spicy_victory

Not to add fuel to the fire, but finding a well hidden/thought out/creative in some way micro is preferable to finding an ammo box full of religous tracts, old golfballs and broken happy meal toys. For us its about the journey and the find, not so much about the swag. We have found 113 caches so far... small time to many of you, and, except for one FTF prize, the cache contents suck. As long as we can sign a log, what difference does it make? We had fun getting there, we had fun finding it and we even had fun staching it back again. We have made more memories looking for that tough to find micro then we have pulling out trash from tupperwear hidden under an old tire. To each their own I guess... but any cache, reguardless of size if it is well thought out, is fun... Even if the area could support a larger container, I would much rather use skill and brain power to find that cleaverly hidden bison, than to just walk up and grab a junked out, peanut butter jar. Again, this is just my two cents.

I've only gotten through the first page and half of this thread so I hope that I am not repeting too many people, but I hope that micros get to stick around. We enjoy a good hide and even the lamppost micro in the wal-mart parking lot has its place. We are not in it for the numbers either... We use geocaching to get off the couch (do we really need to see that episode of stargate sg-1 again??) and go make some memories. The car ride provides us with catch up time and after the find we always celebrate with a kiss... If a film canister in a Burger King bush can do that for someone else, that is wonderful!! For a game to truly be played "your way" how can we, as a community, impose more rules?? Some people enjoy going for the numbers on both hides and finds... Some people only want to hit caches that require stealth while others like the solitued of a nature hike... Who are we to say who is right or wrong?? If someone doesn't like going for the "lame urban micro" that is their option. Do a little homework before heading out for your caching adventure and mark the lamppost pill bottles off of your list. As far as a rating system goes... It might be fine in heavily cache populated areas where caches are found on a regular basis, but where we live there are less than 50 caches in a 50 mile radius. We need to encourage all the placers we have, not tear them down with less than stellar marks from someone who dislikes a particular type of placement or doesn't agree with a certian kind of container. Sure, we find argument with an umcammoed RX bottle at the base of the tree in a park with kids around. Not because we find it lame, but because of the way it looks to others that see less than stealthy cachers pulling RX bottles out of random holes, digging through them and taking things out. All it takes is one report to the police and caching gets a bad reputation, therefore hurting the good cachers in and around the area. But its not up to us to judge. Hopefully in time those types of caches will take care of themselves. They will be muggled, they will need maintance and they will go the way of other not so cleaver hides... but for some, they were fun while they lasted. What is one mans junk is another mans treasure. just my 2 cents...

I have to admit that I am one of those people who would like to be able to go out and find a few simple medicine bottles once in a while. I do like the feel of finding a difficult cache, but I also get a little frustrated when I go out and try to find a bunch of caches on a given day, and find that a number of them are just not findable... or I can't find them. I have seen some nice twists on the simple medicine bottle/film can, etc. I went out and placed a bunch of caches (I'm up to 15) after the first 200 or so I found. Every one has been a micro - I don't really know of placed to put large ammo boxes right now, but I am looking. Our area is saturated with caches. But that is great - I don't think I would want to start this hobby off in an area where there just isn't anything to be found, or I have to drive 10-15 miles from cache to cache. I started - or tried to start, in 2002 - searched for one cache, never found it. Went back a month or so ago and made it my #275 find... I didn't try again after the first attempt for a year, and then not again until a few months back... so if there just isn't stuff around to find, or it is too difficult, people may become discouraged. I support a cache rating system - I think that would be great. I can think of some I spent an hour hunting for, and some I spent 2 minutes hunting for, and I liked both. I look at it this way - no cache is bad if it is there... someone put it out, and I'm willing to hunt for it. If you don't like easy ones, avoid anything below X stars in difficulty. If you LIKE mucking around in the woods (which I sometimes do, sometimes don't), avoid anything below X stars in terrain. Just my humble opinion... Its not that we have anything against micros or even easy finds. We actually like most of them... but its the newbies (I say newbies, its one in particular) in this area that are hiding brown, see through RX bottles at the bases of trees in busy parks that irk so much. There is so little thought put into it and instead of taking the extra 15 min to do something properly, they just slap a post-it-note pad in a medicine bottle and stash it. The cache WILL get muggled by kids, thrown out by the parks department or even worse reported to the police because it looks somewhat dangerous. If they want to use that spot for a cache - nano, micro, puzzle, mystry, multi or otherwise, please put some thought into it!! I don't so much agree with a rating system... People who try hide caches should be encouraged... too little place as it is, I almost just wish they had a waiting period of say 20 finds under your belt before allowed hides. Give you the opportunity to see several different ways of doing it and gety your own ideas. With so many new people to the sport its only a matter of time before some really excellent hiders start doing their thing, its just a shame that good areas are being taken up with caches that you know will not stand the span of more than a few weeks, months if they are lucky... Just my opinion.

We completely understand. We live in a cache sparse area with only 46 caches in a 50 mile radius... The area has some very seasoned hiders and finders and it would be great if they would put out more... (our stats - we have 111 finds, 6 posted hides and 2 wating to be approved). We recently have a hoard of newbies out here... which is wonderful, but there are a few who, after finding 5 caches decided to go on a hiding spree. They are placing uncamoed medicine bottles EVERYWHERE... it is to a point where my other half and I don't even need a gps to grab them... They have become JAC while taking up areas where good caches could be hidden with a little thought and planning. I'm not really complaining, just a bit frusterated. Its to the point where, when we see his name we don't even rush out to go and find it... We know our area needs caches and its good to have someone else partcipating, but it would be nice if they would put a bit of thought into it instead of placing medicine bottles in ever hole around. We just have to keep reminding ourselves that they are playing the game their way... but GRRRRRR... i wish their way was a bit more interesting!!

I haven't read through this entire post so please excuese if this is out of line but I just lost my best friend (of the 4 legged variety) to a tick transmitted disease called ehrlichia. It doesn't get the news that lyme disease does and most people (at least in my neck of the woods) have never even heard of it or know the symptoms. Ehrlichia is especially common in the South and South West parts of the country. It is preventable, easily tested for and easy to cure if caught in the begining stages. PLEASE have your pets tested for this awful illness and ask your vet what you can do to prevent it! Now back to your regularly scheduled programing...

The west texas landscape...

Victory works as a Security Consultant for High Risk Companies/Jails/Schools etc... Spicy is a full time college student (going to be a teacher) and works for a dentist's office 30+ hrs a week. We are both so busy, we can only cache on the weekends... when we aren't too tired...

Spicy_Victory is both of our names put together... (we are a team you see...) Ginger means spicy while Cole means Victory... At the time we thought it was great... still do really, its just a toughie for coming up with anything sig item worthy...

To quote one my oldest and dearest friends... You are never lost as long as you have gas in the tank! Things we have learned while geocaching... With perservance, you can over come any obsticle. (I swear... there always seems to be some body of water standing between us and our cache!!) Spend time with those you love... its the memories that bond you together. (Cole and I are already using terms such as "Remember that bridge...) Nothing warms the heart quite like a happy puppy! (when your pups run up to you with that big ol grin after chasing an armadillo, you'll know what I mean...)

That avatar is soo cute! I just added it! Thank you so much! You really are a talented bunch!

oooh oooh Zsandmann... that sounds promising! Such creativity... I'm jealous.

Ok... I've neen brainstorming and STILL can't come up with anything for spicy_victory. We don't have photoshop or any other snazzy program for creating an avatar so I am really at a loss. Any help is appreciated... Here is some backgroud... we started cachng last november, drive a jeep liberty, use a garmen etrex legend c, have 2 puppies ( a black mutt and a rat terrier)... we picked the name spicy_victory because of our names. Ginger means spicy and Cole means victory... sounded clever at the time, but now that we want an image to go with the name... well, we are at a stand still! He likes boy things (outdoorsy stuff/comics/rpg/fencing)... and I lean toward the vintage/retro/pop art type stuff... Can anyone come up with anything?? TIA

We use Victory's 2005 4X4 Jeep Liberty Renegade. You can see a pic of it in our gallery! Roomy, comfy, dependable and we have yet to get stuck! Can't ask for more than that in a caching car!

Spicy is 26 and Victory is 25... We're still youngins... course, I'm sure I'll be saying that when we are in our 80's!

oh oh! Us too... I don't have a creative bone in my body and Victory works such long hours he doesn't have time to help much with any kind of avatar, which is why we are using that teeny pic... Can anyone help with something for Spicy_Victory ??? It would really be appreciated! TIA

wow, I did not know that PQs were so powerful. Thanks for all the help, I will play with them this weekend. You see I just got the new garmin. I upgraded from a magellan 315 and I just wanted to get the most out of the new toy. now if I could only find a Finland geocoin

I was wanting to download all the waypoints in my area to my Garmin etrex legend C. I tried just using the check boxes but this left me with the less informative LOC file. I am using the GSAK and love it, I just want to take full advantage of what the program has to offer. Does anyone know a way to download the info rich GPX file on a mass scale? thanks again Cole Victory of Spicy_Victory

Hi! Feel free to use any of our gallery pics for your presentation... anything to help w/ some understanding of the sport! Theres no kiddos in the shots, just a happy couple who uses geocaching to get away from it all and see things we otherwise would have looked over! Just let me know if you use any of them ( I think it would be pretty cool...). Good luck w/ everything! Ginger

We have: 2 Dogs (a boston/pug mix and a rat terrier) 1 Cat (Morris looking creature) So far, we haven't taken the pups (or cat for that matter) caching, but I hope to in the near future (the pups, not the cat). I know they would really enjoy it! Good Luck with your project!