sleepysnails
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Posts posted by sleepysnails
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Well, I just got back from Nashville TN. and I thought that I would report on how things went.
In one word, 'HOT!!!!' Being from Los Angeles, CA where the weather is always a nice breezy 75-85 degrees (sometimes in the mid to high 90s), the 100+ humid weather of Nashville almost had done me in!
I had never heard anyone say the word Y'all before. That was fun! I'm now a fried green tomato and BBQ ribs FAN! The chicken... unbelievable! They do know how to BBQ out there! I didn't have the time to find a fried pickle, but... oh well.
Night life, I went to a place called The Stage (or the locals call it a honkey tonk). Great live music and good prices!
Well, on to the Geocaching. 8/3/11
I spent the week at the Opryland Hotel at a teacher conference. I had some time to find some caches. If any of you stay at this hotel, there are quite a few just north of the hotel's praking lot. I thought that I would just walk over there and grab them. Well, it was 102 degrees with a 70 percent humidity and the quarter mile walk almost was impossible! But I stuck to it and was strong enough to grab one by a huge horse and one near a river. I knew that there were more near by, but the heat and humidity was just too much! I went back to my hotel room and just laid there for about an hour trying to cool off.
The next morning I went to the Adventure Land Science Center for the GeoMaze. 8/4/11
I got there a bit early because I saw a few Caches that were near by. The one in front of the place was a fun one.
Then there was one behind the science center on top of an old civil war fort. I went up the COMPLETELY wrong way. For you that are going, there is an open side trail that can be accessed from walking around back of the Science center and to the right of all the bushes. STAY ON THE TRAILS! The top of the fort was REALLY COOL! If you go to the maze I really recommend you going to this one!
Because I was not used to the 100 degree heat, I was swimming in my own sweat (not a good picture to see). Well, I walked into the center looking like I just walk out out of Hades, stood in line amongst all the little kids and their parents, and just simply felt and looked out of place. Well, when I got there, (I was traveling alone), I walked around. The experience was ok. If I had the kids or just someone to have gone there with, it would have been probally a lot more fun. I did feel strange walking around the maze as an adult by myself. My secret city was Anchorage, AL!
Do I recommend this to anyone else? I would say, 'yes' just for the smiley. The Maze itself would have been a real fun time with the kids or with someone. To go alone was not sustainable enough for me to spend longer than a half an hour there.
On my way out, I was waiting for the taxi and I saw that there was one more at the entrance of the park. I did a simple walk over there thinking that i could grab it before the taxi got there... I forgot about the hours. I was there too early and I was again sweating like crazy and I didn't want to wait. So, I couldn't get that one. If you go to this one at the entrance of the park and the fort, make sure that you get there during the working hours.
Well, all in all my experience was a good one in Nashville, TN. The Southern Hospitality feel IS REAL! I always thought that it was just a phrase that people used. I didn't think that people were actually that way! Thanks Nashville for a HOT, HUMID, and memorable time!
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I am the original person who posted and all I've got to say is, "WOW!"
I was gone for a few days on a work trip in Nashville, TN. And yes, I did stop by the Geo Maze (comments about that in my other post). I came back here and saw this amazing thread!
I've learned SO MUCH about the legal dynamics and physical properties of poles that I feel almost burdened with the knowledge! THANKS! Also, trying to related Geocaching to the Scientific Method is quite intriguing! Being a teacher, I LOVE this potential idea! I can almost see how I can justify it to my school to almost ask for a small grant to purchase some GPS units! I do have an afterschool program that does Geocaching and I think that I am going to try and utilize this thread to 'legitimize' Geocaching more to my coworkers and administration. Do not worry, I wouldn't quote anyone directly. Also, I don't plan on misrepresenting the fact that Geocaching is primarily FOR FUN, but with now a twist of an action research that I plan on creating (through the motivation of this thread!) THANKS again!
BTW- my original post was about helping to find some caches on utility poles and I had one in specific that I hadn't found and that was why I had wanted to post this. And to this day, I still haven't found it. It's a straight pole without any of the guylines (thanks for this thread I know what they are called!) attached and no metal cross attachment to hold other wires. The CO still maintains that it's still there. Fundamentally, it just one huge, long, and lonely wooden working telephone pole. Crazy! However, reading this post, I saw a hint that I think that I do now have a great solid idea of where it is! I plan on checking it in the next week!
Thanks again for all your posts!
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HEY! THanks for all your help! I think that I'll go to the maze and not expect a life changing experience, but a novelty time. It seems like there are a couple of caches that are Have To Finds and a I now have a few great choices on places to eat! THANKS! I knew that this was the place to ask to find the best spots! THANKS!!
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These are all great insights, thanks!
Sadly I'm in Nashville for about a day and a half and don't plan on renting a car. I only have one morning to myself before my meeting at 1pm... SAD... Then I leave the next day in the morning. I'm staying at the Opryland Hotel and taking a taxi over to 'THE MAZE' and back. I saw that there are two by my hotel that I plan on getting, too.
A little off topic, but I think that I' might have a few hours to myself, in the afternoon, the day I arrive . I belive that Nashville is known for their BBQ and country music? (Sorry if I am stereotyping, I APOLOGIZE. I just don't know any better). Are there suggestions on a great place to eat and get a TRUE Nashville experience? I'm comming from Los Angeles and don't know if I'll ever be back to Nashville again...
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I meant to post this a little bit ago. Thanks for all your replies. It all helps! I think that the urban caches' coordinates needs to be pretty right on because the hides have to be so very well hidden (the muggle factor and to not look overly suspicious). Hey, if any of you have any other suggestions on how to get even better on more accurate navigation points, please let me know!
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I'm going to Nashiville, TN next week for work. I have a few hours on Thursday morning 8/4/11 to go. I plan to be there from about 10-11:30ish. Has anyone else gone, yet? What should I expect? I'm going by myself, Is it mainly for the kiddies? Are there a lot of things to buy? Any free SWAG? How fun is that maze?
I went to the event site and read a number of the logs and it seems fun, but I thought that I'd get the Forum's opinion...
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These are very helpful! Thanks! I plan on rechecking some ones that are near me today! I hope to find a few!
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I live in the city and there are a number of TELPHONE POLE HIDES. I've never been able to find any of these types of caches. I don't know how many times I've looked like I have just found my one and true love in a telephone pole by touching it, caressing it, staring at it, and to a point talking to it! Are there any suggestions, so I just don't look like I've fallen back into The Age of Aquarius and getting ready to go to another Grateful Dead show?!
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For the longest time, I was looking for the perfect bag to use at work, hold my computer, day trips, over night traveling, Geocaching, and that it doesn't look like a school backpack or anything that looks a little TOO HIPSTER.
Well, a while ago, I came here to this thread and read up on bags. I found the http://www.Maxpedition.com site. I surfed it for a while and then I saw IT! I saw the one that was for me... The Maxpedition Kodiak Gearslinger. I also bought a phone holder assessory. It wasn't cheap, but I know that it will be well worth it. I've had it now for a couple of weeks and still don't regret it. I've used it for all my intended purposes and there has been NO PROBLOEM. Another selling point for me was that the smaller version of this bag was used in the Transformers 3 movie... heehehe... nothing like feeling like a secret action hero!
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I know that this topic has been touched upon, but I think that this one is different because it's asking:
How many of you have made the choice, not by mistake or malfunction that something goes wrong, but the actual decision of going for a cache knowing that it was a super stupid thing to do?
My Super Stupid GEO Story...
About a month a go I couldn't go to sleep. So, I thought that I would do some night caching several miles away from where I live. I always saw them, but never got around to getting them for some reason. I found the two that I wanted and was heading home. Then I saw that there was one comming up and I thought, "Oh, what the heck, why not?!" So, I pulled off the freeway and it was about a half a mile out from the freeway exit. It was underneath a bridge.
I was being SUPER GEO STUPID and I wasn't even thinking that it was about 11:30pm and I'm going under a bridge that was located in the heart of East Los Angeles (for those of you who don't know, it's an ok area during the day, but at night...DIFFERENT STORY! I know this because I work in East LA). Well, putting on my SUPER STUPID GEO mind-frame on, I went to go for it.
Well, I got to the bridge and saw that it was just to the side of it. And, the only place to park was further down along side the bridge on this graffiti filled dead end street. Well, I thought, 'OK, it's going to be a quick park and grab.' Well, the second I parked the car and opened the door, three large shadows quickly came out from under the bridge, walked directly towards me and after they took about ten feet, they started to rush towards me. For a slight second, I had the deer in the headlights moment, then it came to me, 'GET BACK INTO THE CAR!' I threw the car into reverse, as they were about 30 feet from my car (It could have been my imagination, but it looked like one of them was reaching into their jacket), reentered the main street in reverse without looking, shoved it into drive and took off. This story is of no exaggeration, I'm actually diluting it.
The Cache page didn't say, 'Don't go at night', but any person with any sensilility or any ounce of common sense would NEVER GO by just looking at the pictures and area! Well, I did... I don't know how much more super geo stupid I could have been!
At any rate, I've never been back to get it. Maybe one day....
DO YOU HAVE A SUPER STUPID GEO STORY? Or, am I the only one that's this stupid?
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I was wondering the ettiquette when asking for help? There are a few caches that I have tried to contact the different COs and there have been no responses. I've gone the route of cliking onto their names and seeing thier profile page and then sending them a message either throuhg the Geocaching website and/or through their publicly posted e-mail address.
Do you think that the initial asking of help (first contact) should be done through the Cache Operator's Geocaching Cache Detail site or directly to the CO themselves via e-mail?
Or should help be asked at all?
Also, do you think that I am being rude in asking these type of questions and that the answers to these questions should be unspokenly understood that one just has to figure it out themselves?
The questions that I have asked in the past:
1. Am I really looking in the right place? (with attachment of myself and GPS in a picture)
2. I'm goin do some traveling to your area and saw that your cache's last few log ins were over a year ago and they were DNFs. Do you think it still might be there?
3. Could I have a better hint on the puzzle? (With attached explaination of my thinking process of how I just don't get thier puzzle)
4. According to my GPS and Google maps I need to hop a wall/ go throuhg a fence, am I reading the info correctly? Or, is there a better way to get to your cache?
Help....?
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Yeah, Geocaching is therapy for me. A while back, I had to go to the emergency room because I was REALLY sick. I ended up staying in there for about two weeks and not knowing if I was going to make it out. Well, making it out and going through several months of treatments, I knew that I had to get healthier. I know that I'll have to make regualr visits to the doctor and keep up my meds and treatments, but I'm doing a lot better. I'm not one to 'work-out' nor am I the one to join a gym and do any type of aerobics. So, I was searching the net to try and buy a good commuter bicycle that I can ride to work. Well, low and behold, I came arcoss the Geocaching website. Ever since then, I've been hooked and loving it! Since I've started, my health has gone up, my drive to get outside (because there was a time that I just didn't want to go outside) has gone up, and it's a pretty darn fun thing to do! I also love the surreptitiousness of this gameplay!
Well, I carried my addiction to work. I'm an art teacher and I have now began a Geocaching group at my school. For the past month, we've been going hiking in the mountains for caches. We'll do sketches and drawings of the area and one time we went to the top of this cliff over looking the beach and spent the afternoon painting! I love being a teacher in the summer!
Again, Geocaching for me has been therapy and I hope to make it last for a long time! I'm glad that this thread is here. It's nice to know that there are some in the same catagory as I in the Geocaching world!
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Well, I'm fairly new to Geocaching, been finding for about two months and have under 200 finds and still strongly obsessed! Anyway, I've also placed two urban caches (I live in Downtown Los Angeles) and sometimes the buildings, telephone wires, metal fencing makes the GPSr navigation bounce around. I've found that it's difficult to get an accurate reading better than 10-15feet.
Of the two that I've placed, I've not only averaged out the waypoints about 200+ times each (Maybe I should let it do more?) using my Garmin 60csx, I then go to google maps to verify it's satallite location to get a visual on how it's marked, and finally I go to iTOUCHmaps.com, it can show the decimal longitudinal and latitudinal navigation points, to reverify the location.
However, I can only get about ten feet accuracte. Sometimes, I've even been about 50 feet off on one ones that I am currently wanting to place! I have planned out three caches and where they are to go, but I don't want to place anymore until I can figure out a way to make sure that I can mark a positve GZ for my caches. Is there a program or better system to find absolute GZ in a busy metropolitan area?
I think that I would look pretty strange, but would buying the Garmin extention antenna help?
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Hello all. I became a member recently. I'm in the Downtown Los Angeles area. If anyone is interested in doing some Geocaching together, let me know. I'm the only one in my circle of friends that truely enjoys this. I'll drag some of my friends around, but I think that it would be fun to see how it'd be Geocaching with others that are as obsessed as I have become!
Well, I'm done trolling this forum and I'm begining to post. I'll see all of you out there!
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Hello, I am a teacher and have been GEocaching with small groups of students for the the past few months. Are you still neededing some advice? I don't know if I have any, but let me know if you still need a few suggestions? What are the ageses of the people that you are taking out to go Geocaching?
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Hello,
I have a Garmin 60csx and I'm a teacher. I've been taking groups of students out Geocaching for the last couple of months. I find that the students are learning SO MUCH. Not only are they learning about technology in a way they never thought of, but it gets them out to see places that they have never seen before. They also do research on the places that we go. There is so much more, but that is not the reason that I am writing this post.
The reason that I am writing this post is to let people who are taking people/ students Geocaching or thinking about purchasing the GEOMATE jr. is that the device is great to have, with three conditions: 1. You have a primary GPS (If you plan on using the GEOMATE jr on it's own I think that it would just rank as being ok/good). 2. You really need to know how to work the GEOMATE jr pocket queries in conjunction with the Geocaching.com Pocket Queries. 3. You need to remember that IT'S NOT A GPS! IT's A DEVICE THAT FIND CACHES!
The reason that I got this was that when I take my Junior High students out to go Geocaching (around five to ten students), they all want to hold and use my Garmin. Taking turns was OK, but a bit bothersome. Also, taking people in such large groups is hard when just going for one cache.
So, I realized that I would need another GPS to help with 'responsibilities' when we go out Geocaching. Each student has a responsibility (ex. one to hold a pen and log in, another one is the camera holder and takes the picture, another one holds the GPS and reads it, another one cleans the cache and repairs it, another one rehides it, etc...) Well, I found that another GPS was needed when we get into larger groups.
Being a Junior High Art Teacher, I can't afford to buy another Garmin. So, I spent a long time researching and it came down to the MagellanGC or the GEOMATE jr. I love the idea for the paperless actions of the GC, but it was still a bit out of my price range. So, I opted for the GEOMATE jr. At the time, I felt disappointed because I thought that I was still getting a lesser good...
The GEOMATE jr. did what it said it would do. I took some students to buy it at REI and opened the package in the parking lot and we found our first one with this device, then we went to find a few more just using the GEOMATE jr! I was initially amazed and thought that it was a good deal! Then some of the questions came to mind... How old is the data? I found out that it was about one year and a half old. I still felt a little cheated because I thought that it still was an inferior device.
I then went to the GEOMATE jr. website learned more about it and changed my mind.
Here are our CONS:
1. You can't load multiple pocket queries. The process to do this is that you need to create one on the Geocaching.com website. After creating your query, you save it to your desktop. Then, you go to the GEOMATE jr website, plug in the device, and upload the query through the website. This is great, but you are restricted to that one Pocket Query. If you try to load another one, it will erase the existing one and replace it. There must be a way that you can use GSAK to filter things better and load more caches, but I just don't know how and don't know if the GEOMATE jr. website would upload files from GSAK?
2. You can't load navigation points on the fly.
3. No backlight
3. It looks like a toy.
Pros:
1. It's pretty precise
2. It shows size, difficulty, terrain, GC code, compass, 'FOUND' markers, and distance to the cache.
3. You can mark one waypoint (it helps them in getting back to the car)
4. Shows Longitude and Latitude
5. It's pretty durable.
This is how I use it:
We go to Geocaching.com to read about the caches that we are going to get for that day.
We look at Google.maps to give us an idea of what the place looks like and be familiar with the area.
Then, we get into my car and sometimes another teacher comes along to help with the transportation.
I use my Garmin 60CSX to get us to the area where the caches are going to be (about 500- 1000 feet away)
I've preloaded the GEOMATE jr. with the caches of that area that we are going to go. And depending on your PQ, your area can be as small as 300 feet to 50 miles.
Then, I tell the students to turn on the GEOMATE jr. You need to do this when you enter new areas. You need to turn it off to reset the device to find the 20 closest one in that area.
Then they go Geocaching!
I've done this process a number of times and it has worked great. At first I was the one setting and up loading the PQs, but the students have learned now do it all on their own.
I have one GEOMATE jr. and the students are starting to borrow it and Geocache with their own families! I work with inner city children where these kids have almost nothing but a TV, a simple computer, and trouble that surrounds them. But, a lot of the families own cars and it gives their families a chance to get out and see the world on a low budget (the cost of gasoline). I'm actually going to try and buy another GEOMATE jr in another month because a number of the families are quite interested. Yeah, I could tell them to get one on their own..., but if you've never worked with inner city families then you'll really never understand... that most inner city families just won't.
Well, I would like to end this post by just saying that the GEOMATE jr. is a great device to have as an accompaniment with another GPS. It does pack a powerful punch, if you really work it. NO IT'S NOT A GPS. IT's A DEVICE THAT FIND CACHES. If you can just remember that, you'll end up really liking it.
If any of you have any questions on how to work it or anything else, please let me know. I'll do my best to answer them.
FOR THE TEACHERS THAT ARE READING THIS:
1. If you plan on going on the route that I took, you'll be spending about $200.00 of you own money, initially .
2. The GEOMATE jr. will cost about $100 (yes you need the cable)
3. You'll need the Premier Membership. (I have one for myself, but I bought one for our Geogroup so they can work on things at home and log their finds) $30.00. If you are questioning if you should get the membership or not, JUST GET IT! IT'S ONLY $30! STOP TAKING give a little bit to continue the joy!
4. A camera $60.00-80.00 (Get a good one, the better the more important your students will feel)
5. Get parent permission slips
Also, if you are taking students on a field trip, remember to have them bring water, a lunch, and a small bag of swag!
These are the things that you should bring as the teacher: baby wipes (It gets dirty out there), band aides, hand sanitizer, sun screen, and antiseptic spray for those minor cuts when walking in high thorny grass and branches.
If you go with students, they will have the time of their lives, but probaly not as fun as you!!!!
FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE JUST THINKING ABT GETTING A GEOMATE jr.
1. Just remember, IT's NOT A GPS! IT's A DEVICE TO FIND CACHES!
GPSless caching?
in General geocaching topics
Posted
I did my first 25 cache without a GPS. I wanted to try to do my first one hundred without one, but I found a great deal on a Garmin 60csx that I just couldn't pass up. I found that it can be done, but only to certain degrees. For me, I found that the caches has to be urban and be in an obvious place (ie. newpaper boxes. old telphone stands, light poles, virtuals, if the cordinates were actually spot on perfect, etc...), but if you try and find caches that are off the beaten trail and into open fields/ hard terrain places, I had A LOT of trouble doing it and usually was not too sucessful. Although I've read that many have found mountain/ forrest caches without a GPS.
Don't get me wrong, I LOVE using my GPS because of the pocket querries and being able to cache on the go, but.... I found that caching without one made the find that more 'rewarding' and the search was far more intense, but more satisfying, and the actual hunt made me have to just simply BELIVE.
Yes, cahcing without a GPS can be done, but only to a certain degree.