mizdeeds

VERY nice hermit crabs!! I would've liked to have hunted that one.

NICE!!

Necessity is the mother of invention, right buddy? (ask him how many of those type hides he owns... ahem) I have tweezers in my caching bag, but that's a pretty cool 'invention'. I'll be making myself one!

The series in Michigan is called "Michigan's Lost Towns". There are 25 of them so far. Each of the listing pages has the history and some photos of the "lost" towns. It's a great series and I've enjoyed it. I think your Oklahoma series will be great too!

You're welcome! I'm glad you like it! It's yours to use however you wish. I just do these for the fun and enjoyment, and am happy when folks like 'em!

Ooh, nice work! Thank you!!

How about this? Forum sized Larger with plain background for profile

I had an idea for this one, but I don't think it would work well on a coin or wooden nickle. It would work for a forum av:

I think you did a great job!

Okay, how about this? Size and background for this forum: Plain background and 6k size:

Drawing a blank on this one..... what's a doobie doo? Give me a few more ideas and I'll try to come up with something.

Welcome to the game/sport/obsession!! It's wonderful fun! I use a Magellan Meridian Color, but I don't have the topo maps, so can't answer your questions about that. I'm not a Mac user so can't help there either. The DirectRoute street maps are definitely necessary in my opinion! They are very detailed and will even show the "roads" in some cemeteries on them. Two-track dirt trails in some park areas also show up, but not walking trails. I would assume the topo maps would show the trails. As far as I know, the only maps that will work on it are Magellan's. Street routing with the unit can be an adventure in itself. I tested mine when I first got it by having it route me to somewhere local that I knew the best/easiest way to get to. It came up with a rather "unique" way to arrive at the destination. NOT the way I would have taken. It's certainly not like the units designed just for driving, but hey, it gets me where I want to go!

I've forgotten a few times, but nothing that was a problem until a couple months ago when a friend and I were doing the CSI: series here in Michigan. The cache in question is actually quite near you, Royalott; CSI: Rest In Peace (GC1334W). We spent a day driving the back roads of Michigan starting just north of the bridge and the last 2 we did were in the dark. In the woods. My key fob has a panic button, and I had just thought the week before that it was time for a new battery because it didn't work from very far away any more. HA! Here's my log: This was the 6th of the CSI series Windrose and I did today. We had hoped to get more than that done today, but darkness and the late hour made this the last one of the day. I learned a lesson I will never forget at this cache: MARK THE CAR. Today, at every other cache, my good buddy Windrose marked the car so we never had a problem getting back to it. So here we are, in an unfamiliar forest, in the dark, close to a fresh shallow grave and maybe the perpetrator of the crime nearby and WE CAN’T FIND THE CAR! I guess I should start at the beginning: we found the 1st stage quickly, but had a bit of trouble finding the 2nd. I should mention that we used “the Bigfoot method” of finding a place to park, which of course is to drive as close as possible to GZ. So what if the road was a bit narrow? Those leaves won’t scratch the cachemobile, will they? We decided that maybe the car was parked ON the 2nd stage, but that was just wishful thinking. We used our last lifeline and phoned a friend who quickly put us on the right track so we soon had the coords to the final. This is where the fun began. We headed into the woods and, once again, after we get out of sight of the car I ask Windrose: “did you mark the car?” (because of course, *I* didn't!). Windrose says no. UH OH. Hey, no problem, we can use the backtrack. HOW do I turn on the tracking on this thing? It took us a while to find the elusive evidence container, the GPS had us off about 30’, but eventually we found it. I TN, L-my pathtag, and for the last time, signed the log with the incorrect date, the 13th (I sure wish it had been Saturday, then we could have finished the series on Sunday!). Now, which way back to the car? Which way is north? Windrose had her compass with her, and she’s assured me many times that she knows how to use it, but in the frame of mind I was in by then, I wasn’t believing it. To put it mildly, I panicked. I wasn’t quite to full, blown-out panic mode, but it was close enough for Windrose to look at me and tell me to SHUT UP and CALM DOWN (at least she didn’t have to slap me!)! I swear I was hearing things moving around out there just beyond the reach of our flashlights, and wasn’t sure I wanted to see whatever (or WHOever) was making the noises. After what seemed like hours (and in reality was probably 10 minutes), we turned and saw the car! I was never so relieved in my life! And I reiterate, I will never EVER forget to mark the car again! Oh boy, I can hardly wait for Monday, when we will head out after work to do more CSI investigating. I will mark the car, I WILL mark the car, I WILL MARK THE CAR!!!!!!!!! The car was only about 50 feet away behind some dense brush, and I was never so happy to see it! I will never forget again!

I *LOVE* it!!!

I have a few puzzle caches out there and one in particular that hasn't been found often that ended up being more difficult than I thought it would be. I finally took a step out of the solution to make it easier, but it still isn't being hunted too much and I'm thinking of archiving it. My caches are out there to be FOUND. I don't care how the finders get to the solution, I just want them enjoy the hunt. I feel the same way about PAF. The only "rule" I go by on my hides is that I think the FTF should find it on his/her own without hints. I enjoy and appreciate a cleverly disguised container that fits into it's surroundings, and will spend a long time searching before resorting to PAF (if that's an option), because I hate to give up. Not everyone plays that way. Yes, it would be a bit disappointing if someone bypassed one of my clever (IMHO) hides by calling for help without spending any real time looking for it, but that's their loss, not mine. The point still is, I want it to be found. Isn't that why we're playing? I don't see the point of hiding something so hard that nobody ever finds it. I don't get any joy out of people posting DNF's on my caches.

This is unacceptable.... Definitely unacceptable! But..... is it possibly set for kilometers instead of miles?? What do you use for detailed street maps on it? I can't find any info on that anywhere, they are just pushing the National Geographic topo maps. I don't care about topo maps. Does DirectRoute North America work on it?? On my Magellan Meridian, you just hold the "goto" button down for 10 seconds or so and it brings up the screen to mark your current location as a waypoint. I think I read somewhere that the Triton does it the same way. Did you try that? Thanks for the info!

Michigan has a county challenge, divided into 3 parts: lower peninsula, upper peninsula, and then all of Michigan. I have a long way to go yet!

You're welcome! Let me know if you'd like a different GPS. Thank you!

How about this:

Tempting... but to make it believable, those bright spots need to be redrawn as they move. The vector angle would have to rotate, and the vector length would probably need to change. Too hard. You know how I used to do color gradients with MS Paint? First color: Hue: 220 Sat: 240 Lum: 120 Second color: Hue: 210 Sat: 142 Lum: 102 183 bits from one end to the other. Difference between colors: Hue: 10 Sat: -98 Lum: -18 Difference per bit: Hue: about 1 per 18 bits Sat: about -1 per 2 bits Lum: about -1 per 10 bits So from one end to the other, I'd need to change the saturation every two bits, the Luminesence every ten bits and the hue every eighteen bits. Zoom in as far as I can go and start counting bits...one...two...three.... That went so far over my head I barely heard the wind whistling as it went by!! I just use Photoshop and let it do things for me... I have no idea how half of it is done, or for that matter, how to use half the great features it has! (edit: added more)

You're welcome! I had to change the font, the other one didn't look too good curved. Is this what you're looking for?

Very nice!! When I look at those bright spots, they appear to be moving... tell me it's an optical illusion! Miz

How about this? .... Larger version for sig items .. & small for forum av

As you can see from our avatar as posted, we shortened it a bit but now we have blank space. Can it be saved? Do we have the technology to fix him, to make him better than before? Thanks! You bet! Here you go:

Thanks! Email sent.