CoyoteRed

Don't get too upset. I've held a CDL since 1985 and have driven off and on since. My wife still drives and even participates in truck rodeos. Yes, 18 wheels and everything. 2007 SC state champion and went to nationals. Generally places every other year at state level. So, yes, I know about truck drivers as I've been one and married to one. Hell, even my mother is one. That said, not a week ago I pulled one over that continually drifted out of his lane. His excuses? He was putting on his boots and surfing the web on his new phone. There are bad truck drivers just like bad drivers of every other mode of transportation. Over the years I've reported several that tailgate, speed, or drift out of their lanes. A team mate of mine loss her mom a few months ago by a speeding chip truck going too fast to stop, swerved to miss one car and hit another. She likes to think her mother was killed instantly by the impact and not suffer due to being crushed under several tons of wood chips. Last I heard the driver was sleepy. Then, it doesn't have to the be the fault of the driver, only that he was involved. Sissy turned over a truck avoiding a minivan doing an illegal u-turn. This was along a 55mph, 4 lane divided highway. If she hadn't swerved she was have struck the van where an infant was strapped in her car seat. A 15 ton vehicle (she was empty returning to the yard) doing 55mph versus a 2 ton vehicle doing maybe 10mph would have been horrific. Luckily there was a place for her to go without hitting anything else. She eased off onto the grassy shoulder, but the wet grass combined with the slope caused the rig to slide and then flip. No one was hurt, in case you're wondering. Stuff happens. You're not supposed to stop on the side of a highway for recreation for a reason.

Considering I googled "clear zone" and the very first response was this, I'd say your contacts in the DOT really don't know their behinds from a hole in the ground. Maybe, they're the one's that stand around holding up a shovel? The last I heard Alaska was still park of The United States and thus under federal highway rules? Or does Alaska has so much oil money they don't need federal money. If that's the case and all roads are states roads, then knock yourself out.

I think if (the other) CR's challenge cache was not allowed then it would highlight a glaring inconsistency in the application of the guidelines. The argument of the possibility of hiding trache, or even only a temporary cache, is little different than someone bogus logging a cache in order to fill in that last criteria on finding challenges. That's not to mention the trache that is placed simply to provide the opportunity for others to grab another smilie. I personally don't like challenge caches. I wouldn't be for it, but saying that a hiding challenge is somehow different than a finding challenge considering everything else that goes on is a little, umm, off.

Could very well be. However, the OP did not place an illegal cache in the cache owner's name. The point is if you don't tick off folks then they're not as motivated to see you suffer. In this case, the OP was bringing the hammer of this sites guidelines to bear on his opponent. (If this is a personal vendetta.) This is easy and further harms the other one due to the public spanking.

Who else almost spewed coffee when they saw the scene where she was saying they had found illegal placements? Hmmm... Liked the full-sized, park cache. Slammed Walmart parking lot caches. My kind of reporter!

Yeah, a lot of the time the moral of the story is don't screw with other cachers lest your illegal placements be highlighted to the world. Does that in any way make an illegal placement any less illegal? Actually, in hind sight, I would have liked a cache cop pointing out improper placements in some DNR controlled areas in SC. Maybe then we wouldn't have a law prohibited them in all DNR controlled or managed areas.

Road crew? Oh, and just because someone did it means it's legal? What's the definition of "highway?" I suspect it's same as SC where the "highway" is total land that is improved for movement of vehicles. This is basically from ditch to ditch, or in the case of most controlled access highways, from fence to fence. The "roadway" is the traveled part, the part you're saying is the highway. Therefore, you're wrong in that if you pull off onto the grass you're all of a sudden legal.

Probably because you were on the wrong end of a traffic ticket and mad that you got caught. "dadgum, cop. Won't let me drive however I please!" *stamps foot*

Personally, I think it might be the ambition of the do-everything platform that is stifling it. Keeping it simple and make it rock solid on various platforms should be the first priority. Something that will run on multiple platforms will get the concept out to more folks. I can't play because I don't own a compatible device. The PPC I own is VGA and the "solution" isn't. Keep the cartridges very simple. Make it pretty much a virtual stage multi or paperless mystery, and get the concept into the wild! Then you could start adding different things with "pro" versions. Probably the simplest cartridge concept would basically be a route. You start at the start and are pointed in a certain direction. You reach the stage and the arrow swings into a different direction. Kind of like "find the coordinates tag" type of multi. The next step up would be "answer the question" at each stage before you can proceed. Still linear like above, but you have to solve a simple puzzle to proceed. You get a number of these simple, multi-platform cartridges into the wild and you get a lot more interest. Then as things progress you can have the spy-game style of play where if the player is taking too long "The Director" calls and prompts you via video to move faster, the villain throws a curve, or the hostage pleads for you to hurry. The concept is great, but too ambitious too quickly and on way too few platforms. What's weird is Wherigo is PPC-based while the official geocaching app is iPhone. What gives? How many devices do I need to buy?

It doesn't work that way. An arrest is made on "probable cause." A conviction is made on "beyond a reasonable doubt." Two different standards. So what happens if I make an arrest on a person having a small sandwich baggie of off-white rock-like material and it even field tests presumptive for cocaine base. Yet, after analysis it comes back as bunk (imitation controlled substance). That charge of possession of cocaine base, or worse yet, possession with the intent to distribute, gets tossed out. It's happened to me. I was pretty sure there was a crime. Turned out not to be. No crime in possessing an imitation controlled substance. The only crime would be if he sold it or otherwise distributed it as crack. It's a wonderful thing that there are different branches of government. The legal system works fairly well that way. Otherwise, an arrest would take someone straight to prison bypassing all courts and trials.

The scenario I proposed in my post could very well generate such a response. However, a blanket ban on geocaching couldn't be enforced. They could pass laws that would ban the hobby is certain areas without explicit permission from land owners, etc. It's been tried. Here in SC it is illegal to geocache in certain areas regardless of land owner permission. Constitutional? Probably not, but this is just a hobby. So far, the only folks enforcing it is Groundspeak themselves. I've not heard word one about any progress about getting back in there.

Hmmm... Cache owner advises of the "proper" way to approach a cache on a controlled access highway which is most likely illegal. The very placement would require a seeker to walk on a controlled access highway, again, most likely illegal. Nope, no big deal at all.

You'd be wrong. Looking at code out of context and nothing of case law doesn't make one right when spouting one statute. There has to be both intent and restraint, or submission to authority, as per case law in Texas.

Send a note to the reviewer with photos of the area and let them decide. From there, put it on your ignore list and move on. Don't know the circumstances, but I can see the headline: INTERNET HOBBY KILLS FAMILY OF 4 An internet game called geocaching encourages participants to illegally stop on a busy highway. Mr. John Jones illegally stopped his 1997 Dodge minivan partially in the roadway to hop out and play geocaching game leaving his wife of 7 years, Susan, and twin daughters Sara and Stephanie, 4 in the van. As he returned a semi truck struck the minivan killing all four instantly. Congressman R.T. Bullworth (D) stated that this game is getting out of hand and has introduced a bill in Senate to outlaw the hobby with this state. "It's time to put a stop to these holligans who have no respect for the law, propterty rights, the citizens of this fine state, or even themselves!" The governor stated they he will sign the bill if it reaches his desk.

Perhaps they meant that they had better things to do? They were late for donuts! That or they were trying to not get their asses sued off in court. They arrested someone without any evidence of a crime. Yes, they can place someone in handcuffs as a safety precaution during an investigation. But as soon as they moved the detainee from the spot it became an arrest. Then after the "opps, so sorry" moment, the detective realizing they screwed up by arresting without probable cause. He conferred with the others and attempted to arrest on a catch-all charge. They couldn't even substantiate that. A lawyer could get you a little bit of money. But even if you don't want that, I'd make a formal civil rights complaint. All parties involved will likely just get a little talking to and maybe a memo will be sent out. Hopefully, the memo will not just talk about not violating folks rights, but also talk about our little hobby as well.

Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing a very limited API that closes a gap in the offline database scheme they claim to not want, yet still provide for it. I exclude caches from my PQ via various attributes of which one is certain sizes. Sometimes the size changes from one that I include to one that I exclude. I end up with an orphaned cache in the OLDB. Sometimes the cache is archived which also leaves an orphaned cache. To update my OLDB I then have to visit each page to determine the reason it was not included. An API that allows me to punch in a waypoint number and it spit out just the details would be fantastic. It would save bandwidth on their end and a lot of time on my end. It could trivially be limited by individual account key much like the way Google Earth is handled. For my uses, a 100 queries a day would more than enough. A way for GSAK to filter on caches that didn't get updated and go check to see why would a wildly fanastic boon, IMHO. I would allow full automation all the way through to loading the PDA and GPS. Add a way to write logs offline, say on a non-connected laptop, or Cachemate, and upload in bulk. Field notes gets us almost there, not quite. Of course, I'm confused as to way they don't have a lo-fi version of site: something between the full site and the WAP site. It would work better for internet attached devices like PDA's, BlackBerrys and such.

It's been a while since we looked around at our competition. It seems as though some are selling genuine Bison Designs aluminum capsules for a little less than we are. But it also seems as though some are selling knock-offs. These aren't genuine Bison Designs capsules, nor is it mentioned whether they come with the two split rings that most BD capsules come with. Also, I know that sometimes we get in a few capsules that don't have an o-ring. We go through every single item and make sure they are good to go. While this won't make us the cheapest, we've decided to drop our price on the small capsules back down the $2.00 we were selling them for before. Bison Designs sells them on their website for $2.50 plus shipping. Our shipping is a flat $2.00 per order within the U.S. I got myself into some hot water with the wife with my last post. She's not interested in simply dumping our remaining stock of capsules. She is interested in doing business in a fair and timely manner. Two reasons I personally want to get out of the capsules business. Bison Designs has increased the wholesale prices every time we've ordered, to the point where it simply isn't worth it. Second, I personally feel the micro/nano thing is way out of hand. I like these capsules because they make a much cheaper stage than going to the local big box and buying a custom dog tag out of the kiosk. You can take a Popsicle stick and jam it in the lid, write your clue on the stick and put it together for a quick, changeable, durable stage in a multi. That's not to mention having simply a rolled up piece of paper for a clue, but he Popsicle stick thing makes the clue and lid one piece and less likely to get lost. I keep a $20 bill rolled up in one that is on my keychain for emergency funds. I don't like to see them used as a cache. That's simply not a cache, IMHO. A few, fine. But it seems as though the hobby is more about micros in less than appealing places than it is about adventure. We're happy to sell the stickers, stencils, and other stuff. Not so much the capsules as caches.

Through our profile.

We're getting out the Bison capsule selling business. Talk to Sissy. She might cut you a little break if you buy a bunch. (No guarantees.)

Huh! Don't need to trade for signature items? That's news to me. I always thought it was a item that someone always left. Instead of leaving various items in a cache one would always leave the same item. On cacher around here always left a civil war era bullet. Another left a business card sized magnet with various pictures. Additionally, these were always treated as trade items. You want it, you traded for it. I've taken to leaving P-38s or P-51 can openers. If that's all that I leave then it becomes my signature item. I might get upset if I knew that folks think it perfectly acceptable to simply take it because it's my signature item. I think folks got confused when more and more cachers started making things with their names on them. New cachers saw these signature items and thought these were collectibles--which they can be. Then confused that with not having to trade for trackables. IMHO, the only thing you don't have to trade for are trackables which are meant to move from cache to cache.

You probably should email them.

Rain, hurricane? Yep. The major problem is the protection of the cache, though. Hard to trade and sign in without getting the cache wet. We carry a small collapsible umbrella to shield the cache. Can't do anything about the humidity you're letting in, though. Like the rain. Don't like trying to hunt caches in it.

Penny's Star Cache. It's in Star Fort Ninety-Six Historic Area in Ninety-Six, SC. There are three caches in the park. It's a really nice little park. You'll have to talk to Mountainman for the one in GA as he's the one that mentioned that to me.

Excellent suggestion!

I'd go for it just to see if it's there. I don't need a guaranteed find. More than once we've gone for questionable finds. Sometimes it's there. Sometimes not.