WJJagFan

Mine is THE PIPER OF TIR N 'OG taken from Dean Morrissey's painting of the same name. I have loved the bagpipes since I was a kid and at the ripe old age of 45 began taking lessons. I am on my second year of playing and love them even more.

I live in West Jordan, Utah - thus WJ. I am an avid fan of the West Jordan High School football team (had two sons play on it and my wife and I are the team photographers). We haven't missed a home or away game in 7 years - thus the jagfan.

I have been around GeoCaching for a long time, but I just do it as it is convenient for me. I got into it quite heavily at first, but my wife wasn't interested and I had a hard time getting my kids excited about it. I still enjoy it, but it isn't as fun if I have to do it alone. I'm not big on the numbers game. For example, I took a trip back to Virginia a few weeks ago, and before I left I printed off several geocaches in Alexandria. In my spare time I did a few, but didn't log any. I picked mostly virtual caches because they lead to locations of interest. It was fun. I enjoy the direction the "sport/hobby" is going. There is something for every taste and it has stayed mostly a family activity. I wondered in the beginning how long it would take before someone decided to corrupt the game and make it an "adult" activity. There are those, but they thankfully are few and far between. Anyway, It's been a while since I've visited the forum, but I still check in every once in a while.

I'd like to see a top ten for distance as well. I've had a bug wind up in a pretty far fetched location which had only been visited twice since it was placed and the visits were more than a year apart which meant my bug sat there forever before it was picked up. One fun thing about the drop however was the distance the bug traveled. It went from Calgary in Canada to Mazatlan in Mexico. After it was finally picked up it went to Washington State. It may not be in the top ten for distance, but I'd like to see the bugs that have "flown" the farthest. WJJagFan

Captain Moroni has traveled over 4600 miles but has only visited five caches so far. He has also visited three countries. Not too bad! WJJagFan

I had a travel bug that I placed in Canada on a visit to my folks in Calgary. The next day it was picked up by the owner of the cache and taken to Mazatlan in Mexico. It logged a bunch of miles, but then nothing for almost a year. Suddenly I got an email saying it had been picked up and is now sitting in a cache in Washington State. About the same thing happened to another travel bug I put out here in Utah. It disappeared for about 6 months only to suddenly show up on the radar again. It's been kind of fun, but once I put the bug out, I figure it's a goner and hope for the best. So far so good. WJJagFan

RB_Nielsen has a great idea here! I have taken my kids to several locations in Canada where I grew up. At the time, I think the stories and locations didn't mean as much to them, but in time they could mean a lot. I have my grandfather's journal and life history - it's a treasured possession. Think how much more it would mean if I could actually visit those exact locations! I'm going to start on this little project the next time I'm in Canada. Thanks for the great topic and thanks for the great idea! WJJagFan

RB_Nielsen has a great idea here! I have taken my kids to several locations in Canada where I grew up. At the time, I think the stories and locations didn't mean as much to them, but in time they could mean a lot. I have my grandfather's journal and life history - it's a treasured possession. Think how much more it would mean if I could actually visit those exact locations! I'm going to start on this little project the next time I'm in Canada. Thanks for the great topic and thanks for the great idea! WJJagFan

Here are the rules of GeoCaching as posted on the GeoCaching website. quote:What are the rules in Geocaching? Geocaching is a relatively new phenomenon. Therefore, the rules are very simple: 1. Take something from the cache 2. Leave something in the cache 3. Write about it in the logbook Where you place a cache is up to you. As far as I know, everything else is just fluff. Granted, the fluff can make the game more interesting and fun, but there are really no rules beyond these that are really required to play the game. Travel Bugs were introduced as a fun side activity to GeoHunting. There were no rules established that I can tell except to use your imagination and have fun with it. Soooo ... use your imagination and have fun with it. I think this idea is a blast no matter how you want to use it. Personally I've just logged miles from find to find, but I can see the advantages of logging all your miles just playing the game finding the caches or not. The way I figure it, the miles aren't going to be accurate anyway, unless you have wings, so do what you want. WJJagFan

I like the duplicate tags. What would actually be the difference with vs. without? I can't imagine it would cost a whole lot more. In any case to say that you don't like the duplicate tags because they take up room in you drawer isn't a good reason to get rid of them. Ever hear of a thing called the 'garbage can'. If you don't want the duplicate - toss it. If the expense is so much different, then why not have a bunch made up without duplicates and sell them to those who are so cost conscious. WJJagFan

I like the duplicate tags. What would actually be the difference with vs. without? I can't imagine it would cost a whole lot more. In any case to say that you don't like the duplicate tags because they take up room in you drawer isn't a good reason to get rid of them. Ever hear of a thing called the 'garbage can'. If you don't want the duplicate - toss it. If the expense is so much different, then why not have a bunch made up without duplicates and sell them to those who are so cost conscious. WJJagFan

As was pointed out by BunkerDave, in the winter months it only makes sense that a warmer state will see more geocaching activity. I don't forsee Arizona overtaking Utah because warmer weather is upon us and the cachers will be out and about in force. My scout troop has hidden one cache as a trial run. The boys are so happy with the results, they can hardly wait to do more, we have been holding off for warmer weather. Anyway, if AZ did pass UT what does that mean? AZ has twice the population of UT. AZ has 4.7 million, UT has 2.1 million. AZ should be double the number of caches in UT. Good luck though AZ ... a bit of positive thinking and a little competition is always good. WJJagFan

As was pointed out by BunkerDave, in the winter months it only makes sense that a warmer state will see more geocaching activity. I don't forsee Arizona overtaking Utah because warmer weather is upon us and the cachers will be out and about in force. My scout troop has hidden one cache as a trial run. The boys are so happy with the results, they can hardly wait to do more, we have been holding off for warmer weather. Anyway, if AZ did pass UT what does that mean? AZ has twice the population of UT. AZ has 4.7 million, UT has 2.1 million. AZ should be double the number of caches in UT. Good luck though AZ ... a bit of positive thinking and a little competition is always good. WJJagFan

There have been discussions about this topic before, and I think it was the general opinion that GeoHunting, at least from this web site, was a family oriented activity. I would define an adult cache as any cache where the content was inappropriate for children (not necessarily just pronographic). If I came across such a cache, I think I would first ask the owner to remove it. If that failed I would ask geocaching.com to remove the posting of the cache. I think that is about as far as it would have to go, but if that failed, I'd remove the cache myself ... !!! I know, this is a big NO NO, but in my opinion so is placing an adult cache. WJJagFan

There have been discussions about this topic before, and I think it was the general opinion that GeoHunting, at least from this web site, was a family oriented activity. I would define an adult cache as any cache where the content was inappropriate for children (not necessarily just pronographic). If I came across such a cache, I think I would first ask the owner to remove it. If that failed I would ask geocaching.com to remove the posting of the cache. I think that is about as far as it would have to go, but if that failed, I'd remove the cache myself ... !!! I know, this is a big NO NO, but in my opinion so is placing an adult cache. WJJagFan

I've logged all my finds, but I don't really care if someone logs a find on my caches or not. What I care about is that people had fun finding it. The only time I feel it would be poor manners not to post online is if you visited a cache and saw a problem that the owner should be made aware of. Other than that ... have fun! WJJagFan

Check out this link: Jeruselum Cricket Photos You find them from time to time in the desert. We checked with the Utah State extension service when we found one on our front porch. They told us these crickets are not seen very often, but are usually found in the fall when they come out more.