CacheTestDumbEase

I think it's just different strokes for different folks. Luckily, my husband likes geocaching. And when he and I go out together it's always a good time. I love caching with him because he usually spends most of the time being flirty with me and I think it's sweet when he goes through the trail first so I don't walk through cobwebs. BUT, when we add the kids to the mix or my friend and her kids who sometimes come along, it's no longer fun for me if he's there too. I'm not sure why his demeanor changes when the kids or other people come along but it does change, and it changes in a way that makes it a very UNfun experience for me.

Northern Virginia has a group as well as Fredericksburg. (I'm not sure of the links. The only group page I visit is MGS which is the Maryland group.)You can find them here: http://www.mdgps.org/ I live in Southern Maryland but go to Virginia quite often to visit and cache. If you want to meet up sometime just let me know. I think on Memorial Day we're going to the Caledon Natural area in the King George/Dalghren area. And the following weekend there's an event which might be within your driving range: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=GC2F414

They left a mardi gras mask...and um...some rain?

I'm surprised at how many people point the finger at kids. Caching with kids is just like anything else in life. The PARENTS are responsible for their children. Or not. I would never allow one of my girls to open a cache and go poking through it. My husband or I open the cache then remove each item and set it on the ground or other area for our kids to see. As we remove things, trash, cigarettes and any other moronic item left goes straight to my CITO ziploc. We don't even bother our kids with that stuff other than to say, "It's trash, so it's going in the trash." Therefore, I eliminate the worry that my kids will be stuck by a needle or having funk on their fingers. I don't take my kids geocaching without having a large Ziploc filled with swag for them to trade. Some of the things we trade are handmade by me, other things are dollar store party favors for children, and others are magnets or ornament type things. For each thing we remove we leave at least 2 things in it's place. Because as a parent, it is MY job to teach my kids what trading up means. We teach them by showing them. The one time my swag bag was empty we did nothing but micros. Problem solved. If my children were to whine or complain about wanting more they would get nothing. That's just the way it is. Life isn't about stuff. It's about time spent with the ones we love. When my kids aren't with me, my husband and I make every effort to add swag to each and every cache. I wouldn't say we completely restock them, but we leave them with more than they have so the next folks who come along have an enjoyable experience. We leave more adult items than kid items because adults seem forgotten in the swag dept. and I happen to think it's just as great to see an adult get all excited about some little treasure as it is for a kid. Bottom line is...unless by kid you mean a teenager, no kid should be blamed or accused. It is the parents who are responsible for how their children behave. People who "cave" and give in to their kids tantrums or even allow their children to throw tantrums should consider teaching their children how to behave before allowing them to participate. Of course, that's just me though.

Thanks for the responses. I'll be taking along all that I have.

I've only been geocaching for a little over 3 months and we are getting ready to attend our first event in a few weeks. One of my favorite parts to this game are the travelbugs. I love seeing where they've come from and where they go. I get thoroughly excited when we find one that's been traveling for years. So, my question is this. Is is a good idea to take these to events? There is a new geotrail going up soon and I thought it would be cool to leave them along the new trail because obviously it's going to get visited alot in those first few weeks. But I'd not sure if this is common practice?

If you plug the hole, the plunger wouldn't be able to be put back in to the syringe. The hole pushes out liquid, but it ALSO pushes the air out. If you seal that, well...just get one from your local pharmacy and try it. I don't know how to describe it so that it makes sense, but the plunger pushes air out and if the air is trapped you can't put the plunger in. Not sure if that makes sense.

My husband uses his Droid with the paid app, and I have a Magellan Explorist GC handheld GPS, ($150). His Droid is good because it gets us to the generally vicinity and offers turn by turn directions. (We don't always know where we're going.) It's also nice because we can look at it with the satellite view and know before we get out of the car exactly where we are headed. But when it comes to actually finding ground zero, my GPS wins every time. He is usually between 20-50 feet off.

LOL. I know where there's a hill we could roll a ball down...not sure I'd roll a wheelchair down it.

I'll try them.

I read this post to MY husband and then asked, "SO...who's your other wife?"

My younger daughter doesn't like to walk but she LOVES finding micros. I think it makes her feel good that she can find them so quickly when me and the hubby have to looked forever. My oldest went on a 4+ mile hike with us last week and never complained at all. It's all in the kid. My kids sometimes both trade, sometimes only one trades. Whatever tickles their fancy. The older one carries her own geo bag and if she takes one thing out she always puts two things in. The younger one doesn't like to go in the woods so if I see something she may like I trade for her. We were recently in another state and came across several caches that were completely empty except for the log book. I had just stocked up on kiddie swag though so we just put a bunch in for the next ones to come along. I figure if someone else can go through the effort of getting that cache out there, the least my family can do is throw some swag in it.

I'm also fairly new, have young children, use the same GPS, etc. I do most of what you do as far as planning ahead, with the exception of printing anything, because I don't own nor do I want to own a printer. I read through all the old logs in advance and take notes of anything I feel may be useful. I give the hubby a list of which caches we'll be doing so he can do the same if he so chooses. (He normally doesn't) On the way to the caches I read the description to the kiddos and give them any hints there may be. I have a feeling that with time and experience I'll do less and less of this prep work. Right now we are all just trying to improve our "geosenses". My almost 6 year old had become extremely good at finding micros so when we have mommy and me time she and I only hunt micros. When I'm having mommy and me time with the 9 year old she wants to stay in the woods so I end up hunting the larger sized caches with her. I think by the end of summer I'll likely just put the ones on my GPS that are in the general vicinity of where we're going and go. I do include the ones with problems though. We found one that hadn't been found in a year. The way I see it, just because some others DNF doesn't mean we won't. Plus...I like the searching.

I don't know how interesting our name is but in our "team" it's myself, my geeky gamer hubby, our 9 year old daughter who my hubby affectionately refers to as Blondie, and our almost 6 year old daughter who is such a chatterbox that she has walked into a tree more than once because she was too busy talking instead of watching where she was going. We are like the blind leading the blind most days and cache names like, oh...say "Log this" (Just a pretend example), which would be found directly next to a log usually don't make sense to us until a week after we found it. We often have "DOH" moments. So we kind of are cache test dummies. ;-)

We're fairly new to geocaching so our blog is fairly new as well...but here it is: http://cachetestdumbease.weebly.com/index.html

Tomorrow will mark 2 months since we've started geocaching and I still have no signature item. Initially I got all excited and ordered business cards to leave in the caches to just show we'd been there but when we got them my excitement soon wore off when I realized that A. It's been done before many times, and B. The ones I got are kind of plain and not at all my personality. Then I ordered post cards which I really like. I have an entire stack of them. But when I had them made I put my blog address on them and then later read on the forums that it's bad etiquette to do so. Which, I understand...although I'm not really advertising because I'm not selling but I get it. For the past two weeks I've been pondering what I could use as my signature item because, well, I want one too! Then a friend who is also new to geocaching called me and said she'd found one of my bookmarks that I made. I had left it in a cache as a trade item. I told her I could have just made her one but she thought it was cool to find it in the cache. So...I decided maybe the way to go is making something. I crochet all kinds of things and today made a lanyard. The hubby says I should use these as our signature item but I'm not sure. I think on one hand it's a great idea because it represents me and people could actually use them. Then again, signature items that we've found tend to be coins or wooden nickels or business cards. I'm having some decision making troubles with this. What do you all think?

I know this is an old topic but I'm new to geocaching. I'm also a new owner of the Magellan eXplorist GC. I've never used any kind of GPS before and I feel like I'm holding an alien in my hand. Is there anywhere I can get step by step instructions on how to use this thing? I understand how to get the caches loaded on it but I don't know how to use the darn thing. Any help would be appreciated.