the McAllen area, and we would volunteer to adopt those if they were listed. I wanted to see volunteers, rather than asking specific cachers to do it; sometimes it's hard to refuse without offending. On the other hand, we know that a volunteer has the time to take on another one, otherwise he wouldn't offer. BTW, what are the drawbacks; I can't envision any, but then, I'm pretty new at the sport. If it's not a good idea, then we shouldn't do it.

There's a trend among RV parks to list their coords along with the address.

ValleyRat is three-quarters Third generation Irish American/one-quarter Native American. I don't know how to do the math on that. TillyMouse is First generation German American Try our new almost-finished website here. BTW, we're a complementary website to geocaching.com -- I always compliment the way it's run, and . . . We don't compete with anybody.

IMHO, Belittling others is a natural evolution of bullying. Some can take it; some can't, but the bullies never change. There are many extreme results of bullying/belittling and most offenders don't even know they're hurting their target. One of the less-extreme instances is refraining from posting. The bullies are actually doing it for entertainment of themselves and their cohorts. A letter to Randall The recent suicide by another bullied student reminded me of the letter I wrote to Randall James after his death; it was published as a Guest Editorial in Dallas Morning News. Randall was the picked-on student who shot himself in the bathroom at Richland High School a couple of years ago. Recent killings and arrests show that kids are increasingly striking back in the only way they know. Jocks and hard-core “macho” guys are driving the less-aggressive kids to kill. They nearly did it to me! Dear Randall, I was there. I was there, Randall, when, tears in your eyes, you ran through the halls, trying to escape the taunts of fellow students. . . I was there when you stood in the lunchroom, tray in hand, hoping desperately for an invitation to sit with the kids you tried so hard to admire. . . I was there when adults at the teachers’ table smiled their acceptance of those kids’ cruel shouts of “Run, Randall, Run” . . . I was there when you wet your pants because, unable to endure the teasing and catcalling by the jocks, you couldn’t bear to go to the bathroom. . . I was there when you tried to hide your hurt by burying yourself in a book or in your computer. . . I was there with you in the library when your eyes spilled tears onto your goodbye letters, and. . . I was there when you made your final trip to the bathroom, but. . . More than six decades ago when I was there, in the bathroom of that same North-Texas High School, I came to grips with the temptation to leave this world, opting instead to escape the misery by leaving school for the military. Many of us were there with you and with others like you, Randall, fighting those urges to end our lives, or even, as some others have done, to destroy the bullies who made us miserable. You tolerated it for most of your young life, compadre, before finally deciding you’d had enough. I am so sorry your teachers didn’t interfere with the ridiculing, the hooting, booing, belittling, and name-calling. You knew that they knew; their silent, smiling indulgence of the bullies’ glee merely caused your hate to spread. This, when just a few words of rebuke aimed at those schoolhouse terrorists might have saved your life! And I’m sorry I couldn’t have spoken to you earlier; we might have talked about other ways to make your life bearable. Sincerely, Buck Buchanan

Muchas Gracias, amigo. I sure hope that's not like my friend's tatoo. He thought it said, "Health, Happiness, Good Fortune" in Chinese. Moderators won't let me tell you what it really said.

We still have a few "We Brake for GeoCaching" bumper stickers left. Selling them at Two for $5 postpaid. Paypal or money order. PM or email writer29@rgv.rr.com