gravechaser
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Posts posted by gravechaser
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I know of a county-wide group that meets at a designated Pizza Hut once a month every month at a set time. Probably some ot them go out to find one or two after they eat.
Try a regional forum, pick an inexpensive place to eat, a time to meet that won't interfere with the dinner/supper crowds, and ask people to come. You aren't paying for the meal or the room, just inviting people to come meet you.
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I'm in the "silent" group. Honestly I have not run into an "old-timer" yet. Everyone that I have run across has been helpful, friendly, or at least quiet.
In all things, be it jobs, hobbies, or families, there will be personalities that naturally lend themselves to the three groups that you defined. For me? I try to concern myself only with how I am functioning. Am I helpful? Friendly? Cold? Rude? Snobby? I hope that I am at least helpful and friendly to people.
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Yup. Native, no less. Whatcha need?
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I noticed that you didn't find it. I have to head to town tomorrow so i may run down and check on it. Meant to do that earlier this week but I have been too busy to detour there.
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Hello, BrianofParis.
I operate out of Marshall. You have been busy! On average I make it to Paris once a month. Now I'm going to have to take my GPSr with me and tackle some of your caches!
Gravechaser
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I thought this already was the chit chat thread. 
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The poetry and imagery....wow. Gentlemen...that really is wonderful. Tod must have been a great great guy! The poem, while my family pays attention to bikers since we wanne be them someday, has really made me think. I think I will print it and hang it on my bedroom door so i see it every morning. Watching out for others, being polite and pleasant to ALL, my driving habits, leaving early to not rush rush rush...the love of ones family- the little things in life are what makes it worth living. It sounds like Tod kept his life full and rich. Thank you very much for posting the tribute.
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oblongil, I am sorry that you felt lost but I know how you felt. March 2007 was my first time for attending any events and I remember the feeling of not knowing anyone or what I was expected to do. I am at heart a very shy person but through caching I am coming out of my shell.
At any event there will be a table to check in at. Don't be shy! If you don't see an obvious area ask a few people if they know where the check-in is. There should be at least one person if not two manning that table and you can ask them what is going on. They should be "in the know". Don't be afraid to tell folks that you are new. There are no silly questions!
The first event I went to was at Cheeseburger in Paradise. The only two people I knew who cached weren't going to this but encouraged me to go. I met one of my high school teachers who caches and recognizing several other cacher names I introduced myself and now I know several people that i can hold a simple conversation with.
Are you planning to attend the Cache Slash thing down in Sumner? I have never gone but am hoping to this year.
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A month ago we saw two HUGE waterproof containers sell at a local auction. I bid them up to $40 and didn't get either one. One had held a part for a Bell Huey chopper, it was 3' high and deep by 4'long.
I could have spraypainted it and logchained it to a tree....it would have been AWESOME! But i didn't have more than $40 at the time.
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Good news! We are done chipping and sealing roads in the area! As a matter of fact when we were working down there I went in to get a grape soda. I told Helen that I was going to bring my kids back for the cachers get-together and she got so excited! She is looking forward to all of us coming down. She called us "a Nice Bunch of Folks"! Wonderful cold grape soda, too!
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Oh, boy. I've been in two more townships since I posted and darn the luck! All the caches that I'm parking near are ones that I have already found! Rats!
I'm beginning to think that I am going to have to brave the cost of gas and take the kids on a planned-out cache run.
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So how active have we 'Illinoisians" been over the summer so far? Made any cache-specific trips? While working? Visiting relatives? Come on....it's been so quiet out here......
We have only been able to go out twice for one cache each. I almost snagged one last week at work. If I had been a little farther up the truck line I could have walked up to find Whatcho Talkin About Willis?. Regretfully I had to drive on past. Matter of fact I had to drive past 3 that we have not found time to attempt.
I take the GPS with me every day at work. Surely at some point I'll get a chance to add one more to the caching bag belt!
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Say, that's a good idea!
I check on my caches at least once a month. When I check on them I not only open the container but I go through the contents, removing those things that probably won't be traded for and restock it with more stuff. Granted, I only own two caches so that makes things a little easier.
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I had been on the "don't do anything to anyone else's cache" boat until I actually looked up paleolith's log. He thoughtfully took a picture of his example and, well, I've changed my opinion. He didn't destroy it. Nature did. He just cleaned up and after reading the log and thinking about it....I think I'd do the same thing since I don't have extra caches in my cachebag yet. To do that I need a much larger bag!
In regards to the OP's hypothetical question I would verbally & loudly educate said "cacher" then drive them home and not take them with me again. I'd not hang around or speak to them as they would have shown their true colors and who would need that around?
[paleolith: "I destroyed a cache -- someone else's cache -- just two days ago. Well, at any rate, I picked it up and placed it in the nearest garbage can -- this required carrying it nearly a mile, which was somewhat difficult. I think my action was fully justified. And my action is not hidden; I won't describe the circumstances here since you can find my log very easily if you want."]
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Last week we should have posted a "needs maint." but didn't. The owner is an active local who has probably taken care of business by now. In that case we logged a Found It and emailed him privately to tell him of the damp log and the water that we dumped out- condensation.
In the event that our sneak-o-scope peters out we honestly log a DNF and try again later. If the swag appears to have been trashed we remove the obvious trash and put in 3-5 nicer items from our never-empty cachepack and note doing that in the Found It log.
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Ah, yes, but how close are we all to making this a mega-event? Just how many are signed up to attend so far?
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You just need Garmin MapSource that covers North American cities. I have this and a blue Legend. I was able to load the areas for Rapid City and the Black Hills along with Sheridan, WY and it gave me street names with alley detail. Admittedly it took me awhile to figure out how to get the maps I wanted transferred to the Legend but once done we didn't get lost once. We used that Legend every day for 16 days and didn't get lost once.
Right now I can't find my MapSource CD for the exact title but it is for cities in North America.
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I, too, got the subscription page but it also said you could set your browser to accept their cookies. I added them to my "allow" list and now I have read the article.
REALLY COOL HOUSE! I want one!
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Mill Creek Park in Clark Co is a really nice park!
We did the "lesson" and I placed 3 containers of varying sizes for the kids to find. We fielded some great questions, the kids were fascinated, and had a great time. We talked about swag and the take something-leave something rule but also told them it that rule was suspended for that night and they all got small squirtguns and baggies with 20 waterballoons- it was a soaker of a 4-H meeting! 
Even tho no other cachers showed up (didn't exactly advertise did we?) we had a great time showing these kids how to use GPSr and finding sneaky cache containers- I didn't go too easy on them. -
Well, this is certainly a day for brain farts. If any of you are in the Marshall area on Wednesday evening around 6pm come out to Mill Creek Park to the Lions Shelter. My friend rockdivas suckered me into helping with our 4-H club's picnic recreation.
Tomorrow after work I am going to go waymark 3 locations for caches that we are filling/placing just for the meeting. Before the meeting I have to enter the 3 sets of coords in 12, yes, 12 units that the local Extension office has borrowed for this. There are two active caches in the Park and no, I'm not exposing them to all these kids. It promises to be fun as long as we don't get rained out. We were asked to explain how GPSrs work and to explain what geocaching and Waymarking is. I added in a list of other stuff that GPS coordinates are used for. I typed up a short and simple page with website info, basic info on caching/Waymarking and other uses for GPS units.
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I was running the township truck- my 'other' job (beside's being a Mom) down in the Moonshine area today helping repair roads. Saturday we had some serious flooding- many of us local lifers have never seen water in the amounts like this was. Hopefully we can get all the roads and crossing put back together before the Moonshine event. Seeing all the damage in the southern part of the county was amazing! My work today took me by 7 caches and all their locations appeared to in good condition, too.
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Hey, 8 blocks is close enough for me! Welcome to the state!
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As newbies we had one that stumped us for months. I swore it wasn't there and begged the owner, our stylist, to check on it. She did and then laughed at us. It was there and people continued to find it. We'd go back about every two weeks and try again- with no luck- and then....Boom...the next cacher would find it quickly. We only logged one DNF, the first time we tried, because she'd laugh heartily at us every time we admitted defeat when we went for a haircut. Her husband, after 6 months of this ridicule, whispered a strong hint to me and we finally found it with that hint.
Lessons we learned?
1. Study the caches you want to attempt. Read all the logs you can to get a feel for the deviousness of it.
2. Be patient. If you don't find it then log a DNF but continue watching it for others who DO find it.
3. Continue to cache. "Practice, practice, practice!" Finding other caches will hone your thinking skills.
The one that stumped us...consider that it was a magnetic cache placed somewhere on a 1940s bulldozer permanently parked with trees growing up in it. No lack of metal for it to be in, on, or under.
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I've never tried to put a link in like this...lets see if this works:
This is for a page on the park itself and the page has an email link to question the park:
http://dnr.state.il.us/lands/landmgt/PARKS/R3/LINCOLN.HTM
You can contact the park yourself to find out if reservations are accepted!
I thought this already was the chit chat thread. 
We did the "lesson" and I placed 3 containers of varying sizes for the kids to find. We fielded some great questions, the kids were fascinated, and had a great time. We talked about swag and the take something-leave something rule but also told them it that rule was suspended for that night and they all got small squirtguns and baggies with 20 waterballoons- it was a soaker of a 4-H meeting! 
Even tho no other cachers showed up (didn't exactly advertise did we?) we had a great time showing these kids how to use GPSr and finding sneaky cache containers- I didn't go too easy on them.
Geogems?
in General geocaching topics
Posted
After reading this topic I looked the geogems up. I ordered the black gem, a gold piece (the larger one), and a geocoin of the Cachestalkers.
My little package came Thursday and I was/am so excited that I took them all to Church today to show to people. I like looking at them far too much to let them go so I am starting my own little personal collection. The etching shows up rather well on the black gem. The gold nugget is "nugget-like" on the front.
My kids like the black one so well that I'm going to eventually own one of each color. I may end up with a silver nugget, too. My total spent was $29 and that included insurance and shipping.