mommio

I do a lot of ghost towns in my area. Sometimes the only thing left of a ghost town is the cemetery. Usually I place a cache outside the cemetery. But the other day I placed a cache at a gravesite because the granddaughter of the family asked me to. The grave is her grandparents' site and they were the original settlers of the ghost town which has no other remnants except the cemetery. When I write up the cache page and submit it, there will be an explanation of why the cache is there and a brief history of the town and the role her grandparents played in its history. In this particular case, I don't think the cache is disrespectful. It pleases my friend who wants folks to know about the town and her grandparents part in creating it. I think caches at old cemeteries are a wonderful way to draw attention to the history of an area. There is something to be learned about early settlers and their trials and tribulations from the epitaphs. I am sure that the people buried in these old cemeteries would be grateful to know that someone has dropped by to read their gravestones and for a moment at least to be interested in them. Wouldn't it be nice if you were going to one of these cemeteries to retrieve a cache to bring a few flowers to place on one or two of the old graves?

Hope I'm not opening a can of worms but curious. Why is this forum taboo in Texas? I'm in Texas and come here all the time. Something I don't know?????

Working on one as we speak for San Angelo, Texas. Love this idea as another way to have fun.

I asked when boarding American Airlines and they said NOT to turn it on in flight. Reason given was that it could interfere with their instruments.

LOL The other local geocachers here are married males. Sure wasn't going to ask them to go geocaching with me!

I e-mailed a local cacher who had found many of my caches thanking her for expressing enjoyment of my caches. We e-mailed back and forth and then decided to go caching together. Since we are both older single females, this partnership has been great for both of us.

tried as per instructions and still messed up. Computer challenged.

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z151/th...cactuscache.jpg http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z151/th.../skullcache.jpg Haven't figured out how to post pictures here Did manage to get the link though. All of these are working quite well and have been enjoyed by the cachers who have found them.

My caching buddy and I were out one day hiding caches as part of my Texas Ghost Towns series. We were at a ghost town out in the country checking it out and a local rancher stopped thinking maybe we had had car trouble. We explained what we were doing and he proceeded to give us a detailed history of the ghost town. He had gone to the nearby school and the church (both abandoned) which we were parked by. So I got to put lots of information on the cache page from someone who had "been there".

In reference to a previous post in which I mentioned I often wrote poems to go with my caches, here's my latest for your amusement. The other day my geocaching buddy and I were out looking for places to put new caches. We happened upon a "Bull Testing Facility." Now this transplanted NYer had no clue what that was all about, so I asked my Texan friend. Boy, was that an eye-opener! This "facility" among other things collected sperm for artificial insemination. This dummy was trying to envision how they went about the collection process from one big rambunctious bull and she told me- more than I ever wanted to know. So out went the cache named "Running of the Bulls" with the following poem: These bulls can't run, these bulls can't hide. If I were one, I'd wish I'd died." Now for those who don't read the cache page, don't you wish you did?

I deleted a log from one cache yesterday because the cacher had logged it twice one right after the other. When he e-mailed and asked why I had deleted it, I told him the reason and then gave him the names of other nearby caches along the same road that I owned and suggested that maybe he had meant to log one of them. Certainly doesn't hurt to ask owner. In my case, it may have helped him get another find.

Thank you. I love hiding caches and having fun with them. This one is a prickly pear cactus pad with the spines burned off - I put a cache inside it and left it on the ground next to a cactus plant: GC112ZW This is one of the ghost towns: GC113WH And then there are the themed ones that my six year old granddaughter loves to help me put together: GC10T09 Check out the Bookmark List of my caches if you are interested in some of the others. Lots of exotic containers. LOL

I would hope cachers would read my cache pages. There's often a hint in the name. Many of them I write up as poems that give hints. And I have a whole series of Texas Ghost Towns where I write the history of the town on the page. What would be the point of going there (other than another smiley) if you didn't know about the history of the place?

I've found TBs that were in races and others that had a specific group of caches they had to visit. I'd be glad to go head to head with you since I'm about as far away in the US as you can get. LOL E-mail me and we can work out details. Will need to purchase a TB since all mine are out.

USAF Vietnam Era- Intel Officer with SAC 3 sons- 2 Navy vets and 1 currently career Navy with 18 years as an Aviation Physiologist

Today has been one of those days! Someone recently left a log stating that they had taken 2 TBs (including the #s) and left a coin (including the #) from my Bug Depot, but neither retreived them nor dropped it. So the Bug Depot page showed the TBs there, but no coin. The same person logged that he/she had left a yellow Jeep in another of my caches. I sent an E-mail to try to find out if the Jeep was a TB and to ask him/her to a) let me know about the Jeep and b) to request he/she retreive the TBs and drop the coin. Even suggested that if he/she didn't know how to accomplish this, I would be happy to answer questions if he/she couldn't decipher instructions on GC. No answer. Today I went to the one cache and sure enough, it was a yellow Jeep TB. So I took it out and dropped it in the Bug Depot. Then I went home and grabbed the Jeep and dropped it off, grabbed the coin from the cache it was originally taken out of and dropped it off, and marked the TBs missing. Then I had to delete his/her log because the #s had been included. A lot of extra work. Hours later, I received an e-mail from GC that one of my own TBs had been Discovered. I went to the TB's webpage to check on it and lo and behold, the TB was in the possession of someone who had pulled it out of one cache and, instead of dropping it into the next cache, had just left a note that he had put it in a cache. The next person "discovered it," but had actually taken it out of that cache. Another long e-mail ensued as I explained to the second cacher (his first TB find) how to do/correct the cyberspace paper trail to get the TB into his possession and then drop it when he was ready. More extra work. I was polite and I offered my assistance and I'm not really griping too much. I just wanted to say here to new cachers, please read the directions on GC for retreiving, discovering, grabbing, and dropping TBs and coins so that they don't get lost out there. Thanks for letting me rant for a few.

I like the idea of an attribute. Currently I am working on creating a whole series of caches titled Texas Ghost Towns. Have done 13 caches in the counties surrounding my home and am about to put out another 18. I have bookmarked the completed caches so anyone interested in ghost towns has a list handy. Have been trying to get cachers in other areas of the state to contribute to the list but so far no takers. :-(

Haven't seen anything quite as scary or interesting except an armadillo one time that skedaddled before I could photograph it. I did find a whole deer skeleton (road kill?) recently. Since there was nothing left but bones, I placed a cache inside the skull and called it "Deer Me!"

I have a "Cash Cache" Cachers are supposed to leave a coin that has some significance to them, year of birth, anniversary, home state quarter, country visited, etc. Then they are to take a coin from cache and write in log why the one they left is significant. It is a film cannister and I actually had to remove some coins because no one was taking any and it was full!

1. I think it's a wonderful idea! I was a Cub Scout leader for years and wish geocaching had been around then. Might I suggest teaching the scouts how to find caches by placing some around your yard for them to find for practice. That's how I taught a friend's kids how to use the GPS. You could also set up some practice caches that would have Cub Scout related prizes in them. 2. Cake sales, garage sales with donated items from parents, friends, relatives, neighbors, etc., a raffle (if permitted in your community - sometimes if raffles are not allowed, you can get around this by taking "donations" for raffle tickets, spaghetti dinner (or some other type dinner) prepared by scouting adults at a locations whose use is donated- like a church or school, auction of donated items--many businesses will donate stuff for good causes (you can even combine a dinner, auction, and raffle), a weekend box lunch auction at a local park (if you can get permission from Parks Dept). Just be sure to advertise any activity that can involve members of the community other than your troop's members. We used to pick up recyclables in our neighborhood to sell, i.e. newspapers and aluminum cans but that isn't really an option anymore. At the time we had everyone saving and putting out their stuff once a month for us to pick up. Really was a good money maker in its day and provided a service. 3. Why not get with the bank manager and see if he/she won't "forgive" the overdraft fees under the circumstances? I can understand ta bank charging individuals, but a Cub Scout troop? Surely, there is some leeway that the bank can manage in this case.

OK Here's an update. I went back to the cache site to remove the container I had left. The owner had returned to his cache at some point since I had e-mailed him. Inside the cap there is now a note glued to the top that says "NOT HERE." He had not removed the container that I had left, so I did. Then I found the "real" cache. Not sure why he hadn't removed my container, but felt that I should so as not to further confuse the issue. And I have learned as a result of some of the responses to my post(ouch) NOT to try to be helpful by replacing a container I think is missing under ANY circumstances. Lesson learned. Thank you everyone for your responses.

I disagree. You found some glue, and you assumed that this was part of the cache. You emailed your concerns with the owner, and he told you that you found a decoy. When you found the glue, did you assume that this was in fact the cache? Did you bother looking in any other places? They wouldn't be good decoys, if you knew in advance that there might be fake caches laying around. You are, of course, right- I did assume this was the cache. The cap was obviously new on a fence post that had aged. I had done the first fence post cap cache in this area just recently. The fence was out in the open with no other obvious hiding places in the vicinity. So, yes, I assumed there had been a problem with the glue and the cache had become detached. Especially since I had used the same glue and found it didn't work so used a different glue to do my cap. I was just curious if there was supposed to be some kind of warning of a decoy. As I stated, if it hadn't been for the glue in the cap, I would have assumed that I had made an error and would have kept looking.

I discussed this with another local geocacher and she said she had heard of decoy caches with the same thing you mentioned, ie. a note saying to keep looking. This is a first in our area. I don't have a problem with the idea of decoys, but I do think there should be some indication that there might be a decoy, especially in this case where the decoy definitely looked like there had been a container attached to the cap. If it hadn't been for the remnants of glue in the cap, I would have assumed that I hadn't found the cache and would have kept looking.

I would like to know the appropriate way to set up a decoy. I found what I thought was a cache site( GC11HFR) http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...cb-8a0a81a8ebe4 It was a fence post cap that when removed had remnants of glue on it. It appeared that maybe the container had come loose and fallen into the pipe. I replaced the container and notified the owner. In turn, the owner sent me an e-mail saying that the cap was a decoy and I should go back and edit find and try again. There was nothing on the cache page indicating there was a decoy involved and the description given matched what would have been a logical place for the cache (small container hanging around out of sight). There was nothing in the cap that indicated it was a decoy. So after trying to be nice by "fixing" what I thought was the cache, I now find out it was a decoy. How was I supposed to know this was a decoy? What is the ettiquette involved with this type cache?

Hide it above the high water line. In my experience, when looking for shell I usually would check between the high and low water lines.