Daily Check In

Welcome back Elf, what a great trip! And what a great memory for your kids. They do grow up before we know it.
It's a small world; a friend of mine was in Turkey at the same time you were. I met her through geocaching - we were finding some of the same caches, and it turns out she has a vacation house 1/2 mile from my house! So now when she comes up we go caching together. (That's her in my profile picture now that I think of it.)

I finished my 1st Challenge and got to #300 in the process. Took us 4 weeks of working on it and driving around the county. It was really fun, now to get back to reality!

Sounds like you had a great trip - I'm glad to hear it! You found caches at some places I visited a couple months before I discovered geocaching... I wish I would have known at the time!

I've had a busy week. I think I finally got all the caches I found logged in. It seems I found a total of 30 caches including 1 in Turkey, 2 in Vatican City, 5 in Greece and 22 in Italy (in 4 different provinces). I found 1 Earthcache and 1 virtual with all the others being traditional caches.

Many of these were memorable, particularly in Santorini, Greece and in Naples, Italy where I had to do some really long hikes but was rewarded with some spectacular views and getting to see some European areas which were less overridden with tourists. I got to walk on the Circus Maximus (where the chariot races used to be held, found caches at the Fountain of Trevi (a tupperware container in an area with literally thousands of muggles!!), the Spanish Steps, the Vatican Wall, the oldest complete and partial bridges standing in Rome, the birthplace of Enrico Fermi, Mt. Etna, etc, etc ,etc.

I particularly enjoyed getting some alone time (or with just my son), either first thing in the morning before my wife and kids got up or after the excursions when they headed back to the boat or to do shopping. I got in a lot of exercise as a result. One day my wife recorded 18,000 steps but I had walked for 2 1/2 hours (probably 5 miles) extra during the morning before she even got up. I ate a lot of great food which did make me end up with about a 4 1/2 pound weight gain but it would have been worse if I hadn't done as much activity.

It was a great trip. Unfortunately, I won't be able to afford a similar trip until our 20th wedding anniversary (5 years!). I am sure our rapidly maturing kids will look back on this as one of the funnest trips we ever made.

Welcome back Elf - sorry to hear about your daughter. Luckily she had an expert at hand! Sounds like you had a great trip - I'm excited to hear about it when you have time.

Hi everyone! I'm back!

All in all, it was a great trip. My daughter got sick from Lyme disease herself early on in the trip (with the classic rash, fevers, and arthralgias with early disseminated Lyme) but we got her started on antibiotics and she did pretty well.

I found caches in 4 countries - Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Vatican City. I am just quickly checking in but will probably be very busy for the next week or so trying to get caught up.

I gained 6.4 lbs over the trip but I am hoping that some of that is simply swelling from air travel. I know I did a lot of walking associated with several caches. Caching got me away from the main tourist attractions which enhanced the trip!

You're welcome - they're not as bad around here right now - seems to be early spring and late fall for us.

Thank you Peggy! That is just what I was remembering - good info from a pro!

Here you go Bren

www.sparkpeople.com/myspark/team_mes
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Just wanted to remind everyone it's tick season again. I picked up 2 in the last 2 weeks, never had one in my life until now. I always check around my ankles but these were both under the waistband of my jeans! Never thought to look there. Must be from sitting down to sign the logs.
Here in NE we have deer ticks that carry Lyme disease, among others. I've read that it takes a couple days to transmit any disease so I should be ok, but I'm watching the bites.

I remember a good discussion on this last summer on this board but can't find it now. We need Elfdoctors back!

Check yourself!
Brenda

Have a safe and fabulous trip, Elf!

I just finished loading caches I would like to find during my trip. If I am lucky, I will get caches in Italy, Greece, Vatican City and Turkey. I'm off to the airport right now!

Sounds fun Bren!

Headed to Maine tomorrow for a long weekend for our 32nd anniversary. Got a list of caches locked and loaded! It will be a new state on my profile so I'm excited.
3 days of walking the beach, geocaching, and eating lots of lobstah! My kind of vacation

There were several cachers out in our area finding my caches over the weekend.

I hit 56 yesterday...good number...LOL...off again today.....I am going for 100 too...

I hid my first one at night and the next morning they found it. It's fun seeing who gets to it. Mine is easy too. I found 5 yesterday & scoped out where 3 more are-just couldn't get to them becaus eof the dark.

Oh your day will come! I love the friendly competition of local cachers and getting to know them through reading the logs. Its fun to see how much fun YOU are having with this hobby. I know I sure do! (And if you have geocaching injuries, you are an official geocacher!
Welcome to the club!

Yep - within 15 minutes (after the first one that is) I had 3 people log in. That kind of dedication is kinda scary :-)

Seriously, I'd knock over a grandma selling a box of kittens if I thought I could be a FTF.



Edited by: NUILOA at: 5/11/2010 (20:33)

Wow, you must have some First-To-Find hounds in your area. That must be a record!

I hid my first cache and thought I was being so clever. It was found within 13 minutes of getting posted. Lol! So much for being sneaky!

Nui

I got caught in the rain both this morning and this afternoon. My head stayed dry though because a couple of weeks ago I bought myself a Hemp Tilly Hat rain/sun hat. It had it's test today and it passed!

Congrats on the milestone. I planted my first cache today....let the fun begin. :)

Congrats on the milestone, Nuiloa! Don't you just love having people look at you like you've been in some kind of cat fight...lol

Woohoo! I hit my first goal: 50 caches logged as of this weekend. Now I'm going for 100!

I've discovered so many things about myself with this geocaching:

a) I love being outdoors
b) I am definitely challenged by goals
c) I have a hard time giving up
d) I am extremely competitive
e) I am a total klutz in the bush - as evidenced by the severe bruising on my ankles from walking into the same tree limb going in (right ankle) and then coming back out (left ankle). I also look like I've been fighting with a mountain lion, with all the scratches on my arms.

Note to self: Must keep an eye out for things other than geocaches.

Came out of one site yesterday and was met by a little girl who asked what I was doing. When I told her I was treasure hunting, she scornfully informed me that "there is nothing in there but coyotes"! Lol! Didn't see them either!

That's great, Val - we look forward to hearing about your new adventures!

I got out today and started using my geomate jr. It does help...found 5 so far and a couple were 2nd tries for us. I am just amazed at the caches today...so clever and finally we found one that gives us a better idea of how small they can be. My biggest hint is really read the hints. Can't wait to go again. I found my 1st geocoin today...have to take it to another cache and also 2 really cool pins.

Edited by: LADYVAL56 at: 5/9/2010 (01:28)

Yeah Bren!!!! That's so exciting!!! FTFs are hard to come by - two in one day is amazing!

Time for some GOOD news - I got 2 FTF's today! New ones popped up just as I was leaving work, and I was so happy to beat my local competitors to them!! They are so good at this and I am a newbie so I am pretty proud of myself.
Gorgeous day, nice hike, and 3 more smileys!

I had a geocaching date with my friend that got cancelled this morning due to something that came up quickly for her. I was disappointed because we were going to do this cool trail with a high terrain rating. Oh well... we'll just do it next week. So, I went shopping for my anniversary and Mother's Day instead. And then hit a couple of geocaches on the way out of the city.

Haven't been able to get out and look for any caches for a few weeks now. To busy with spring projects and getting our daughter moved home from college.

I have been so overwhelmed lately with obligations and responsibilities that I haven't gone out caching for two months! I can't wait for school to be out so I'll have some time to PLAY!!

I didn't do any geocaching this afternoon but I did go for a walk on three separate trails close to home and was planning on where I could put one. Now, I have lock and lock containers and camo tape, just have to head to a dollar store to get some swag.

Doing well. Still have yet to get out and geocache everything keeps getting in the way,weather time. Or even not thinking that where I am could be a potential cache spot.

Knuckles - yep, this is the right place for conversation!

bringing this over here so I don't mess up the format on the May's goals/totals thread.

I wish I could go to events or hang out with other cachers but unfortunately I can't with my responsibilities and schedule

I need to get out caching. Just need the time.

Over the past few weeks I have been able to do some much needed caching (good for the soul!) I got to do some urban and trail caching in Las Vegas and at home here in NJ. I enjoy both. The urban caches provide me with the stealth part that I enjoy, while the trail caches get me out in the woods to enjoy nature and get more exercise. It is really a win-win situation, but everyone has to do what works for them. Regardless, keep on caching!

I thought that I had been bitten by a different kind of insect while on vacation as my arm was very itchy and I kept scratching. My husband had a better look at it this morning and told me I had poison ivy!

This is the first time ever that I've had poison ivy even though I played in the woods growing up all the time. I guess I've lost my immunity. I looked some poison ivy websites and educated myself on how it looks. We went to the pharmacy to buy some poison ivy spray and that worked well with taking the itch away.

I don't do much urban caching because I don't like the stealthy part. I have also found you are more likely to be stopped by security or police and questioned about what you are doing . . .we have been twice while caching in urban areas. . . so have others from our area . . .but never in the country on a trail.

I live in a city and have found numerous urban caches. I find them to not always be the type of challenge I prefer either. Playing the covert stealthy spy game is not so much my thing. I still try to do some urban cache though because I think it helps sharpen ones caching skills.



Edited by: JALEEMN at: 4/8/2010 (09:29)

I have admiration for those of you who live in cities and are used to doing those urban caches. I find those difficult to do with all the muggles around. We set out to do one yesterday afternoon and it was right outside a store window and the owner was right there. We looked briefly and decided to try it after hours. We were able to find it last night and then went for supper.

My sympathies Peggy; it's been a hard week for you. I hope that you can get some "Me Time" in this weekend.

Yesterday, someone had started a brush fire in the area where one of my geocaches are while I was gone to pick up my son, otherwise, I would've gone out to grab my cache. First thing this morning, I went out to see if it survived the fire and I couldn't find it all. It had either been muggled or it burned in the fire. Bummer too because I had one of my tracker bugs that I had just put in it too. Kids were down the lake playing before the fire started in the reeds so they might've muggle-napped it.

Sorry if I made that sound different than it was... he didn't die because of going after the cache... he found the FTF and was in a kayak race just after. At the end of the race he had a massive stroke. They aren't sure if he fell out of his kayak because of the stroke or if the stroke was caused by the shock of the very cold water.

In a "small world" addition - it was a coworker from the tax office that pulled him from the river and performed CPR. I didn't know that until the next night when I was at work.

That's horrible! While I usually never think about dying while caching, there have been a few situations in which I put myself in a bit of risk for the sake of a cache.

Spring came today! The ice went off our lake today! Only the 3rd time in March since we've lived here (out of 15 Springs). It will also be the first time in over 100 years that we have not gotten any snow in March. We'll still likely get some snow this year as flurries are still common in early May.

I'm sad to say that he didn't make it. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. He was a wonderful man - the center of our local geocaching community, everyone loved George. He created and maintained many trails in the region and knew all the history. He was an Earth Cache master (I think is the title - the highest level). Mostly he was a great friend to all. He will be sorely missed.

How terrible. I certainly will keep him in my thoughts.

One of my caching buddies was critically injured in a kayak race yesterday. It was after getting a FTF on a kayak accessible cache that he was never able to log. The CO, who was also in the race, has temporarily disabled the cache in respect to him so he can hopefully someday log the FTF. Please keep him in your thoughts, he's in really bad shape and could use all the strength from us he can get.

A lot of cachers here get a signature item that they always leave in every cache whether they take something or not. . . a button, a certain little toy that they sign, a specially made coin or pen . . .then there are others who try and collect one of everyones sig item.
We used to collect the dinosaurs out of caches but then we tired of it. . .now we usually donn't do anything but sign the log and move along TBs

I only carry a few little things for trade. I'm mostly in into geocaching for the adventure and challenge of the hunt. But occasionally I will find something in a cache I would like so I carry two or three Hot Wheels cars, a couple Coleman carabiners with integrated compass and usually some pressed pennies (the ones you pay 50 cents to make in those hand cranked machines at zoo's and museums).

Edited by: JALEEMN at: 3/27/2010 (12:28)

My family just found out about this, and everyone is all excited about searching for more, plus what a great way to spend time with family and exercise at the same time!!! I am looking for trinkets to put into the cache's that we find. Our groups name is: Frogs&Tigers

Before I started using my Blackberry Program for geocaching, I used a Garmin Etrex and it worked pretty good. The one thing I really didn't like is that I had to download every cache and then print or write down the notes that came with it. My Blackberry program has all of the notes, marks as found, and I never have to download since it finds whatever is near me no matter where I am.

Hey, favorite SparkTeam of mine! I'm back, and recovered from my surgery and the rest of the horrors of February...

Unfortunately, all of my previous losses went away, as I was on some hormonal medication that turned me into a lazy couch potato with a giant appetite.

Anyway, it's a new month, and I am really ready to get back on track again. I even started my training walks for the Breast Cancer 3Day that I'm doing in October - starting small, with some one-milers, but I plan to work my way up to where I can do 20 miles a day for 3 days straight. I'll be putting up a blog entry in the not-too-distant future, now that I'm getting my energy back!

Olympics are over so I am finally going to get back to normal. Been sitting on my butt for the past week watching too much sports on TV. Looking forward to some of this snow melting so I can get out there in the woods and find those ones that I wasn't able to find before.

Donna - how exciting to be geocaching at the Olympics - well even just being at the Olympics!

My husband and I have picked out a few local ones and will head out in search tomorrow. They're calling for 3*C and sunshine so that will be lovely.

We're heading to Florida in two weeks and hope to get some caching in there too. I love that one can do this worldwide!

Ingrid

You can find all sorts of things in caches. However I usually never swap (but my kids like to do it). Small crochet objects would be very nice but make sure they would be placed in a very watertight cache.

Caching and the olympics would be great! Our county has it's very first olympian - playing for the Women's Hockey team so I am following that sport.

what kind of stuff is good for swapping? or just leaving? and how big? I do some crocheting so thought maybe I could make something small?

Found 5 caches on Wed and walked to each one! 3.5 miles! Yay me!

Sounds perfect . . . .I hope you are having fun. Just think you are getting caches in a different Province than Ontario.

Wow--geocaching and the Olympics...can't get much better.

It sounds like you're having an awesome time there, Donna! Geocaching is like the cherry on top:)

Found 3 today downtown in Vancouver. My husband has been a sport in helping me find them. He's been having fun too. There was a geomeet this afternoon but we were geocaching this morning and then we had to leave for Speed Skating. Awesome time!

tried again today. couldn't find it, but got in a good hour long hike (including a STEEP hill) that hill is now my goal.... to get up it without being totally out of breath.

also got one of my kids friend hooked I went with him to find his first cache (one that I had found earlier)

Possible caching tomorrow!!! Weather a little warmer.

Hey, team, sorry I've been sort of absent this month; it's been rough/hectic...

Between health problems (minor, but still distracting) and getting close to the top of the on-call list for work, I haven't had time to do any caching or real working out.

I'm going for outpatient surgery on Thursday, and I'm on some medication to prepare me for that - hormones that seem to be making me lethargic AND extra hungry. Fortunately, I won't have to take them after the surgery, but that will be just in time to start my on-call week, so I can't get too far from the phone and computers.

I plan to make up for it come March 1st!

Snow is melting...caching just around the corner.

I found my first geocoin today here in downtown Vancouver while on vacation. I looked it up and the goal of the geocoin was it wanted to have a beer. So, after the Canada/Norway game got over, we went to the store and grabbed some beer to have with the geocoin. Was cool to seen that it had just been placed there from the Czech Republic. Hockey game was awesome! Cheered so loud and waved my flag. Speed Skating tomorrow.

We got about 2 inches of snow today. No caching!!

Congrats Knuckles.

Knuckles on your first!!!

Alright Knuckles! Such a thrill to find your first one. I'm very new to this as well (first one was January 29, and I get excited as soon as I see it. I'm just waiting for all this snow to melt so I can go after the other ones that are waiting to be discovered.

Congrats Knuckles! That's fantastic!

Hoping the snow melts soon so I can get out.

I found my first one!!!! I am so excited.

dropped the car off to be worked on. The foster dog and I walked home (90 mins) and picked up our first cache on the way home. even the dog is tired

Hopefully, no snow the rest of the week.

Hopefully, no snow the rest of the week.

Sounds like the only caches you'll be finding when you finally get to get out are those suspended in trees. Take care, stay inside or drive carefully.

It's snowing pretty heavily right now. I think we're supposed to get another foot out of this one.

This must be our lucky year. We have no snow on the ground at my house and not too much withing 50 miles. . . so this winter the caching is good.

Thanks MrsMikejg. It is snowing again tonight. 2-4 inches. When will I get to go geocaching again???

I made a quick FTF run on a puzzle cache yesterday, but that was the only exercise I got. It was my rest day. Today I'm back to the routine.

It's snowing again in Tulsa, so not sure when I will be able to get out and place my new puzzle cache. It will be a 5/5 so I want to make sure it's dry when I place it. I don't want anyone getting hurt going after it.

Thanks Sue - I thought it was about time for a new one.

I like your new profile pic, Peggy! Very nice!

Congrats Elf, that's exciting!!

I saw a hot air balloon a couple days ago - seems like it would be hard to stay up in such cold weather, but I don't know a lot about them. It must be freezing up there, though!

We ended up with 14 inches from the storm, but we were the lowest total on the map. It's very pretty though. I love snow!

Debbie, you are right it is hard to cache in snow; I wear my Sorel's when I go and they are heavier than my other boots to lift but they keep me warm.

Tinkerbook, hope the storm passes by you soon.

Donna, have fun going out today.

Elfdoctors, congratulations on your 2000th. What a neat sight to see.

I went out yesterday by myself first thing, but couldn't get even get close to the road that I had to go down to park on. We live in a touristy area and alot of the sand dunes are protected so they have no parking signs up all over, and some of the roads that no houses are on, receive no winter maintenance so they close them down. I found some other place to park and tried to bushwhack it through and got to 792 ft away from it but ran into a creek that I didn't trust to cross over. I'll have to leave that one until spring when the road is open again.

Went home because I was absolutely freezing (I need some long-johns I think), and got my husband to come with me to do a puzzle one, and we did something wrong there. So we went to do another one, and he found it before me. Good thing too because even with mitts on, I could barely sign the log book.

Stay safe and warm everyone!

Snow tomorrow in Missouri! I am ready for spring.

We had a nice day today in northern Wisconsin. Temperatures were in the 20's with minimal wind. We even got a little sun today. I found my 2000th cache and on the hike back to our cars from that cache, we got to see ~20-25 hot air balloons fly directly above (and then below the high area we were caching in).

Funny, the storm is missing us and we have a plan to go out tomorrow.

Snowing, snowing, snowing....no caching!!

Hi, everyone. Glad to see people out snow caching. It is really good exercise. You have to lift your feet up higher to take a step so it's like doing knee lifts or marching. Add a little happy dance when you find the cache and you've got a real work out.

My husband went with me last Saturday but during the week I'm alone. I'm rural as well, so I have to drive everywhere to get to places. I've been mapping out the places that I want to see based on what my plans are for the day.

Tomorrow I'm picking up my son, so I'll be doing some on the way there. Yesterday I had a meeting at the school so I did some on the way there, and stopped at a cache I did the day before to find my camera case. Found it!

I have gone a few times alone but for the most part DH and I cache together. I don't really enjoy caching alone and neither does he . . . besides the fact that 2 sets of eyes are better than 1 most of the time.

I would love to find somebody to cache with since I am such a newby and have a hard time finding things.

I have done most of my caching alone until recently. I've gotten to be friends with a lot of the local "in" crowd, so I have fun going on caching runs with them. I still enjoy my solo caching time though.

I tend to do most of my caching by myself because I live in a rural area. After you are caching for a while, you will meet other cachers in the area - either at a cache or an event. It tends to be more fun to cache with others (and your DNF rate will certainly drop with the help!).

I found my fourth find yesterday. I did have to go back to another one that I had visited the day before as I had lost my camera case but I was able to retrace my steps in the snow and found it. Whew!

I had to laugh at myself because one of the geocaches was located at the top of a steep hill overlooking the lake. It was quite a climb to get there with snow on the ground and I wanted to take a short cut back as I knew which way the van was. I just about made it down the side of the hill, when I slipped and down I went on my butt. Funny thing is, even with no one around, I still looked around to see if anyone fell. lol

No falling yesterday but I drew some curious stares from a passing car when I climbed out of a ditch after finding the cache yesterday. I never heard them coming, otherwise I would've waited.

Does anyone else geocache by themselves? I don't know anyone who does it.

Going caching today!!!

Great job Knuckles - you'll find that it gets easier once you get more used to what types of things you might be looking for. You'll also get a better sense of how your GPS reacts to different areas. Mine is terrible under trees, so I know I have to widen my search area in that situation.

Keep searching - you'll have a great time!