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Dave aka smithie23

Hey, look who it is! Our friend and a regular guest author here at CacheCrazy.Com, Dave aka smithie23. He has provided some great posts that can be found on the sidebar of our blog. We also had the pleasure to do some geocaching with Dave recently. He's a really cool guy and great geocacher. Today he is going to scratch the surface on a new game called Munzee. 




I enjoy listening to podcasts, specifically, podcasts related to geocaching.  They’re a great way to pass the time on my ninety minute drives to work, and I get to keep up with what’s going on with our game/sport, both here in the states and around the world.  One of these podcasts recently devoted its show to a new game called Munzee.

Checking things out from the front porch

Storm debris as seen from back porch

We were having our own little hurricane party.  While friends were sending text messages that they had lost power, our kids were watching a movie.  We were kind of just going about business as usual and, despite the crazy strong winds outside, I started to believe we might actually make it. 

Pioneer-style coffee... well, with gas stove and matches

We actually enjoyed the rest of the day.  We played games and read books and just kept waiting for the storm to end.  Finally around, I’m not actually sure now, I guess about 6, things started to settle down.  We went outside and assessed the situation.  Other than the debris, we had one major tree break, but that was all.  Really, it wasn’t bad.

The Francis E. Walter Dam yesterday morning

Fog rising from the Lehigh River below the dam yesterday morning

Sunshine through the woods behind our house yesterday morning

The woods awaken behind our house yesterday morning

Storm debris on house roof

Broken tree

Broken tree trunk

Broken tree limb

The Dodger Lizard Cleanup Crew

Just about 24 hours exactly from when the power went out, it was restored at 1:15 PM Monday and our little adventure had come to an end.  Even though we got a taste of what Irene was serving, I’m well aware that many folks had it much tougher than we did, and our thoughts and prayers are with them. 

exhibit A

That's right, you may as well just stop putting them out all together. Throw away your swag and use those Lock N Lock containers for storage, because you won't be needing them any more. Forget about that great multi you've been working so hard on and the day's of hissing ammo cans opening are over. This is how the world of geocaching would be for Bloodhounded if it weren't for a few good geocachers who help with emergency cache maintenance.

And you thought I was going to relate this to kissing a frog and/or geocaching.com's new Challenges, right? Weren't you?

I call it "Cooperative Caching" and I have blogged about it before. I've been ridiculed, condemned and some skeptics have even written that they disagreed with me. "It's your responsibility as a CO" I'm told, "get off your lazy ass and do it yourself" says others. Still I follow my own path and shun the negativity knowing that I am a trend setter and "someday" it will become common play. That is if we want the game of geocaching to continue. Quite frankly, if it weren't for these guys/gals who assist it would be "GAME OVER" for a few of my hides. A few here get archived, a few there get archived and before you know it, that little counter on geocaching.com that tells you every minute how many caches there are, starts counting down instead of up.

So, I'm guilty as charged! Yes, I enlist geocachers who have found my caches to gain secret information. Questions like, "how was it holding up" and "is the log full or does it have enough room" or the dreaded "did it have enough swag". You can take the tracer off my bloodhounded@gmail.com account, stop following me and taking pictures, I DID IT! I DID IT! IT WAS MEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!

exhibit B

OK, so I saw a log that said the "log is full" on one of my series caches and then I saw a group of cachers (costa84 - robbinsmt - GO TEAM STEAK! thanks guys) who were likely going there because it appeared they were going after that series and they needed that one to complete it! I ASKED THEM TO CHANGE THE LOG, I DID, I DID IT!

YES, YES, YES it was me who lured the helpful, unsuspecting geocacher to one of my caches only to have a hidden agenda for them to pick up a bag of swag at a coord prearranged, to fill up the container because it was noted as "getting light on swag". I DID THAT TOO!

I'm a freak, an outcast to the geocaching community, a user and enabler of geocachers who unsuspectingly answer my emails requesting of them to do the deed that is rightfully mine as a CO (cache owner). I suck, I know and should be banned from anything that even has to do with geo, flogged, dragged through the mud, tar and feathered, kicked in the crotch and worse! An embarrassment to my fellow hiders and a disgrace to the entire geocaching sport!

BUT, I have the most awesome caches, filled with swag, dry logs and some of the most creative hides around my area, so there!
AND, compared to the new Challeneges on GC.COM, I don't look so bad after all, now do I?


WE THE JURY FIND YOU BLOODHOUNDED GUILTY OF FINDING BETTER WAYS TO REGULARLY MAINTAIN YOUR GEOCACHE HIDES, WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY FOR YOURSELF?

YES, I DID IT, and I did it all for YOU!


HAVE FUN AND CACHE CRAZY!
BLOODHOUNDED

Hello Grandpa Thrifty Treasure Hunters,

Stanford

Due to technical difficulties I will need to finish this series next Monday 9/5/2011.
I'm sorry but I want to do this cache just right and perfection takes time. More time than I had anticipated. 
See you next week with the conclusion and we'll be looking forward to our FTF!
Thanks,
Bloodhounded

I am Dave, I do stuff

Meet our friend Dave from Only Googlebot Reads This Blog. He shares with us a series called “Bears Across America” where Dave and his wife pack up the toddler and the dog and hit the road for the ultimate three week adventure. It’s nothing but fun, great pics and geocaching the whole way as told by Dave. Enjoy!

Bears Across America: Viva Rock Vegas
April 27, 2011.  The Bears Across America whirlwind tour out west has brought us to our most western point:  Las Vegas Nevada.
Las Vegas is too large to be explored just passing by, so we spent an entire day exploring the Las Vegas Strip, where all the famous casinos and famous landmarks are located.

Our first stop in Vegas was the famous Las Vegas sign which anchors the southern end of the strip (it also doubles as a virtual cache).
We walked the strip in the morning, checking out some of the casinos and the other sights.  There is a lot of cool things on the strip - way to many things to comment on in a blog post, so I'll hit some of the highlights:
There is a lot of shopping on the strip.  One of the best stores we visited was the M&M Store - 4 floors of all things M&Ms... a tower of deliciousness that melts in your mouth, not in your hands.

I have been doing more caching on this trip than I expected, so I was able to hit a milestone on the Las Vegas strip.  I picked the virtual at the M&M shop as my 500th find. It was great deal of fun, and a sweet (literally, figuratively) way to celebrate this milestone.






We stayed at the Flamingo Hotel and Casino, mainly due to it being dog friendly, on the strip, and cheap.  It was still a very nice hotel, one of the nicer ones we've stayed at this trip, and it is truly dog friendly.

I was not prepared for the size of the place.  According to the clerk at the check-in counter there are 3600+ rooms in the hotel.  The bottom two floors contain a casino, food courts, and many shops.

The hotel also has a really nice courtyard with live flamingos and other birds, pools, fountains, and outdoor patios.


 The strip at night is much more impressive than during the day.  The number of lights is astounding. No wonder they build Hoover Dam so close :)

Every casino has its own theme and style, and all are unique.  Some are fancier, some are not.   Almost all have some sort of fountain, some sort of food, shopping, and a built in hotel.

You may ask if we gambled, and the answer is yes.  Both Debbie and I put a US dollar (98 cents Canadian) into a slot machine.  We didn't win.




The Bellagio, a casino in the middle of the strip, has an impressive fountain display every 15 minutes during the evening.  It is synchronized to music, and well worth checking out. 

Zeke loved the fountains.  He was mesmerized during both shows that we saw.    He really enjoyed most of the sights and sounds of the strip.

There is a seedy underbelly to Vegas which we didn't explore.  It doesn't take a lot of looking to see evidence of it, however it doesn't take a lot of effort to ignore it either- just don't accept handouts from people on the strip :)

It is now time to head east again, but where are we going?  What is next for the Bears?  Stay tuned!


Dave and family, traveling the Midwest, geocaching all the way and just having fun! This is what life is all about. 
Next weekend we'll be treated to another leg of the journey. I can't wait! Thanks again Dave!

I am Dave, I do stuff

Meet our friend Dave from Only Googlebot Reads This Blog. He shares with us a series called “Bears Across America” where Dave and his wife pack up the toddler and the dog and hit the road for the ultimate three week adventure. It’s nothing but fun, great pics and geocaching the whole way as told by Dave. Enjoy!


Bears Across America: The Hoover Maneuver
April 26, 2011 saw the continuing adventures of a bunch of bears on their journey to the wild west of America.  Todays journey brought us from Flagstaff Arizona to Las Vegas Nevada.

In between is a little engineering project called the Hoover Dam.

Visiting the Hoover Dam proved to be the most annoying experience I've had this trip.  The issue is that for some bizarre reason I could not have a dog in my car and park it in the parking lots close to the dam.   I can understand not having a dog walk around the dam, but why the restriction with them being in a parked car?  Government Restrictions I was told.  bah.  So we parked in the far lots, and walked down to check out the dam. The fact that you can walk over the dam and look down, way way down, to the bottom is cool.  Otherwise its a huge chunk of concrete in the middle of a desert.


The dam itself is a pretty impressive piece of engineering, and beautiful in its own way.  It is not a surprise that this is where they kept the All-Spark, and Megatron.

Lake Mead, the lake created by the dam, is also beautiful, tho not as big as I expected.  The drop in water levels as the Colorado River is drained for use in Las Vegas and LA is remarkable (thats the white band you see in the photos).  Just goes to show the hubris of Man to build major cities out in the desert.

After we spent 20 minutes at the dam we headed west again and arrived in Las Vegas in time to put Zeke down for bed.  Las Vegas itself is an amazing place to drive into.  Desert, desert, desert, middle of city.  There is no middle ground :)

Stay tuned for more from our adventures in Las Vegas.

By Big Al

Did Not Find; the funnest caching trip ever.






This past Sunday I set out with my son to find a few caches in the local area. We were heading for A Day at the Falls, which I had tried with my wife once, but we turned back when we noticed the terrain rating. Well my son and I were prepared this time, so we gathered our caching supplies and headed out.

We arrived at the parking area, I think, and headed into the woods. We were greeted by a most unusual looking fungus growing around two tree stumps. These were really cool and very picture worthy.






After a few pictures we headed off towards GZ. As we approached we noticed we needed to go down quite a steep embankment. I told Levi to be careful and to find us the least dangerous route possible. We decided as we neared the cliff edge that we had better find a different route. We headed away from the cache and then down the steep hillside. It took a good deal of time to do it, but we did traverse the hill without any problems, that is until I started slipping. Down I went. Thankfully I did not slide too far. I was okay and back up on my feet in no time. We finally made it to the bottom and found the creek.

As I began searching for the cache Levi called out to me that he had found a cave of some sort. I quickly headed up to where he was at and he was right. There was a nice size cave entrance there.



I got out my trusty flashlight and peered into the darkness. This really looked cool. As a matter of fact it was really "cool" down there. I began taking plenty of pictures of this cave and then we decided to head in.




As we began looking around I remembered we were on a time constraint. Back to the cache at hand. We crossed the creek and headed up the hill to where we thought the cache was. We wandered all over and did our best not to slide back down the hill. I mean were talking about a very steep hill. We looked for a long time, but just could not find it. I looked at the time and knew if we did not quit now I'd be in big trouble with my wife who had a ladies get together at a friends house. I told Levi we were heading out and that we would come back to this cache another day. He agreed and we left. We headed back down the hill and then back up the other side taking a direct uphill approach. This was a definite cardiac exercise.

We finally made it to the top and I looked at the time again. It had taken us less than 15 minutes to make the climb from across the ridge to where we were now. I was so out of breath it wasn't funny. We made it back to the car and I called my wife and let her know we were on our way home. She was fine with that. As we headed home I just had to have one more look. What a beautiful view.

We cannot wait to go back and try this one again. Of course we will have to take a brighter flashlight to spend more time exploring the cave. Hopefully the next time we'll find the cache to make this an outstanding caching trip. See you on the trails.

TeamBlueBall

We have this whole little network of friends and family, they are all such super people. Sometimes we may not "touch base" for months and other times, we're firing off emails, comments and blogs posts so fiery, you would think it's the fourth of July. Why, we're just too busy for Facebook or tweets. One question that I often ask or drop the idea in conversation is, "would you like to do a guest blog post at CacheCrazy.Com? " and I often get mixed responses anywhere from, "I would love to" to no acknowledgement which means to me, "NO".

TheDunsilFamily

Overthehill Gang

Now mind you, these are awesome folks who do all kinds of fun things and have such great stories to tell. So, I wonder, WHY NOT? I would think of it as an opportunity to share my adventures and that would be so cool. But still, nothing. Then I noticed that most of the folks who declined don't have a blog or ever had one OR/AND they don't want one. That's cool. But maybe they decline because they are not sure how to do one? Now, there I can help.

FamilyTeamB

Pack 193 on a Caching Mission

smithie23

It's easier than ever to be a guest blogger on CacheCrazy.Com. All you really need is a great story and a few pictures. That's it! We'll do all the rest. Just email us the text typed right into the email or in a word program document and attache the pictures, done. Easy enough, right? What we'll do is layout the post so it looks really cool and add your pics. Then we'll set it up in the schedule for publish. We always let folks know when their post will publish so they can tell all their family and friends to watch for it and then on that day at 12:01 AM, they're published! We usually publish guest blogs on the weekends (Sat and Sun) but have on occasion posted on a Monday or during the week if that's OK with the author. After the post has been up through it's time period, we add the author's name and link to their post in the sidebar under Guest Blog Attributes. That's where it stays forever for others to view or for you to link to in the future. I also have been know to do a little sidebar graphic with a link to the authors post to be placed on any HTML foremat such as Blogger, Facebook, etc.

Kim from Snug Harbor Bay

Shaggy

The biggest question I always get is, "what should I write about?" If you have followed CacheCrazy.Com for any period of time you know that we have such a large topic base. Everything from Zip Lining to Bow Camp to boating, family fun, events, locations and yes, geocaching too. Hiking, photography, fishing and you name it, it fits here at CacheCrazy if it relates to a lifestyle of having fun in the great outdoors. If you just get started you'd be surprised what will come to you. Go nuts, have fun, send pictures and enjoy seeing your work on one of today's hottest blogs, CacheCrazy.Com