Geocaching Adventures 7.12.14

Hey there! I headed to downtown Fort Worth today to do some research for my new blog project at the Central Library. While I was out and about I decided to check out what local GC’s were around.

**WARNING-SPOILERS** – If you geocache (in the DFW area especially) be warned: This post does show pictures and give specific tips that will pinpoint some geocaches.  Please do not use this blog as a way to find the cache’s.  The point is to showcase our geocaching journey and to grow the desire in others.

First I came across #GC46Y3F: What a “birdseye” view.

Whovian101 (AKA – the MiniMe) was with me last time we tried to find this one. Unfortunately, we were in the wrong corner of the building.  I followed the clues and looked at old pics to find my error and made my way right to the cache.

This is the view I should have been looking for and finally found.

Here is the cache:  The hint said it would be hanging upside down – so I was looking for a cord or rope of somesort…. Nope.  I soon figured it out though. 🙂

I found a really cool geocoin:  I love geocoins and trackables. I love the idea of sending something on a journey and being a part of it’s stop in my corner of the world. This one has a patriotic meaning to it which is always kind of cool.  The Mister served in the Navy for 8 years so I love finding stuff that has to do with the military – especially the Navy.

Swag:
There were several cute little pieces and had Whovian101 been with me she might have wanted a thing or two.  Since it was just me I chose the foreign currency for #OJATW (you can click that hashtag and follow our awesome project!!  It will open in a new window and then you’ll need to log into your Facebook account to see it – but it’s totally worth it. 🙂 ) and the geocoin to pass along. I left some kid friendly swag and a quarter. If I am correct about the value of the currency it is worth about $.16 American cents right now so the quarter did trump the value – but certainly not the coolness factor.

I signed the log and took a pic of the bottom of the container so I could remember where to pick up some for my own caches.  This one was from Ikea…good to know!

Then it was over to another is been eyeing: GC1KR38 Masonic Temple

Mostly just a log but there was room for a few tiny kid friendly trinkets.  According to the past comments and logs this one has disappeared a few times.  My guess is because it is right next to an apartment complex and any muggle (especially the young ones) would be curious if they found someone lifting that skirt.

Then I hopped a few blocks over (after maneuvering through the one way streets – which are a real pain in the rear.  They honestly don’t make sense to me!  Why not make them ALL two way streets and then no one is confused!!) and found GC4PDRV Lucky Clover.

Fun find.  It was a clever container and a cute little hide.  They guys that work nearby are friendly and as you can see from my log, get very excited when someone finds it.  Hopefully, this cache has instilled an interest in some of them and they can start geocaching with their families and friends.

Took my little monkey traveler to visit this one.  He was too big to leave in the cache. Still looking for a home big enough (and worthy enough) to send him on his journey.

Then I figured I would grab one more. Checked the logs. It was just found yesterday – which is generally a good sign!  Phone led me to GZ in a parking lot.  Just a few feet away was a tree with a perfect little hiding place in the trunk.  From all of the posts left before I am pretty certain this is supposed to be the site.  Unfortunately, there was nothing there.  I looked around and there were other places a GC could be, but none that really fit the past logs.  My guess is someone saw the person putting it back and then came and took it.  That stinks. 😦  I squeezed my phone into the hole and took a pic with my flash just to make sure I wasn’t missing anything and this is all the picture shows…. 😦 Bummer.

All in all – 3 smilies and 1 sad face. Muggles suck.  However, there were a few fun finds and I got a few ideas about what I want to do with our first cache.  I want us to place our first cache before school starts this year in August – so we’ve been looking for the right container and the right place.

I’m off to go work on a painting for the Big Kid.  Hope you enjoyed my finds and I hope you’ll share this post with anyone that has children or an adventurous side of their own.  Geocaching rocks…just sayin. 😉

Geo-caching?!

Do any of you know what this means?  Well here is the dictionary’s definition:

ˈjēōˌkaSHiNG/

noun

noun: geocaching

1. 1.

   the recreational activity of hunting for and finding a hidden object by means of GPS coordinates posted on a website.

Here is the way the main geo-caching website explains it: “Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location.”

And here is how I describe it: It is a big huge world wide Hide-and-Seek game, where people hide containers (that hold everything from a tiny piece of paper to lots of great prizes – also known as “swag”) all over the place.  You use GPS coordinates (and some times have to answer trivia questions, solve puzzles and do math) to find these treasure boxes.  Depending on which kind you find and what is inside – you make decisions and take certain steps to prepare the cache for the next person to find.

There are a lot of different levels to the game and lots of different rules – but here are the basics:

1.  Find the cache.
2. Open the cache and sign log.
3. If you take any object from the cache to keep – you must put something of equal or greater value in its place.
4. If the cache has a theme or special instructions – you must follow along – or leave it for someone else.
5. Replace cache in the same (or better) condition that you found it – in exactly the same spot.
6. Log your find online.
7. Find the next cache.
8. Share your love of geo-caching with like-minded friends and family!

You log all of your finds and look for new cache’s at www.geocaching.com.  You can sign up for your FREE membership there.  You can sign up for a Premium account which gets you perks like special cache’s that only Premium members get the location for!

The only things you need to geocache are a GPS enabled device (a smart phone works best IMO), always bring a pen (because some cache’s are too small to carry one) and if you plan on taking trinkets – bring things to replace your picks.

Cache’s are hidden EVERYWHERE!!  I can almost promise there is one near you!  They are hidden in trees, behind fence posts, under water – we even found one last week under the shell of an old car that an automotive shop is using for their business sign!  Cache’s shouldn’t be hidden on private property without the owners permission!!  However, I have come across a ton in really neat places where the property owner either gave permission or hid themselves!!

There are over a dozen different kinds of geocaches.  As we go along I’ll do a different post on them so you can get an idea and a good feel for them.  This post is just to give you an introduction to geocaching.  I will be posting articles with our finds and info on the sport/hobby as often as I can.

If you don’t think you are ready for your first geocache – you can read up on my blog for a few weeks until you are comfortable.  If you think you are ready now, I suggest you go to www.geocaching.com and read up on Geocaching 101 page, just to make sure you have the basics down.

Some of my followers are in Texas (I live here so most of my geocaching is done here.  However, when I travel I always hit the “Search for geocaches near me” button!!)  If I am going to post about a specific find – I will post the word *Spoiler* in the title.  Some people get really angry when they are reading about someone else’s geocaching experiences and they accidentally get clues as to where a specific cache is.  So if you are one of those type of people then I wouldn’t click on the ones that say *Spoiler*.

It is way past my bed time so I’m off to bed.  We have found 23 geocaches so far.  I will be blogging about each one eventually.  I’ll try to get a few in tomorrow.  Good night.  Good luck.  Happy caching. 😉