The MidWest GeoBash 2008 August 13, 2008

I guilted my sister-in-law, God’s Lil Cache, into going to this Mega event.  It was a mere 4 hour drive.  Well, 4 hours if you drove directly there.  Needless to say we did not make it in 4 hours due to the caches that called our name on the way.  We had one DNF that day and hours of goofy conversation! The weekend as a whole was great!  We had to head back on Saturday morning so both of us could  be back for our responsibilities at church.  So sadly we missed the various sessions that were offered and we aren’t in the group picture.  But on the upside we did miss the downpour that occured!

My firsts for the weekend:

• camping!
• going to Wal-Mart at 2 in the morning in my PJs.
• real s’mores on a fire
• quesadillas around the campfire
• seeing a campfire lit with a “weed burner” turned up to MELT
• doing a cache that required pouring water
• seeing multiple tree stump headstones in one weekend

I was a great weekend!  If you ever have a chance to go visit – take it!

Big Geo-trip Day 2 July 1, 2008

Since the possibility of finding a large number of caches in one day has disappeared, it seems that our motivation to get an early start has left also.  So finally around 11 a.m. this morning we started on our way to the library to get an internet connection.  Normally we use a paperless caching system but that requires being able to hook both the GPSr and my ancient Palm into a computer.  That was not going to happen on the library computers.  So we began the process of rethinking our caching route to avoid as many ticks as possible.  But we were back to doing this the old fashioned way with pen and paper to keep our list of coordinates and hints.  Needless to say this was PAINFULLY slow and I was not looking forward to entering all those number into my Garmin Etrex either.  After we had our list we asked the librarian if she knew of anywhere in town that offered free Wifi.  She looked at us strangely and said, “Here”.  Duh- why didn’t we ask that first?!?

So we sat back down, fired up my laptop and got to bookmarking and making a pocket query.  After downloading the query off my email we took off for the local laundry mat.  Why you ask?  Well because the really hot dryers where going to kill all the ticks left on our clothes from yesterday.  And before you ask, yes there were still ticks…..really tiny ones.  I know this because when we put our clothes in the garbage bag to seal them up I got another one on me.  So we ate lunch, waited for the ticks to die and hooked up the Palm and the GPSr to the laptop.

By 2 p.m. we were finally looking for our first cache of the day.  Unfortunately once the MOGA caches were eliminated caching meant lots of drive time.  So we looked for 8 and found 6 today but we did lots of hiking.  We saw a really beautiful waterfall.

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We used a TON of Off bug spray and sweated a lot.  Good thing it wasn’t really that hot today.  And I am happy to report that today we only came into contact with 3 ticks today.  Now let’s see that 5 hours of caching, 6 finds and 3 ticks today and 30 minutes of caching, 40 ticks and 1 find yesterday.  Even the math says that today was a better day.   By 7 we were beginning to wind down and the place we wanted to eat at closed at 9 p.m.   So we started back “home”.  The restaurant we ate at was called The Rustic Oak Cabin.  I spent all of $11 dollars and got one of the best meals I’ve had in a long time.  I would highly recommend it to anyone in a 60 mile radius!  Bring a sweet tooth because the dessert menu looks fantastic.  We were too stuffed to try any of them and that made everyone at our table really sad.

Tomorrow we’re leaving at 8 a.m. to begin heading home.  The plan is to hit Springfield and Decatur in a big way.  Our goal for tomorrow?  ZERO TICKS!

The Big Geo-trip Day 1 June 30, 2008

We left home and began on our way.  By the time we got to Springfield we were ready to get out and stretch our legs.  We managed to get 4 quick finds on the edge of this wonderful town.  Thanks to geojeeper74 and  schnauzermomx2 for putting these caches out for us to find!  The day was sunny and warm but not hot and there was a slight breeze.  I even managed to drive this portion of the trip and I must say I was pretty proud of my self.    Normally any chance I have to   pass the driving on to someone else I will do it!  None of the caches were anything extraordinary in Springfield.  We enjoyed looking for them but no huge challenges.

So we got back in the HHR and off we went toward Hannibal, MO where we were going to buy our groceries for the three days.  We managed to get our turkey sandwich supplies along with everything we needed to have breakfast in the room.  All this means that we only need to buy supper out in the hopes of saving some moola toward our next possible geo-trip.  Hannibal is still flooded in the downtown areas and we were looking forward to caching in the old MOGA areas so off we went.  We checked into our hotel and changed clothes for caching in the woods.  This involved long pants, hiking boots, sunscreen and LOTS of bug spray for me.

Upon arriving at Mark Twain Lake we were informed that the area that hosted the 2008 MOGA event was closed due to high water.  But the area from MOGA 2007 was still open so we got our bright orange Geo Caching hangtag and off we went to find parking.  We set off to find Becky Thatcher Cache this required a tromp through a quarter mile of knee high grass.  But Ahhhh we found it!  Upon finding it I had to make a quick trip to the nearby bathroom facilities.  While in said bathroom I found 3 large ticks on myself.  This took me back outside where I found my caching buddy, God’s lil Cache, was picking what she hoped was little “spiders” off her legs.  But these “spiders” had the clinging power of a cocklebur and were also strangely flat bodied.  I calmly tell her that, “Ummmm, I think those be ticks hon.”   And so began our tick picking party….. In all between the two of us over 40 ticks were found.  Most of them were found on God’s lil Cache.  Did I mention she was wearing shorts?

And so what have we learned?

1. Long pants are a MUST in the forest.
2. Bugspray helps with mosquitos but not much with ticks.
3. Light colored long pants make the ticks easier to see.
4. Husbands back home are really nice about looking up info on the net for you about how to make SURE you get all the ticks off the clothes you were wearing.
5. From now on Bren1273 will be doing her forest caches in the frozen months of the  year!!

So Day 2 of the Geo-trip will be re-planned tomorrow. We will need an internet connection and I think we’re going to try to do some urban caching in Hannibal.  Our dreams of searching for lots of caches in the same area are dashed at least until the next freeze.  More tomorrow…….

Check and Check February 25, 2008

Today I checked off all my set up to be gone to the ICE Conference on Thursday and Friday.  This is my first year attending this conference or ANY conference that is completely tech focused.  I’m really looking forward to learning all kinds of new things but I’m really excited about meeting some of the people I’ve been interacting with online.  Then on Saturday after the conference is over I’m going to spend the day geocaching near St. Charles with my sister-in-law.  It’s going to be a great weekend!

Paperless Caching 2 August 17, 2007

My Palm IIIc came in the mail today.  Ebay is a wonderful place!  For a mere $40 I am now the proud owner of a really outdated PDA package that will work wonderfully for geocaching.  As a result a spent a few minutes on the net figuring out exactly how to make my new PDA work for geocaching.  I went directly to one of my favorite sites called Geocacher University written by a geocacher called CYBret.  Bret has put together a page on paperless caching that took me through the whole process with no problems.

So I’m now ready for my next caching adventure!  I’m taking a trip to Pontiac on Friday so that I’ll be out of the cleaning ladies’ way.  (By the way “thanks” to the cleaning ladies!!!)  Then I’m going to Indiana on Saturday with my sister-in-law for a last round of caching before the school year begins.  The trip to Indiana will mean a new red  state on my geocaching map!  I’m looking forward to the challenge and the exercise!