The Amigos

Hey!! #34!! That's me! Thanks so much! I have read all of these stories with a bit of grimace. Who knew that Geocaching could be so fun, and be so painful at the same time! (And we all keep going back for more! lol)

We've got new ducks!! They are going to start on their mission hopefully by the end of the week. Maybe you'll see them as they pass through your cache on the way to completing their missions! Meet "The Christmas Caching Ducks Travel Bug Gang"!!!

WOW, Joni! I sure hope your Tetanus was up-to-date!!!!

O.K., I'll tell the rest of the story and join in on this "Cointest". We were at our first-ever Geocaching Event, and as anybody who's ever cached in Texas knows, if you're caching here, you're probably caching in or near cactus! The Event was being held at our local lake, and most all of the caches were hidden in the woods, but several were hidden in the cactus. Well', being Newbies, we weren't going to let the old-timers show us up by not finding all the caches. This particular cache was aptly named "BizzyB's Almost painful memory ". That should have been the first ip-off to avoid it, but I'm too stubborn for that. We got to within 50ft of GZ, but were in the middle of a HUGE growth or cactus. Should have turned around at that point and found a different way in, but we were too close!! (Found out later there was a trail on the OTHER side of the cactus that we needed to be on!) So I reached up and snapped a long branch off a nearby tree (that should have been my second tip, the branch snapped very easily) to push the cactus over so I could step over it. If you've ever tried to do this, you know cactus is a pretty strong plant (should have been third tip). About the time I started to step over the cactus that I had pushed down, the limb snapped, the cactus popped back up, my hand caught the flying cactus (thankfully, as my face and eyes were very close to it!), and I felt NO pain in my hand, but my shoulder felt like I had fired a shotgun! (later found out this was because the thorn had hit the nerve in my hand and transferred the pain to my shoulder while it deadened my hand.) Now, being a nurse, I knew that was not a good feeling. I stepped back, looked at my hand, saw cactus thorns sticking out everywhere, and BLOOD! My dear Hubby said" What did you do?" I stuck my hand behind my back and said "Nothing!" Pulled my hand out, showed him what an idiot I had been, and he says "DAMM!!" Well, about then, the tears started flowing, I started thinking that I had to get the thorns out and clean the wound. We're out at the lake, in the middle of a cactus patch, no water, no nothing, so we pull the thorns out, and wrap my hand in my shirt. We go to find the kids. As we walked up to them, they could tell something was wrong (they're all teenagers or older). They say "What's wrong???!!" Again, I stuck my hand behind my back, and say "NOTHING!!" One of them just happened to have a half-full bottle of water they've been drinking (GERMS!!). I washed my hand the best I could, drive to the nearest place with a bathrooom, clean my hand, then go have my Best Friend (who's also a nurse) look at my hand. She just says "DAMM!! Better call the Doc." I say "I will,.......tomorrow, .......if it's not better." (STUBBORN!!) Next day, I call the Doc, try to explain Geocaching to him (he just shakes his head, and says "strike up another one to you weird family!"), get a Tetanus shot, antibiotics, and a trip to the Hand Specialist, where I have to have surgery, because the thorns had broken off in the tendon and nerve of my hand. Total cost - over $6000!!! Did we find the cache? NOPE!! Lesson learned?? NOPE!! I still try to find the shortest path, but I will back off if it's through (or over) cactus! I can go around!!

OUCH!! That leg looks like mine did this summer when we were diving in Cozumel, and I decided to play with a Sea Turtle! It ran me into the rocks, but it was fun swimming with it. I'd do it again. I'm glad your hubby's head was o.k!

I think I deserve this one, considering the fact that my drop(s) of blood actually led to me having to have surgery on my hand!! I tangled with a cactus, and the cactus won!! I had cactus thorns embedded in the nerve and tendon of my hand, not to mention the one that broke off in the bone, and has now caused a cyst to form! Had a cast clear up to my elbow after surgery!

I know this has nothing to do with reaching a personal caching milestone, but if I'm not BADLY mistaken, there are a few out there predicting that the 1,000,000th cache will be placed sometime in February!! Now, THAT'S a milestone! Wouldn't it be great to be THE one to place that cache? I'm going to have to keep an eye out and see if I can find out what cache it is, and send a special TB its way.

WE absolutely LOVE night caching, so we MUST have this coin!

I try to Thank God every Day for my husband and children, children's spouses, and grandchildren. I'm thankful for all the Blessing we receive, both big and small. I'm thankful that I'm here, on Earth, and able to read this contest and share my thoughts with all of you. Most of all, I'm thankful to just be ME!!

Thank you for the Thanksgiving Cointest!! We are having Thanksgiving at home, since I didn't have to work, and my husband is on Vacation. We will have our oldest son, his beautiful wife, and or two awesome Grandsons, our newly-wed daughter and son-in-law, our two dogs, and our daughters two dogs. We will also be hosting two Airmen (actually women) that work in my son-in-law's office on base, and a couple that live in their apartment building. We will have the traditional Thanksgiving Dinner - Turkey, Ham, home-made mashed potatoes, potato salad, green bean casserole, green beans, corn, stuffing, gravy, deviled eggs and sweet potatoes. As for dessert, I've been cooking for two days!! There is an Apple Pie with Caramel and pecans on top, banana pudding, "Allen Jackson's Famous Chocolate Cake (one with pecans, one without), Zucchini bread, Banana Bread, Cherry Chip cake, and Rum Cake. Tomorrow night will be leftovers for all the kids friends that want to come through the front door (and believe me, they LOVE to come for leftovers!!!) We are thankful that we were able to have a good Thanksgiving, with our family and friends. We know that next year, we might not be able to do this, because my husbands job is talking about closing its doors. But we will still be thankful for all the things we have, because we have family and friends and love, and that's all we need! Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving, and a great Christmas to come!! The Amigos

For Sale here? Where? Thanksgiving may get in the way of a few of us. Gonna have to really keep an eye on the clock and leave the dinner table at the right time!

AWESOME!!!!!

This sounds like a great idea! I think there would be a lot of people interested in this Event. Come on, Joni, let's see what Texas can do!

But now you're advertising for them. If you made some slight changes in your character, it would be a personal coin, and NOT an advertisement, and it would be YOURS! I personally would not buy a coin that advertised a company (unless it was Garmin or something like the, associated with Geocaching). Just something you might want to consider. To me, when you add the Monkeybutt.com, you lose the Monkey Bum that was so cute.

Thank you! I'll check those out!

O.K., I know this has been discussed on the forums before, but I cannot find the link. I am trying to put all my coins in books, and I want to make tags to go with them, listing what they are, what version, what color, etc. Where can I find this information? Is there a site that has ALL the coins that have been manufactured listed, maybe even showing pictures? Thanks for all the help.

Are any of these coins still available? I would love to purchase one for my collection!!

Me, too!

Oh, I can't wait for these!!! I'll have to start putting my money up now!! lol I wouldn't mind a Presale, either!!

Cool! I haven't seen his friend before! Hope Garmin has a great time caching with you!!

I want some Lemonade!!!! lol. That does sound good, though.

LOL, but they're so cute!! We keep finding them at Mr. Gatti's when we go eat pizza, and they are in sets, so it's fun to set them out on races!

I started this summer putting out TB Ducks, setting goals for places for them to go, and just having fun with them! I would love to see your TB Ducks, and maybe, somewhere down the road, our ducks will cross paths and get to quack a while! Here are my duckies!! http://img.geocaching.com/track/thumb/dcc7...a86e5b944ac.jpg The Caching Ducks Travel Bug Gang http://img.geocaching.com/track/log/displa...0bfc298d88e.jpg The Caching Ducks Travel Bug Gang http://img.geocaching.com/track/thumb/e471...bf61ec0b4e4.jpg Waterboy Duck - Keeper of the Water Bottle (TB29MDM) http://img.geocaching.com/track/display/c5...ec9a216e9c9.jpg Altas Duck - Keeper of the Compass (TB29ME6) http://img.geocaching.com/track/display/be...61ed98ad597.jpg Buggy Duck - Protector of the TB's, and Keeper of the Phone-a-Friend Phone (TB29ME4) http://img.geocaching.com/track/display/ae...8dfa48f9983.jpg Chips Duck- Protector of the Geocoins (TB29MD2) http://img.geocaching.com/track/display/a8...2b2dafb8249.jpg Garmin Duck - Keeper of the GPS (TB29MDQ) http://img.geocaching.com/track/display/6e...2341321da06.jpg Mappy Duck - Keeper of the Paper Map (TB29MEW) http://img.geocaching.com/track/display/6d...b7aeabb6e31.jpg Patchy Duck - Owner of the Eagle Eye (TB2J0M3) http://img.geocaching.com/track/display/eb...df0fbde6492.jpg Spotter Duck- Keeper of the Spy Glass (TB1RM78) http://img.geocaching.com/track/display/ff...31c78d056ac.jpg Peter Duck Travel Bug & Wendy Duck Travel Bug (TB1RBYW & TB2J0KH) Witchy Duck (TB2RPMV) Von Duckula (TB2RPNC) WereDuck (TB2J0KM) Frankenduck (TB2RPM0) The Trick-or-Treaters Ducks Travel Bug Gang

I wish you many more happy memories of your Grandma to come (they WILL come out of nowhere, when you LEAST expect them, and they are great!). Embrace each memory, and don't forget to share them with your children when they happen! I think that one of the funniest memories that I can think of just at this moment actually involved both my Mammaw and, later, my Mom, then my Sister. I was probably about 10 or so, and just a smart little kid. You know, the smart one that can't be told ANYTHING! Well, my Mammaw and I were writing notes to each other, and I was trying my darnedest to top her. I was writing how I was THE prettiest girl ever, and I was the SMARTEST girl ever, and so on and so on. My Mammaw always had a great comeback to whatever I wrote. She was prettier because..., and she was smarter because...., etc. I NEVER did get the best of her! We ended up rolled up together on the couch, just laughing so hard. It was (and still is) such a great memory. We ended up crumpling those notes and throwing them in the trash. Well, years later, after my Mammaw had passed away, and my Mom was in the hospital with Cancer, she told me that she something special put up for me in her "trunk" (you all know those trunks that have every paper your child EVER colored on), and she wanted me to be sure to look for it when the time came. I blew it off, thinking it had to have been something stupid I had done sometime in my life, and just plain forgot about it. When my Mom passed from the Cancer, my Sister got the trunk. She called me, laughing, and said to come on over! There really wasn't all the stupid stuff I thought would be in there, but guess what WAS in there? That very letter that my Mammaw and I had sat writing to each other that day. My Mom had sat back and watched us, and secretly laughed to herself. Then she dug that letter OUT of the trash, carefully pressed it flat, and put it away. I now have that note, and it has a few tear marks on it, but NOTHING IN THIS WORLD MEANS AS MUCH TO ME AS THAT PIECE OF PAPER!!!! (I should go dig it out and copy it on here for you all to laugh at!!) You know, they are probably all three sitting up in Heaven, laughing at me as I share this story with you all!!!! (I have since lost my Sis to Cancer).

Are you going to post here when you put them on Ebay?!!!!