Number 100!

Our 100th find! Our goal was to make it to 100 finds before the end of 2005 and we made it!

Adventures in Geocaching

Our cache Day Surgery is intended to be a challenge. It is hidden in a woody area adjacent to a professional office park (a plastic surgeon's office is closest, and inspired the cache name). The container is, well, unusual, and hidden in what we hope is an unexpected location. So cachers must exercise stealth to avoid being observed when hunting (in fact, it is best to search on the weekend), plust the cache itself is very difficult to find. It is made all the more difficult when police are present, as the following log by nosaj explains:

Well, started out a boring Sunday morning. Decided to snag this one prior to the Canal Path Series. When visiting Fredericksburg family, we typically go by this location multiple times. Today, we pulled in to the professional park to find the cache. Sunday 9 AM, should have the place to our selves. Well, there was a police officer in the upper parking. We decided to follow the GPSr and went to the lower parking. As we pulled in, Mrs. nosaj noticed that we definitely got the officer's attention. He moved his car and was checking out our activities. We learned later that he was calling in our vehicle with out of state tags. He proceeded to come to the lower parking to join us. Mr. Nosaj walked back to officer's car with GPSr in one hand and other hand in pocket. (This upset the officer.) He politely demanded that Mr. Nosaj remove hand from coat pocket, while unclipping his fire arm. Mr. Nosaj quickly cooperated.

We then proceeded to explain exactly what we were doing. He never heard of geocaching. Then another officer arrived at the scene. Before we could explain to him, another officer arrived at the lower parking lot. We showed them the print out that we had of one of the local puzzle caches. No one had heard of geocaching; however, the first officer on the scene (K-9 unit) thought it was interesting. He couldn't wait for us to find it! We don't think they were buying our story at all. Officer 2 was really sceptical. Finally, a fourth officer arrived. Then the 3rd and 4th left! Amazing that we were the biggest excitement in Fredericksburg!

So, we began our search with the 2 officers remaining in parking lot, we went down the hill in search of the cache with permission! Of course, we had a bit of stage fright! Couldn't seem to find it. Mrs. nosaj mentioned oh yeah by the way the last team had a DNF. Not what Mr. Nosaj wanted to hear. So we went on to the rocks and we searched and searched, and searched. Ut oh, what are we going to do if we really can't find this one? Pressure was on. We heard the officers laugh and shout "Oh, here comes another one!". We thought they meant yet another officer! Oh, brother! Please please come out come out where ever you are little cache! Finally, we got lucky! We found it. Well, we think. Oh, boy look at that container. We've never seen one like this. Keep in mind we've been explaining they are usually rubbermaid container. So, this became interesting. Was this the cache, Mrs. Nosaj didn't want to open it. Mr. Nosaj took it up the hill to show the police and "Hunt and Peck" (who was the most recent arrival, not another police officer like we thought). He was kindly trying to help us out of this one!. The 1st officer looked at the log book. We signed the log and let Hunt and Peck put it back.

The officers were discussing this treasurer hunting. Officer 1 is ready to get a GPSr and join us on the weekends! Whew! Officer 2, well we don't think that he was that interested! He told us that we were treaspassing and to put our hands on our backs. Which, Mrs. Nosaj did. Then he smiled.

They are amazed that geocaches are all over the area. So, on to the next cache. This was our first of trying to explain geocaching to the police!

Thanks to "Hunt and Peck" for bringing credibility to our story. I think that really helped.

Let's be careful out there

Ever since 9/11 geocachers have been concerned about security awareness, mainly because hunting for the cache can look suspicious. After all, we dress funny, carry funny looking devices, act furtively. Who wouldn't wonder what we're up to? But it's not just cachers who can attract attention, sometimes the cache itself will be cause for alarm.

Been awhile

It's been awhile since we updated the blog; here's a little bit about what's been going on with us.

We put out three more geocaches, one of which was just published today.

It's Problematic is a traditional cache, but you have to solve three word problems to get the final coordinates.

Jumbo Shrimp is not your normal parking lot micro cache. First off, you have to figure out what "jumbo shrimp" means to get the actual cache coordinates. Second, it's not hidden where most micros in parking lots are hidden: in the base of a light pole. Third, it's camouflage is, well, unusual.

High Water, just published, is a traditional cache in an ammo can. But it's camouflage is also rather uncommon. Not that that stopped Bigbunch from finding within two hours of its approval. We'll have to do better next time.

Speaking of Bigbunch, his latest has frustrated us. We spent two hours looking for it yesterday and didn't find it. Our GPSr was bouncing all over the place so we never could get a decent fix. We'll try again soon...

A Picture Share!

A still life with two dogs.

That's Pepe (left) and Bailey (right).