DGDK

I found around 20 virtuals this weekend, and am now logging them. When I tried to message the answer to the last person, I got an error message that said "You're doing that too fast. Please try again in 20 minutes." Seriously? You have limitations on how fast/many messages that you can send? What's the limitation? I've only logged about 7 of them so far, so it must be a small one. Great user experience here. I wanted to be done in 20 minutes, but based on this 20 minute rule, this may take me well over an hour. Signal called, he said "make it better".

I've cached in every state, and did most of them on road trips like you're proposing. Trips I took were: 1) 5 days: Started in Clarksville IN, then cached in Louisville, KY, Big Stone Gap, VA, Asheville, NC, Greenville, SC, Atlanta, GA, Pensacola, FL, Mobile, AL, Gulfport, MS, Slidell, LA, Memphis, TN, West Memphis, AR, Sikeston, MO, and IL for a total of 14 states in 5 days. There were two of us sharing the driving. 2) 5 days: Did Kansas City MO, Kansas City, KS, Tulsa, OK, Paris, TX, Vivian, LA, Little Rock, AR, Memphis, TN, Lynchburg, MS for 8 states. 3) Did NY, VT, NH, ME, MA, RI, CT. NJ. DE. MD. DC in 4 days. 4) I also did a two week trip flying into Vegas and geocached: Las Vegas, NV, Baker, CA; St. George, UT; Quartzsite, AZ; Albuquerque, NM; Colorafdo Springs, CO; Cheyenne, WY; Billings, MT; Spokane, WA; Umatilla, OR; Boise, ID; and ending back in Vegas. That's 11 states. Could have done it in less than 2 weeks, but we also did alot of touristy stuff and visited friends along the way. Tips for your trip: Get as close to borders as you can. Small border towns have caches too! When running PQs, look for things found in last 7 days, and do caches along a route. Take the sun under consideration. You've only got limited daylight this time of year, so unless you don't mind night caching, do your caching during the day, and drive during night hours. Plan your route carefully, and follow it. I always make a list of the caches I want to hit and in what order, so I don't waste time wondering which one to do next. Have fun!

I've cached the entire country. Did the following road trips: A central US trip: (IA, NE, MO, KS, OK, AR, TX, LA, MS, KY, TN) - over 5 days A north-central trip ( MN, ND, SD) - over a weekend A north-east trip (IN, MI, OH, WV, PA, NY, VT, NH, ME, MA, RI, CT, NJ, MD, DE, DC) - over 7 days A south-east trip - (IN, KY, VA, NC, SC, GA, FL, AL, MS, TN, AR, MO, IL) - over 5 days A western trip - (NV, CA, AZ, NM, CO, UT, WY, MT, ID, WA, OR) - over two weeks (lots of touristy stuff thrown in) Also did HI and AK on separate trips. My favorite places: anywhere west of the plains (you can't beat the views of the mountains or the desert), HI (can't beat the weather), AK (can't beat 20 hours of sun in summer). There's nothing better than a good road trip!

I'd say that 90% of the caches I've done I've done alone. If you're in WI, join the WI-Geocaching site (it's free). There's a link there in the forums for people wanting to find other people to cache with.

When I'm in any public or state park, I know that I have just as much right to be there as anyone else in the park. Yes, the hunter paid his hunting fee to be in the park, but I paid my fee to get into that state park too. I do avoid the woods during the nine-day gun hunt, but the rest of the year, especially the fall, I love hunting caches in the woods. On a side note, I'm surprised how many gun hunters I see in areas during non-hunting season. The last one I ran into said he was just looking for a place to set up a duck blind. Did he really need full camo and his gun for that? It was, afterall, a good two months before the season started...

The only film canister that I've ever come across that has held up well was one yesterday that I found...It was inside of a smal tupperware container!

It doesn't matter what I wear, I always attract the burrs. I once picked up a few just walking through a completely paved parking lot.

I rarely trade. Occasionally, I will pick up a TB that needs to be moved along, but other than that, I'm in it for the hunt.

Also remember to look up! I can't tell you how many times I've spent a good half hour searching a tree when tilting my head a few degrees would have found the thing right away. When in the woods or other areas, look for unnatural piles of wood or rocks. If you really want it to be easier, if you have snow in your area, wait for it to fall, and then do caches that someone had recently found.

I agree with not killing the wasps, and would wait until winter to collect the smiley. I'm allergic to the little buggers, so I would just pass this blinkie by and let them bee!

When I go out with my BCB (Best Caching Buddy), I'm usually the one who figures out the puzzles beforehand, and as long as he's with me for the find, he signs the log with no problem. As far as up the tree, the one up the tree (or in the river, or on the cliff, etc) will usually toss the log for the other to sign. Is it cheating? Don't care. It decreases the probability that one of us will get injured.

My version of scoring is: Number of finds - (number of ticks removed + number of mosquito bites) Any number greater than zero is a successful day. Zero or less, I try again tomorrow. For some strange reason, my scores are much higher in the winter...

I submitted a PQ about 5:30am CST this morning, and it hasn't run yet (as of 10:30 am CST). Is there still a problem with the PQ server or whatever?