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How do you save money while Geocaching?


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14 minutes ago, colleda said:

I save by staying away from casinos.:laughing:

 

I disagree.  When I was in Macau, I helped fund my geocaching trip by going into the Grand Lisboa Casino.  I put $10 (approx $1.25USD) on black on a roulette table, and got $20 back.  Cashed out, used their toilet, and then continued caching. :)

Edited by funkymunkyzone
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39 minutes ago, funkymunkyzone said:

 

I disagree.  When I was in Macau, I helped fund my geocaching trip by going into the Grand Lisboa Casino.  I put $10 (approx $1.25USD) on black on a roulette table, and got $20 back.  Cashed out, used their toilet, and then continued caching. :)

Beginner's luck?:cool:

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I bike or hike some urban caches that other people might PnG. I don't do powertrails, don't try to maintain a streak, don't chase FTFs. If I go caching more than an hour away I'm going to spend the whole day caching, or at least doing something in that area (ex: visiting museums). Try to make the most out of a drive somewhere.

 

I geocache the most on my vacations, but that's combining the geocaching with the vacationing. For example, Florida has a county challenge. Many people will spend a weekend racing around the panhandle trying to get as many counties in 48 hours as possible. I got all the panhandle counties in a week-long vacation where I also visited various museums, historic sites, etc that I wanted to see in the area.

 

For many states I've been to state park admission is good all day not just for that park, but any state park. So for smaller parks I'll try to hit several in one day so I pay less admission.

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On 1/11/2020 at 12:45 AM, Goldenwattle said:

The 500kms is for a new battery. Older batteries will do less. Then if it's anything like the quote that is given for how many litres of petrol a car will use to do a km, the distance a car will do on a full charge, even with a new battery, will be less than the given distance in the real world. Then as I mentioned there's the problem of head winds, luggage weight, etc that will reduce that distance further. Then having enough charging stations so people don't need to wait for hours. I have seen queues of cars (and their caravans, another hindrance which will reduce the distance the electric car will travel further) lined up at some petrol stations now in the outback. Cars can be filled much quicker with petrol than they can be charged with electricity, and that I have been told is mostly to 80% at those charging stations, further reducing the distance a car is quoted as doing. Also (saying what I have been told by people with more knowledge in this matter than me) not fully charging the battery reduces the life of the battery. To charge the equivalent amount of cars that those large road house service stations are handling now would require huge amounts of land to park all those cars for the time it takes to charge then. It's fine if a car can go home each night and plug in, but not all cars can do this; they will need to use a public charging station. Imagine street after street with a charging station at each parking spot and the infrastructure needed to put those in and improve the electric supply network to cope. It's fine when there are only a few electric cars as now, but if all the fuel cars were replaced, imagine what then. There are problems with hydrogen but compared to what electric cars need, especially away from urban areas, it appears hydrogen is the future for Australia.

Not everyone stays at motels when travelling. Look at the masses of grey nomads travelling. Many free camp, where there is no mains power. I am talking about situations away from urban areas, which is a lot of Australia. Electric cars will work well in urban areas, especially where a person can plug their car in at home. Also is semi urban areas, which many areas along the east coast could be classified as. But head inland and it can be long distances, often with limited power available, and what there is might be diesel generated, or small solar farms, that don't have the capacity to handle lots of electric cars.

Older cars don't do less. On electric cars, they start off only charging to 80% and discharging to 20%, e.g. only 60% of the battery capacity is being used. Over the expected life of the battery, usually 100,000km or 7 years, it slowly starts using that extra 40% so that the actual distance you can drive doesn't change, of course eventually at the expense of battery health.

 

It's the mobile phone constant 100% - 0% cycles which destroy batteries quickly.

 

80% - 20% extend battery life but also mean that your range should never reduce until a new battery is required well down the line. Nissan Leafs with well over 100k miles are still showing 85% battery capacity which, for someone buying a second hand car, may well be enough.

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28 minutes ago, BethDaddyKaty said:

Older cars don't do less. On electric cars, they start off only charging to 80% and discharging to 20%, e.g. only 60% of the battery capacity is being used. Over the expected life of the battery, usually 100,000km or 7 years, it slowly starts using that extra 40% so that the actual distance you can drive doesn't change, of course eventually at the expense of battery health.

 

It's the mobile phone constant 100% - 0% cycles which destroy batteries quickly.

 

80% - 20% extend battery life but also mean that your range should never reduce until a new battery is required well down the line. Nissan Leafs with well over 100k miles are still showing 85% battery capacity which, for someone buying a second hand car, may well be enough.

Here is an article. Old batteries do lose capacity.

https://qz.com/1768921/how-to-make-electric-car-batteries-last-longer/

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3 minutes ago, Goldenwattle said:

Here is an article. Old batteries do lose capacity.

https://qz.com/1768921/how-to-make-electric-car-batteries-last-longer/

They lose capacity. But they have spare capacity built in, which you can't use when the car is new.

 

So the usable capacity to the driver never changes because software is limiting their initial use of the battery,. You only lose usable capacity at the age you would be expecting to replace significant items on an ICE car. I'm not sure if it's really fair to say that capacity is lost because what drivers ultimately care about is usable capacity, not theoretical capacity. After all, my car can go 160mph, but I wouldn't say that's a usable speed at least for my purposes.

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On 1/9/2020 at 4:53 PM, meganlettucetomato said:

Going on excursions, buying lunches, and staying places overnight can add up. How do you save money while geocaching?

 

When we geocache in other states, it's only when we are traveling there anyway. I love looking for places where you can cache and have a picnic. 

 

Edited to save a cache from my personal assumptions. 

Edited by HunterandSamuel
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54 minutes ago, HunterandSamuel said:

 

When we geocache in other states, it's only when we are traveling there anyway. I love looking for places where you can cache and have a picnic. But one time we found a cache hidden on the porch of a restaurant (Cracker Barrel). lol So of course we felt obligated to have lunch, probably why it was placed there! By the owner or manager I bet. In some of the logs, it was mentioned the "manager" helped them find it (it's a very difficult cache to find). Good marketing! 

 

I assume that you're familiar with the No Commercial Caches guideline.  If the cache listing gives the perception that was placed with commercial intent (to drum up business) it would be in violation of the guidelines.  

 

Both of my finds in Ethiopia were at hotels, and in neither case was I staying at the hotel where it was located.  In once case I was staying in the hotel next door though.  

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10 minutes ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

I assume that you're familiar with the No Commercial Caches guideline.  If the cache listing gives the perception that was placed with commercial intent (to drum up business) it would be in violation of the guidelines.  

 

Sure but this was my personal assumption. Are you going to report them? I'll edit my opinions. 

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22 minutes ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

Both of my finds in Ethiopia were at hotels, and in neither case was I staying at the hotel where it was located.  In once case I was staying in the hotel next door though.  

 

Just because you stayed in a hotel next door doesn't take away the attempt of the hotel with the cache hide...to drum up business. I think it's great marketing. With many businesses suffering today...maybe geocaching.com can help in some way. 

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28 minutes ago, HunterandSamuel said:

 

Sure but this was my personal assumption. Are you going to report them? I'll edit my opinions. 

 

No.  I have come across quite a few caches for which I'm glad that reviewers have allowed a bit of leniency.  However, one of the attractions of the game to me is that there is actually an effort to keep commercial solicitation to a minimum, so that we can mostly play the game without a constant bombardment from others trying to sell us something.

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If a business owner wants to use geocaching to drum of business, they have to be VERY stealthy about it. But geocaches places near businesses or inside if approved have a good chance of increasing collateral activity, to an extent. Creative placement could put the business on the mind of the geocacher without explicitly referencing the business.  Business can indeed partner with GC in the context of Geotours.  But the key point to remember through all of this is that even if the geocache is located inside a business, it cannot encourage patronage, it must be free (insofar as products/services are concerned), and I believe access can only be limited as far as business hours, which can be listed on the cache page or linked to (again as a point of information, not a call to action).  And if a cache owner attempts to covertly make some changes after it's approved and published, all it would take is one person to report it... but many people don't want to be "that guy/girl". :P

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As for keeping costs down, one thing I do for road trips is not worry about accommodation - that saves a bundle!  Even AirBNB.  Have equipment to set up your vehicle for sleeping, and you can find a parking spot - most Walmart lots have a quiet corner, or some parks' lots are secluded enough if they don't have a no overnight parking bylaw.  If I'm on a mnulti-day road trip, I can car-camp for 3 or 4 nights before considering a decent bed.  For my Iceland trip I only slept in my rental. And it was fantastic! More time, flexibility, money to use for geocaching and traveling. Good sleep? Maybe when I get home :)

 

I invested in a few items, included compact 1-person mattress and a car tent - a trunk cover that gives a bit more room in the tail, opens the door for air flow, and is entirely off the ground. A little more work if you're in a parking lot, but great for quick overnights in random secluded places. And the nice thing is sleeping in the car gives you some flexibility on warm/cold preferences depending on time of year.

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3 hours ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

I assume that you're familiar with the No Commercial Caches guideline.

I had to change the wording in a cache once - a suburban 3.5 km multi that I suggested be walked or cycled - when I said you would be able to take a break and get a cup of coffee. I changed it to, goes past the local creek, past houses, past shops, etc and that got through. Shops is basically the same as coffee, as most shops have one or more cafés. The Attributes have a food attribute, so what's the difference? I for one like to know where I can find a café and have a sit down with something to drink. It it so much part of a day of (civilised :D) caching. The shops in question have three cafés, a bakery and a supermarket, all of which food and drink can be purchased from, so I was not pushing an individual business. There are also places to sit and rest for people who don't want a café. I had placed no WP at the shops.

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2 hours ago, thebruce0 said:

Have equipment to set up your vehicle for sleeping

On several trips I have placed a single mattress in a car, setting it up properly with pillows, sheets and covers, and slept well. I have a Subaru XV at present. There is enough room to stretch out fully, with the back seat down, for my height of 165cms. (I really wish though, that car manufacturers would make the back of the car, completely flat. I need to add a thin pillow to fix the uneven fault the Subaru has.) My esky (ice box) sits next to it and acts as a side table, where I place my lamp (so I can read in bed) and clock when in bed. Not having toilet facilities as many caravans do, I usually stay in caravan parks so I can use clean showers and (flush) toilets. In more remote towns some country pubs supply these facilities at very cheap prices. (From A$6 a night I have had these, and that one included free use of a washing machine and clotheline.) Likely hoping for extra customers.  Books have been published in Australia listing free and cheap places to stay for free camping. A few councils have set up free places to camp with toilets, trying to bring customers into the local town to spend money. There is a huge number of so-called 'grey nomads' roaming the continent and moving location to suit the season. Retired people. The Sturt Highway, for example, has been described as a convener belt for caravans. (I would add the Barkly Highway to that.) These books give the coordinates and facilities to expect at these free camp sites. I have also free camped several times at sites that have flush toilets (minimum for me), as long as others are camping there. Dangerous for a lone camper.

The first time I free camped was in Tasmania. (On a caching trip.) Evening was coming on and I had been driving in the west of the island and not found a town for ages. I was wondering where I would spend the night, when I came upon half a dozen caravans and campervans parked in a picnic spot in the middle of a thick forest. I pulled over in relief and joined them. No lights, no electricity, but flush toilets. A cold stream if anyone wanted a dip. A great night. A group had a fire going and the kettle on and I joined them. I was carrying my own food and water.

Photographs: A couple of free camping places in Tasmania, with my car at the time. The first one was my first time free camping, and the second one, with more campers, was set up by the local council and as well as toilets, included showers (for a price).

Hellyer Gorge, Tas camping.jpg

Free camping.jpg

Edited by Goldenwattle
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When I've been in the UK chatting with whoever about facilities for travelers (different connotation in UK = gypsies I believe). I mention many parks in our state have free parking,  free electric BBQs, often with clean, council maintained, toilets close by. Further out from suburbia there are rest stops with pit toilets, rain water tanks and BBQs with a council supplied wood pile for fuel. The usual response has been pleasant surprise then a comment like such things "wouldn't last two minutes here before they're destroyed by vandals".

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16 hours ago, thebruce0 said:

Creative placement could put the business on the mind of the geocacher without explicitly referencing the business. 

 

One of our caches is hidden directly across from a few unique businesses with the intention to bring people from the adjoining city who never even knew this quaint location was there. And also to hide a cache of course.  Is it okay to do this and also is it okay to approach the business owner/parking lot owner when asking for permission that this can possibly help increase business? Businesses who give permission to plant a cache on their property, such as a light fixture in the parking lot, should have the favor returned to them in some way although not violating guidelines, in my opinion.

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16 hours ago, thebruce0 said:

I invested in a few items, included compact 1-person mattress and a car tent - a trunk cover that gives a bit more room in the tail, opens the door for air flow, and is entirely off the ground. A little more work if you're in a parking lot, but great for quick overnights in random secluded places. And the nice thing is sleeping in the car gives you some flexibility on warm/cold preferences depending on time of year.

 

I would love to do this!  But I use CPAP equipment for sleeping because of sleep apnea. The equipment needs an electrical outlet. When we camp, we rent a site with electricity. There are portable batteries that I can buy though the CPAP supply store but they are around $300! Love your idea of a car tent and mattress!

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1 hour ago, HunterandSamuel said:
17 hours ago, thebruce0 said:

Creative placement could put the business on the mind of the geocacher without explicitly referencing the business. 

 

One of our caches is hidden directly across from a few unique businesses with the intention to bring people from the adjoining city who never even knew this quaint location was there. And also to hide a cache of course.  Is it okay to do this and also is it okay to approach the business owner/parking lot owner when asking for permission that this can possibly help increase business? Businesses who give permission to plant a cache on their property, such as a light fixture in the parking lot, should have the favor returned to them in some way although not violating guidelines, in my opinion.

 

Standard agenda/commercial rules apply. If a cache can stand alone and doesn't encourage any non-geocaching-related activity, then it's fine (assuming permission of course). So yes, a cache can be placed in a business, if it has permission, and doesn't encourage or promote said business. When I say 'put the business on the mind', I mean something like - a geocache about donuts (not encouraging people to eat them) placed in the lot of a donut shop. Perhaps permission was given by the shop owner - but when a business gives permission, they have to be informed first that the geocache cannot be used for self promotion. It has to exist primarily for the hobby, and a collateral benefit may be increased traffic. So it sure could have a benefit to the local business, but some owners may not want to 'invest' (or risk liability) if they can't guarantee a direct revenue. So you never know.  Geocaches aren't marketing. They aren't promotion. To get to that level it requires explicit permission from Geocaching HQ (at least insofar as listing them on geocaching.com - other sites may not have the same standards).

 

Geotours, again, are a good example of partnerships with businesses promoting the each other. On the higher scale there may be promotional contracts as we see with unique Trackable promotions, or way back when the APE Cache campaign partnered GC with the studio to promote Planet Of The Apes.

 

Anything directly or overtly commercial means explicit permission from HQ.

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1 hour ago, thebruce0 said:

When I say 'put the business on the mind', I mean something like - a geocache about donuts (not encouraging people to eat them) placed in the lot of a donut shop. Perhaps permission was given by the shop owner - but when a business gives permission, they have to be informed first that the geocache cannot be used for self promotion. It has to exist primarily for the hobby, and a collateral benefit may be increased traffic. So it sure could have a benefit to the local business, but some owners may not want to 'invest' (or risk liability) if they can't guarantee a direct revenue. So you never know.  Geocaches aren't marketing. They aren't promotion. To get to that level it requires explicit permission from Geocaching HQ (at least insofar as listing them on geocaching.com - other sites may not have the same standards).

 

Great advice. Thanks.

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I found this important quote in Geocache Hide Guidelines. 

 

"When you go to hide a geocache, think of the reason you are bringing people to that spot. If the only reason is for the geocache, then find a better spot."

briansnat, Charter Member

 

https://www.geocaching.com/play/guidelines#commercialcaches

 

 

When hiding our caches in the park, it's to bring people to the park that has a beautiful pond for fishing, ice skating in the winter, picnic tables, hiking trails, dog park, etc. When hiding caches on the bike path, it's to promote exercise and good health plus learn about the history of the rail road tracks before it was a bike path. And then we have a few park & grabs for easy smileys. Many cachers seem to like them.
 

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3 hours ago, HunterandSamuel said:

One of our caches is hidden directly across from a few unique businesses with the intention to bring people from the adjoining city who never even knew this quaint location was there. And also to hide a cache of course.  Is it okay to do this and also is it okay to approach the business owner/parking lot owner when asking for permission that this can possibly help increase business? Businesses who give permission to plant a cache on their property, such as a light fixture in the parking lot, should have the favor returned to them in some way although not violating guidelines, in my opinion.

 

Caches are not supposed to have commercial content or be placed for the benefit of a business.  That'd be advertising, and Groundspeak, being a business, is not keen to do it for free.

 

Businesses who want to use geocaches for advertising purposes have the option of partnering with Groundspeak to do so.  See, e.g., the A.P.E. caches, which promoted the Planet of the Apes re-release, or on a smaller scale, the promotional caches hidden by "Galaxy," a character in the movie "Splinterheads," to promote that movie.

 

But I don't see what this has to do with the subject of this thread - "How do you save money while Geocaching?" - so I'll stop here.

Edited by hzoi
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22 hours ago, HunterandSamuel said:

When we geocache in other states, it's only when we are traveling there anyway.  I love looking for places where you can cache and have a picnic. But one time we found a cache hidden on the porch of a restaurant (Cracker Barrel). lol So of course we felt obligated to have lunch, probably why it was placed there! By the owner or manager I bet.

 

Ah, I see how this got started.  Never mind.

 

I am willing to bet that most of the "Off Your Rocker" caches placed on Cracker Barrel porches are done without permission, but allowed to stay once management finds out.  I don't review physical caches in my other capacity, so I've never really had to worry about it.

 

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3 hours ago, HunterandSamuel said:

Another question...although we do not advertise the business nor post their photo, what if a geocacher who found the cache posted a photo of one of the businesses?

 

The commercial guideline is specifically about the cache listing.   If another geocacher included a photo of the business in the log, a reviewer most likely would not do anyting.  If the cache owner posted a log or attached a photo of a business that may be enough for the reviewer to determine that the listing creates a perception that cache listing promotes a commercial enterprise it might not be published.  Specifically, the language reads: " Cache pages perceived as commercial will not be published."  The key word there is "perceived".  Even if you don't intent on promoting a nearby business, if the listing creates a perception that it is commercial in nature, that's all that matters.   In almost every case, it boils down to the language used on the listing and a reviewer might even suggest a change in the wording that will allow it to be published.  The "no agenda" guideline is very similar.  

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4 minutes ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

The commercial guideline is specifically about the cache listing.   If another geocacher included a photo of the business in the log, a reviewer most likely would not do anyting

 

Phew! Thanks. I tried removing it but couldn't. How come cache owners can't remove photos others post (in the photo gallery)? And to keep this on topic...if you want to save money while geocaching...avoid caches hidden near yummy restaurants. Cost us $40!

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2 hours ago, HunterandSamuel said:

How come cache owners can't remove photos others post (in the photo gallery)?

 

They can. Go to the log where the image is posted, click on View Log, then select the image (if there's more than one) and then Edit Image. On the top right is the option to delete it. Here's an example from a log on one of my caches:

image.png.619aa864b2ac54632ab3935901c9481c.png

Edited by barefootjeff
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5 hours ago, on4bam said:

The day I have to save money to go geocaching will be the day I will give it up. No hobby is worth the need to save for it.

 

 

When I was in my early teens I started getting into hobbiest electronics. I had to save my allowance for however many weeks (or months) it took to buy the parts I needed for the various projects I built. That hobby eventually turned into a well-paid career spanning forty years which has left me comfortably well-off in retirement, where I can now enjoy my new hobby (caching) without having to worry about what it costs.

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2 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

 

When I was in my early teens I started getting into hobbiest electronics. I had to save my allowance for however many weeks (or months) it took to buy the parts I needed for the various projects I built. That hobby eventually turned into a well-paid career spanning forty years which has left me comfortably well-off in retirement, where I can now enjoy my new hobby (caching) without having to worry about what it costs.

Snap!

 

When I was a kid and the internet was "new" circa 1998 my parents thought spending money on computers and coding was a waste of money.

 

Although not my full time job now it was my first "proper" job, allowing me to move to London and still provides nice pocket money for (relatively) little work compared to nursing!

 

Plenty of people seem to be making cottage industries from geocaching, selling cache containers and the like. If Groundspeak opened their API a bit then us coders could make a few quid as well, only need to see how popular Project GC is despite in the nicest way being a bit clunky.

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15 hours ago, Harry Dolphin said:

 

When I was a kid, my father was an engineer on the first ship laying the Trans Atlantic cable.  1956.  Times have changed.

 That would be a telephone cable. The first permanent Trans Atlantic telegraph cable was laid in 1866. I mention this only because I was astounded when I learned this and it’s factoid I haven’t forgotten. 

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On 1/15/2020 at 8:49 AM, on4bam said:

The day I have to save money to go geocaching will be the day I will give it up. No hobby is worth the need to save for it.

 

Some hobbies can get quite expensive.

 

Car racing for example.

 

However, even competitive ballroom dancing, once one figures in the cost of clothes, travel to competitions, and dance classes can cost over $10K a year.  

 

As hobbies go Geocache can be very inexpensive, but can also get quite expensive if one travels to cache.  Of course,  "expensive" is relative.   Most geocaches dont' have to save up to go geocaching, but not everyone has the available income go whenever they'd like.  

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51 minutes ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

Some hobbies can get quite expensive.

 

Tell me about it :lol:

 

We like to travel, I'm a radio amateur and I'm into photography.... geocaching is cheap B)

This after a full working career, of course. After working so many years it time to enjoy the fruits of all those blood, sweat and tears on the chain gang.

 

As the father of one of my old colleagues used to say: "if you die with money in your account, you haven't spend enough enjoying life".

 

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9 hours ago, on4bam said:

 

Tell me about it :lol:

 

We like to travel, I'm a radio amateur and I'm into photography.... geocaching is cheap B)

This after a full working career, of course. After working so many years it time to enjoy the fruits of all those blood, sweat and tears on the chain gang.

 

As the father of one of my old colleagues used to say: "if you die with money in your account, you haven't spend enough enjoying life".

 

That's like the bumper sticker on the back of an RV "We're spending our kids inheritance".  I'm glad we're still 'young' enough to get out and do what we want, when we want and not have to worry the money much.

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On 1/15/2020 at 2:35 PM, barefootjeff said:

They can. Go to the log where the image is posted, click on View Log, then select the image (if there's more than one) and then Edit Image. On the top right is the option to delete it. Here's an example from a log on one of my caches:

 

 

It worked. Thanks again. I deleted a photo from a favorite geocacher of mine because it showed the exact location of the cache. Also,  the cache was temporary until the new bolt cache arrived. I read that when you delete a log, cachers gets a notice that their log was deleted. Is the same true for photos that are deleted? I don't want to offend him. 

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