Thystle

Thank you for your hard work. I loved the feature where you could compare your finds by state. It was the first one you closed, but nobody else has anything like it. Very well done, and your site will be missed by many of us!

Oh, no! We had been looking forward to seeing Sandy at the astronomy club meetings once we got back to Colorado, and in the rush of the move, had not heard the news. She was always such a pleasure to talk to while at caching events, or at the observatory. She will be sorely missed.

Good to see you coming back this way, Thystle! Where abouts are you and Justified going to call home? Larkspur. Been here a week now, and this is 4th snowstorm. When we left Misery it was 70 degrees. But you know what? We have cached for 4 days in a row and NOT A SINGLE TICK! Yay!!! Already did some 4x4 on Mt Herman Rd in the snow and had a blast. Can't wait for more! And some events to hang out with the kewell Colorado folks, too, of course!

Whoo Hoo! Justified and I are moving back to Colorado! (The Midwest has far too many ticks) Looking forward to caching with everyone, and doing a preemptive search for hiking/caching buddies for while he is at work. Looking forward to seeing folks at some of the local events, too. Till March, keep on caching!

ooooh! Let me know when you do it. Or local Amtgard groups have caches in their parks, and a "treasure" quest would be great! Would have to be something that not only the geocachers, but the LARPers would enjoy doing, too!

Alton Illinois is a great place to watch eagles. Sometimes you can see them from GCHXJG but the views are usually better from the Missouri side. Best way to get to the viewing is go to GCQ99K, keep toodling down the road, and take a sharp left past the locks into the parking area. No caches right there, but good vies of the birds as they wheel and dive. We've seen white pelican, canvas backed ducks, bald eagles, great blue heron, grebes, trumpeter swans (70 of them just down the road!) and many other birds. Binocs are a must! And many caches nearby. Though the road to the two Earthcaches at the confluence are closed right now due to flooding. Also, if you head north into Clarksville, not far from where the slurping soup event was, many, many eagles there, too!

Alton Illinois is a great place to watch eagles. Sometimes you can see them from GCHXJG but the views are usually better from the Missouri side. Best way to get to the viewing is go to GCQ99K, keep toodling down the road, and take a sharp left past the locks into the parking area. No caches right there, but good vies of the birds as they wheel and dive. We've seen white pelican, canvas backed ducks, bald eagles, great blue heron, grebes, trumpeter swans (70 of them just down the road!) and many other birds. Binocs are a must! And many caches nearby. Though the road to the two Earthcaches at the confluence are closed right now due to flooding. Also, if you head north into Clarksville, not far from where the slurping soup event was, many, many eagles there, too!

Preventing chiggers is fairly easy. Go to your local pharmacy and get some pure, powdered sulfur. Take a small pinch and mix it with baby powder or cornstarch, and sprinkle the mixture on the outside of your shoes and socks, or on the outside of your clothing. Careful, though, it stains something awful, and you probably don't want it against your skin. Something about the sulfur seems to keep them away. That, or the desire to shower the second you step through the door may have something to do with it. Chig-A-Rid is not always available, though my husband says it works great (Personally, I don't get them. I think its the garlic. Thank goodness, as I'm allergic to DEET). Now to find something non-DEET related to keep ticks away. here in Missouri they're so thick it sometimes looks like the ground is swarming. Makes me long for the hundred-plus temps, the tarantulas, scorpions and assassin-bugs of Arizona!

Several times; on almost every occasion that I have found RTiC, they have been wet and moldy, and really not worth the effort to dry out. There have been CD's, pamphlets for the JW's and several evangelical types of papers, but nothing interesting enough for me to actually pick up and read. I would be curious to find pamphlets from non-xtian religions, but haven't run across any of those. And one geocoin. Despite the fact there are not supposed to be caches that promote agendas, there are several. GC8B0E (Wow! Look at that! Another one!) could be construed as promoting Catholicism since one has to do the Stations of the Cross to solve it. Or GC194B (Wow! Look at that!). Was I offended....well... maybe a little. But like Elanor Roosevelt (and several forum posts) have said, "No one can make you feel inferior (or offended) without your consent". Instead of being offended or destructive and CITOing such things, perhaps there is an alternative- besides the FSM- that we could agree upon for putting in caches? Personally I like the idea of putting a little CITO kit in the cache to replace whatever one finds offensive- and its not just pamphlets in caches- there have been occasions that I have found gum, food and once, a swiss army knife- in caches. Offensive? No. But needed to be replaced by something more appropriate? Definitely. This thread still could be used in a constructive way to find a solution or common ground for dealing with religious pamphlets in caches. Clearly, though they are not meant to be offensive, though there are those who are offended by them. And I find the thought of trashing something that isn't moldy and wet a waste of time. Lets stop rolling our eyes at each other and come up with something we all could do. -My two coppers, -Thystle

Both the Big Bang Theory and Evolution have been approved by the Pope. If he's not a good Christian, who is?

Brawny Bear et al, Got my pewter MOGA geocoin (number 72!) and somehow lost the activation code for it. My other half has activation codes for his, but for some reason, it doesn't work with mine? ( we pre-reged, and got the coin in the packet) Anyhoo, love the coin. Especially love the way the words and numbers are readable- some coins the writing is too small for us old folks to be able to tell whats what on the coin. And are there enough leftovers for us to buy more?

We have the weekend off for the event, but havent registered yet. We're hoping it will be thawed enough for camping by then! Hope to see you there. -Thystle

great deal, bidding!

Greetings! Justified and I are new to the St Louis area and we were wondering what are the best "starter" caches? We've done 4 here so far, in Faust Park and Queeny Park: what caches are the Must See's around here? Thanks! -thystle

Try White Elephant GCQJE1 its not a micro, its non-stealthy, and you can stuff those mega-TBs in there with the lava lamp and the picnic table.

How about a jackalope, black, rampant, dexter, with the flag held aloft by its antlers. The coin could be cast in copper, since thats what Arizona is famous for, and it costs less than bronze. The obverse could be anything- like a rattlesnake wrapped around an ammo can as suggested previous. just my 2 cents -thystle

Beat the Heat was an all day event withj Barbeque and pot-luck. I was thinking of a 1 hour or so get together for the local cachers that we could do once every month or two; y'know, just to exchange bugs and stories and cache ideas. I would love it if someone wanted to do a bigger event, though. Would definately need help planning a bigger event. -Thystle

Has anyone ever doen event caches or Pizza nights in the Prescott area? Are folks up here interested in such things? Might be a chance to get some TBs moving along and such. -Thystle

The medieval types with q-tips sound like Amtgarders. I placed my first cache in the park where I dress up and whack people with foam padding so I could check on it once a week while out fighting; however, our park got hit by two (not one, two) hurricanes and they won't allow anyone in to check on the cache. In the meantime, we're looking for a new park, and a new hiding spot. You'de be surprised how many folks with foam swords really love geocaching; did you give them the url so they could try it themselves? And whereabouts are you located? -Thystle of FL (the FL stands for FlatLand) aka Baronet Aoife Nic Paisley, closet Ren-Rat

Don't forget Bonnie was a hurricane up until the moment she hit. In essence, Ivan will be the second for the panhandle. Thank goodness he changed course; many of us are still without power in the Palm Beaches, but I hate wishing a Cat 5 on somebody else! -Thys

Got it! Will upload pics this afternoon. -Thystle

my bad. No sooner do I say I didn't find it in old topics, then I found an old topic that mentions pilfered finds. Whooops! (as opposed to 'whoo hoo')

Don't know how to phrase this, but didn't see it on the Markwell's page. I'm really new, only 19 finds so far. There would be 21, but two of the caches found are either missing or destroyed. One, Petty park, had been downloaded into my GPSr about a week before I went looking, found the velcro where the micro cache had once been, and when I went to the webpage, the cache had already been removed from the site. The other we found in pieces on the ground in an area that had been bulldozed, and we sent a note to the reviewer to have it archived. Now for the dumb question part. Do you get a smiley for those? I mean, we searched, and found evidence, but no logbook to prove the find. Maybe after 500 finds missing 2 isn't such a big deal. Whats the proper etiquette in these situations? -Thystle

aaaaaaaahhhhh... I get it. Will try to get you a coord this weekend, but lack ways to upload pictures. Maybe I can borrow a digital camera from someone. Hmmmm... -thystle

If your friend likes canoeing, water and shade, the caches on the Loxahatchee River are nice. I have found only one of the 4 so far, but will be back for the others as soon as I get a day off from work. Its a gorgeous trip downstream. -Thystle geocaching n00bie