GLM

Well, I live in Remington. Not sure how much you want, but I'll try to help. It would probably be after the first of the year before I can get back into caching though. I have an extremely busy week in front of me. Gary

Ok, I have had enough prodding that I decided to pop in. I don't, and never have, owned a balloon myself. I have been very fortunate to be able to get my licenses by flying other people's balloons. In 1981 I fixed a couple of radios for a friend of mine. He then said that they weren't his radios, but that the person that owned them would give me a balloon ride for fixing them. I accepted. Just like caching, that is all it took. Soon after that first balloon ride, I then became involved in chasing. I soon started trading chase time for pilot time. In 1983 I earned my Private Balloon license. I had saved enough money from doing crewing at promotions, that I attended the 200th anniversary of ballooning in Albuquerque in 1983. What an experience for a new pilot. Here I was in the air with 600 other balloons! Not too long after that, let's just say I thought my ballooning was comming to end as the pilot I was with, was having some troubles. Once again I got lucky and met up with a guy who owned more than one balloon, but he was the only pilot in his company. You may even recognize his name as he has won several awards and has been featured in lots of verious articles in magazines. Kevin Peoppleman After he took me for a check out ride, we worked out a deal between us where as he would finish me up on my commercial license and I would then fly for him. Wow, what a ride! Once I got my commercial license in 1985, I was using every hour of vacation leave to do ballooning. I started out flying a Raven AX-6 with an Aluminum basket. Then flew a Raven AX-7 with the same basket. During my training to commercial, I was flying Raven and Aerostar AX-7, AX-8B, AX-8, AX-9, and Barnes AX-7 balloons. That alone is a feat that some long time pilots never get a chance to do. I consider myself very fortunate to be able to fly all of those different balloons without ever owning one! From the time I started flying commercially, I have also flown an Eagle AX-7, and various other Balloon Works balloons. I have flown the NTW Balloon as hare balloon out of the Ohio State Fair as well as other events. I have flown the Coke Balloon, Remax Reality Balloons, and a few other commercial logoed ballons that I don't remember at the present moment. I have flown in the Pittsburgh Regata Balloon Race several years in a row. The first year I did that, I tied for 1st place, which I was very proud of. I came in second in the tie breaker of throwing beer cans at a trash can from 30 feet or so. The years following that I flew hare balloon in the Regata. I have also trained 2 students to completion of earning thier commercial licenses. What a challenging and rewarding job that is!!!! One added note here, you will get no answer from me as to whether baskets should be metal, triangles, squares, or rectangles! There is merit to all of them and I have enjoyed every one. All I'll say is, Don't knock it till you try it. Now to keep this forum on track, in 1997 I had a bunch of gift certificates for my favorite store of REI. I used those gift certificates to buy a Garmin II+. I then used that to keep track of my flight path(after the fact). Since that early unit didn't have any mapping built in, I would have to download the track into a Delorme map program to see where I had flown. I didn't really start caching till after I stopped flying, so there really has been no mix of the two for me. I'd have to check my log book for an exact year, but there came a time in my life that my parents health was failing and I found myself using my leave to take care of them as opposed to being able to fly, so I was only flying about once a year at a place where I got my start. The Flying Circus in Bealeton Virginia. I still attend that festival which is on the 3rd full weekend in August every year as I consider that a "Family reunion of balloonist" rather than any type of competition. It's just a very laid back type of event that is fun. I usually get a flight or two in to keep me current. That pretty much sums up what I have done in ballooning. Even though I'm not activelly flying anymore, I still dream about all the flights that I have done. If the winds are calm and the sky clear, I look up and say to myself, "What a beautiful morning this would be to be in the air". I miss it very much. Lots and lots of memories of wonderful times. Gary

A while back I got caught by the same thing. I had the waypoint in my GPS but for some reason didn't have it in my PDA loaded with descriptions. Took me a while to figure it out. The waypoint was previously loaded when the pocket query was less than 500. As the caches grew, I downloaded the latest pocket query to my PDA and it wasn't included because the file had grown to over 500 and this happen to be the one that wasn't included. I spent a great deal of time tweaking my pocket queries so that I could get ALL waypoints downloaded that were within 100 mile radius of my home. I used the preview function of the pocket queries to see how many were in each one. I finally had to divide them up by difficulty and terrain settings to be able to get all of them. It was NOT an easy task figuring out how to get them all. I get 5/day that have all of my unfound caches within 100 mile redius. Once a week I have it set to download my "finds" so that my GSAK database remains current with GC.com Gary

The only thing going to pass 2Wheelin now is Moosemama Congrats Bill!!!! I don't have to tell you that the next 300 will be even more fun. Gary

http://www.permethrin-repellent.com/ Keep the same set of clothes for caching and you only have to spray once every 2-4 weeks.

What was the link? Maybe I have been caching in my sleep and don't realize it? Hmmm, Sleep Walk Caching. Sounds interesting, but I don't remember any of it. Gary

Thanks Scott! I must apologize for not contacting you to "hide" a cache for my 1000th. But when I saw Mumma Ford Bridge Cache, ...well...it had my name on it. Literally!!! I couldn't resist. If I now forget the name of my 1000th find, then I'll probably not remember who I am either. To others, thanks for the kind words. Yes, bad day at work does = caching after work! ha ha ha It's better to go home and greet the wife with a smile after finding a cache then it is to go in grumbling. I can tell you this much, once you get a high number under your belt you feel you have seen it all,.....then someone really throws a curve ball at you and you see something new! Some have been rated hard and they were easy. Some were rated easy and I made them hard. Bottom line, ALL have been fun and intersting! I have met a lot of really nice people and hope to meet many more. Gary

Welp, you can't deny it now....You're HOOKED! Nice job. Here is to many more fun times looking for the elusive tupperware containers and ammo cans. Gary

I have a Garmin II+(the one with NO basemap). I have found 900 plus caches with it. Sometimes I have even zeroed in before the newer models have. A couple of things come to mind. One being the setup of the unit itself. Are you using the same map datum as the other units? That alone could cause errors. Gary

Thanks!!! I remember that day too! Little dead end street leading to the River. No place to park. Was not the easiest find of the day either! Same feelings about you too! Always hoped I'd run into you again, maybe in Leesburg where you have planted a bunch!!!! Gary

Too much paintball???? Take a break and do some caching!! Been waiting a long time to catch you on the trail to a new one. Gary

Ah yes.....Remember that day well. Wasn't sure whether we were going to wind up in jail or not. Gary

Hard to say when it will happen. So many factors contribute to what I can do when. Weather is probably the least of the concerns as I have made up my mind to go caching in a rain storm before. Ha ha ha, wet but still fun. Then I have to try and find concentrations of caches to do. I usually try to do one day a weekend caching. I have to travel quite a ways to find 5 or more caches farily close together. But, there are times that I get lucky and can do 20 in one day when I find a densly cached area. If the Granddaughter comes over for the weekend, then I stay home to see her(Not quite 5 months old right now). I'll just say that I am hopeing to make my 1000th a Christmas Present to myself. Gary

I'll keep you in mind when I get close! Thanks for the comment!! Gary

I was on the one last year and had a blast! Met a lot of faces that I only knew by login ids and handles. Swapped a lot of caching stories, and went a lot of places that I probably would have never gone alone. Saw a lot of various geocaching technology first hand. I think last year's walk is when I decided to go paperless. Lots of info can be had by just asking questions of other cachers who seem to have these weird looking devices in their hands. ha ha ha Don't know if I'll make it this year, but thanks for last year. Gary

Thanks! As Gaiter Man suggested, I have been tied to a paint brush since the middle of August. I was able to put the painting off for over a year, but my wife finally caught up to me. I still have some trim work to do, but my wife said I deserve a break, so I got to hit the trails for a day. Looking forward to reaching that 1000 milestone. Hope to catch you all on the trails at some point. Gary

Go Linc and Ed!! I gotta finish up this painting in the house so I can meet you on the trails again. Gary

Go Bryan!!! Gary

Your statement is very true that there HAS to be a size to a container. It's just that if the owner doesn't list it, it is a mystery to all who have not found it. Here is one example of no container size listed - GCK352 Gary

Any chance you have logged a find more than once on any of your caches? GSAK will only display one record for one cache no matter how many "find" logs you have logged. GSAK will however, look through your logs and if it sees more than one "find" log per record, it will increment your find total. Gary

Thanks! And I just may be heading your way on the 31st. I don't think it will be to do the river ones, but I'll plug away at some of the land ones. Still early to tell for sure. Gary

Currently there is no way to differeniate between the two in pocket queries. The cache is either Found, or Not Found. Not found including not attempted. Gary

Congrats! That 500 mark is a milestone in anyones book. Hide it and they will come. As soon as I get out of marriage counseling, I'll go out and try to find another cache. Gary

Thanks Guys and Gals! My goal was to just get to an average of 1 per day when I hit my 2nd anniversary for caching. I have far exceded that by heading towards Hagestown for 3 or 4 days. I have had a blast doing caching. Water, mud, ticks, bugs, spiderwebs, no-finds, traffic jams, etc etc. It's still fun. I have loved meeting so many wonderful new friends too! Let's see, there is still the Baltimore area, and then there is Richmond,.....I think we can find a few areas that we can hook up and do some group caching before having to buy a plane to get to new caches! Gary

Congrats Don! I did POP not too long after I started caching and learned a lot from the 2 trips it took me to finish it. Thought that Gaiter may have been a little cruel in his comment about laying to rest De-fence-less, but then again, did I tell you that "I" have found it? You'll get it. It's just one of those that finally creeps up on you. Gary