astrojr1&GGGal

Sorry, to clarify, the CARE package thing I'm talking about was, the owner collecting a bunch of swag and supportive logs to put in caches in Iraq, not whatever else the deal was. Personally, I don't log duplicate logs. But that's how I roll. I don't care how others roll. Comparing geocaching with endangering lives speeding on the freeway? Because we should let people play the game how they want I also think people should endanger lives speeding? Uh, no. You make an unwarranted extrapolation. Comparing geocaching with games that teach gender discrimination? Uh, no. Not even the point. I think this game is between the hider and the finder. And Groundspeak, sort of. It's not a LIE, it's how they play the game. Keep the speeding and the sexual discrimination in check, absolutely. Even the most egregious of multiple-smiley activity will not teach kids to lie. Care about something that matters, for Pete's sake. Pick your battles. But I suppose I should realize where I am. Delightful, keep it coming. Thanks!

Uh, how the cache owner said? It's like a geocaching CARE package. Come on, give 'em a break. BTW here is a little secret that I am sure will have everyone even more up in arms, no pun intended. One cacher near several military bases has allows military folks to log more than one smiley on their caches. Since, as mentioned before, they are not let out much, they can up their numbers like everyone else, with the owner's permission. And *gasp* they actually DO log multiple smileys. How does that cast our military folks to the Holier-Than-Thou crowd? And *bigger gasp* it's not just a select few, I'm told. A lot of servicepeople like it. Oh gosh, that throws a wet blanket on it! Let's spend our efforts on something constructive. Lighten up. It's just a game. You should just cache more and complain less. And all those other excuses whoever said in a manner intended to shock those unwashed cheaters into realization that they are doing something, and I quote, "WRONG". You've GOT to be kidding. Purists. Why should you care, all you hurt, offended, purists? Lighten up. You aren't hurt a whit by what someone else does with someone else's cache, in someone else's location. Lighten up. And I DO support our troops, I appreciate 'em, and no one's opinion about me, my actions, the hider's-in-question's actions, me being from Texas, or anything else can change that. So PLEASE come at me with more drivel - it's highly entertaining. It's one thing to voice an opinion. To scream for Seattle to enforce your opinion as geocaching law is quite another, and at least as offensive as y'all felt about the logging thing at GWIV. Lighten up. Thanks!

Has anyone else wondered what might happen to geocaching should the U.S. ever need an extensive domestic system of caches? Would the site be nationalized? Would geocachers be recruited as a "people's underground"-type group? I remember stories of the American Revolutionary war where such a network was of great value. Apparently, one of George Washington's greatest skills was that of covert information-gathering and communication. I am neither military-minded nor in a hurry to have anything to do with any actualization of this concept, but since we were on the subject...my.02. Thanks

There are some things that definitely look like PI, and some things don't. Things that do: - irregular asymmetrical singular lobes - curvy brown woody stems near center - habit and form of overall plant(s) - general form appearance of leaves Things that don't: - a few leaf stems are too green and too straight - note the lower clump's prominent left leaf stem, and a few in the upper clump. - the way those leaf stems attach to the main stem. The upper clump especially looks more like NOT the way PI leafs come off their stem. - in the center of the picture there is a small misshapen stem with two leaves on it, in the same form as a three-leaf but with one missing. The stem looks a little too thick and the leaves a little leathery. If it is PI, this part probably formed at a different time or under different circumstances than the fresh stuff all around it. Could we be seeing both PI and non-PI plants in the same clumps? We would say at least some of the plants in this picture probably ARE PI but we cannot confirm ALL of them are.

"Okay, everybody ready? North thirty three zero two point...."

For us, gussying up the hunt is part of the fun! Not in an exaggerating or embellishing way, but in an entertaining one. We have as much fun logging the story as we did making it. We really try to make every cache count for something fulfulling. Maybe it's silly, interesting, unusual, or whatever, but we hardly ever log a "TNLNSL TFTC".

What about any educational aspects of this cache? Kids love bones. Check out this log of a brief "anatomy lesson".

Don't know the answer for sure, however, I have read accounts of people getting bite by Water moccasins (or Cottonmouths) while crossing rivers or streams. Some water snakes also eat fish, so I would guess they can bite you while swimming. Yes snakes can bite you in the water. Their striking range however is much more limited because of the non-solid surface. Most snakes, in or out of the water, will run vs. bite if given a choice. Having said that I'd give cottonmouths a wide berth in the water; the snake can almost certainly outmaneuver and outpace you if you're in deep water. Marine Sea snakes certainly can, but I don't think that's what you were asking. Visit this for some good information.

I don't think 9Key ever leaves his computer! We've been approved in something like 30 minutes on more than one occasion.

When I realized the moment when I *first* thought I wasn't a newbie changed. When we had done 10, I thought "wow, we're getting the hang of this." When we had done 50, we thought "ok NOW we're getting the hang of this". When we had done 100....well, maybe we really were getting it now. At around six hundred we realized there are still a lot of hiding places we don't know. So I guess its back to newbie again! BTW apologies if the mention of the number of our own finds offends anyone.

I'd lean towards spy cams vs. claymores. Several inexpensive long range (YMMV) 2.4Ghz waterproof battery powered motion-sensor-activated webcam-type CCD/CMOS systems are available on the internet. Or maybe just a "smile you're on candid camera!" message would be cheaper, e.g. "area patrolled by radar/aircraft/etc/, store clerks may be police officers", etc.... how 'bout a lojack? "Warning: this cache is equipped with a tracking device which..." On Topic, one cacher around here tethers most of his caches. And he uses cheap containers. So cacher or muggle alike, they have to work a little harder to steal it and they have to care a lot more about a lot less. Yes there's still no way to prevent upper-level yet disgruntled cachers from stealing caches - The how-do-you-know-who-to-let-in problem - however I just bet there are a lot fewer caches stolen by this type of cacher than just plain ol' muggles. Our version of that is to tend to hide harder hides, and give good hints. Very few of our caches have been muggled, others' around here have. 9Key-influenced cachers seem to hide pretty well (North Texas area) in general. I guess the need for the levels system might be greater elsewhere.

What about a Bug napper? We heard of one such individual in Florida who takes bugs and doesn't log or pass them on. Apparently he had collected a great number of bugs so he has been getting away with it for quite a while.

Well my goodness at all the clever clever replies! Just goes to show you how creative people can be. We were thinking, offset coords. Sometimes we make little signs for our stage one coords. Cool info about the history of duck tape! I had no idea... ah, Google. All the libraries of the world at your fingertips. Thanks everybody!

We just saw a commercial on TV for clear duct tape. Has anyone used it yet or thought of any cool way to use it?

Thanks! Also, anyone wanna go caching with us while we're in town? We'll even drive!

Every cache you do adds 5 minutes to your life. Disproving this should give a lot of people long lives of great joy.

When we group-cache, we usually announce, everyone breathes a sigh of relief, and everyone signs the log. It's faster that way. Count-concious behaviour? You bet! When we are by ourselves (just the GGGal and I), sometimes we do the above, and sometimes, if it's a clever hide, or if we've been looking for awhile, the finder will step away but will assume the "hint" position- body facing the cache, several feet away, while the head/eyes look innocently around while the other person comes up and says, "oh." or sometimes the odd expletive in place of the "oh". I am honestly a little surprised that no comments have yet appeared about the sport being compromised when someone is allowed to log a find where they didn't technically complete the seek. But only a little.

Our circle-o-finds around our home is non-discriminating. Our cache blitzes on the road are. It's one thing to mention something negative about a cache. It's quite another to leave it unfound. I dare any one o' ya's to pass up a lame cache if you're right there but it was just too trashy/pointless/non-scenic/etc. To paraphrase the logic of Dr. Phil et al, I don't see anyone complaining about lame caches they DID'NT do. I hope that puts me in the noob column! Thanks, Geocaching! __________________________________________________________________ "Every cache you do adds 5 minutes to your life." - anon.

Here is one in the Texas Panhandle. Good luck getting there! Indian Dugout Above the Pool Table

Sometimes, a collection of objects is of greater value than an individual object. I see this as the true worth of locationlesses. A painted fire hydrant is just that, maybe a cool or not-so-cool neighborhood landmark. But a few hundred of them is maybe something worth browsing through, despite the odd or not-so-odd lame object. Technology allows us to overcome lameness with ease; just skip it! The "virtual coffee table book" concept is really the true intent of LC's, right? Even Yellow Jeep was fun, not because I really dig yellow jeeps, but the COLLECTION was undeniably the source of much mirth and new relationships. To us THAT's what LC's are all about. Having said that our LC to "regular" caches ratio is about 1:60. But it sure is fun looking through all the LC logs and galleries. ____________________________________________________________________ Knock y'self out!

I may be hitting the road soon. Before I do we are planning a caching vacation. We're going to try to get to 1,000 caches by the end. We're almost at 600 now. We're researching density of major cities etc. etc. as part of our route planning. We would like to hear from cachers from North America on recommended outstanding caches across the country. We're looking for the really really great caches, like "Spinning Wheel" in Rowlett, Texas. We'll find many caches along our route. What we're looking for here is, "Oh, you gotta try ABC cache in Idaho, it's got a bazillion visits and you have to operate a tiny rocket ship time machine to do the cache." - type caches. We're thinking, generally, West, maybe Colorado, California, Idaho, Utah, hey, whatever, maybe even *gasp* Oklahoma, Illinois, or Missouri. BTW we'll be starting from near Dallas, Texas. This topic was also posted on TexasGeocaching.com but we are reaching out to the great Western US and all the great cachers out there to recommend their favorite cache. We'll plan our route accordingly. Our swan song? Hardly. We'll still be blitzing your area soon along with the other Three Hour Tourists, the Akulakats and the SandBassers. During the week, though, (best Robin Leach voice) it'll be exotic who-knows-where caches for astrojr1, and tons-o-caching-with-the-girls for the GGGal. Suggestions, anyone?

Maps? Color? We don' need no stinking MAPS! Our GPSIII (no +) is still our numba one! We just mentally tack another half star on the difficulty for the mapless approach and cache on! We thought about upgrading to the III+ or even the V but like you say, those old units just don't wear out very well! Most of our friends here are Maggies, they wouldn't have any of the new Garmins except maybe the Legends.

http://boston.bizjournals.com/boston/stori...23/daily13.html I wonder how many pages this report will be?

There is such a law, the law of nature. "The crime is stupidity, or at least certains types of it. The sentence is death, and execution is immediate.There is no appeal, There is no need for humans to sub-legislate this law at a lower level." - R. A. Heinlen Well, sometimes, anyway. And some say Heinlen was just a D.O.M. But he hit the nail on the head a lot, albeit in a chafing kind of way. "Man claims nature, and Nature unhesitatingly claims the man." - ?? Shouldn't we just go caching and do our best? If Doofus is going to get himself killed not paying attention to something, it's not really our problem. His Doofus kin have no recourse because of the disclaimers, as said before. Besides, geocaching (lowercase "g", in the general sense) has enough momentum that if it is prevented on Geocaching (big G).com, the bugger-caches will not die but simply go somewhere else. I have seen talk of this on texasgeocaching.com, expressed as a need for more extreme caches, possibly listed on an extreme caching site. I apologize if this is pre-decreed blasphemy to TPTB but I found no other-sites-whose-name-shall-not-be-mentioned-here - type warnings.

We are also doing a CITO on April 3 in Plano, Texas, coinciding in time and place with our City's Keep Plano Beautiful program as part of the Great American Cleanup. You can log trash from March 15 to May 1 for the national numbers. Who else is doing their CITO as part of the GAC?