Here are some articles from around the country about geocaching. The first one, from the Lawrence Journal World in Kansas discusses how state parks are caching in on the trend. From Houston, one of the fattest cities in the world, comes the suggestion of using geocaching to fight obesity in children.
This is a very interesting video we found on YouTube. There seems to be a very exhausting excavation taking place to find a cache. If they go much deeper, they may actually find a cache on the opposite side of the world!
We were up in the New England region this weekend, and of course, we picked up a few caches along the way. This first day we drove up to Mystic, CT and explored the seaport. We also picked up the Stealth at the Seaport cache located in the parking lot. There was another cacher patiently waiting for us to finish as we searched for this one. Later we headed to a nearby shopping center. On the property of the shopping center is the Hobbit Town cache. Due to the heavy muggle traffic we were unable to properly search for this one. When we went home to look for some clues on the cache's log on geocaching.com, we noticed a familiar name. Jeffnerner (a.k.a. MegaWheaties) had logged this one back in March. We don't know if and when we will make it back to the town, but a PAF to MegaWheaties may be in order if we do.
We were able to locate a newly placed cache called Mytic Peace-Ah. No, it is not located inside the famous Mystic Pizza restaurant. It does however give you a great view of the seaport from across the river. This is what is so great about geocaching, sometimes it takes you to places you would have never discovered if you were not searching for
these hidden treasures. To jeffnerner and the rest of you who may travel up to Mystic, be sure and check out this cache. Also, be sure to check out Abbotts Lobster in the Rough in Noank, CT just outside of Mystic. It is not as fancy as the restaurants in downtown Mystic, but is a great place to eat some fresh steamed lobsters. Make sure to bring a nice bottle of wine and eat out on the pier. A little bit of bug spray wouldn't hurt either as the no-see-ums were hungry this past weekend.
We then headed up to Plymouth, Mass for a family wedding. We felt a little like the Grizwolds from the original Vacation movie upon our arrival to the town. Plymouth Rock was Closed!!! They are working on the monument and it is covered with scaffolding. It will open at the end of June. Fortunately, unlike the Grizwolds, our goal was not to spend the day at Walley World or Plymouth Rock. Ah well, we all know Jamestown, VA was actually the first settlement!
Can you say disappointed? I received a notification today in my e-mail of a new geocache in Leesburg, VA. The cache was located near my office and I was going to take an early lunch. I was excited, it would be my first TFTF. The cache called, Tuscarora Creek Cache, was only a two star difficulty and was regular size. This should not be too difficult, right? Famous last words.
I arrived at the parking area already sweating with anticipation. Today's hot weather and my non-breathable work clothes did not help either. I was using my Blackberry Curve and my GPSr. Due to the heavy tree cover both systems were bouncing around a bit. I looked in all of the obvious places. I looked high, I looked low. I looked everywhere in between. Nothing. After searching for nearly an hour I decided I had to let it go. I returned to work and logged a very disappointing DNF. Out of all of my DNF's, this one bothers me the most. It only got worse when I returned home and logged back onto geocaching.com.
As I logged onto the website I was hoping to see several blue frowning faces. Maybe the coordinates were off, I thought? This is why I could not find it, it had to be! Unfortunately there were already two cachers who found the cache. One bragged in his post about how surprised they were to be TFTF so late in the day. Ouch, that hurt.
This is one that will stick with me for a while. Maybe I concentrated on one place too long? Maybe I needed to expand my search? Maybe, with 60 some caches under my belt, I am just a novice.
Is there a DNF that you have logged that sticks in your craw?
If you live in Upstate NY, check out this promotion from the Routes 5 and 200 Tourism Promotion Group. The event is called the Farms, Food and Fun Geocaching Adventure. The event runs from June to October 31, 2008.
Twenty cache boxes have been hidden along Routes 5 & 20 between Skaneateles and Darien. Routes 5 and 20 is a 135-mile corridor that traverses New York State from east to west. The idea is to get you out on the road searching for caches and check out the wineries, antique shops, historic sites, and theme parks along the way. If you find 5 of the 20 caches, you are eligible for a memorabilia basket value at $520. Below is a list of the caches.
| 1. | N42 56.781" W76 25.717' | If you're fishing for a great "cache" this is the most delicious place in town to find it! | |
| 2. | N42 57.357' W76 25.648' | Swimming, skating, fitness and hike outside for the "cache." | |
| 3. | N43 00.795' W76 30.407' | Granny Smith lives here | |
| 4. | N42 54.977' W76 37.472' | Taste the fruits of our labor | |
| 5. | N42 57.096' W76 40.226' | Something to wine about | |
| 6. | N42 54.286' W76 32.188' | Step back in time to the turn of the century and life on the farm | |
| 7. | N42 54.205' W76 49.790' | The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind | |
| 8. | N42 57.000' W76 46.033' | The offerings inside would make for one happy Aztec. | |
| 9. | N42 51.434' W77 01.251' | Some fruit you eat and others you look up to | |
| 10. | N42 51.499' W77 06.241' | A Tale of Two Trails | |
| 11. | N42 53.702' W77 14.783' | Dirt – the alternative uses? | |
| 12. | N42 52.675' W77 22.884' | Caterpillar – Front and Center | |
| 13. | N42 54.281' W77 36.695' | You're looking for the canary in the soup bowl | |
| 14. | N42 54.574' W77 43.954' | Drive-out after you find the cache | |
| 15. | N42 58.397' W77 51.214' | Petticoat place from yesteryear | |
| 16. | N42 59.782' W77 53.127' | Granny and Gramps will remember | |
| 17. | N42 52.856' W78 07.981' | This place takes the "normal" out of "paranormal" | |
| 18. | N42 59.957' W78 11.475' | Settler's saw the light when they visited the birthplace of Western NY | |
| 19. | N42 52.550 W78 07.654' | Coyotes & bobcats & Bears – Oh My!! | |
| 20. | N42 58.967 W78 04.361' | Guarding history with a pig scalder right outside. |
We picked up the Behind the Learning Curve cache in Ashburn, VA today during a lunchtime stretch. This is one of those caches that makes you a little bit nervous. First, it is behind a library. At any library there are lots of kids with neurotic parents. A man lurking around with a strange device in his hand is bound to rouse suspicions.
It is also a little too close to a house. And when you are looking for the cache in the obvious places, you wonder if you could be perceived as someone attempting to look into a bedroom window. Fortunately, we made it through without anyone noticing. At least, we don't think anyone noticed?!?
This leaves us in a little bit of a quandary. The public caches make us nervous regarding possible muggle sightings and the outdoors caches are a little buggy this time a year. The ticks seem to be worse then ever!
We found this video on YouTube. It was entitled first try and they were successful at that. They seem to be missing the point however. They forgot to open it and sign the log.
The video is only :20
We wonder if this is going to become more and more common?
Did she ever say yes?? It was hard to tell with all the laughcrying...
This is the second geocache proposal we have seen posted on YouTube. We wonder, are these cheezier then asking your woman to marry you at a baseball game?
If we had a teacher who used geocaching in geometry class, we may have done better than a 'C'. In Bradford Heights, OH, Jennifer Brown's advanced geometry class at Heskett Middle School uses geocaching to learn the concepts of graphing and measures of central tendency. Brass tags at specific coordinates were hidden around the schools property. The students worked in groups to find the tags. Each tag had a letter on it and when all of them were found, students unscrambled the letters to learn the coordinates of their large cache. Student Taylor Sykes Green said, "I learned how coordinates on graphs can also work on a larger scale, like the world." Read more at Bedford Times Register.
