Gator Man

When I started geocaching about five years ago, I lived in CT. In the spring/summer there was no such thing as a NON-tick infested area, or a NON-Poison Ivy infested area! Maybe the cache owners could put MULTIPLE Tick symbols and Dangerous Plant symbols if it is a really bad problem???

Let's see, I've done lamp post skirts in busy parking lots, WAL MART hides under surveillance cams, TARGET hides under surveillance cams, public telephone nanos, COKE machines in busy places, "OFF YOUR ROCKER" Cracker Barrel Restaurant front porches, traffic sign posts, front yards, rock fields, nanos in the woods, underwater, Police Stations, Playgrounds, trash piles and Library front entrances and bushes. The only ones that turn me around in the other direction are the ones near homeless camps. A lot of those folks are "A few bricks shy of a load", and they just may be packing heat, and take offense at you going through their stuff. There have been three or four of these that I have just walked away from as fast as possible when I encounter them. GM

Here it is again, lightened AND enlarged! GM

An "ENLIGHTENED" PIC! GM

I have logged a handful more than once, but as previously noted, only if it has been significantly relocated (Basically a new hide) and the owner put a note in the narrative about it being "OK TO RE-LOG DUE TO THE SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE" (Typically a few hundred feet difference) A couple of these were due to me finding a LETTERBOX within a few feet of the original cache. LBX'rs tend to like the same kind of places we cachers do! GM

I picked up a wonderfully excellent hiking staff in the woods of CT about four & 1/2 years ago. I cut it to size, stained it, varnished it, added a wrist loop of leather and a large screw for a tip. Total cost, about $0.45, plus the LOVE that was involved! Go the natural, inventive way if possible!

Here's a link with all the successful real SATS now in orbit. http://science.nasa.gov/RealTime/jtrack/3d/JTrack3D.html

I found an inexpensive source for the short golf-type pencils. Every local LOTTO counter provides hundreds of them, free of charge.

Keep in mind that there are MANY sock-puppet accounts out there. Perhaps cachers are using a ficticious player name to VIEW the cache, then FINDING it under another name???

DON'T make it out of cammo duct tape though! You may never find it again after you put it down to sign the cache log!

Sadly, the vast majority of those near-million accounts at gc.com are merely my sock puppet accounts. sigh! The reality is that gc.com has only about 88 users, but 50% of us own 40,000 or more sock puppet accounts each, one for each of our multiple personalities. Yes, counting my sock puppet accounts, I REALLY own over 500K caches. How's THAT for a FIND/HIDE ratio??? (I know, off-topic)

AMAZING GROWTH!!! I was just punching numbers in to see where the count is, and it seems to be growing by about 30 players a minute!

Got it, thanks!

I think thats only telling you those that have logged into the forums. If you look at the the members from gc.com there are more than 960k accounts (and growing) Ummmmm, how do I do that? Your link just sent me to a player profile.

OK, thanks, that settles that. I had seen a reference to the 199,000+ number somewhere, and assumed that was a Geocaching Member number.

How did you do that? See prior post.

MOPAR, I clicked on MEMBERS in the upper right hand screen area, then scrolled down and sorted ALL MEMBERS by JOINED DATE in ASCENDING ORDER with 10 results per page. It lists all 199K members, whether they have ever posted to the forums or not. GM

Here is a question for TPTB. Is the member "Joined Date" field editable by players? A few months ago, I sorted ALL MEMBERS by JOINED DATE, and found myself on Page 750, or somewhere around member number 7,500, joined March 29, 2002. Today, just for giggles, I did it again, and found myself on page 825, or somewhere around member number 8,250, still joined 29 March, 2002. Not that it matters, but where did all the players come from that now apparently have Joined Dates earlier than mine?

I bring most of the above, depanding on the kind of caching day planned, plus an ace bandage, which came in handy about two weeks ago when a 10-year-old managed to roll an ankle. GM

TOPOs in Palm Beach County, FL are practally useless, as are the Aerial Photos! TOPOs seem to be from the '60's. Things are being developed so fast, that even aerial photos taken one year ago are outdated. You just have to know your way around on a constant basis. GM

I had a Mystery Cache once, in a pedestrian tunnel under a beach road. The tunnel was about 100 ft long, 7 ft high and 6 ft wide. It opened onto the beach on the Atlantic Ocean. Any storm water through that tunnel would have ankle deep at most, but it could have been a real problem at the wrong time in a storm drain! I'd suggest DON'T DO IT! Now, on the other hand, a cache hanging by say, fishing line on a GRATE above a storm sewer, is well, GREAT! Ummm, until it is washed away... GM

I have a TB Hotel very near a FIRE STATION in Jupiter, FL, TB SAFE PLACE, (http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=7cb46fed-62d7-4f08-9109-6583510dd341) One of the firefighters who was located there, FFBOBBY, got permission from his Supervisor. I wanted it to be inside the station, but FFBOBBY thought that was a bad idea, so it is very close instead, and the location is known to the firefighters in that station. The firefighters are very helpful, and have been known to show the cache to cachers if asked! If we could work out a deal like this with the Firemen, surely you could work out something with the Police? What could be better than a cache watched over by Firefighters? Maybe a cache watched over by the Police! GM

Yep, you need two @ $165 per copy, then figure out how to make the dog's radio transmit every 10 seconds. (FCC restriction) Oh, and it can't get REAL lost, it has to get lost within a five mile radius!

Well, when two people are using Garmin RINO's radio feature, each is shown the other's LAT/LON when they transmit, so it can be done, and for less than $700.00!

I have some virtuals in CT, and one has gotten some "Couch Potato" logs recently. The cachers who logged it live in Quebec. Having lived through three New England winters, I know there are some days when you just don't want to go outside. Since it is Winter where they are, I imagine they have CABIN FEVER, and just want to do SOMETHING related to Geocaching. (One of the three had the wrong answers, so his log was deleted.) GM