brewmeister

I must admit I didn't know the site was down. Then again I spent from 23 June to 3 July on the road and had caches already loaded from the drive. It was a drive believe me. From San Antonio TX to Colorado Springs CO to deliver my daughter to the capable hands of senior cadets at the US Air Force Academy. Then on to Coeur d'Alene ID to visit my Grandmother. Two days later back to San Antonio. Got in Friday evening, did nothing on the 4th but try to convince myself I was not still driving.

Email sent. Your story reminds me a bit of my wife. different I'm sure, yet also I feel there are some similarities.

I would have to say my most memorable summer was the summer of 2002. I was active duty US Army and had received orders to go to Belgium. We made plans to drive across the US (from Jacksonville Florida to Los Angeles California) taking the scenic route and tent camping the entire way. The trip started in Augusta Georgia on 4 July. We went to Jacksonville to visit friends. We then traveled to the Oke Fenokee Swamp (probably spelled wrong) back through Stone Mountain Georgia, up to the Cherokee Nation in North Carolina/Tennessee, across Tennessee through Oklahoma, into New Mexico where we saw Dinosaur tracks, onward to Colorado Springs Colorado where we spend five fantastic days visiting most of the main sights in the area. From there we stopped at a small town in the middle of the Rockie Mountains for an overnight in a beautiful campground. Onwards to Arches National Park in Utah for a few days of enjoying Mother Nature in one of her more artistic moods. Final leg of the journey was into Riverside California where my parents live. Here we rested up for the trip across the ocean to SHAPE Belgium. Now why this was so memorable for me...Well six months after arriving in Belgium my youngest daughter was killed in a car accident, my (now ex) wife suffered a traumatic brain injury and made the choice four years later to leave me and our other two girls. Looking back on the trip, it was a magical time where the entire family was together in everything nothing went wrong on the journey and there were no pressures. Who knew that in less then a year our lives would be so irrevocably changed. The above is my memorable summer, one I will cherish for the rest of my days above all other summers. Thanks for the cointest

Birthday mission email sent: 20 June 2009 Birthday mission name received: Birthday mission sent: Birthday mission received:

I received a visit from Sabrina today. I haven't figured out the picture thing yet, but I did receive a Help for Heroes coin, a 2007 Dutch Microcoin, the Suncatcher compass coin, a set of non-trackable coins, a pair of genuine porcelain Holland clogs (for the goblins that hitchhiked with Sabrina perhaps). Absolutely beautiful coins. I do thank you Li-Z as I have none of these coins that you sent me. Sabrina will take a short break from her travels. I am in the middle of taking my daughter to the US Air Force Academy (reporting on 25 June) and after that I am moving from Texas to Idaho. So Sabrina will travel, visit some caches, and fly away again hopefully in early to mid-July.

I have an coin related to the war in Afghanistan - its mission is to go to that country (return would be nice) I have a TB out with a mission to go to all the military installations (or as near as one can get) that I was stationed at during my career.

I'm in and my name is on the list as well.

Does the kid have to be a member of GC?? Is there an age limit?? my 15 year old, doesn't have a membership, yet goes with me to practically all the caches. I know she would love to get a coin (she won one in a cointest through me) buy a coin to send, as well as the other bits. thanks

Hi All, Not sure if this is the right place to post, but here goes. My daughter (Biological Blond) got her own account (the free one) maybe two months ago. We continue to cache together and today when she went to log her finds she was only able to log one. The rest are premium member caches. Now I know she can get a premium membership, yet here is the situation. She reports to the US Air Force Academy on 25 June and will not be geocaching until possibly next summer. Is it possible to be granted a premium membership for the next say 40 days? If not are refunds given when a premium membership is canceled? I have no problems paying for her premium membership, I just don't want it to be used from now until 25 June then be wasted as she will not be able to go hunting for caches. Thanks

Here's another one if you like (or have never had and wish to broaden your taste buds) Ingredients: * 1-1/2 pounds boneless venison steak, cubed * 1 medium onion, sliced * 1 can (10-1/2 ounces) vegetable broth * 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce * 1 tablespoon ketchup * 1 teaspoon curry powder * 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger * 1/2 teaspoon salt * 1/4 teaspoon pepper * 4-1/2 teaspoons cornstarch * 1/2 cup sour cream * 2 tablespoons prepared horseradish * Hot cooked noodles Directions: Place venison and onion in a 3-qt. slow cooker. Combine the next seven ingredients; pour over venison. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours. In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch, sour cream and horseradish; mix well. Gradually stir into venison mixture. Cover and cook 15 minutes longer or until sauce is thickened. Serve over noodles. Yield: 4 servings. You can leave the onions out if you desire, or slice them thickly so they can be discarded after they have been cooked

Since you have a crock pot here is a simple recipe that tastes pretty good (providing you all like turkey) two turkey drumsticks barbeque sauce (your choice) water place drumsticks in crock pot cover w/barbeque sauce add about 1/3 cup water Cook on low for 6-8 hours The bone comes right out with no meat attached. serve with rice or noodles or use as sandwich filling. Enjoy

1. Participating - e-mail sent 20090228 2. Received Name - 1 March 2009 3. Mission Complete - 22 March 2009 4. Mission Arrived! - 24 March 2009 Okay, The Easter Bunny visited. First off I get splatted with a snowball, in San Antonio, a snowball!! Then after wading through the tall grasses and hunting for camouflaged eggs. During this hunt I was able to free a standard plastic Army rifleman, a Marine pathtag, a new unit patch (the ammobox - never heard of this outfit), a Geocache force Army coin, and having diffused the land mine (or was it an IED, can't remember) I found an Iraqi Freedom coin. Here I thought I was retired 8{) and didn't have to put myself through this stuff anymore. Once a Soldier, always a Soldier.... There was lots of chocolate as well (and my girls enjoyed it) Thanks the brewmeister

1. Participating - e-mail sent 20090228 2. Received Name - 1 March 2009 3. Mission Complete - 22 March 2009 4. Mission Arrived!

Thanks for the comments. This was not meant to be a rant on the grade I got. If it turned out that way, sorry. It is a college level paper. I got the grade I got, and one class closer to the degree. I suppose there is a bit of a rant, as it was supposed to have been done in APA style, and I just don't get along with that style at all. Perhaps if it was a scientific or other type of research paper, I might have done better, but............ Done whining now. I hope all readers enjoy my efforts.

Thanks Mods, you can lock and or delete this thread. the brewmeister

All, Back in December I posted a topic asking you to let me know what kept you fascinated about geocaching. This was for a research paper I was doing for an English class. There were many great responses, and as there was a limit to the page length, I only used a few of the comments in the actual paper. Anywho, below is the final result of the paper. I didn't get a fantastic grade on the paper. By the same token I didn't receive much feedback on each of the drafts I turned in either. Most of them were along the lines of the references are not done correctly (me - This is the format I found online, if not correct how do I do them correctly? Response - Use the book [i did, not applicable]). The quotes are to long, make them smaller (me - how should I do that, the book says to.... Response - use your judgment, they are to long). I enjoyed reading the responses, I had an interesting time writing the paper, and I hope all of you enjoy the post. Abstract Wanting to know what it is about looking for objects ranging in size from small to large that motivates people to keep going out looking for them. Whether or not the players in the game have just begun geocaching, or have been geocaching for a long time, I wanted to know what it was that fascinated them about the hobby. I asked the question on the official forum for geocaching and the results while varied all have a common theme. What Fascinates People about Geocaching Geocaching, a sport for some, enjoyable pastime for many, and a passionate hobby for others is a worldwide, high tech game of hide and seek. Some readers might at this time be scratching their heads and saying (or thinking) “I’ve never heard of this”, and others might be going “okay, what is this guy going to say about my hobby”. Well I’m not going to talk much about geocaching (except for a brief background for those who don’t know), I am going to talk about what it is about this, for lack of a better word, hobby that continues to fascinate people. By fascinate I mean, what gets them (myself included) out of the house at all hours of the day and night, in all kinds of weather, to go look for an object that was hidden by quite possibly total strangers. In the same vein, what is it that causes people to hide said objects for total strangers to look for? Before continuing, a little background is needed. Geocaching was officially started on 3 May 2000 by computer consultant Dave Ulmer. What he wanted was to check the accuracy of his Global Positioning System (GPS) unit. So he hid a container in the woods, posted the coordinates on a GPS news group and within a few days the container was found, and comments posted to the newsgroup. By the end of 2000 there was a dedicated website, and database to host the then 75 known caches in the world (http://www.geocaching.com/about/history.aspx'>http://www.geocaching.com/about/history.aspx). Since 2000 there have been over 700,000 caches hidden, and more than 69,000 participants in the hobby (http://www.geocaching.com). What does this all mean? Using a statement I saw on a T-shirt, it is a bunch of people using multi-million dollar government satellites to find Tupperware™ hidden in the woods. There is of course much more involved than what I have already written, however, the subject of this paper is not the history of geocaching, rather what people find fascinating about the hobby. As with other hobbies, there are different aspects that appeal to different people. Geocaching is no different. What I wanted to find out is if there was perhaps something that set us apart from other hobbies. There are stamp collectors who enjoy that hobby for the artwork, specific subject matter, the history depicted on a postage stamp, etc. Woodworking enthusiasts who take pleasure in crafting well made, long lasting objects. So what is it then that separates geocachers from the rest of the hobbies (and hobbyists) in the world? The initial answer it would seem is not much. Just as stamp collectors have varying levels of participation, so do geocachers. The difference is that geocachers get outside more in pursuit of our hobby, and it takes less equipment (that is subject to debate but not part of this paper). In getting to the heart of the topic, I will begin with myself and my family. I started caching in 2006, discovering this hobby quite by accident. I don’t remember how I found the website, but when I did and saw all the stuff that was hidden near my house, I was interested. I bought a used GPS, downloaded some coordinates and off we went. I knew the area having walked these trails many times yet did not know there was a box perhaps four inches by eight inches by three inches hidden just off the trail. We got to the location and didn’t see anything, so the search was on. After about five minutes of looking at trees, under rocks, in bushes, the cache was found hidden in a hollowed out log about one meter off of the trail, with the end covered by a rock. Inside was a logbook, a travelbug (you can learn more about them at http://www.geocaching.com/track/) and some other trinkets. My children’s eyes were lit up just like when they received presents on their birthday. I was also excited as I had found something that hundreds of people walked past on a regular basis, and most probably never knew it existed. This just got me started. Over the years I have planned vacations to areas that had lots of caches nearby, been taken to historical, and other locations that I never knew existed, yet were just as interesting to me as the better known locations nearby. In order to find out how many shared the same reasons as I did about geocaching, I created a topic in the geocaching.com forums asking the question “What fascinates you about geocaching?” I received many responses from people with only a few hundred caches under their belts, to those with a few thousand finds. The common themes were summed up by lmcgisme (post #31). They are, “The thrill of the hunt, The 'Ah Ha' of the find, The discovery of places, The learning of facts, The knowing of secrets, The sharing of sites, The meeting of people, and the feeling of community” Many of the responses were quite similar. I am including some of the comments to show that from newcomers to the hobby to the more experienced geocachers the fascination pretty much stays the same. The comments included here have had minimal if any editing. An excerpt from Deb3day’s post who has been geocaching for a few months and with just over 200 finds says this is what fascinates her When I started this in May of 2008, I thought this would be a good way to do something with my 13 yr old son. Then after we cached that first day, we came home and told my 17 yr old about it. I figured my 17 yr old son would never care about something like this. His first words were, "Can I come with you?" But I think the most fascinating thing about caching is knowing that there are little treasures hidden all over the world, and I have the tools to go out and find them, wherever they are! I love to drive by places where I've scored smilies and think to myself, there is a cache over there. I drove by that place for years and now I share a secret with others about that place. (post #50) That is how some newcomers’ feel about geocaching. DanOCan has been looking for objects hidden in the woods for close to six years now. He also has over 2100 finds, is still looking, and says this about the hobby: The "unknown gems" of various locations also appealed to me, and still does when I travel. There were parks and places in and around my city that I didn't know existed despite living here for years. It's been about a year since I've had that sense of wonderment in my local area. We have traveled places with people who have been going there for years and discovered things that they didn't know about. The fact that it works at all. When I first heard about the concept I thought "Oh, that would be cool to try sometime if we are ever in the States." I figured that like so many technological advances, Canada would have to wait before it came to us but I was pleased to discover that not only could I look up caches outside of the US but there was one several kilometers from my house. I'll never forget the thrill of finding that first container and saying "Holy crap! It works! It's isn't some sort of gigantic inside joke or internet hoax." I love how caching can be whatever I want it to be. I can manipulate the game as I see fit. If I want it to be a physical challenge I can use it as a reason to climb mountains or go on long hikes. If I want it to be a mental game I can solve puzzles. If I want it to be a timed challenge I can do a numbers run. If I want it to be a social game I can do that but I also can do it when I want to be alone. (post #40) There are many reasons that people continue to be fascinated by this hobby. The above listed replies to my forum posting are just an example. I think that it encompasses the geocaching community. To sum it all up, the thrill of the find, secrets, discovering new places, and the sense of community with other cachers is what continues to fascinate those who participate in geocaching worldwide. References Brewmeister (2008 December 19). What fascinates you about geocaching [Msg 20974]. Message posted to http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...=209674&hl= Geocaching - The Official Global GPS Cache Hunt Site (n.d) Retrieved December 28 2008 from http://www.geocaching.com The History of Geocaching (n.d) Retrieved from http://www.geocaching.com/about/history.aspx

Not sure if this is the right place for the post, but since it is about coins I figured I would post here. I have a personal coin that I dip in each cache I visit. The problem is, the distance traveled hasn't moved past 143.7km. I followed the map link, added up the miles (as that is how they are displayed) and got roughly 152 miles (I added more finds after I did this exercise). I know a little bit about kilometers to miles, and I should be around the 250km range. Can anyone enlighten me as to why the numbers are not changing on the coin page?? Thanks the brewmeister the coin is "brewmeisters army geocoin"

1. Participating - e-mail sent 20090228 2. Received Name 3. Mission Complete 4. Mission Arrived!

No pictures. I chose my dipping coin as the U.S. Army Geocaching coin from Coins and Pins. I chose this coin as a 23 year veteran of the Army, it fit.

In 2008 my daughter did a presentation for geocaching for her Girl Scout troop. After the presentation about eight of the girls climbed into cars and we went to a cache that I had found before. My daughter led the way to the site, and stood aside as the girls found the cache. It was a good experience all around, and the cache is still in place.

I was reading the Dresden Files - Book 7 by Jim Butcher. Towards the end of the book there was a reference to geocaching. I can't recommend getting the GPSr the same way that he did, not placing the cache in the same place that he did in his book. For those who don't read Sci-Fi/Fantasy. Harry Dresden is a private investigator, who is also a wizard. The only one listed in Chicago's yellow pages. Wizards and technology don't get along together. In the course of the book, Dresden figures out that a clue is actually a set of coordinates. He has one of his non-wizard colleagues enter the coordinates in a gps they have acquired. They go to the location (not allowed under normal Groundspeak rules for placing a cache - unless it was done with permission) and begin the search. The item is found, and then the bad guys come and take it away. While reading this section all I could think of was wow, the author added a bit about geocaching to the story. Does anyone else have any other books where geocaching played a part??

Let me know when they are ready. As a retiree, and a prior upper echelon staff puke, I had quite a few friends go downrange. Looking forward to buying a coin or two Keep yourself safe.

Not quite today, but yesterday I finally got the pirate coins, it included a dirt bike coin as a gift for the length of time it took to get the coin out. I also got a 2006 Spain coin from the re-gifting Christmas mission. a good day overall

Got the package from die-anita Saturday. You must have known I have girls, they took one look at the chocolate and started drooling. Then them mentioned that when we were in Switzerland we never bought any chocolate. The Swiss Army Knife will definitely come in handy. To top it all off a Spain 2006 coin with the flag on one side and the Gaudi church on the other. Now I need to find out how to get the other European country flags on a coin. Thanks the brewmeister and kids