Clan Riffster

Kit, one of the kewlest caches I've ever done was Totally Tubular Two by a geogenius named Capaldo. I'll shoot you an E-mail describing it. Don't wanna ruin ir for future finders.

Our 10 year old, "Munchkin", is every bit as addicted as we are. Here's a pic of her feeding Scrubjays.

U.S. Army Military Police for 3 years, City of Mascotte Florida Police Officer for 2 years, Seminole County Florida Deputy Sheriff for 12 years. Wouldn't trade this job for all the tea in China....but that might be because I don't drink tea.

I think the one I had the most fun putting together was my "Etch-O-Sketch Night Cache". It took about a week to set up. Only takes about 2 hours to complete. I can't help but grin when I read the logs. I've got a series of 5 caches, (CR-1 thru 5), that end up as a puzzle, which tell a mythical tale about the Clan's origins. I had a lot of fun writing the descriptions, however the caches themselves are pretty basic ammo can in the woods stuff. It's hard to pick a favorite from all the kewl caches I've done. Off the top of my head, I'd pick Capaldo's "Towlie II, Evil Towlie". (SP?) It was the first submersible cache we've attempted, and the container was an act of brilliance. Ask me again in 5 minutes, and I'd probably tell you a different cache as my favorite.

Perhaps the hardest point to determine is, what equates trading up? The things I typically pick from a cache have little monetary value, but lots of "kewlness" value. Things like old coins, polished rocks, pins, stickers, etc... My most common trade item is a few foriegn coins in a tiny ziplock, selected from my coin collection. These have almost no monetary value, but lots of folks think they're kewl. A rule of thumb I tell my kids is; If your trade makes you feel guilty, TNLNSL.

I know that "Ground Zero", (as provided by Magellan), for the town of Geneva Fl is someone's side yard, while Ground Zero for Geneva as provided by Google Earth is in the southbound lane of 1st St. Ground Zero for Deltona Fl, (as provided by Google Earth) is a small chunk of woods between Normandy Blvd & Whitewood Dr and Magellan says it's a patch of woods near Lombardy Dr & Midland Dr. None of these locations has a post office. I have no idea who decides, or how they decide, what the final coordinates for a particular city will be. How to find Ground Zero is pretty easy. My GPSr has a base map with listings for major cities. I just go into my database and look for the city I want. Another option would be to utilize a computer based map program such as Google Earth. Type in the city you want, then scroll your mouse cursor over the map dot to get the coordinates.

Because I'm an old fat guy, I wear a Camelback hydration thingy. It holds 3 litres of water, my ID, assorted trade items, Slim Jims, a little pump bottle of skeeter spray, cell phone, cache page, etc. I wear a fanny pack that holds my Glock. Pockets? About the only thing that goes in my pockets is my Copenhagen and my Spyderco.

You've already answered the question...

Whoever dies with the most smileys wins!

you wanted to hear from law enforcement, so, hear goes; Under the circumstances, you did the right thing, leaving the drugs where they were. Personally, I would've collected them just to keep them out of the hands of a kid that might wander by. Nobody gets arrested for calling the cops & turning in dope. Maybe the security guard dropped them?

Thanx guys! (& gals)

I think that if I ever moved, I'd archive my caches, take them with me & hide them near my new digs. If I had a cache that I felt should stay, then I might ask for someone to adopt it. Once that cacher took over my old cache, I'd pay a final maintanance visit, restock it with some goodies, sign the logbook something to the effect of, "This cache now belongs to XXX. Thank you XXX for adopting it!" Then I would log it as a find without feeling guilty.

Remember the "Serenity Prayer"? One line went something like Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. This falls under the catagory of "cannot change". Everybody gets something different out of this game. Obviously this person feels that since they've been to the cache location, (when placing it), and written in the log book, (when writing the intro log), that they've met the qualifications for logging a find, once the cache passed from their ownership. Do I agree that this is a pretty lame way to increase their smiley count? Sure. Do I feel that this person should adhere to my way of thinking? No. Personally, if I wanted to log a find at a cache I'd given to someone else, I'd go back to the cache, trade up, sign the log book and then collect my smiley, but that's just me. Gettin' worked up over how someone else plays a game ain't worth it. Life is short, go find some cache!

I was looking for info on the Florida Geocaching Association, but when I click on their link, http://www.floridacaching.com/ I get a "Page not found"-gram. Are there any members here that can tell me whazzup wit dat? Are they going through server maintanance? Restructure? What? Maybe the problem's on my end? I'm just barely bright enough to know how to turn a computer on, so having problems is nothing new to me.

Ziggy, you're evil! Great idea!

The only cachers I've met so far are the Treasure Trolls, but then I'm still fairly new at this.

That would seem to be a matter of debate. Many factors of the "paranormal" claim to be belief oriented, requiring positive energies to work properly. If I believe in a system that supports so called paranormal activity, how would that differ substantially from modern, acceptable religious dogma? Christ reportedly changed water into wine. Was this divine intervention, or molecular reorientation? The former would suggest a belief system, claiming to be a "miracle from God" whereas the latter would see to label this as paranormal, in that it is "not scientifically explainable; supernatural", as defined by Webster's and quoted by the JREF FAQ page. Yet they refer to the same act. Would the story of Christ rising from the dead be considered a religious action, or just another paranormal ghost story? For some folks, the paranormal is their belief system, effectively elliminating any difference. Just $0.02 from the cheap seats.

This one was the first night cache I've ever done. I had so much fun at it, that I decided to create my own night cache, with a twist. The Etch-O-Sketch Night Cache

Thanx Odragon, Jeremy & everybody else! Odragon displayed exactly what my system's doing. I blew my power supply yesterday, and I'm "borrowing" a 'puter from my daughter till I can replace it. Once my desktop is back 10-8, I'll try your suggestions.

One of the things I love about this game is that you get out of it what you put into it. Everybody has their own way of playing, and however they play, so long as it harms no one else, is perfectly acceptable. As an example; For me, writing the log of my adventure, even if it's a DNF, is half the fun. I'd consider it rude of me not to log online if I visited a cache that another player went to the trouble of placing. This is strictly my rule, and I wouldn't consider trying to impose it on others. Just cuz I think something is rude, doesn't necessarily mean others feel that way. Sometimes I get a bit long winded in my logging, such as the entry on this cache; http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...18-75d6aec5ca49 It apparently scared off other potential cachers, since no body has gone out there since I posted on May 12th. Sorry 'bout that Hidden Rock!

I'm still pretty new at this game, and my first 3 hides reflect my (then) level of inexperience. They are very easy hikes, very easy finds. After I got a few more caches under my belt, I decided to experiment with different types of camoflauge, and the resulting 6 containers were used in a series. These typically require a hike of about 1/2 mile one way, for each stage. I'd call all 5 stages, individually a 2/2. I just finished setting up this cache: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...4c-77e91e5cd89f (The Etch-O-Sketch Night Cache) which involves a 1.5 mile hike, at night, following a reflector "trail" before you get to address it's puzzle aspect. The GC rating computer called it a 3/5, but I'd rate it a 2/3.

Yeah, anybody can be President.

None, huh?

Don't forget all them black helicopters flying around.

When I click on the "View Map" link of a cache page, the map is split, with a large gap at the bottom. I'm assuming the problem is on my end, since this particular desktop is the only PC it occurs on. When I log in at work, or my wifes laptop, all is as it should be. I'm running Windows XP Home SP2 & Internet Explorer Version 6.0. Any ideas? Thanx!