zonata

Thanks for the input guys. Ultimately, I think I'm going to have to haul my arse back out there and check the numbers. Here's what I have <tracking number taken out by moderator> and the only real mix up I can see is MAYBE "A" verses "R" (poor penmenship on my part). However, I try "R" and I get a trackable that is clearly NOT this one. So yeah, I just need to recheck the number and go from there. If I do have it right, then maybe it was never acitivated properly.

My family and I have not geocached for a while. The last time we did so, we picked up a trackable item, a Travel Slug. Well, I guess when I had picked it up, I didn't log it into my trackables so now I don't know where I picked it up from. Trying to be a little more responsible, when we realized we still had it, we ran out to a local geocache and dropped it off. I wrote down the trackable info so I could log it, but I am having problems even finding it online. Searching the number yields no results. So how does one go about tracking a Travel Slug? I've inputed the tracking number on the geocoins and the TB's but nothing seems to recognize what the number is. There's a slim chance I wrote the number down wrong, but I'm seriously doubting that because I double checked. Anyway, not sure what to do about it other than to let it ride. Maybe someone else will move it on and properly track it. The number starts with CP. What to do?

In case you couldn't tell, I'm fairly new to this hobby. So I see people talking about geocoins and I thought I understood what they were all about. But then, I see where people mention taking them, trading them, moving them to a new cache and so on. My big question is, when is it "OK" to take a geocoin that you find in a cache? In general, are you always supposed to keep moving them like a travel bug, or are they fair game like swag? I've seen at least two while caching and have left them both. To confuse things even more, one of the coins I found had a single dice (die?) with it. It instructed to roll the die, 20 it moves -1 it stays. But what if you roll one of the other 18 numbers? LOL. Anyway, sounds like there are plenty of variable in knowing what to with geocoins. Thanks for the help, zonata

Thanks for the compliments. Here's the picture I took - and used for the sig item. Lampropeltis zonata multicincta Too bad it couldn't translate over in color. zonata

Well, I guess that answers my question then, it seems to be an acceptable thing to do. And by the way ZSandmann, it actually isn't my sig item, just a gift card. My sig item is a dog tag with a snake on it and the words zonata and gang. Here's a view of it latched onto our TB - "Crush"

My family and I have recently jumped into this geocaching thing and have had a great time. We own a small pizza joint in our home town and thought it would be a nice swag item to drop 1 gift card for a free small pizza in every cache we visit. I've read somewhere that advertising is not allowed, which I believe to be a very good policy. But would leaving a gift item such as this be considered crossing the line? My motivation is in just having something nice to add to the cache, as well as the fun factor of seeing a card returned from time to time. We also hand write the cache waypoint label, the date and sign the back of the card. This way, if one ever does come back, we know where they picked it up from. Fun for us, good for them. All that being said, I would hate to be one of those people that abuse this hobby. (I first mentioned this in another thread but decided it deserved it's own post) Thank you for your input, zonata and gang

This is an interesting topic. I too have been adding a little something to each cache we visit that I've wondered about. I leave a gift card for a small pizza at our pizza joint. It's completely free and I consider it swag with about a 10 dollar value. I only leave one per cache and sign, date and place the cache waypoint label on the back of the gift card. It's just a fun thing for me to see if any gift cards ever make it back and I feel that it is a nice swag item. I don't view it as advertisement, but someone else may. So, not sure if I'm crossing any lines, but my intensions are true enough. In addition to the gift card we always leave our sig item (pictured below attached to a travel bug [our own travel bug]). We rarely do any trading but we are looking forward to snatching up any sig items we come across. Oh, another thing too, we avoid cleaning out a cache of sig items. On a couple of occasions, we've left some sig items just because it didn't feel right taking them all. There were three, we took one. Not sure what the protocal on that one is, but I would like to take them all if it is acceptable. Here's the picture of our sig item along with "Crush" the travel bug.

I've looked over the site for available logos and various artwork to use in geocaching for various reasons. I've also looked for print ready text one could place on a label for a newly placed geocache. I haven't been able to come up with anything using the various search functions on the site so I was hopping some of you fine people could point me in the right direction. Thank you for your help, zonata

I've downloaded GPSBabel and have converted data from geocaching.com in an effort to use it directly in my National Geographic State Series Topo program. However, I've tried and tried and failed each time to get it right. Anyone out there have any experience with this? I've searched the archives and I'm betting there is something there, but I can't seem to find any specific topics on this exact issue. Your help is very much appreciated. zonata and gang UPDATE! Figured it out, pretty easy too, can't believe I missed it. The has the option to easily convert the data to .tpg DUH! So, for those that might be interested, there it is.