TeamZebra

We have Nextel phones, but never tried using it for Internet access. I don't recall seeing a laptop card offered by Nextel either. Pretty much stuck to Wi-Fi when we were out on the road. We'd signed up for Flying J's service. Found that all Flying J truckstops, as well as quite a few other brands were broadcasting the flyingj.net service. There's also a chance of hitting some free Wi-Fi spots from time to time. I can't remember the offer code now, but England (DO NOT go there!) had a deal with FlyingJ.net for a discounted monthly rate. Whoever you decide to go with, you might want to ask them if they have such a discount with a Wi-Fi carrier... ya never know. We used to have Verizon phones and I found out (quite by accident... Verizon won't tell you about it) that we could hook our Verizon phone to the laptop with a data cable and have it dial a special number that would give us FREE (as in no monthly or per kB charges although it would count against your plan minutes... easy way around this was to have a plan with unlimited nights and weekends and use it during those times) internet access. It was slow... nowhere near broadband speeds... but good enough for checking email and visiting sites that weren't heavily into graphics. I don't know if it still works or not, and I'd have to search around to find the number again. As for the other questions you asked: 1: We spent alot of time in Salt Lake City when we drove for England. They had a fleet of rental cars available to drivers who'd been with them more than 60 (maybe 90 can't recall) days. They'd payroll deduct the cost, worked out cheaper than regular rental rates. Something else to consider talking to your future employer about. Another option is to find a truckstop (or shipper/receiver if you're going to be there a while) that will let you drop your trailer and bobtail around to do some caching. Just watch for clearances and bridge weights. Even though you aren't as long without a trailer, you may still be just as tall... and you definitely way more than a car!! 2. There are still plenty of available caches. Many people have placed caches near rest areas and depending on what you haul and where you haul it to you could realistically find yourself within walking/biking distance of caches on some of your stops. 3. [Covered above] 4. Besides getting stuck somewhere your truck is to big to be... be careful leaving your truck unattended. If it's somewhere you wouldn't want to be walking alone, don't leave your truck there either. ALWAYS lock your trailer when leaving it anywhere... loaded or NOT. Just because you don't have cargo in the trailer doesn't mean people won't sneak in there and wait on you. There are plenty of stories circulating of drivers who parked an empty trailer somewhere only to come back and find someone in there with a weapon when they opened it. My husband was mugged by a guy once who was standing at the back of his trailer . He'd parked the truck and went into a truckstop. Came out and went to check the trailer to make sure nobody had messed with the seal and a guy with a knife was standing back there. No security, no lights, cameras couldn't see behind the trailers, CDL drivers are forbidden to carry weapons and he didn't grab his Maglight before he went back there (didn't make that mistake again )... luckily the guy let him go after taking the $60 he had in his pocket... but it could have been much worse. Also, be sure to check the clearances real well when getting off the Interstates. No smilie is worth topping your truck over! 5. As already stated... it all depends on your carrier and your run. We used to have lots of spare time during trips. We were driving as a team, but it seemed few of our runs were actually team runs. If you plan your trip well you should know how much extra time you will have. 6. Many of the larger carriers offer in-house fitness facilities, as do some larger truckstops. You will see lots of trucks with bicycles strapped to the catwalks too. Unfortunately, you'll probably see more fat truck drivers. There are a few simple things you can do to keep yourself in decent shape. Don't vulture around the truckstop looking for that coveted space closest to the door. Park farther away and walk (or jog) to the truck stop. Take a walk around the rest areas when you stop (preferably during the daylight hours). If you take a bike with you, you can use that as cheap transportation to and from caches as well as a boost to your physical well-being. Watch out for truckstop food! Some of that stuff is loaded with fat, salt, etc. If your company lets you do it, try to get an inverter installed as soon as you can afford a good (big) one and consider getting a microwave or other means of cooking meals in your truck. We picked up a small microwave at Wal-mart for around $40 and ran if off a 1700 Watt inverter. Get yourself one of those electric coolers (again, got our 40qt Coleman at Wal-Mart) and keep drinks and food in it. This allowed us to stop at grocery stores and buy drinks (milk, juice and soda) cheaper than we could at truckstops. And we'd stock up on microwavable dinners (Dinty Moore has some that do not require refrigeration or freezing!) and canned foods that could be heated in the microwave. Keep fruits and veggies around for healthy snacks to much while driving. Life on the road is all in how you make it. You can be as healthy as you want to be if you just plan ahead and use what's available to you. A truckstop meal can be nice every once in a while... but try not to depend on them.. Not only are they expensive, but there are much healthier alternatives. ***Sorry if this message is considered off-topic. But since it does deal with truckind and geocaching... I thought it would be OK to go ahead and share my thoughts on the questions asked. This stuff might prove useful to others in the future.***

I've seen a picture of one (done by a local cacher) where the owner took a regular TB tag and bent it so it would fit inside a film canister. Not the local one, but very similar. THen there is this one that has been trimmed to fit into micros.

Got mine today. These are the first coins I've gotten with color in them.. awesome job! Really stands out! Thanks!!

Ugh.. everytime I click on one of these links and try to view everybody's entries I get a "server too busy" message.

A custom icon would we cool!! See about having one with a red handprint on it like on the coin. ??? Will the price be posted before the order deadline?? I'd definitely be interested in a few but can't say for sure how many until I know what the cost would be... a ballpark figure would be fine if you can add in shipping to the US (Knoxville TN).

Seems like people have some differing ideas here... but I have to disagree with the ones saying to pick it up and/or destroy it. What good is it going to do calling the cops if you've destroyed the evidence?? Nada. This would be a particularly difficult situation if there were only one person on this hunt/find... but since there were two of you, one could stay behind and guard the stash if you were worried about someone finding it by accident. Of course, by the stated heat this would obviously not be a watch I'd want to take. If the place isn't very busy, and you're off trail, chances are it wouldn't be found unless another cacher happened to be in the same area. Covering it up MIGHT be safe, but again you could be destroying valuable evidence. And depending on what you used to cover it you might actually draw attention to the area. Personally I think you did the right thing. I'd mark the area as a waypoint and proceed to the nearest phone to call the police. Notifying the security that it was there (so they wouldn't freak when the cops showed up) is an option... but it's not their job to take on such an investigation and they probably wouldn't want to mess with it either. In short, the fewer people disturbing the area the better. DO NOT TOUCH IT under any circumstances. Not only are you taking a chance on destroying fingerprint evidence, but you are risking the chance that there may be drugs on the outside of the baggies which would get into your system. But please, do not flush it or dump it into a nearby creek . Yes, we want to get this garbage off the streets, but that's not your job. And you definitely wouldn't want to be caught with it in your possession. Maybe it was just a coincidence that the cops drove by... what would have happened if they happened to see you dumping white powder into the creek???

Latest on the Logo from Groundspeak, Inc. On a side note, I have a different idea, but don't know if I have the ability to put it into reality. Perhaps as a Black & White image using clipart found on the internet, but doing a color version might prove more difficult. But I think since the Logo image should really be something simple and easy to duplicate, keeping the detail low will be better anyway. We can always use more detailed images for the website itself... but the "Trademark" logo (think along the lines of the little X shaped dude Groundspeak uses) should be relatively simple.

OK.. I guess I missed something there. I we were working on a logo image... not a title graphic. Yes your graphic would make a nice title graphic, but it's rather busy for a logo image isn't it?? It would be rather difficult and expensive to reproduce on a T-shirt or coin. And there is no easily identifiable image to make it a recognizable logo. Not trying to be rude... just stuff I remember from past marketing classes. But since you two are the only other ones in here and I'm outnumbered... carry on. P.S. Still no word from Groundspeak on the logo idea.. Just a e-mail bot message saying they received my email and assigned a tracking number to it. I did not ask about using the existing Groundspeak logo IN another image though. If you want the logo on the side of the truck, that's something you'll need to talk over with them. On a side note, I can't forsee any problems with just making the trailer the four colors... maybe vertical or horizontal stripes so as not to confuse with the actual logo??

EDIT: I'm sending a copy of the image ( I changed the GEOTRUCKING.COM to GEOTRUCKERS.COM) and an email to Groundspeak to get the official ruling on it before I do anything more. (Well, not really... I'm still going to tinker a little here and there to see if I can get it cleaned up some... but will scrap the project all together if they say "NO") I'll let you know what they say as soon as I hear from them.

I had been thinking of something like this too... but I don't have the graphics know-how (read: artistic ability) to do it... but was thinking... we take the geocaching.com logo (this one) and replace the guy in the yellow square with a rig and the flag in the orange square with an RV... black & white silhouettes of course. Then add "fog lines" around the dotted lines in the green and blue squares to make them look more like roads. Replace GEOCACHING.COM with GEOTRUCKING.COM. The logo would be original since the only thing remaining of the GC.COM logo would be the colors, but would still be recognizable by cachers. The graphic changes would also allow the logo to be used for a coin where the color would not be needed to differentiate it from the GC logo. I'll try to make a mock-up version to upload soon. Just gotta sniff out some images to use for the black & whites. But it's past my bedtime already so I'll have to work on it tomorrow night after work.

Missed the original... but would definitely be interested in the new trackable version! So put TeamZebra down for one, please.

Sent my payment a few minutes ago and looking forward to seeing the coins when they arrive. Thanks. Z

Ummm... don't see 'em anywhere. ??? As for support of trucker placed caches... I'd be available to babysit caches in the Knoxville area. I've been looking (mentally and physically) at the nearby truckstops and trying to figure out places to hide some caches there. We've got a good supply of truckstops out here in West Knoxville (TA, Pilot, Flying J, Petro... you name it, we've got it!) as well as several truck dealerships (like the monster Freightliner dealership just around the corner from the Flying Hook)... and the *ahem* famous I-40 super-coop. I'm not sure how the diesel bears would feel about trucks parking at the scales to look for caches though.. heh. Too bad we can't do locationless caches anymore.. I'd make one where you have to snap a photo of a CMV officer inspecting your truck or something. If the scales here were setup like the ones in Kentucky where they close down at night and allow trucks to park overnite (Truckers Rest Haven) that might be another story. But for the time being I'll try to focus on truck stops. I'm also planning on trying to come up with some kind of list of non-truck stop parking areas for trucks. I know there's a few places on US 411 where drivers park trucks and drop trailers when returning to their home 20 for a few days. (We've dropped a trailer or two in most spots before).... and see about sticking a cache near most of these areas. I'm still learning the ins and outs of the sport though, just placed my first cache about a month ago and have adopted 4 that were in danger of archival (owner moved out of state). So bear with me. I'm a member of the Great Smoky Mountains Geocaching Club as well. We are currently working on restoring our own website after a server shutdown. Once everything gets up and running and people start checking back in, I'll bring this up on the club forum there and try to create an awareness among the local cache placers that more large vehicle accessible caches need to be placed in the area. Hopefully we can get enough support in this endeaver to keep a fresh supply of quality caches for drivers to hunt during their downtime. Glad to see things have been straightened out and looking forward to seeing this idea soar! Z

LOL... Thanks LFD, I'll send it to you.. I didn't mean to put down anybody from Alberta... just never been there. Didn't know it was a sore spot. Hey! Did you get in on the order of the KTAG dog-tag geocoins?? I instantly thought of you (for some reason) when I saw that one. I'm not sure if I made it in time but I MIGHT have two of them headed my way. *keeping fingers crossed*

OK.. I have to admit I was confused there for a moment. I thought the site had been agreed upon by at least TwoTrucks, TruckerBears AND djstern. Now I see what happened and I have to say I understand why he's upset! TwoTrucks wanted to get a group together and djstern offered to help organize the group by providing a website. A very generous offer indeed! Next thing we know there's a site called geotruckers.com. I'm thinking WOW! These guys are working fast. But then I notice djstern isn't in the mix. He comes back and is... uhh... upset. And rightfully so. If you want the site to represent a GROUP you have to let the GROUP in on the decisions. And I honestly think that was what djstern intended to do. Instead TruckerBears chose the domain name and popped the site up without asking anyones opinions. Yeah, there's something to be said about having a domain name... but what good does it do if there's no content? You come here and go "Hey! We have a website now!".. people rush over to check it out and find no content. "Ugh, that was a waste of time." You're dealing with truckers... (speaking as a past trucker) our lives are on a schedule and time is of the essence. If you post something and tell me to look at it, yeah I'll go check it out but if there isn't anything there to interst me... I will not be back until you can assure me there's something there. Why rush things to get a picture on the web? Nice logos don't mean [edit] until there's something below it to look at. djstern was, in my opinion, going about it the right way. Make an offer and see if there's any interest. I'll use eBay as my analogy... I can put (making something up) zebra-striped pickles for sale on eBay all day long, but if nobody wants a zebra-striped pickle what good does it do me? None. Now if I post one zebra-striped pickle and it sells at a good price.. I'll post another one. Keep selling 'em a few at a time and MAKE people want them. I can throw a makeshift website up and spread it's address around all I want to, but unless it's got something people want what good does it do me? None. Or I can work on my website little by little... get something interesting on it, then publish it. Keep adding pieces that people will find interesting to keep them coming back... get the idea? djstern, I want to make it known that I did not, nor do I now that I understand fully what happened, condone this stealing of your idea. I can see you were very excited about the possibilities this site had and had some excellent ideas for the design and handling of the project. I hope, some how, it finds it's way to being a reality. Who knows, maybe we can ALL work on it together like originally intended. As for the current "website"... it's kind of left a bad taste in my mouth after reading all this.

I'm sorry to say we have a Travel Bug Jail in our area with some very strict "rules." The owner (who I have met and seems to be a very nice fellow) even went to the trouble of creating a special log book so you could easily record your bug-for-bug swap. I can sorta see his point... lots of TB hounds run out to a cache as soon as they see a bug listed and grab them. If you are going to pick up a TB that you can geniunely help on it's goal only to find it gone when you get there it can get frustrating. But at the same time restricting a bug's movements is cruel. He provides bug owners a way to release their bug from Jail, but they have to mail him a bug to take it's place!?? I'd thought a few times about staging a Jail-break. But he's the leader/founder of my local geocaching club and I really don't want to create any hard feelings. There is another "TB Hotel" in the area that states: Perhaps a friendlier way to handle such a cache. However, it frequently finds itself void of bugs, and at least one of the bugs listed on the page is MIA.

I"m not sure what you are asking here.. You want to download a pic of a Travel Bug?? Perhaps you mean upload a pic you took of a TB in your possession?? Like the in this log? My log for "Osred" the WJTB In that case, you would go to your log for the TB and click the "Upload Image" link. Click the "Browse" button and locate the pic on your computer you want to upload. Then click "upload" and the photo will be transfered and added to your log on the TB's page.

You don't drop them from the TB page, you drop them from the cache page. You have to have the TB in your inventory. When you activate it, it should show up in your inventory. If not, grab it to get it there. (You'll see it on your Account Details page). Go to the cache listing you are dropping it in and post a note for the cache. At the bottom of the page, select the bug you are dropping then post the note. The bug will be dropped into the cache. Edit to add link to TB Help page. Travel Bug How-To Page This page is a good place to look for step by step instructions on logging TBs. If you have a printer handy, it might be a good idea to print a copy of the page to keep handy when logging bugs until you get the hang of it.

Did you take your shoe off or are you flossing with the laces??? OH yeah... I'd like 2 coins when available.

Well, since you didn't mention the bug's name or the cache you were referring to... it took a while to track this down. But I'm assuming you were talking about the UT Golfbug that you started out in Medon Trails. If this is the case, the problem here was that the bug was never logged into the cache you started it out in. The bug had no starting point to begin it's mileage. So when Mattalbman picked it up, he didn't actually RETRIEVE it from the cache.. He GRABBED it from you. Then he placed it in a cache in Kentucky. The bug physically traveled the miles, but since the system didn't know it actually started in Tennessee... it made Kentucky it's starting point when Mattalbman dropped it there. The cache in Kentucky was (according to the system) the very first cache the bug was ever in. Next time, be sure to DROP the bug into the cache you're starting it out in. There's two ways of fixing it's mileage (that I can think of at least, someone else may have a better idea)... You need to dig out the tracking number and create a new log for the bug... MAKE SURE you post-date to a date before Mattalbman picked it up.. From your "note" it appears you placed the bug on 7/7/2005. If the system won't let you do this, then you will need to contact Mattalbman and ask him to create a log dated 7/9/2005 actually dropping the bug back into the cache he got it from, then picking it back up on the same day. Once he does this, the mileage SHOULD update (if not click the "Recalculate Mileage" link on the TBs page). Just remember from now on, that you have to DROP the bug into the cache before the milage will be tracked. I found a YJTB earlier this year that was NEVER dropped into a cache. It had 0 miles on it and I have no idea where it originally came from or how many caches it had been in. The only log it had was a grab by the first person that was supposed to distribute it. So when I picked it up, I grabbed it to gain possession, dropped it into the cache I found it in, then retrieved it again. That way it got credit for the miles I took it when I dropped it into another cache.

I have a design idea floating around in my head... but I"m not real good with PhotoShop yet, so I can't promise it'll turn out right. I'll work on it a little and see what I can go.. might have to try to just get a rough draft and let someone else work up the final version?? As for the domain name.. I kinda like the sound of Geotruckers. And to be honest, the idea of ghosting the name and having multiple names point to the geotruckers.com site might not be a bad idea. The more times it shows up on a search page the better...right? Oh wait, it's not about the numbers...

OK, This one isn't necessarily Geocaching related.. well actually it sort of is because there are many truckers who cache and they need places to park, fuel and feed. I'd like to see a category of truck stops (big and small) across America and possibly other countries as well. Posters can mention the amenities provided by each stop and perhaps mention any caches within walking distance of the stop. Edited to add: Yes, I saw the message about not currently accepting new categories, but I wanted to get this down while I had it on my mind... for future consideration.

I'd be interested in 2 silver. Dang geocoins... why they gotta be so dern shiny?? I buy one USA coin and now I'm browsing this dang forum every night looking for new ones. UGH!!

Because it is the polite thing to do. Since the email comes throught the GC website you know it isn't some random ad. The sender also doesn't know your email address and you still have privacy. I think the real question is, "Why doesn't someone reply to a GC email?" It appears that the overall consensus is some right to "dibs." Following that logic, why is GC allowed to archive caches? "Hey, I placed this box, I expect it last forever. So what if I don't bother to maintain it. I don't need to respond to that inquiry from GC. It's none of their business what I do. I have rights to "dibs." Isn't that the same idea I'm reading here? You can sign up for email address at many sites. But most have a policy that if the email is not used for a specified period of time, it gets canceled. That is much harsher that what I have suggested. There may be folks that sign up to GC just read the web pages. Perhaps they just like to read the cache descriptions or read the logs. Maybe they just want to participate in the forums. That's OK with me. I don't care if a person has no finds. But is it really such an chore to respond to an inquiry from GC? Archiving caches and yanking a user name out from under someone are two different things. When you place a cache you agree to be responsible for it and maintain it. You agree that if your cache is not properly maintained GC.com can and WILL archive it to open up the area. (HAve you read the user agreement lately??) When you sign up for a username there is no such agreement saying if you don't log a find within 6 months we'll yank your account. I can tell you right now if there was such a thing, I'd have left right away. Some people don't have that luxury. I know a local who only gets to cache on his vacations... ONCE a year. He logs a few finds then the account is dormant for 12 or more months. Heck... When the hubby started hunting with me I wanted to change my username to reflect our newfound Team Status. My plan was to go from ZebraSE to Team Zebra. Guess what.... Team Zebra was already taken. Did I whine and cry and demand the account be shut down because they only had 1 find and never logged in after they logged that 1 find? No.. I simply dropped the space and became TeamZebra. It has worked fine. Small changes make a big difference. If you like the MJD but don't want to use a . try emphasizing your name... _MJD_ Think of it this way... as a cache owner what would you do if suddenly someone logs a find on your cache and that user name has ALREADY logged a find there? 99.9% would probably delete the log since multiple finds on the same cache aren't allowed in most cases. And what if the reason the other person left was because nobody liked them or they destroyed caches. .. would you want to share the same name? Caching is a sport where original thinkers rule... keep placing the same cache over and over and people will get bored. But if you use your imagination and make each hide new and exciting... they will come. Use a little imagination and create your own user name instead of stealing it from someone else. *Hopping down off my soapbox and collecting my 98 cents* EDIT: BTW, the original MJD logged on August 1 2005.. not exactly dead.

Well, according to my handy-dandy internet latin-english translator, that means... "If you wish this legere scis too much instruction government" GeoForse Best way to get the REAL translation is just copy/paste the entire phrase into a Google (or similar) search. You'll get lots of responses... and the correct translation. Cute.... and VERY true - provided you didn't have to look it up. Too late, you looked it up now it applies to you too! Ugh! Not fair!