Honestly, Officer......It's A Geocache

I got my buff cache back in place last week and until today, no one had found it. I got an E-mail notice that Team Geo-Rangers (TGR) had found it today. I'd like to mention first that TGR's said "Great Cammo." Then they said that the Sheriff stopped by. They explained what they were doing and showed the officer the geocache. The officer was impressed! That's cool!

I have a large geocache that I want to go hide soon. I'm waiting for some geocoins that I ordered to come in. I got the "Mystery" deal from GeoSwag. I got 5 random coins for like $4.50 each. They will all be trackable at the Geocaching Website, but I won't know what they are until they get here. I also ordered a Signal FTF (First To Find) coin that is trackable and has a blue ribbon FTF icon. I want to give one of the coins as a FTF prize and then decide what to do on the rest.

I thought it would be cool to go ahead and register the FTF coin and have its mission be to be placed in new caches and whoever gets the FTF can take the coin and put it in their new cache. We'll see.

I've been trying to do a good job of taking pictures of other peoples trackable items and add pictures to my logs. I think I did a pretty good job on this coin. I added four pictures of the coin near the cache site. Here is my log entry:

6/30/2008	Hick@Heart retrieved it from Dining at the studio	California	[visit log]
I stopped by a cache near work looking for a place to drop this coin. I went over to a cache near the neon-lighted Studio Diner. It's an authentic trip back to the '40s -- in the middle of the Kearny Mesa Business District. Wrapped in chrome, the diner is a welcome roadside stop. And, fittingly, it's set on the lot of a working movie and TV studio, Stu Segall Productions. (Remember "Silk Stalkings" and "Renegade"? Currently filming "Mythological X".) The diner was recently featured on the Food Network on "Diners, Drive ins, and Dives" The episode was called "Open 24/7" You can see part of the movie lot from the street including a tower with a helicopter sticking out of the side. There is also what looks like a large fishing boat wheelhouse. The satellite image of the area reveals an airplane fuselage! I love casting days at the studio. People line the street for blocks hoping to get a chance to be cast in a real movie. Alas, the cache was too small for the geocoin, but I got a few pictures for you. Summertime in SoCal means lots of small caches for me, but I'll keep telling stories until I find a good enough cache for your coin.

I would be very happy to have someone log an entry like that on one of my geocoins. The geocache near the area had recently been muggled. Fortunately Kwvers had been there the day before and they just happened to have a spare cache container to replace it. They saved me from the DNF. So here is a special shout out to Kwvers for being well prepared geocachers looking out for the rest of us. Thanks Kwvers!

We are just taking it easy for the holiday. It's pretty warm and we are enjoying the AC. Have a great holiday. For my readers outside the US, have a great weekend.

Here's the pics I put on the geocoin page.

Lazy Cachers Give Me The FTF

On June 22 I got the e-mail notice of a new cache 9 miles from home. I didn't go after it because it had already been published for an hour and there have been some FTF parties going on lately. Also, I've been reading Dan Brown's Angels and Demons and man it's good. It's hard to go after an hour old cache when you are immersed in the nonstop action of this book.

Well, that day came and went and the cache had still not been found. No DNF's or anything. I'm still too busy reading to go. Another day and another day pass and this cache is still sitting there yelling at me.

Finally, today, 5 days later, I decide to go grab the cache after work. I just printed out the coordinates because I can't install Garmin drivers on my work computer. I find the road I need to turn on and pull off to the side to enter the coordinates in the GPSr. Once the numbers were in and if clicked on "Find" I was only 53 feet away. Nice shootin' Tex!

Just then a muggle van pulls in front of me and just sits there. I swear these people are sent to test me. The name of the cache is Almost a Winchester Mystery House. It's near a really odd looking house in the city of.................you guessed it, Winchester, CA. I snapped a few pics on my phone to try and look like I was just looking at the house. Finally the van pulls away.

I didn't spot the cache right away. The hint said, "Another term for love in tennis?" Stupid me, I was thinking love meant the score was tied, so I'm looking for a railroad tie or something tied to the fence. (That's the tennis knowledge you get growing up poor in Central Illinois.) I finally spotted the cache just before giving up. After seeing the hide and having The Wife correct my tennis foul, the clue made some sense. It was still a bit too cryptic and wouldn't have helped me in the hunt.

Once I saw the container, I realized that it was swag from one of my caches that TGR's made into a cache of their own. That's the second time I've found a geocache made out of geoswag from one of my own caches. That's always a good time.

Anyway, I got the FTF. The log was too tiny for me to compose my custom FTF message but I put a big old Hick@Heart on there for the world to see. Who knows why this cache had not been found, but I'll take it.

The Boy Scores an FTF!

I got an E-mail notification of a newly placed geocache only 4.5 miles from home. I wasn't able to go after it right away so The Boy and I headed out about two hours later. It was in a sports park and there were surprisingly few people near ground zero.

I didn't take the camera this time because I wanted to try videotaping our geocaching adventure and posting it here on the website. I was considering this to be an opportunity to practice video posting before the upcoming flash mob event.

The Boy made the find easily enough and we were pleasantly surprised to find what Webfoot would call a "Virgin Log." I got pretty good footage of the find and of The Boy opening the log and releasing "that smell"

I was all fired up about the idea of creating video geocaching posts. I even made another video. It is a "How to make a geocache" type video and was prepared to post that one as well.

I felt like a real Speilberg. Now time for some editing. This is where the trouble started. My Sony Digital camcorder does not have USB, it uses I Link. My computer doesn't have I'Link. They don't make adapters between the two because USB and firewire are two different technologies and are not compatible. (VHS vs. Beta maybe?)

Well, I'm smarter than silly electronic gadgets. I found an A/V out to RCA cable and plugged the camcorder in my recordable DVD player. I copied the movie clip onto a DVD-R as I laughed and pointed at the Sony. So, the genius pops the newly created DVD-R into my DVD drive in the computer and the computer says, "OK, genius, what do you want me to do with this blank DVD-R?"

It turns out I'm no genius.(big surprise!) The computer doesn't recognize the format the DVD player records in or something. I guess I need to find an A/V out to USB adapter????. If there are any techie readers out there, please offer up some suggestions. I don't want to buy a firewire hub for the computer because I no longer have money.

The Boy and I picked up a few more caches after the FTF. We got seven that day. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to help tell my story and to entertain those that don't actually read all of this. I have some great video of the whole thing though. As soon as I can claim victory over the Sony, I'll be able to share it. I really need to get it straightened out before the event in May. I would love to be able to share our fun with all of you.

I will tell the story of one of our other finds. We went after another cache in this very large sports park. I remembered a couple stories from the last event about this cache and the fact that it was up high. We approached a large solid metal gate that guarded some very important dumpsters. I figured it must be under the cap at the top of the fence post. They must have made this gate high so that people couldn't launch unauthorized trash over it. The post I was looking at was probably 12 feet off the ground.

I lifted The Boy over my head so he could search for it. It was difficult to maneuver him and he quickly said, "OK, let me down." I said, "You didn't even look for it." He opened his hand to reveal the cache. It was one of those nano caches that is about the size of a pencil eraser with a magnet in it. Good job, The Boy. I signed the log and it was time to replace the miniature treasure. This time up, The Boy decide to become very ticklish and did a lot of squirming and laughing. He finally stuck the thing back in it's hidey hole and we laughed our way back to the car.

That's what's great about geocaching with The Boy. He turns a nano in the park into a memorable experience.

Travel Bug Update

I just made a new travel bug and thought I would just post an update as to the travels of the others. This is Fish Tank TB21D2B. Fish Tank is still in my possession , I will be dropping him/her soon. This TB wants to travel the world and get its picture taken at, guess what, fish tanks. Nemo here also wants to see Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota. Hmmm, why do I know that place. I hear it's real nice. Nice and cold! That's kind of a side mission.


Brody's Bad Wolf TB21CZT just got dropped off in Duck Crossing, 40 miles from home. BBW's mission is to travel the world and gather photos of people being bad. He also is trying to catch Raegan's Red Riding Hood. Check out the trail of caches this TB is in! This area is just outside Palm Springs, CA.











Raegan's Red Riding Hood TB21D22 is running from BBW and trying to gather photos of people doing good things. This TB is only 16 miles from home in Bautista Hike, and has only moved once.




My Motogrrl Geocoin is still at Penny Pines Plantation where I dropped it. No one has logged the cache since I was there on December 31. I am holding onto my FTF Prize Geocoin that I just got. I am virtually dropping it in all the caches I find and logging mileage on the coin. As of today, it has 82.4 miles. I love trackables! I still have one set of unactivated TB tags. I'm just waiting for a cool hitchhiker to hook them to and away they'll go.

FTF Earns Us a Geocoin. (On a Technicality?)

The boy and I did some caching between storms today. We didn't get out of the house until almost 11:00 but there were no FTF logs on Steven's Birthday Cache which had just popped up in my pocket query. This past week has been rainy but today was BEAUTIFUL! Totally sunny and 65 degrees. The cache was just off of a dirt road that connected a few hillside houses. I did see a sign that said "Private Road, Residents only" but the road was on Google maps and there was a geocache. I figured the cache owner knew what they were doing so we made the find and grabbed the unactivated geocoin left as a FTF prize. I did notice a wooden "found it" token in the cache but no one had signed the log before me so I assume I was first. When we got home, I went to log the find and saw a post from another cacher stating they had gotten close but were run off by a resident that pointed out the signs. There is still no post from someone saying they left a token and besides, I believe the rules are "Sign the Log". So I say the FTF counts.

Anyway, I got a new geocoin out of the deal. The owners of the cache are involved with NAMI. National Alliance on Mental Illness. They recently took one of my travel bugs on a NAMI Walk. The coin is a NAMI coin commemorating a walk at Diamond Valley Lake.

I'm going to hold onto this one and log the mileage as I continue caching. (9 miles today)


Next, we were off to Tonchonah's First Cache. To reach this, we had to climb a very steep very rocky hill with no defined trail. I was glad it is winter and the rattlers are down! We searched for this one for a while before finally making the find. Another cacher found it today and they too said they found the coordinates a bit off. Combine that with the 6 DNF's on the caches page and maybe something is a bit off. There was a great view from up there and it's always great to find a good old traditional ammo can cache!




There were three caches near the Diamond Valley Aquatic Center. There is a water park and a museum located near one of the launch ramps on the lake. The Boy and I made all three finds and went to check out the Western Center for Archeology and Paleontology museum. Here is the boy in front of the bones of a Ground Sloth. It looks like a giant Dino-Rat! They discovered tons of fossilized bones while excavating the lake. They nicknamed it Mastodon Valley due to the high number of Mastodon and Mammoth bones discovered. It is a nice museum, however I would say it is a bit small for the large price of admission. (10 for me and 8 for the boy!)







After picking the bones we headed over to the fine dining establishment known as Wal Mart Super Center for some gourmet McDonald's. We then headed over to the Hemet-Ryan CDF Air Attack Base to make the score on CDF 70. I climbed up into the landing gear of a "Gate Guard S2" to retrieve the cache and The Boy Vogued it for us. This is a small park Dedicated to the awesome firefighters of the California Department of Forestry that risk their lives to protect our homes and property.





We finished the day near the Hemet R/C airplane field. We made a couple of finds while a herd of sheep was "mowing" the field nearby. As I was driving away, I noticed the "Shepard" was on the other side of the field watching us. He was too far away to see exactly what we were doing and hopefully the cache is hidden well enough to keep his curiosity dissatisfied. The Boy was upset that we could not get an R/C plane today. Me too!






We made a total of 8 finds today with no DNF's. We scored a new geocoin, went to a cool museum, climbed some crazy hills, checked out an airplane and had some lunch. What a blast! I know that these trips will be just as memorable for The Boy as the caving/camping/fishing trips I took as a kid. Our timing was excellent because just as we got home, the clouds announcing the arrival of the next storm to dump on us began rolling in.


Edit Note: The owners of Steven's Birthday Cache have contacted me and I am the official FTF for the cache.