I'm New And Ready To Go!

[Liber-T]

Okay, I'm ready for geocaching! Well...I think I am LOL I'm going to tell you my plan and you can tell me what's wrong or right with it, k?

 

I picked a town about 140 miles from my home then looked at a map and picked towns along the route. I entered their zip codes into the search thingie here and found caches in the area. I picked one or more from each area (easy ones as I will have my 3-year-old grandson with me, plus I am a wimp.) My daughter, grandson and I are going this weekend, we have no particular schedule and will probably get a motel at our destination and spend the night. I will print out the info pages for each cache before I go. I will use the printer at work. It is better than mine and it's free.

 

I chose a different route home and did the same thing as far as picking caches. We can do as many or as few as we are in the mood for and if DGS gets cranky (well, he's my excuse....actually *I* may get cranky) we can stop whenever or wherever we choose. I've got my GPS, we'll pack a cooler, take some trash bags, things to add to the caches we find (thinking positive here), a notebook to keep track so we can log them when we get home, a state map, 5 million dollars for gas.

 

Okay...is this going to work and what else do we need?

 

I am SO excited about this. My daughter freaked out when she saw the GPS.....said WOW THESE ARE SO COOL...we played with them at our school campout. Might have known the kid would know more about it than me.

 

It's great to be here! Hope you all can help me get off to a good start!

 

Jan

[+BlueDeuce]

what else do we need?

hmmmmm, bug spray?

 

 

Welcome and enjoy!

[+Skyman]

First of all WELCOME. Sounds like your off to a good start.

[+Skyman]

Please let us know how it went by posting in this thread hope it goes really well looking forward to reading about it.

[+webscouter.]

Hi Liber-T.

 

Welcome to the sport. You are well on your way.

 

A couple of things to look for, Unusual piles of sticks. (UPS) trails to the cache site. Don't take the hard way in because it is the shortest, most caches are not very far off of established trails.

 

When the GPS is showing about 20 feet put it down and start looking. Don't make the mistake of trying to get zero feet on the GPS. Remember there is an error and both you and the hider have it.

 

Hope you have a great time.

 

Jim

[+webscouter.]

You might also want to find one or two close to your house without the grandson before you go. It will help you find if you have found one before and then the GS won't get so restless. Also let him look, tell him it is a treasure hunt. He will probably be better at it than you.

[Liber-T]

You might also want to find one or two close to your house without the grandson before you go. It will help you find if you have found one before and then the GS won't get so restless. Also let him look, tell him it is a treasure hunt. He will probably be better at it than you. 

Good idea. I'll go do that now! I'll let you know how it works out! hehe This is so much fun.

[Liber-T]

OK taking the GPS back to Wal-Mart now! LOL ok j/k

 

My daughter and I ran down to a cache that was near our home. It was at a river access so I knew it probably would be weedy. Luckily it was a short drive because the conversation the whole way went something like this:

 

Daughter: Mom....it says you're supposed to be going THAT way.

 

Mom: Yes dear, I understand that, however, I think I'll stick to the road, k?

 

I had looked at so many cache pages before we went that I got confused (ok I'm normally confused) and thought it said something about a rotting log. Now that I'm home I find that the reality is it is in the crook of a tree. I found a really good poking stick though, that I kept for future use!

 

So instead of looking up, or looking in living trees which is probably where it is, we were poking around rotting logs and all the while I'm beating on the weeds with my poking stick and yelling, "OK snakes...YOU ARE MORE FRIGHTENED OF ME THAN I AM OF YOU" you know...just in case I ran into a snake that missed that class or something. (And if that's true, there are some mighty wimpy snakes out there.) We found some teeth and bones...not human...(well if they were it was one anatomically screwed up human with one hell of an overbite) but no cache. *sigh*

 

So now I'm home and showered and deticked (the neighbors seemed truly shocked when I stripped off my clothes on my doorstep. Might have to rethink that procedure) and cacheless.

 

*applying Frontline to nape of neck*

[+webscouter.]

So what cache were you looking for and did you post a DNF?

 

Anyway it sounds like you had a good time even without finding the cache.

[Liber-T]

So what cache were you looking for and did you post a DNF?

 

Anyway it sounds like you had a good time even without finding the cache.

We had a great time. I laughed a lot anyway. Daughter more rolls her eyes than anything when I'm having fun.

 

I didn't post it yet. I hate being such a loser LOL I will tho, I suppose.

 

It was the "Augusta Access" cache. Do these things have numbers or something or do you just go by names?

 

I'll go back and check this one out when the snakes are hibernating and the weeds are dead....January maybe.

[+webscouter.]

It is cache GCGABE all caches start with GC

 

Sometimes caches can have the same name so using the GC number is helpful.

[+Sonoran Privateers]

Whatever you do, don't give up. It's great that you have a good sense of humor about the learning process. And the learning process never ends..but that's a good thing.

 

You might want to spend a bit of time just playing around with your

gps until you're really familiar with its use...without a cache to find. Mark a location in the GPS that's already familiar to you...like your driveway. Then spend some time approaching it from different directions so you can see how the GPS acts. Some times they do strange things, but once you get use to it, you won't have a problem.

 

Once you and your GPS are 'one', then go back out for that elusive cache.

 

Practice makes, well, more practice, but better...and always read the manual.

 

Welcome to the sport, I'm pretty new too but completely addicted now.

 

Have fun

[+halffast]

Hi and welcome to geo-caching

My caching parner is my 3 yr.old grandson also.I cant think of anyone I would rather be caching with.I let him hold the gps and he tries to follow the arrow to the treasure chest.When I think I know where the cache is hidden I point Him in that direction and he looks until he finds it.He gets so exited and I tell him he is the best finder.He want to go every day.So enjoy the time with your grandson and let him pertisipate in it as much as you can.

[+Tyger4]

Awwww....just love stories like this. My dd was absolutely happy to hold the gps and use it. We were driving along (knew where cache was, but running errands) and dd was saying turn this way and turn that way, etc. So even though we werent going to the cache site at that time, she was directing me the whole time.

 

Just gotta love the lil ones joining in...just too great.

 

My dd was even happy to pic some awsome swag to leave behind. She is also thinking of signature items, handmade items, etc. This has her lil brain a moving now.

 

ttfn

[+Torry]

Welcome to the fun.

 

Sounds like you have a neat plan for a cache trip but I would suggest practicing on a couple of caches close to home before tackling a journey that may put you under some time constraints.

 

It's all for fun. Keep us posted.

[+Sevateem]

Print up more caches than you think you will do on a trip. Then print more.. you won't want to run out and don't have to do them all. I know this is late. Sorry.

[dbkb4au]

 

When the GPS is showing about 20 feet put it down and start looking. Don't make the mistake of trying to get zero feet on the GPS.

 

Oh, whew!!! Would you mind telling that to all the people who've seen me walking around in circles doing some sort of GPSr-dance?

 

Still trying to get the hang of the geocaching myself

[+AuntieWeasel]

Most people start with a few close to home, just to limber up. There's more to learn than you expect. Me, I picked the closest one, punched in the coords, and followed the arrow like grim death. It's a little miracle I didn't drive over the top of something I shouldn't, like grandpa or the Golden Palace Restaurant.

 

When I got to the cache site, I continued to follow the arrow like a weasel obsessed. Really, I could've gone *around* those briars, but I wasn't sure that was considered good sport. I got more scratched up doing this 1/1 in a manicured suburban park than I've done in many a long walk in the woods.

 

But you learn a little every time. It's all good, even if some of it is a little embarrassing.

[Liber-T]

Thanks to everyone for input. We had a great time. Found some, didn't find some. The kids loved going through the stuff in the caches to pick out what they wanted. Now I'm ready to buy a camper so we can do this more often! Time to start saving my pennies. LOL We learned so much from this little trip and will be so much smarter next time (I hope).