lowracer

I have too many dang travel bugs! I went crazy one year and bought way too many. Some are AWOL, the rest are active out in the field. Is there a way to transfer ownership? I own 16, but I now only want to track about 4 or 5. Is it possible to sell them? I'm thinking I could take a paypal payment and then email the activation code to the new owner. Can this work? Can a bug be re-activated by a new owner? Thanks, -mark.

>>I hope this doesn't mean that you have stopped giving cache owners the courtesy of letting them know you found their cache. << (Relatively new to the forums. Not sure how you forum veterans do that boxed indented quote thing.) I have debated zeroing my count for months. What clinched it was a few weeks ago when I went to downtown Austin to cross a cluster of virtuals off my list. With all due respect to the cache owners, the virtuals were all just ordinary historical markers. You'd *expect* to find these near the state house and I had to ask myself was I finding them just for the sake of upping my "smiley" count? --I was. I have found some spectacular caches in my travels around the country and I continue enthusiastically in this sport for the quality of each experience rather than the quantity. I enjoy finding parks I'd never have known about, spectacular vistas, and the occasional virtual oddity. But I don't ever want to cache just so that I can say "I have found N caches." I also debated leaving notes for the cache owners on GC.com. The paper logbook is the crux of the at-the-cache experience for me. This experience is independent of any given internet cache listing service, and I will let the owner know I found his cache by signing that book. Good cache owners will check their logbooks during cache maintenance, so they'll know I found it that way. If I can't find the cache or there is some problem with the cache of course I'll notify the cache owner. Flame my philosophy or arguments as desired but please keep personal attacks out of it. Thanks, -mark aka "lowracer"

Have a Nice Day! -mark aka "lowracer"

Apparently one does not need to actually ask for a flame in the geocaching.com forums, one will be flamed regardless of the opinion or statement they make. I'm going to put up a test post that says simply "Have a Nice Day." Who wants to bet that within three posts, someone will have called me an immature jerk or a nazi?

Calling me an "immature yahoo" does not change the fact that "The Rock that Rolls" is an intensely popular and successful cache, and that roving caches can and do work.

"The Rock that Rolls" has been a fantastically successful and intensely creative cache. In fact, it is one of the most popular and sought-after caches here in Austin. A complete success and a hell of a lot of fun! Takes geocaching to a completely new level. (Despite the fact that a cacher can find the same exact cache multiple times and thereby increase their "smiley" count to astronomical proportions - because a find of this same cache in a new location merits a new smiley. Now in case anyone wishes to attack me based on a claim that I am trying to inflate my smiley count, notice that I have ZEROED out my cache count (had 170+ finds and it took me the better part of an afternoon) and I will keep it at ZERO forever because collecting "smileys" is not what the game is about for me and never has been.) I say "Bring back roving caches!" Geocaching is a sport for the people. If we want roving caches, so be it. Of course you can always use the time-tested technique of circumventing the approval process by posting ALL your new caches as "50 cal ammo can, painted dark green, hidden in a pile of rocks on public land with the gracious permission of the land manager," then after approval, change it to whatever the hell you want, roving or not, as changes are neither monitored nor approved. flame on... -mark aka "lowracer"

Seems that the general consensus is that these caches should not be approved. I'll stand by that ruling on GC.com, and drop the matter. We (central texas geocachers group) have tried to coordinate this difficult Starnes Island cache hunt through our own online discussion group with little success. There were so many people suggesting many different days and times to make the trip, so I thought that picking three of the most often mentioned dates/times and making an event cache for each one would allow us to better organize ourselves and get everyone involved. A boater could sign up for each cache, announce their boat availability and its capacity, and others could sign up around that. But now I have learned thanks to your comments and the approvers' comments that geocaching.com is not intended for the purpose of organizing cache events unless some other activity other than caching, drinking beer and boating is involved, so I've listed the events with a different cache listing service, where they were welcomed. So you see, it's not about falsely inflating our cache count, as we will get no credit on GC.com for the event. Some of you have pointed out that I should contact the approver. I had already done that with one of the approvers - no response yet. The other is contributing to this thread. Though my challenge to these caches is dropped, the question still remains, and no one has answered it: what are the RULES for event caches?

OK so we had an event cache in Austin a few weeks back where we gathered on the shore of a lake, had a few beers, then we all piled into a party boat and found a cache or two on a different shore of the lake. No material difference, yet it was approved. My point is, there are no written RULES for the posting of event caches, so how can one that is materially no different from any other event cache we've ever had be disallowed on the basis of the "intent" of the event cache type? If you will disallow any event cache that has the finding of a geocache in it, then you've got to disallow any that I've ever been to, because they've all involved a group of cachers going off to find a cache. What this particular cache amounted to was the need to pool our collective resources to rent (or borrow) a boat to get to this cache, and to have a lake party on the way. It wasn't simply trying to pad our cache find counts by finding the parking lot. Hell, if I wanted to I could increase my cache find count by 100 in the next twenty minutes and no one could prove that they weren't legit finds. So there's no value in a high cache count because it can be so easily faked. Cache count's not the point.

I find no rules for event caches. Yet I just had one (GCGFMB) get the thumbs-down because it was not consistent with the "intent" of the event cache type. The event cache was to gather together a number of cachers in the Austin area, including those with boats, so that we could do an expedition to a particular island in the middle of Lake Travis and on that island look for a geocache that has been previously hidden there. On the way there'd be much merry making, drinking of beer and spinning of yarns. So somebody please show me the RULES where it says that an event cache cannot be called to gather cachers together to go geocaching. Or show me ANY rules concerning event caches. I've had my run-ins with the seemingly capricious and arbitrary decisions of the approvers before, and each time I'm more baffled than the last. -lowracer

There is a cache in Ft Hood near Killeen Texas that is in the middle of the base, in a wooded sector designated for recreational use by base personnel as well as civilian outsiders. To get to the cache you have to not only obtain a vehicle pass to get in the base, you need a special access permit to gain access to the recreational area. And yes, they know there's a geocache out there and encourage civilians to visit and make use of the recreational sector. Despite the red tape one has to go through to get to the actual cache area, it is one of the best and most unique caches in Texas (GCB72). Where else can you ride your 4WD vehicle and mix it up with actual TANKS?

Backwoods, urban, or suburban caching - you never know what you're going to encounter --a wild boar or a gang of thugs. It never hurts to be prepared.

I just checked the web and -Good News- there are indeed java J2ME HTML browsers available for these new 3G phones. So we're not stuck with WAP. 3G Phone users, just surf your phone over to http://reqwireless.com/wap to download a 10-day demo of WebViewer 3.0. It's $20 bucks if you decide to buy. There are others too, this is just the first one I encountered, it may not be the best. Finally we're free from WAP!

I agree WAP may be dead (and it's certainly brain-dead) but it's the only browser built into my Samsung A500. And this is the case for a lot of the other new 3G phones too. Will try to locate a decent 3G HTML web browser... Stand by. [This message was edited by lowracer on May 31, 2003 at 04:32 AM.]

Found some really cool stuff: A Rat Race DVD, a water-squirting prank calculator (which though it looked entirely fake still fooled almost everyone in my company), a $10 bill placed in the logbook by a 1st time cacher (we used it to take our team to Amy's Ice Cream), and a bootleg recording of a Buddy Guy concert. Not all in the same cache, or even the same year. This is just the highlights.

I picked up a couple Uniden GMRS 520's at Wal-Mart for $18 a pair. That was not a clearance price! It's the normal price! These are 14-channel FRS + 8 channels of GMRS. They run on 3 AAA's. Not loaded with features (they have no 'privacy' codes for example), but small on size. About the only feature beyond channel changing and volume changing is the call feature where they transmit a ringing noise. They also have an undocumented channel scan feature. These are the smallest FRS radios I've yet seen. They come with belt clip and instruction sheet. Voice quality is very good, and range as good as our Motorola talkabouts. We're replacing our 1st generation talkabouts with them. They're too small not to take caching with us all the time. Get thee to a wal mart and check out a pair. At $9 a pop, you can just about load up your new caches with these special prizes.

1) GEO Supplies Online: You could sell geocaching supplies on eBay. Refurbished and repainted ammo cans, backpacks, waterbottles, GPS equipment. There's always someone waiting to bid on whatever you offer on eBay. Many people make a living at it. 2) GEO Wear Online: You could also make your own geocaching-logo or artwork and sell items with this artwork on cafepress.com. The good part about this is that once you design the artwork, cafepress.com does all the work and you get to go out caching while the money rolls in. 3)GEO by Proxy: You could put an ad in the paper and offer a "geocaching by proxy" service for executives and other workaholics who would like to have a work/life balance but can't pry themselves out of their office long enough to pursue a hobby. You find the caches and log the finds for them using their ID; they read all about their vicarious adventures on geocaching.com. I'm sure there are other possibilities...

Good Idea. I placed a Night Cache in Austin. It's scary as hell. Even I won't go down there at night. Had to use a laser pointer to check the reflector alignment. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=58592 lowracer

GCDC12 - The Great Austin Earth Day Trash-Out Picnic (Give us a couple weeks, We'll come up with a more catchy name.) Instead of a simple cache-in trash-out (which we've done before), we're adding a picnic cookout to the mix. Nothing fancy: burgers, hot dogs, maybe a pot luck or two. Haven't put all the details together yet but we've got the word out for Austin area cachers to identify the trashiest park on which to focus our energy. I've also got some contacts at the local TV station, we'll see if they can be persuaded to cover a human interest story for earth/arbor day. These guys are always looking for fluff to fill the air time with in case there is no hard news to report. "Hundreds of geeks pick up trash: film at eleven."

GCDC12 - The Great Austin Earth Day Trash-Out Picnic (Give us a couple weeks, We'll come up with a more catchy name.) Instead of a simple cache-in trash-out (which we've done before), we're adding a picnic cookout to the mix. Nothing fancy: burgers, hot dogs, maybe a pot luck or two. Haven't put all the details together yet but we've got the word out for Austin area cachers to identify the trashiest park on which to focus our energy. I've also got some contacts at the local TV station, we'll see if they can be persuaded to cover a human interest story for earth/arbor day. These guys are always looking for fluff to fill the air time with in case there is no hard news to report. "Hundreds of geeks pick up trash: film at eleven."

Someone at work mentioned it to me during ice-cream break. She'd never gone caching. Still hasn't, as far as I know, while I've logged almost 100 caches since. Word of mouth seems to be the way to go. I've printed off little business cards with some info to get people started. Saves time explaining it and trying to get them to remember the website URL by rote while out hiking somewhere... Of course I have just handed them the sheet for whatever cache I had just finished, gives them a place to start.

I just always take a picture of the bug including its number, that way if I forget to write the number down, I've got a record of it. The number can be digitally edited out later if the photo is cool enough to post to the bug's log.

Mostly the problem I see with travel bugs is newbies pick 'em up and move 'em but don't know how to log them so they disappear for awhile. Trick is to buy lots of bugs, so when one goes MIA, it's percentagewise a small loss.