Saturday, March 22, 2008

Solo Geocaching

The Boy was in no mood for geocaching today. I tried everything to convince him it would be a good time. Who wouldn't want to hang out with me, right? Ok, well maybe I don't blame him. I knew that dragging around a 6 year old that didn't want to be there wouldn't be that much fun so I did some solo caching.

I had the Fozzie bear travel bug that I wanted to drop off so I started my trip at a regular sized cache. This was a 50 cal ammo can right next to a business. By right next to, I mean RIGHT NEXT TO. Right at the large glass windows near the front of the business. The cache owner got permission from the owners to put it there. Some logs mention employees coming out to give hints as to the location of the cache. I dropped off Fozzie and picked up Doug. So it was me, Doug and a list of nearby caches. Ready for action!

I picked up a bunch of caches today. A few were skirt lifters. There were some that were "hide a keys" stuck to various street signs. I even got 2 out of storm drains. One cache was a piece of trash. I'm not sure how I feel about a geocache hidden inside a rusty old soup can and thrown in a field. I guess an ammo can could be considered junk too. It was somewhat of a tough find. It's amazing how you can completely overlook a piece of trash.

There were plenty of caches that had something interesting to check out. A couple were at some nice fountains. One of them was at this odd rocket sculpture. Those are the urban caches I like. I know where Lowe's is thank you very much. I did not know where this rocket thing was and I was glad to have found it. I even got a picture of Doug at one of the fountains. Since Doug is just a useless plastic head that tours the world, (kind of like Joan Rivers) he couldn't get any pictures of me.

One cache was a micro, hidden in a huge oak tree. As I'm walking up to this giant tree I'm thinking, "Great, there's a micro hidden in there." After a couple of minutes, I spotted the match container hanging in the branches. It was wrapped on with wire and you could only remove the lid and retrieve the log. I quickly found that this tree was infested with ants. Lots of ants. As I'm signing the log I could hear large dogs barking and they sounded like they were getting close. So here I am, trying to get this log back in the container. The branches are trying to poke my eyes out, the ants have claimed me as their territory, the dogs are going to eat me and I have convinced myself that the soft ground cover is filled with rattle snakes. Basically, I'm freaking out. I got the log back in and was a big man again once I was safely back in my car. The only problem was that the ants came with me. I picked them off and was on my way.

Today was my biggest day geocaching as far as numbers are concerned. I've had bigger days as far as bonding with my son is concerned. I had 19 finds, one DNF and one did not attempt. It was nice to be by myself for a while. Even though today's geocaches were urban, they were all in industrial areas and no one was around. Just me and Doug. Thanks, Doug.

We decorated some eggs tonight and I'll share a picture of that too.


The ant infested oak


Another fountain

My new swath of smileys.

I took this picture to try and look natural as muggles passed. It turned out kind of nice.

Happy Easter!

12 comments:

Paul Myers said...

BTDT with the ants in a tree. Funny thing is, most of the time you don't see them or realize that they're everywhere, until it's too late. I can just picture you doing the "ant dance." I've done that one from time to time.

Caching alone can be very satisfying if you're going for numbers. Probably no way you would have gotten than many had you had the boy with you.

P.J. said...

I've yet to go caching solo, but imagine it will eventually happen. Seems like it could be peaceful to get out there and kind of do things by yourself. And 19 today, eh? Sweet times. We hit 14 in our neck, probably could have gotten many more if looking for numbers, but we decided to go for some specifics and then eventually go back to this city and just roll through and pile up some numbers! We hit some really cool and powerful things today -- and did it in two states!

As for Doug, get him with Patty. That's his woman! :)

Finally, how the heck do you do that thing to get a Google Map image showing where you got everything in one day???

HooHaa Blog!

tonka_boy said...

I've never been geocaching by myself. Always with the wayfarer. If you check our stats, we always have the same number of finds. We have a system, where I use the GPSr, she uses the Palm with the hints and logs. When we get to GZ, and she doesn't score the find right away, I'll join the hunt. We have only four or five DNFs that way, and some of those are now archived because they weren't there.

Yeah, Hick, tell us how you get that Google map image on your blog... Mr. techno guy!

Josh said...

The Google map image is a screen shot from Geocaching.com. The screen shot was taken using Print Key 2000. You can then save the image and upload it to your blog post. I have used Print Key Pro at work for a long time and this free version was shown to me by mmmmmmmmm. oh yeah, Tonka_boy. He's the real genius here folks, I'm just a puppet.

Rod R said...

I have done lots of solo caching and enjoy it sometimes. Today was going to be one of those days, but Cachingwidow got up and came with me. We got 6 today, one DNF, I can handle a day like that. I used to take my boys with me when I could get them to go, but teenagers don't want to be seen with dad.
As for the ants I think that is a right of passage. As long as they aren't fire ants thats not bad, the fire ants can really make things unhappy.
19 is a great day of caching, enjoy it.
Rodr88

rakethetable said...

A good day geocaching is a .....well good day!


Glad you got out and enjoyed the world.

go_man said...

Hey, a great day! Congrats on all the finds, especially by yourself! Though I believe you should take The Boy as protection from the dogs and ants! :)

Geocaching Online

Tinman105 said...

Had I not taken the kids on Sat I probably would of had about 4 DNF's. But solo is nice to get those ones you don't want to drag the kids to

Scott Booker said...

Sounds like a great day! As much as I love caching with Rene....there are times that I wish I could just go by myself for some "ME" geocaching time. LOL

Great pics!!!

Scott Booker said...

make sure you stop by and check out my newest Geo-Blog...I think you will like it!!!

More to come on it later though!

The Nieborgs said...

Thanks for stopping by our blogspot and leaving your 'canoeing' comment. It's nice to see another geocaching blogger out there, we'll be reading about your escapades. Good luck and take care.

Randy said...

I find I do most of my caching solo, although it is quite enjoyable as a group. I probably have a higher DNF rate solo caching, too. I "talk" to myself and sometimes talk myself out of a find if I get too locked into an area. i.e. how many times have I said to myself "it's just not here" only to see a log later in the day as an "easy find" by someone else.

I also tend to follow my gps mapping, park the car, and aim straight for the cache... but I am improving on that and enjoy the scenery more.

TFYB (thanks for your blog).

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