The Haddads Pit Crew

I saw geocaching used in an episode of one of the "Law and Order" shows. I did a search and found Geocaching.com. I wanted a GPS but my husband said that it was just a fad and I would get bored by it just like all the other hobbies I try. He would have no part in getting me a GPS for my birthday last year. My two boys chipped in and bought me a GPS. Last summer my husband and I found over 100 caches. For his birthday his nieces and nephews got him his own GPS. He now goes caching on his own while I am working on weekends. He loves getting out and exploring places. Hopefully your husbands will like the hobby as much as mine does! Donna of The Haddads Pit Crew

Tom is fine, just a few scratches on his face and hands. As you can see, it almost got his eye. This is a shot of the lens. These are the batteries. They were too hot to pick up. Thanks for the links to the CPF forums.

After complaining that his flashlight wasn't bright enough for night caching, my son gave Dad a Surefire 9P flashlight. It takes (3) 123A lithium batteries. My son also bought a box of 100 batteries (we have three of these flashlights so the 100 is a good investment). Yesterday, my husband was using the flashlight at work. Something happened to make him look at the lens. As he did, the batteries exploded, shattering the lens and shooting glass shards across his cheek. It exploded like a shotgun. He is lucky that it went off before it came level with his eye. He is also lucky that it waited until he took it out of his pants pocket (yes, it was lens down in his front pocket). Has anyone else had any problems with this type of flashlight? The reason it exploded is that these batteries give off hydrogen gas. Because these flashlights are built to be weatherproof, this gas builds up inside the barrel of the flashlight and when the pressure gets to high it explodes the flashlight.

If you use Firefox there is a greasemonkey script that will add an 'email cache owner' link to all cache pages. You can find it here. Lil Devil's Greasemonkey Script

Snakes!

There is a multi cache in my area that has cachers download an Mp3 file. When you get to the cache parking the audio file walks you through the waypoints, collecting clues to the final. Check it out here. Donna

This was discussed here.

I use Google Earth. On the lower left of the map is the coordinates of where the curser is on the earth. Most places you can zoom in on a steet. Then take the coodinates (Google Earth displays them in Degree Minute Second) and translate them into the format that your GPS uses (most use Minute Decimal). You can translate the coodinates at JeEep.com. Hope this helps. Donna

If I had been driving one of those I would have gotten a ticket for driving a plane on a road! I forgot to mention in my OP about the 18-wheeler that stopped to ask the officer for directions. The big, burly man got out of his cab and was crossing the street, "Officer could you help me?". And the officer replied, "I am taking care of this problem first then I can help you. Get back in the truck and wait until I am done." Then in a low voice, "Take a number Bub. I can only do one thing at a time." I work in customer service and if I ever talked like that to a customer I would be fired. But I guess when you work in the Safety field you can be as rude as you want and no one questions it.

While out caching today I got questioned by the same officer twice. It seems that the industrial park around the Manchester, NH airport is a target zone for terrorist and this officer was just trying to keep the industrial parks safe. There are two caches about ¼ of a mile from the end of the runway in the town of Londonderry. From the terminal of the airport, the caches are probably a mile away. The first time the officer pulled me over. I turned the wrong way at an intersection and made a u-turn at an airport access road. He only saw me pulling back out onto the road. He followed me to a three way stop sign, where I went straight across. As I started across he turned on his lights and pulled me over. Now what did I do? I couldn't have been speeding (although I have been known to speed). I was watching my GPS. Maybe I was going too slow. Nope! He asked me what I was doing coming out of the airport access road. I explained my u-turn and he let me go. I turned around again (I was looking for a good place to park). I pulled way off the side of the road by a cement barrier by a river. I walked to the cache and found it. Did the trade and log thing and walked back to the car. As I got close to my car, I saw that my officer friend was back. He was running my plate. He asked me if I was letterboxing. I explained geocaching was like letterboxing but a little different. He said he knew I was doing something like it because he saw my dash card about geocaching and my GPS holder that is labeled "GPS Holder Mark I". He proceeded to tell me that the airport area is posted for "No Parking" (the only signs that I saw were "no parking on the pavement") and that I should not be out walking around the airport in this post 9/11 era. He told me that the airport is patrolled constantly for parked cars and if I was going to continue my hobby that I should stay away from the airport. So how close to an airport is too close for a cache? By the way, the two caches have very clever hides and are well worth the chance of meeting the law. Donna of The Haddads Pit Crew

I haven't received an instant notification since Feb 8th. Has anyone figured out why?

We drive a nice midsize sedan. A silver 05 Chevy Malibu. It has a GEO bumper sticker. The windshield has a plastic clip on the inside drivers side for holding our "This vehicle is not abandoned. The owner is just Geocaching." card. We have also customized the inside with two handmade GPS holders. The Car Tom's Mark I Holder Donna's Mark II Holder Tom's is on the left. He slides it down next to the window. Donna's is on the right. She sits hers in the groove of the window. The hiking staffs go in the back seat (the staffs are a whole other story. Tom made those too). Donna of The HPC

I noticed on the travel bug detail page that the link to print a goal sheet is gone. Is this feature gone forever or is it a bug in the system? Love all the changes! Thanks! Donna of The HPC

I'm 46. I was out doing a multi cache and stopped in a Dunkin Donuts. I order my coffee and the woman asks if that is a senior coffee. I am dressed with my winter coat, waist pack, and orange hat (she can't even see that my short hair is silver.) I was flabbergasted. I mummbled no I'm not a senior. I was not ready for being asked that question yet. Since then I have been asked at other places that offer discounts to seniors. I still can't bring myself to lie and say that I'm a senior even for a discount. The rest of the Crew are: Tom-50, Ericka-25, Chris-24, Brian-20, Mike-14, Robbie-12, Leah-12, Catherine-10, Jonathan-8 Donna of The HPC

Is there a way to make the left margin a little wider when printing? When I 3-hole punch the printout, I punch through the cache details. I looked for a way to set the margins before printing but couldn't find any thing. Donna of The Haddads Pit Crew

We got my husband a Surefire (not sure of the model) and my son liked it so much that he bought himself one. The batteries were a little of a drawback until my son ordered a box of a 12 for $15 from Surefire. Thats about what you pay for 2 at the local store. They both love their new lights. Donna of The Haddads Pit Crew

I lurk. At least once a day. Sometimes more. Donna

The TB that was dropped is this: Ari the Viking virtual TB (TBFCF1). The Current GOAL is: I want to travel in the footsteps of my forefathers stopping off at known Viking settlements around the known world. I have been lost and now am doomed to wander the world as a virtual TB. Since it was place in your cache on 11/10 it has moved through 7 other caches from New Zealand to the Netherlands. I have a number of virtual TBs on my watch list. On rainy days or days I don't have time to cache, I will drop a virtual TB into caches I have visited. It keeps me from going into geocaching withdrawal. Donna

My son got me hooked on GE. I love it for geocaching. This is how I use GE for caching. I have created folders for each town (actually I cache in both NH and MA so start with folders for the states). I then downloaded a .gpx file that I exported from GSAK using the cache name (%name). In GE layers, I have borders, city boundaries, and postal codes boundaries turned on. This helps me see what town a cache is in (just be careful if a town has more than one zip code). I then dragged each cache from its temporary import spot to the folder for the town it is in. Now when I want to cache in a certain town, with a few clicks in GE, I can see what is available and each has a link directly to the cache page. Now if GE will only make icons for geocaching. I use the sun icon for my found caches because they don't have a smilie face. Donna~The Haddad's Pit Crew

I make beaded jewelry. I usually work with Swarovski crystals but they are a little pricey to leave a bracelet made with crystals in a cache (maybe as FTF swag but not in every cache). I started making bracelets with less expensive beads and leaving them in caches. I also made wallet size photos with an outdoor scene and our crews name (these are like a business card but I made them in Paint Shop Pro and printed them at the local photo lab as wallet prints).