CacheCrazy.Com

It's that time of year again! Time for all of the runners in my life to train for the St Luke's Half Marathon in Allentown, PA. It's beginning to become an annual event as we posted about it last year, this year brought even more fun, challenges and triumphs. With the beautiful weather on tap and me with the day off, I decided to join the team as a supporter for this very special event. The one race that separates the runners from the wannabee's, the complainers from the accomplishers, with everything you have left on the course and no excuses are accepted.

I had much to cheer about. My wife Dawn was my main runner but Dan (Dodger) and his wife Liz who are neighbors and good friends were close runners up. Other friends joined us and family came to support the efforts and ultimately the victory. Here's a picture essay of today's events and great times!

She was born via planned c-section at 8:50am. Her vital stats are:

Weight: 8lbs 13oz
Length 19 1/2 inches
Eyes: blue
Hair: brown

Other interesting information (extrapolated from existing data):
Favourite Food: milk
Favourite Beatle: Paul
Favourite letter: 7 (we're still working on letters).

Zeke (our toddler) came to meet his new sister. It took a while, but he eventually warmed up to her, and even tickled her belly.

Both mommy and baby are doing fine. We are expected to stay in the hospital for a couple days. In the mean time Debbies parents are in town, and are taking care of Zeke.

Geocaching hasn't exactly found it's niche in cinema.  Sure, there's Splinterheads, but outside of that, not much else.  In addition, you never see it on television.  I've heard it was mentioned once on an episode of Law & Order, but I have yet to see it for myself.  There are plenty of movies and television shows out there, and as such, I find it hard to believe NO ONE on those shows geocaches!  So, let's suspend belief for a few moments and reflect back on characters in recent (and not-so-recent) memory.  For various reason, aspects about these ten characters, in my opinion, carry over very well into the game of Geocaching.







Tim "The Toolman" Taylor from Home Improvement- Tim was always modifying some household object or objects in order to get them to accomplish something they weren't really meant to do.  Haven't we all, at some point or another, looked at something in our home and thought to ourselves "Hey, that would make a great cache container!"  I rest my case.


Ogilvie from The Bad News Bears- Not the most athletic of the squad, Ogilvie was the bookkeeper and the unofficial team dork.  He also had a way with numbers.  I bet if you gave him a puzzle cache, he'd be able to crack the code without even breaking a sweat!

Emilio from Mr. Deeds- The eccentric butler from Adam Sandler's 2002 Comedy Mr. Deeds had a knack for showing up, unexpected, wherever his employer, Longfellow Deeds, happened to be. "I'm very, very sneaky!"  Sounds like a FTF hound to me!

Steve Urkel- "Did I do that?"  Urkel was the consummate nerd.  His science projects never quite lived up to expectations, but he did whatever was necessary in an attempt to win the heart of his neighbor, Laura.  Had Family Matters been set in the present day, I could imagine Steve Urkel geocaching, whenever he wasn't harassing the Winslows.

Cliff Clavin-  If there's one guy who could have written one heck of a cache description page, I bet it would have been Cliff Clavin.  He was a walking encyclopedia, knew a little bit of what seemed to be everything, and was quite articulate.  He also always paid attention to detail.  This Cheers mainstay would, undoubtedly, write a very descriptive cache log, as well.

MacGyver- Oh, come on, geocaching or not, who wouldn't want to hang out with MacGyver?  This mild mannered special agent had a profound knowledge of science.  More importantly, he was able to make great use of even the  most mundane objects.  Have you ever been to a cache site, and spotted the cache, but couldn't figure out how to get it, or how to open it?  I bet MacGyver would have been able to grab or open it, probably with a wad of gum or, perhaps, a rubber band.

WELCOME TO THIRSTY THURSDAY!!

Grab a cup of coffee, or tea, sit back and tell us "I Love Geocaching".



A few weeks ago a friend of mine contacted me with a question. He works as a Teacher at the Scranton School for the Deaf and he was looking for something for the kids to do during their summer break. He had heard me talk many times on Facebook about Geocaching, so he thought this might be something the kids would like to do. What he wanted to know was if I would take him out caching along with a few of the students so they all could get a feel for it. Well I was elated. I love taking folks out and teaching, or getting them hooked, on Geocaching.

We set a date and met at a nearby parking lot. We would be searching out two of my caches. When they arrived the boys got out of the van and came over to my car. The first thing they noticed was that I had one of the boys' names on my car window. It was Carl #1. Well one of the boys' names was Carl. Long story short of why it was there. My son, Carl, went to a camp and the students had written his name all over the car. This was the last window I had to clean. Carl, now learning about caching, thought that was really neat that I had his name on my car. I was then introduced to Auden and felt I had two new friends. I love Geocaching and making friends.

On to caching. Well I first showed them some of the stuff in my Geobag. You know the usual stuff like SWAG, Geocoins, and a TB.



We talked while my friend signed to the two students what we would be doing. This was going to be a very interesting caching trip since the two young boys are hearing impaired, and I don't know a lot of sign language. Matter of fact I don't remember much of what I use to know.

We headed out for the first cache, which was Anniversary Cache. As we approached GZ the boys started looking around for the cache. My friend Doug spotted it right away. He then waited for the boys to find it. He told them it could be under a rock, in something, or on top of something. They began searching harder. It didn't take them long to find the cache. They were excited to have found it.



What was really great was that they found their first Pathtag, and their first TB. I told Doug that they could keep the Pathtag and he said they would keep it for the entire group. I then explained about the TB and that it needs to move from cache to cache. He said they will move it along soon. They put the cache back where they had found it and it was off to the next cache.

The next cache was Symbol Of Peace. This one is a multi-cache and a little harder. The boys set off with the GPS and were heading in the correct direction. Once they got around GZ they began looking for the cache. We had to tell them that they were looking for Part 1 of the cache, which then would lead to Part 2. They kept looking all around the ground so Doug explained to them that they needed to divide the area in to small sections and look from the ground all the way up into the trees. It took a little while, but then they found it.


We then showed them that the co-ordinates to Part 2 are on the tail of the bird. Very cool. We entered the co-ordinates into the GPS and headed off to Part 2. Along the way we encountered many animal tracks, which were fun to look at.

Well it didn't take them long to find Part 2. They were excited about finding it too. They opened the container and went through it. What a fun time they had.



Well they had found two caches and had a great time. I think these guys are hooked for good. They can't wait to go out on their next excursion looking for caches.

So how about you? Have you taken anyone out for their first caching trip. I'd love to hear about it. By the way, say hello to the Scrantonbigbears. They are awesome and I look forward to seeing them on the trails in the future.