FloridaFour

Yeah, what is the other even that day??? Unfortunately I don't think I can attend.... I have to host a party myself. I might stop by just for the beginning, to say hi.

Yeah, I saw the whole thing about the TB lost coin hotel or whatever it is. Kinda don't understand even the point of it.... I'd have to see it, I guess. At first I thought someone had left just the paper with the GC code that went with the coin, and that the coin had gotten stolen/separated from it. For me, I would not want people "discovering" my lost TB's and coins. That's why I put in his log about the fake discoveries, because I didn't understand what was going on. But to each his own, I guess.

On a trail, about 30 feet from one of my caches, (named Perseverance), my 8 year old son stepped on a Pygmy Rattlesnake. I was standing about 20 feet behind him and saw it.... Just told him, "Justin! Walk!!!!" He took a few steps forward without looking, which is what I wanted, and the snake slowly slithered away without striking him. Whew~~~ After that, my son would NOT go behind the tree to look for my cache....oh well!

Some cool ones I have found lately....all home made. All these get favorite votes. One was about a 4 inch by 10 inch piece of wood, made to look like part of a wooden pier. Only it was just held into a corner of the pier by a magnet. Cache was a 2 inche wide by 6 inch long tube, inside the hollow of the wooden post. One was inside a beach sign, the post was wooden again, the knot hole in the wood was filled in with another piece of wood, with a nail sticking out of it. When you pulled it out, the cache was attached in a small tube. The last one was a wooden stake, placed in the ground in the woods. Made to look like a marker for a controlled burn, or something. It even had a little orange tape flag on it. It had been cut across, and inside was the cache in a bison tube.

I've had my local reviewer contact me to say a TB I owned was in an unpublished cache for a few months. The so-called cache owner was holding it hostage. So the reviewer after attempting to contact that person, gave me the coords. No cache in sight. Bad "cache owner". Well, at least I know the reviewer is trying to keep an eye on things! We do have a very large area, can't imagine the reviewers able to go out personally and check 1000 or more caches in their areas.

Emma, LOL, I just checked to see if you had been successful finding your first cache yet... and noted you are from Warrington, which is where my sister-in-law is from. Pretty funny, since we live in Florida. Geocaching certainly "meet up" with people from all over. FloridaFour

Cool story. I went letterboxing the other day at Sand Key Park... found a geocoin in a letterbox... (not supposed to be there). Went home and logged it. The coin had been missing from it's last known geocache in New York........ since Sept 2006...FIVE YEARS! I contacted the owner and he told me to go ahead and set it free again (in a geoacache, this time!) haha. Pretty cool. Link to coin below. http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=694868

Here is a link to the Coin. Hopefully! http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=694868

Hard to say. Last known geocache was New York. I found it in Florida. Letterboxers don't always note geocoins... And no tracking map. But the coin only hade a few hundred miles logged on it. It had disappeared after an event. The owner did contact me and say to set it free again, this time in a bag, and I added a small note to explain what it is.

I looked up a letterbox near me online and someone had mentioned they had seen "a possible geocaching related electronic hitch hiker" in the letterbox. I'm a new letterboxer and my friend and I went out there today and found it... Sure enough a beautiful geocoin. I don't know the reference number, only the tracking number, but it was ancalled Plumb69s American Caching Geocoin. Last was logged Sept 2006.... in New York, only a month after being set into the wild. I found it in Sand Key letterbox in Sand Key Park, Florida. July 13, 2011. So almost 5 years later. Who knows how many letterboxes this thing has travelled through! I emailed the owner and asked them if they wanted me to mail it to them (some people prefer not to send geocoins out) or put in another geocache. Anyway.... it's found now!

Make sure email address is current. Also try selecting "watch this trackable".

Thanks for the replies! So what apps are we allowed to use and how would we know if they violate TOS? I read before the Groundspeak app had a lot of glitches.

I have an Oregon 450 for geocaching, and like it just fine. However, I need a new smart phone and we are staying with T-Mobile, My Touch 4G slide is looking like my first choice. Has anyone tried it for geocaching? It would be my back up for when I don't have my GPS with me. My other choice would be the new model of Blackberry Bold.

haha, I had to log BACK in again to reply. I will try to find that box next time, thanks.

haha, that's funny pic! I signed up for your August event, BTW. This week stunk for geocaching. Too rainy. Oh well!

When I try to go from say "hide and seek a cache" to the forums, "south and southeast" for instance, I get logged out and have to log in again in order to join the discussion. Why is that? Isn't one log-in enough? I find it very annoying.

Been awfully hot lately. I have a travel bug I've been meaning to place for a little girl for the past month, but it's so. darn. hot. I did upload some pics and visited an earthcache in Jupiter, FL with her bug, that was all I could manage. Whew! Maybe I'll get out and drop that bug off tonight at a local travel bug hotel that I already have found. My last few attempts at finding caches have been fruitless and frustrating because of the heat. Next week, my last cache maintenance of the summer (hopefully) and off to find 5 new caches Scooterpals placed near my Upper Tampa Bay Park caches. Then take it easy and stay cool for a while.

Usually the palm tree ones are stuck in those interwoven broken off palm fronds at the trunk of the palm. Small, film can, or pill bottle size.

never heard that one before!

Thanks?! Well, out caching today (semi-urban) in a small muggle-free park, (looking for smalls and regulars) we got 3 DNF's in a row, in the blazing heat. But I'll take that over being stopped by the LAW. At least we found a neat trail, and had a nice view of Sand Key.

My mom got stopped by security while caching near a strip mall recently. She was soooo put off. Hiders need to get PERMISSION to place caches. Obviously they didn't tell the shopkeepers or the security personnel. Come on, people. This is why I usually refuse to hunt urban caches near stores and stuff. Not to mention they are usually BORING caches. Not worth my time.

Went Letterboxing for the first time today and found 2 of them with the kids and their friends. The kids were not impressed the the heat, humidity and bugs. My 8 year old was in tears by the time we were done. He said he'll try it again in November.... They liked the stamps and the cool clues, but were disappointed as they like trading the junk in the geocaches. I really need to make a letterbox hybrid. Then they can have it both ways. Too hot right now for me to think straight to find a spot, although I do think I may have found a remote spot in a nearby park. I have to do maintenance on one of my adopted bridge caches. Hot, so hot. Not looking forward to walking over the bridge.

Well, I guess approximately in this order: 1.Finding new places 2.Challenge of finding the cache. 3.Challenge of getting to the cache (excluding rock climbing and scuba-diving!) 4.Meeting other cachers (love events) 5. Travel bugs, although this may move down the list with 6 going missing in 6 months... 6.Statistics and numbers 7.Swag (my kids like the swag, but I've only found 3 things ever, that I wanted to trade for) Usually, it's junk. You didn't list doing the write-ups. I really enjoy reading and writing the logs. I don't write TFTC, nor do I like reading TFTC on my caches. A big part of caching (to me) is sharing your experience with others.

I tend to avoid any playgrounds if I am not with my kids. I did go to one once (no one was there), but I felt really, really conspicuous looking under the jungle gym. Apparantly the magnetic was somewhere inside that thing. Never did find it. But sitting eating a donut on a bench doesn't look all that suspicious, compared to what I did. I think the cop should've just asked them to leave, used some judgement in that case. Perhaps they gave him some attitude and it ticked him off, who knows.

It's so great to see someone else understand the importance of a unique stamp in the form of a handcarved stamp to identify the letterbox hybrid. I also create and hide letterbox hybrids - carve a stamp from an eraser, write-up directions to the letterbox, and I also make a handcrafted logbook. Definitely makes caching more interesting. Great! If I have any questions, I will keep you in mind. :D