PurpleCatPaws

This information is fantastic! Thank you so much for taking the time to respond!!! If we stay outside of the city, how should we expect parking in the city to go? I'm wondering if we'll end up paying as much for parking as we'll be saving by not staying there!

Hey there! My dad and I are planning a caching trip to Seattle this summer (from CT), and I'm trying to decide where we should stay based on where we'll be going. I'm wondering if we should stay in/near the city and then do day trips from there, or is there a great place to stay outside the city that's also near a lot of great caching? I'm excited to visit HQ and all the other high-point caches in the city, but I also love a good nature walk/hike without such a high muggle risk. I also prefer containers to micros, and I do like the caches that are easier to find! Of course these aren't all requirements but this is what I tend to look for locally. Is there so much to do in Seattle that we won't even get a chance to do any day trips? I've been imagining a week-long trip but maybe we should stay a little longer? After running around for seven days straight I imagine I might be tuckered out! I have a LOT of decisions to make, so any suggestions/guidance would be hugely appreciated!! We've never been to the west coast! Thank you SO much!!! -Purplecatpaws

This week I'll be visiting my inlaws who live in The Villages, just south of Ocala. I've been studying maps and finding trails, running pocket queries and reading descriptions, but there is SO much information and I just don't have a lot of time! I'm hoping someone can recommend a place to spend 2-3 hours geocaching. I prefer easier caches with room for swag, preferably along a scenic path. A couple years ago we did the Carney Island caches, and that was *perfect*. Any suggestions for something similar? Very grateful for any help, Karen

Thanks everyone! Pup Patrol, I followed the link you provided and found this, which I find confusing: I'm confused, because this starts off by saying to create a geocache listing and adding a reviewer note to explain that the cache is not yet in place, but THEN it says to email the local reviewer with the GC code of the cache. Umm...aren't you contacting the reviewer by creating the listing? And is it true that I'd get a GC code after creating the "coordinate check" but then it won't get posted until after I email the local reviewer? I'm paranoid about doing the "coordinate check" and having the cache published before I'm ready...

[Note: I did try to find an existing thread that covers this topic but got frustrated. If you know of one you'd care to point me to, please do!] Can anyone please tell me if there is an easy way of determining a location that's "open" to place a new cache? There are a couple parks where I'd like to place one but others already exist there. I found the mapping tool on the geocaching website that shows the "off limits" areas as overlapping red circles, but I can't figure out how to translate that into knowing where I could place one when I'm actually standing there! I'm using the Geocaching app on my iPhone (with the Perfect Mark app) for starters but plan to double-check my coordinates with a borrowed GPS before actual placement. Is what I'm looking for a function that's available on a GPS? The iPhone app will tell me that I'm ".1" or ."2" miles from a cache, but then it only shows the actual number of feet when I've gotten within 500 feet of it. I'm finding this makes it impossible to know for sure if I'm far enough away from two caches that are on either side of me. I've found other websites that allow me to type in a pair of coordinates to determine the distances between them, but that seems like it's much more laborious than it needs to be. Help! Please, I don't want this thread to become a debate whether the iPhone or the GPS provides better coordinates. I've already read extensively about that! TIA! -Karen

Thanks for pointing me to that, NY! I'd love to find that FB page. Could you please let me know what the title of the page is? There are SO many pages out there; I could spend the whole afternoon reading through all the ones that pop up when I try to search for it!

Thank you all for your balanced and thoughtful responses. (I'm always fearful of starting up a flame war because you just never know how some folks will react to something!) I suppose that being more cautious will just give me less writing to do. That's one way to look at it, right?

As a cache owner, do you think it would be okay to include spoilers on a blog? I've only done it once, after finding my first LPC. I'd never seen one before and felt like a rock star when I realized that the lamp skirt lifted up! (I feel as though that whole entry should make me cringe, but the fact is, that *was* my experience. Now I just chuckle at my rookieness!) Before I wrote about the actual location, I did write a warning that by scrolling down you'd see a spoiler. Do you think that's enough, or might a CO be upset that I posted it at all? I guess posting about an LPC would be no big deal, but what if it's more devious? Or just really interesting? (A bird house or mailbox cache, for example.) I wouldn't identify the cache number or anything. I did email a CO once asking for permission, but I never got a response. In general I've avoided including spoilers, but there are certain ones that I'd love to write more about and share some amazing finds with my non-caching friends. Having said that, I do include my blog address on my signature items (and on here) so I do expect cachers to have access. Having said THAT, the cachers *would* need to go out of their way to read the blog vs. having the info right there on the log page. As you can tell, I tend to err on the side of caution. I obviously want to be respectful, but I wonder if I'm limiting myself needlessly on a blog that get very little traffic. Honestly, I just like look back at it (like a journal) and remember some of the adventures I've enjoyed thanks to this amazing community of players!

I completely agree and have no problem with typing a long log entry. However, I maxed out the 4000 character limit by 20%! Yes, I could continue in a note, but I also add extra pictures in my blog that I wouldn't feel comfortable posting along with the log entry...

Curious what your thoughts on this would be! Would it be considered inappropriate to include a link to my blog entry as part of a "found it" log? Usually my blog includes details that I would consider superfluous, but even more so would be the pictures I might post. I don't want to attach every picture to my log entry because then they'll be associated with that cache (and that wouldn't always make sense). I'm thinking that the CO might be interested in reading the whole unexpurgated version of my experience, but I've never seen it done before. Comments please!

I always sign in purple ink, plus if there's room I use a small paw print rubber stamp (with purple ink of course)!

When you say "checking up on its contents"...do you literally mean just to see what's there or that it would be okay to do another swag swap (not TBs)? Can't think of a reason I'd want to, but I'm curious to know if we can or if folks do that...

Excellent, I never imagined that folks would embellish like that to add to the mystery/excitement of a find! Wow, just when I think I'm getting a handle on things I learn about a whole new aspect of this game. Whew! I sat down to browse the forums for "just a little while" and now it's midnight. Yikes!

I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but in this thread I feel like I can confide! Tonight while reading the forums I learned that lamp post hides are extremely common and even looked down on by some people for that reason. Why am I embarrassed? Because I knew nothing about them, and when I found my first one this week I thought it was the coolest thing ever and even sent a message to the CO with my thanks!

What's a liar cache?

I wondered about that, too, so thanks for the info! MrsB - I've been lurking on the forums for a few hours now just to expand my knowledge of the game, and I've noticed a good number of posts from you; you are always so positive and encouraging!

Thanks so much for trying to help, MrsB, but it doesn't work. I've tried all sorts of little "tweaks" but to no avail. It's maddening that kunarion actually put my signature as part of his own but it doesn't work for me, and he even provided the code for me to copy-paste! At least with the help of the fine folks who responded, I have the signature looking how I wanted it (save the color that is) so I'll try to focus on that!

I didn't realize that the login was separate for both the main site & forums - thanks for the added info. Well, I've messed with it as much as my patience allows. WYSIWYG! I tried all sorts of tweaking to get the horizontal line to show up and to get the whole thing purple and it just doesn't seem to want to play nice. At least I'm much closer to where I wanted to be than when I started. Thank you so much!!

Tenacity, or stupidity? *sigh*

It's going to work THIS TIME, right???

Testing again. I know it doesn't look like it but I really am trying to make changes!

kunarion, thank SO much for your efforts on my behalf! I went to both web sites and am *trying* to figure out how it works. I did a copy/paste of the code you provided, and it doesn't look quite right. This is what I see when I do a preview on my settings page: It looks perfect on YOUR post [so kind of you to do that!], so what on Earth can I be doing wrong? (Yes, I logged out & back in.)

Testing sig again...