Team StitchesOnQuilts

My guess is that the person is strongly motivated to try to do something "nice" for the bug by helping it travel a long way. I get the impression, based on my experiences with my bugs, that moving the bug a long way is considered a really nice thing to do. Personally, I'd just as soon have my bugs take lots of little hops, but move every few days. I have two that are stalled. I guess the best that can be hoped for is that some other cacher will go rescue the bug, and log a complaint about where it was left. If neither the bug owner nor the cache owner are the ones to complain, I'm guessing the person who left it out in the open will take it better. I wonder, sometimes, if people would be happy about having *their* bugs treated the way they treat others' bugs? Shannah

Shannah and family

The only other detail I'd suggest is that while I think that free use of a GPS is a good idea, you might want to charge a deposit so that the GPS comes back. Or do as they do at Planet Granite (indoor rock climbing) and ask for a Driver's License as the deposit. Otherwise, my guess is that people will forget to return the GPSes from time to time, and you'll be out that money. Shannah

I agree with Wendy about never knowing who is going to read your writing. I have been in many situations where someone has claimed to be happy to meet me, having read my posts/articles in cyberspace. In terms of cache pages and/or posts to the forums here, my main concern is accuracy. If the forum posts are inaccurate (lots of spelling and grammar errors) that causes me to seriously double-check any cache page by that person. Significant inaccuracies of language/spelling on the cache page might well cause me to just not hunt the cache. Why? Because if the person is that inaccurate in their use of the language, how accurate are their coordinates or description? Maybe completely, but with two little cachers accompanying me, I can't take the chance. Shannah

I checked the link. I agree that one major stumbling block for me would be to have something to trade. I don't really know what a retro record is: is it a 45? I got rid of all of my old vinyl that I didn't want - what I have left is stuff that you can't get anymore. (Like "I Eat Cannibals" by Bow Wow Wow.) I also would be concerned about the effect the heat would have on the vinyl. Updating the cache description to state that it's located in a cool dry place (if it is) would be helpful. Otherwise, it looks pretty good, in terms of distance from the road and the area it's in. If I lived nearby and could figure out what to trade, I'd go for it. Shannah

I agree that it's fine. I have left things like Wet Ones in caches, and they have the company name on as well. People leave things like yoyos with logos. We got a hackey sack with the company logo. A nice first aid kit, like you're describing, is desirable, and I think it's a great trade item. I'd hate to see logo items banned, as some of the nicest things we've gotten from caches have been logo items. Shannah

Well, my older son doesn't exactly Geocache by himself, but we do let him be the first to find the cache sometimes. He has his own account and his own finds. So, if he found a cigar in a cache, we'd be there within a few seconds to keep him from taking it, but he would still have found it. Not to mention the odor it would leave in the cache. With apologies to tobacco afficionados, I have to say that it would be really hard for me to even force myself to sign the logbook with the smell of tobacco permeating the cache. For those who want to enjoy tobacco, why not just host an event and trade cigars there? Just warn us asthmatics in advance, please.... Shannah

Yes, I'm very impressed that Kevin & Susan were able to rescue him. My husband, as Marky mentioned, did try to rescue him, too. The trip was very long, and he still has blisters on his blisters. We were fortunate in that the Chantry Flats portion of the trail was open. Ray was able to hike downhill the whole way. The kids and I picked him up near the turnaround at the end of Santa Anita (Road? Avenue?). He started at the Mount Wilson Observatory. Ray likes a challenge, and said that even though he didn't find the bug, he was glad he made the hike. On a side note, if anyone in the greater Pasadena area wants to hide some easy caches, that would be great. We didn't cache the rest of the weekend, because Ray was too sore to do much more than 1/1 caches..... Shannah

Yes, I'm very impressed that Kevin & Susan were able to rescue him. My husband, as Marky mentioned, did try to rescue him, too. The trip was very long, and he still has blisters on his blisters. We were fortunate in that the Chantry Flats portion of the trail was open. Ray was able to hike downhill the whole way. The kids and I picked him up near the turnaround at the end of Santa Anita (Road? Avenue?). He started at the Mount Wilson Observatory. Ray likes a challenge, and said that even though he didn't find the bug, he was glad he made the hike. On a side note, if anyone in the greater Pasadena area wants to hide some easy caches, that would be great. We didn't cache the rest of the weekend, because Ray was too sore to do much more than 1/1 caches..... Shannah

I agree with Leatherman - I'd be in favor of it if I could turn it off and on at will. I like talking to people, and am happy when I get email (well, okay, usually - lol) from other Geocachers. Being able to talk "in real time" would be really nice. But there are times when I'm doing work that pushes my Windoze system to its limits, and the last thing I need is an IM window popping up and pushing it over the edge into the "Blue Screen of Death". What would be really cool is if we could have a chat room that was available 24/7. Then, we could drop in and talk with several cachers at once. This happens on some of the groups I'm on at Yahoo - people will drop into the chat room spontaneously and chat. Shannah

quote:Originally posted by BigDoggie: Society has chosen a group of people whose job it is to detect and respond to "illegal activity". Most of us are not members of that group. So, if I see an illegally placed cache, you want me to call that group of people? (I assume you mean the police department.) Doesn't that seem a little harsh? I can't imagine getting the police involved in a matter of a cache that was simply placed in the wrong place. Seems like it would be a lot nicer to just contact the cache owner first. Personally, if I got a polite email stating that my cache was illegally placed, I'd be grateful to the person for letting me know. I might ask a question about how they figured out it was illegally placed, so I could have more information on how to figure out a new place for it. I'd be really unhappy, though, to have the police show up at my home or cache and "settle the matter". Shannah

quote:Originally posted by BigDoggie: Society has chosen a group of people whose job it is to detect and respond to "illegal activity". Most of us are not members of that group. So, if I see an illegally placed cache, you want me to call that group of people? (I assume you mean the police department.) Doesn't that seem a little harsh? I can't imagine getting the police involved in a matter of a cache that was simply placed in the wrong place. Seems like it would be a lot nicer to just contact the cache owner first. Personally, if I got a polite email stating that my cache was illegally placed, I'd be grateful to the person for letting me know. I might ask a question about how they figured out it was illegally placed, so I could have more information on how to figure out a new place for it. I'd be really unhappy, though, to have the police show up at my home or cache and "settle the matter". Shannah

For what it's worth, the RFCs specify that any domain must have a working postmaster address. In practice, they don't always, but it's worth a shot. So, if, say, the Toronto police site was toronto.police.ca, try postmaster@toronto.police.ca. In terms of the clueless person on the 911 line, you could try asking them to put it in the comments field. Seems like every emergency-type show I watch has a comments field for stuff like the description of the situation.... One thing I can say for sure is that if people keep asking for it, eventually it'll get implemented. Do you have a local representative (here in California, it would be a Senator) that you can contact? Shannah

I know of a lovely house, built in 1917, with lots of original Craftsman details, including push button light switches and original chandeliers. The house has a butler's pantry, cold pantry (for refrigeration before they had refrigerators) and lots of the original built-ins. This house has been used to host many quilting bees, and I have photos of the quilts that were made and/or quilted there. Would "places quilts have been made" qualify as a virtual cache? If so, everyone to my house to log your find! (not really) My point is this: I don't think that mountain bike tracks are unusual enough to warrant a virtual cache. Just as I don't think "cool places quilting bees have been held" is unusual enough to warrant a virtual cache. I realize you are very interested in mountain bike tracks. Great! Do as I did, and create yourself a photo album. I have lots of great photos of the people (men and women both, actually) who have come here to quilt, and their quilts, and each time I open the album, it makes me happy. I'm not telling you you shouldn't keep the photos for your own satisfaction. Go for it! I just don't think it is unique enough to warrant having a virtual cache. Shannah who is done arguing about this

I know of a lovely house, built in 1917, with lots of original Craftsman details, including push button light switches and original chandeliers. The house has a butler's pantry, cold pantry (for refrigeration before they had refrigerators) and lots of the original built-ins. This house has been used to host many quilting bees, and I have photos of the quilts that were made and/or quilted there. Would "places quilts have been made" qualify as a virtual cache? If so, everyone to my house to log your find! (not really) My point is this: I don't think that mountain bike tracks are unusual enough to warrant a virtual cache. Just as I don't think "cool places quilting bees have been held" is unusual enough to warrant a virtual cache. I realize you are very interested in mountain bike tracks. Great! Do as I did, and create yourself a photo album. I have lots of great photos of the people (men and women both, actually) who have come here to quilt, and their quilts, and each time I open the album, it makes me happy. I'm not telling you you shouldn't keep the photos for your own satisfaction. Go for it! I just don't think it is unique enough to warrant having a virtual cache. Shannah who is done arguing about this

I appreciate it when I see a log that says that the person has removed something inappropriate from a cache. We do watch our kids, and open the caches ourselves. I think that advice is good. However, there are times when one's distracted for some reason (like a mosquito is trying to land) and a child can get something they aren't supposed to have. Having other cachers remove inappropriate things is a big help. I have to say I wonder what was going through the head of the person who left the pills in the cache. Shannah

Well, I voted in favor of the paintball cache, and would not vote in favor of the mountain bike cache, and here are my reasons. The primary reason is this: how common is the activity? If I buy a mountain bike, can I use it on my street? Can I use it in a county park? Can I use it in the parking lot at my husband's work? What about if I buy paintball gear? I can use a mountain bike all over, in many places where paintball would not only be inappropriate, but prohibited. I could ride a mountain bike to a paintball field, for example. It has nothing to do with which activity I prefer, because I would vastly prefer to ride a mountain bike to playing in a paintball game. It's just this: how common is it? I feel the same way about quilting. While individual quilts are, to me, interesting, I would not expect to have the organizers approve a virtual cache of, say, "Pictures of Churn Dash quilts." There are just too many of them - I don't think that anyone would find it interesting enough to justify a virtual cache. Shannah

Well, I voted in favor of the paintball cache, and would not vote in favor of the mountain bike cache, and here are my reasons. The primary reason is this: how common is the activity? If I buy a mountain bike, can I use it on my street? Can I use it in a county park? Can I use it in the parking lot at my husband's work? What about if I buy paintball gear? I can use a mountain bike all over, in many places where paintball would not only be inappropriate, but prohibited. I could ride a mountain bike to a paintball field, for example. It has nothing to do with which activity I prefer, because I would vastly prefer to ride a mountain bike to playing in a paintball game. It's just this: how common is it? I feel the same way about quilting. While individual quilts are, to me, interesting, I would not expect to have the organizers approve a virtual cache of, say, "Pictures of Churn Dash quilts." There are just too many of them - I don't think that anyone would find it interesting enough to justify a virtual cache. Shannah

My suggestion is to do some research into the various features and price ranges, and figure out which GPS you want. Then go to whereever you can get the best price. We did that. We bought a Magellan SporTrak Pro, and we bought it from the partner on the home page of www.geocaching.com: offroute. Offroute had the lowest price, and we felt good about helping to support the site. Their shipping and customer service was superb. It's really hard, though, until you have decided on a GPS, to find the best place to buy it. Even watching the auctions can be hard until you know what you're looking for in a GPS. Not only that, but my experience was that a lot of sellers either set a starting price or a reserve that was very close to the retail price. That's no bargain, paying basically retail to some random schmoe. Shannah

My suggestion is to do some research into the various features and price ranges, and figure out which GPS you want. Then go to whereever you can get the best price. We did that. We bought a Magellan SporTrak Pro, and we bought it from the partner on the home page of www.geocaching.com: offroute. Offroute had the lowest price, and we felt good about helping to support the site. Their shipping and customer service was superb. It's really hard, though, until you have decided on a GPS, to find the best place to buy it. Even watching the auctions can be hard until you know what you're looking for in a GPS. Not only that, but my experience was that a lot of sellers either set a starting price or a reserve that was very close to the retail price. That's no bargain, paying basically retail to some random schmoe. Shannah

It's a real judgement call. "Your Mileage May Vary" and all that. My own opinion is that if you leave a theme item and a signature item, that is really nice. Shannah

It's a real judgement call. "Your Mileage May Vary" and all that. My own opinion is that if you leave a theme item and a signature item, that is really nice. Shannah

I remember where I was when I heard that Kennedy had been assassinated. I also remember attending the 1962 World's Fair in Seattle. I'm another one who remembers when MTV played music all day. I also remember when it was a big deal for a company to have an IBM 360 computer. The bank I worked at did, and we had to have special clearance to get into the computer room. Shannah (old, but not yet a fogey)

Um, a "multi-stage cache out in the woods" does not really describe where it is. "Multi-stage cache" does. Morgan Hill is, during this season, mostly golden-brown grass and scrub oaks. There's very little "woods" there. (Although it is a really nice town!) Both of the people who have handled your bug since it was in the LAX hotel are responsible cachers. I can't speak for dmg, but I wouldn't be surprised if the intent behind bringing it north was to get it someplace more accessible than the LAX cache, which seems to be tricky to get to. "T in the Road", which is where dmg put it, is only about 15 minutes, if that, from San Jose International Airport. Also, "T in the Road" is a cache that is unlikely to be plundered, and yet accessible to the vast majority of cachers. We were there with our two young sons, ages 5 and 7, and they made it with no problem. (T in the Road is out on a levee in a beautiful wildlife preserve in San Francisco Bay, accessible by foot.) If it doesn't get picked up from Morgan Hill soon, please feel free to email me and I will go pick it up. If I pick it up, you have some choices. I can move it a little east, I can mail it to Cambridge England to be picked up by a cacher, or I can mail it back to you. You might want to ponder how you want to proceed. I realize it's frustrating when a bug doesn't go where you expect, but in reality, you have been pretty lucky about which cachers have been handling your bug. Shannah BTW: Tour of Morgan Hill is a 2/1. T in the Road is a 2/1.5

Maybe going to the Vasona Park Picnic on Saturday was good luck? Well, okay, maybe not, but it's my theory and I'm sticking to it. Shannah