Well Ted put in a whopping 30 hours of overtime this weekend and so we decided that he could spend some of it on a GPS. Whoohoo! Can't wait to use it for caching. This weekend we are doing a multicache hunt that spans about 7-8 miles of hiking. I think there are 19 caches involved. I'm so excited!!!!
I hope it isn't raining. I've been loving the rain this past week since we were in a drought and needed it. But I want it nice, cool, overcast but not raining. LOL, right. Fat chance of it being cool in FL in May!!
Monday, May 18, 2009
More Failures
Oh well. We can't find them all with just our satellite photos! We tried a few near some ponds nearby. We came up empty handed on all three. We did bring bread to feed the ducks. And a momma duck brought her babies! Oh they were so cute :) . At that one I had the photo of the area wrong in my head and we were searching on the wrong side. Forgot to print it out.
The other two were very close to each other but by the time we got there dark was falling and we couldn't see well. We timed that one bad.
It was still fun to look!
The other two were very close to each other but by the time we got there dark was falling and we couldn't see well. We timed that one bad.
It was still fun to look!
Spring Break Cache Day!
Jake and I went out hunting for 9 caches this day. What fun!
The first two stops were in the neighborhood closeby. One street was SO busy. When the people finally went indoors and the cars stopped coming by, the mail lady came! Now we had to wait for her to finish the street LOL. I don't have a pic of that one because the people weren't home for me to ask. The next one was on a mailbox. Jake spied that one.
After that we went to a nearby church. This one was tough because it was just down a trail. We thought it was at the cross because of the hint, but not anywhere near it. But we found it!
Next was the library. A nice shiny little capsule hanging off that post. The satellite pics showed it way back in the woods so we tromped around there before deciding that the satellite was probably way off and let's just check that post on the way out....
On to the cemetery. This one was cool. It was hanging upside down inside the top cap of the fence corner post. Very good one! Had to take the pic from the car so it isn't very clear. But you can see the corner post back in the trees and palmettos. Pull that top cap off and inside is dangling a 35mm film canister. The graves are old too, was neat to see some history.
Those were our successes for the day. We had four failures that day, but that is okay. The first two were both at Target. Well guess what... the satellite photo of that area is a big area of TREES because there was no Target there at that time. It is new. So it was a bit hard. I tried to load up GPS on my phone for that day. But it wasn't quite accurate. So those 2 were no-go's. We spent at least 45 minutes just trying to figure them out even without a good photo.
The third one was very similar. It was at a StarBucks. But again... the satellite photos were Pre-Starbucks so it was another field and trees pic.
The fourth one was behind a WalMart. And even though it was mid afternoon I just didn't have a good feeling about traipsing around behind a shopping strip mall. It felt very unsafe so we'll have to go back with Ted.
We did great that day! All in all - good stuff!
Bok Tower Sanctuary
This is one of our favorite places to go visit. It is so beautiful! Well imagine my surprise when I learned there were 2 geocaches there on the scrub trail! We went during Spring Break. I had 2 satellite pics, but it was all trees and scrub land. I wasn't sure if we'd find the one. The 2nd one had some clues, but the first was just out there somewhere. Well we found it! I was very excited because it was one of the first ones we found that didn't really have landmarks closeby.
Late Night Errands
Our goals - WalMart & Home Depot.
First up - WalMart. This one is tough because no matter what time of day you go, WalMart is busy. It was about 9:30PM. We pulled into the lot and from the satellite pic it looked like it would be near a light post. We parked right near the one we thought it would be. Then we sat down on the cement divider and tried to look like we were just chatting and waiting for someone. Jake found this one and it was good. It was a flat refrigerator type magnet (you know, the kind you might get from a pizza place to stick on the fridge) and one side had the signing log on it. It was underneath the bottom of a small transmitter?? Transformer?? whatever it is called at the base of the lightpost. So thin that you couldn't really see it. And even when I felt for it I passed over it the first time. But Jake caught sight of it. Go Jake!
Next stop - Home Depot. While it definitely wasn't busy, since it was closed. It was a little harder because here we were in the dark in the parking lot with flashlights. Hmmm... This one was great! (pun intended). It was hanging off the chain on the sewer grate. A small 35mm film container cable tied to the chain. Jake found this one too!!
First up - WalMart. This one is tough because no matter what time of day you go, WalMart is busy. It was about 9:30PM. We pulled into the lot and from the satellite pic it looked like it would be near a light post. We parked right near the one we thought it would be. Then we sat down on the cement divider and tried to look like we were just chatting and waiting for someone. Jake found this one and it was good. It was a flat refrigerator type magnet (you know, the kind you might get from a pizza place to stick on the fridge) and one side had the signing log on it. It was underneath the bottom of a small transmitter?? Transformer?? whatever it is called at the base of the lightpost. So thin that you couldn't really see it. And even when I felt for it I passed over it the first time. But Jake caught sight of it. Go Jake!
Next stop - Home Depot. While it definitely wasn't busy, since it was closed. It was a little harder because here we were in the dark in the parking lot with flashlights. Hmmm... This one was great! (pun intended). It was hanging off the chain on the sewer grate. A small 35mm film container cable tied to the chain. Jake found this one too!!
Fire Towers & Produce Stands
Another after school cache hunt!
First stop was in the woods near a produce stand. I know we're supposed to do more urban ones, but I figured we could find this one. It was in a large stump. The bark actually was just pressed against the stump and it was hidden between bark and wood. But we found it! Fun. :)
Next stop was a stand of trees near a firetower. Ok, so there was this guy in a truck parked out in the field under those trees! The day before we sat for over 30 minutes at Cracker Barrel waiting. Now today we have some guy parked in a field under trees for some shade! What is he doing there? We thought he might have been caching, but he wasn't. There was a bus stop close by and we figured he must have been waiting for someone to come home on the bus and wanted to park in the shade. But when was the bus coming by? I don't know the bus schedules. How long would we have to wait?
We decided to give it until 4pm, which was again about 30 more minutes. We put an Adventures in Odyssey into the CD player and just listened to some stories while we waiting. Sure enough he pulled out about 4pm and we ran over and found the cache in about 10 seconds.
No pics yet, but I'll swing back by and get some soon!
First stop was in the woods near a produce stand. I know we're supposed to do more urban ones, but I figured we could find this one. It was in a large stump. The bark actually was just pressed against the stump and it was hidden between bark and wood. But we found it! Fun. :)
Next stop was a stand of trees near a firetower. Ok, so there was this guy in a truck parked out in the field under those trees! The day before we sat for over 30 minutes at Cracker Barrel waiting. Now today we have some guy parked in a field under trees for some shade! What is he doing there? We thought he might have been caching, but he wasn't. There was a bus stop close by and we figured he must have been waiting for someone to come home on the bus and wanted to park in the shade. But when was the bus coming by? I don't know the bus schedules. How long would we have to wait?
We decided to give it until 4pm, which was again about 30 more minutes. We put an Adventures in Odyssey into the CD player and just listened to some stories while we waiting. Sure enough he pulled out about 4pm and we ran over and found the cache in about 10 seconds.
No pics yet, but I'll swing back by and get some soon!
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Cracker Barrel Cache
After school I took Jake out for a hunt. The one we were after that day was at Cracker Barrel. The title hinted at being on the front porch. Well wouldn't you know there was this guy and his little boy just hanging around on the front porch! We went inside, bought some drinks and snacks and sat out on the rocking chairs. At various times Jake and I would wander along the porch pretending to just look at the things they had out there, but really scanning for our cache. After 30 minutes he was still there and I told Jake - he must be waiting for his wife to get off work, her shift will probably end at 4. At 4:05 out came a woman and they drove off. Yeah, now the area is ours!
We started poking around all of the items. One place that I kept coming back to was this huge black iron...something. I don't know what it was, some sort of... I can't even explain. Here's a pic! I know, it is a terrible pic. When we went back to take a picture there were people all over there.
Where I found it was insde, down toward the bottom and held by a magnet inside against the front portion. Getting it back was fun too, LOL.
We're Hooked!
After finding our first cache in the dark that night we were completely hooked. The next night we went out again to a park near our house. It was dark and the park was closed, so we jumped out of the car with our flashlights and quickly scanned the area. The security car had just passed the site so we knew we had a bit of time. The title of the cache was a bit of a clue, so we checked the racquetball courts. Our map showed it was in the grass nearby, but that couldn't be. I ran over to the edge of the courts and at the bottom of the fence around it, looked for something out of place, and yanked on a screw and it came out! There was a hollow plastic tube attached to the end of the screw inside the piping and inside that was a sign in log. Made it in and out in less than 10 minutes, and between patrols of the neighborhood security.
I'll have to get a pic, when no one is nearby. We have played at those courts for 20 years, and I think it said it had been there for 5 or 6!
I'll have to get a pic, when no one is nearby. We have played at those courts for 20 years, and I think it said it had been there for 5 or 6!
Caching Catchup!
We just found out about geocaching a few months ago. Ted came home and told me about it and that very night we went on a walk hunting for our first cache. It was fun, exciting, fun, fun!! LOL. Even though we don't have a gps we can still hunt for caches. We go to geocaching.com, find a cache nearby, plug in the coordinates over at google maps, and view the area by satellite. The first few times we committed the map to memory and then went looking. But when we wanted to do multiple ones I started printing them out. Since Ted is so busy working these days it is mostly Jake and myself that go looking after school.
Our first cache: This one is in a small metal box that has a magnet holding it to the street sign. Very obvious if you know it is there, but we drove by this several times a day, every day, for years! LOL.
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