bumanfam's blog

Flash Mob!

2011-04-13T22:42:00.001-05:00

The location is downtown Le Mars, IA. The plan is simple - at high noon on Holy Saturday, be ready to do the Bunny Hop! Find a spot to park and make your way to the intersection of Plymouth St and Central Ave. It doesn't matter which of the four corners you use (we'd like to have a group on each of the four). But be nonchalant about it. Don't look like you're gathering for an event or have anything up your sleeves. Then, bumanfam Dad will enter with an Easter Basket. When he sets it down, and the music starts, quickly form a conga line with the other folks on your corner and start doing the Bunny Hop! You know how - but if you don't here's a link to show you the way. For everyone's safety, the Bunny Hop lines are not to enter the street for any reason - stay on the sidewalks! After the music stops, we'll all gather around the aforementioned Easter basket and share a quick meal, sign the log, swap some swag, and snap a group photo. The most important part is that we finish it all up and leave - exactly 15 minutes after we arrive! The uninformed passers-by will wonder what the heck they just witnessed!

If you really want to have some fun (and please do!), wear your bunny ears and your bunny slippers! It is the day before Easter, after all. . .

Clicking on the title of this post will take you to the full event description on Geocaching.com.

We Made It! 1,000 Finds!

2010-11-18T21:21:00.005-06:00

Well, it took a comment on the blog from someone far, far away, but perhaps it's time for an update! We did make it to 1000 finds shortly before this year's Hike-N-Seek event. We (bumanfam Dad) were planning to make the event itself #1000, and carefully planning each cache find so as to time it perfectly. At the time, we were focusing on a) finding a cache on each calendar day for which we hadn't yet found a cache, and b) making sure we didn't go through any county on our way to the event without finding a cache there so we could mark it off our map. Couple that with bumanfam Mom's insistence that we NOT use an event as a milestone so that we could place our "signature" milestone swag in the cache, and we decided to go for the 1000th before the event.

So, we scoped out a location not far away that had just the right number of caches to hit 1000, and the last one would be big enough for the swag. We headed out on a Sunday evening with the whole bumanfam, and our German exchange student (jonas1993 on GC.com). The terrain was much tougher than we'd imagined, and the daylight was waning, but we went for it anyway. There were 5 caches to find. After going in, bumanfam Dad realized one of the caches had a string of DNFs, and the last one being several months prior. He declared that we'd find the four we could, and use another for the big one - so we skipped that cache. On the way back, bumanfam Mom realized we were walking within only a few feet of where that cache's coordinates were. She insisted on looking for it, telling bumanfam Dad that he should just not look, then it wouldn't count as a find (#1000). Wouldn't you know it - she found it! In the grass. A bison tube. Now, anyone who knows bumanfam Dad will attest - he signed the log! But, the swag wouldn't fit. So, we decided to have dinner and head out for another in the dark to place our cache commemorating our 1000th find, into our 1001st.

The cache we picked was in the middle of a field. Literally - nothing there but tall grass. It had been placed for the Hike-N-Seek event we planned the year prior. Now, it was fully nighttime, and dark. Also, it was raining. The grass was about shoulder height. We all had headlamps and flashlights. bumanfam Kid #3 rode on bumanfam Dad's shoulders. We found the cache, tried taking some photos, and placed the swag - a penny for every cache we'd found to-date. Yep. 1000 pennies. Ten bucks. That's the last time we exercise that "tradition." This caching business is expensive!

Anyway, we made it. We also found one cache in every county across the south of Iowa on the way to HNS shortly thereafter. And on the way home - the second row of counties from the bottom. For the HNS weekend (a parents-only trip), we found 107 caches. That means we also crossed 1100. We've done a bunch since also (not by some people's standards - did you hear there was a new 24-hour find record set recently at over 1100?!?!?!), and are just shy of our 1200th find. We have abandoned the quest to black out the calendar for the time being (we can't do until 29 Feb 2012 anyway), but we'll probably cross 1200 soon. Pathetic that it's taken this long, but that's okay. We're still having great fun! Oh, yeah - we're also in the (very) early stages of planning Iowa's first MEGA event! Look for it in 2012!

Yeah, We're Still Geocachers!

2010-08-17T22:48:00.003-05:00

Yeah, yeah - we know. The idea of a blog is to actually USE it. Well, at the time of the last post, we were beginning work on the Iowa Geocachers Organization's annual event, the Hike-N-Seek. We were the hosts and had a spectacular event here in Plymouth County. The trouble with that? Well, we were doing so much geocaching-related stuff for so long that we kind of burned out. By the time the event came to a close in late September, we had abandoned our goals for the year of finding a minimum average of a cache a day within each month, and of reaching 1000 finds by year's end. Heck, we don't even have that many now, and we're quickly approaching the next Hike-N-Seek!

Some other developments happened for us during that time frame, including bumanfam Dad's election to the IGO board of directors, and to the post of secretary. It wasn't that we'd given up on all things geocaching, just put some other priorities over actually going out and finding caches! Now, in his second year of his term on the board, bumanfam Dad has been elevated to the post of President. He's hoping to make some headway toward making membership in the organization even more beneficial for geocachers, and to really boost the game/sport/hobby in the state.

Well, back to the present, an amazing thing has happened here in the Ice Cream Capital of the World - another geocacher has gotten the bug to hide caches! In over four years of geocaching, only three caches had been placed in town or within about 5 miles of it that weren't placed by us or by our crew working on the HNS event. That meant that we had to travel quite a ways to even attempt any FTFs, and as geocaching becomes more and more popular, the likelihood of actually being the first grows slimmer. So 395 days had passed since our last FTF when all of a sudden, there's a new cache. Four miles from home! Yep, FTF! Then, over the next couple of weeks, more popped up. In 23 days, we've managed 10 FTFs in a place where nobody else was placing caches! We even missed out on a couple due to work schedules! But, we just picked up another tonight, and now we've found at least one on each of the last four days, and six total during the same time frame!

We still aren't caching at full speed again, but the bug sure gets a boost by new prospects for FTF adrenaline! We're looking forward to a couple of great events coming up, including one close to home, and another just about as far away as it could possibly be and still be in Iowa! For that one, the current plan is to make it an adults-only trip, and get some serious caching in. Gosh, this silly game is fun!

Another Hike at Five Ridges Prairie

2009-04-24T18:53:00.002-05:00

Another Trip to Five Ridges Prairie

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Headed out for another geocaching run at Five Ridges Prairie today. This time, no blizzard in the forecast! In fact, it was in the upper 70s today. The hiking was pretty good, though truly a shame the trekking poles were forgotten at home - again!

bumanfam Dad had good company today, brining along Schilmoellers for a first caching outing. Nothing like baptism by fire, right? This is no easy hiking trip - saying the Loess hills are rugged is like saying the ocean is kinda big! The feet are sore, the knees are achy, but the spirit is refreshed! The best news? There are still four geocaches out there that are in need of our signature! Off to log the finds. . .

Blizzard? Who cares?!?! There's caching to do!

2009-04-05T20:12:00.004-05:00

There was literally a blizzard warning, with talk of 7 to 12 inches of snow. But, there were four new caches published in 5 Ridges State Preserve. Since December there have been 16 new caches published out there. We found the two that were there previous to that last spring. On that trip we were also introduced to the morel mushroom! Anyway, bumanfam Dad and bumanfam Dog were the only ones brave enough for the trek. The warnings were to officially begin at 6:00 pm, so we headed out around noon. We documented the trip at EveryTrail.com. Here is that trip.

bumanfam's 5 Ridges FTF Hunt

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The blizzard, by the way? Well, we only got about a half-inch of snow on the ground as it was just too warm for the falling snow to stick. It was plenty windy, wet, and cold, though! We had four FTFs for the day, and three other caches as well. There are still nine out there we haven't yet found. We'll be back during morel season!

We're Cache-A-Maniacs!

2009-02-15T02:35:00.000-06:00

We recently had the honor of being interviewed on the Cache-A-Maniacs Podcast! The podcast is a cool place to hear interviews with geocachers from all walks of life and all over the globe. It's fun to hear about the different ways people enjoy this game-sport-hobby thing we do! Our interview is on show number 110. Here's the link - enjoy!

Where the Heck Have We Been?!?

2009-02-15T02:33:00.002-06:00

Wow! More than six months have passed since that last post. What was it we said about posting more often? Okay - no such promises this time! We'll do what we can. Our caching slowed considerably after we reached the 500 mark - largely due to disappointingly missing the fall Hike-n-Seek by the IGO, then a move to a new home. We're finally getting a bit more up-to-speed now after the first of the year. We have a lofty goal of reaching 1000 by the end of 2009 - the GSAK macro we use to generate our statistics says, at our usual pace, we won't make that goal until November of 2010! If we are to make that goal this year, surely there will be more stories along the way to come by here and post, baby, post!

Weekend Caching Goals

2008-08-05T15:41:00.003-05:00

This past weekend the bumanfam headed out after a couple of geocaching milestones: our first Earthcache, our first Wherigo Cache, our first cache in Minnesota, and our 500th find. How'd we do? Well, let's start with from the beginning.

bumanfam Dad had a meeting on Sunday evening, very near the Minnesota border. It just didn't make much sense for him drive all that way by himself, so bumanfam Mom and Dad decided to make a weekend out of it. We've been storing bumanfam Mom's Mom's (CaritaCacher) motor home on our acreage. The deal is we get to use it! So, we decided to take it to a county-managed state park that's (sort of) between home and the meeting. That park has 21 geocaches which we've been saving for a time when we could camp. Since we were at 466 finds, we needed some numbers to reach 500. Then, we decided we could add MN since we would be so close. A quick search in GSAK pointed out an Earthcache and a Wherigo cache in the vicinity as well. So, we prepared to get them all, and enough along the way to hit 500.

We got kind of a late start to the weekend, and actually arrived at the campground after 4:00, having found the 1 remaining cache on the route there. We decided to eat before caching, and headed out onto the trails after that. The park has many miles of mowed trails through woods, prairies, and grasslands, up and down the nor then tip of the Loess Hills. We got thirteen that evening (including two by headlamp that bumanfam Dad and bumanfam Kid #1 went after when the others were asleep). The next day was Sunday, so we broke camp early enough to get to town for Mass, then headed back to the park to clean it out. This was the hottest day of the year to-date, with temps pushing 100 and humidity not far behind!

We cleaned out the park, with no DNFs, and headed north from there toward our other goals. We did the math to pick a cache with some special qualities for number 500, and went out for our first Earthcache for number 498 and a nearby traditional for 499. The 500th was about 3/10 of a mile from there. We got those two after a good hike of about a mile (remember the heat?), but ran out of time to go for the number 500, as we still had a 45 minute drive to bumanfam Dad's meeting, and he stunk pretty bad! The area was stunning, however, and we vowed to come back.

The same time constraint left us in no position to go after the Wherigo cache, and none of the MN caches were big enough to leave our milestone swag - we leave one item for each cache we've ever visited in each 100th cache. So, we went right to the meeting (we were still late) and decided after the meeting to head home as it was already after 10:00 Sunday night and we had a good 75 minute drive. We were going to pass some caches placed by our good friends dordtman and trayhons on the way home, so we searched for one of theirs that we hadn't found that was big and easy to do as #500.

So, we accomplished 2 out of 4 goals for the weekend. Perhaps disappointing, but it was a great weekend of caching. We figure we hiked a minimum of 5 miles total (we didn't track it, much to our chagrin), and sweat out several gallons! Must have dropped a few pounds as well!

WWFM III

2008-07-16T14:31:00.005-05:00

Once again the bumanfam has hosted a Flash Mob event. This time we held it in Sioux City - and in the rain! A good time was had by all (we think) and we made light of the fact that it was raining by singing "Cachin' in the Rain," a spoof of an old camp song, stolen from an old classic. Here'a a video of that portion of the event.

Once again we had Hershey's Kisses for our meal, traded a bunch of swag, took a group photo, gave away some prizes, and signed the logbook. Thankfully, we had won on the PodCacher Podcast and chose a Rite in the Rain logbook from the Prize Vault, so we were able to sign despite the rain. In conjunction with Sonny's blingy, blingy, flash, flash theme, we even had sparklers for all the attendees - fireworks in the rain!

Geo Bonding

2008-07-16T13:27:00.005-05:00

Our personal tag line is, “Geocaching: bumanfam’s best family day ever.” In a past blog entry, we’ve elaborated on why this is so, having had a full day of outdoor fun without even one complaint from the bumanfam Kids, numbers one through three. We’ve probably also mentioned that, when we started, the rule was that there would be no Geocaching unless the whole family was present, and that the same rule was quickly tossed out when we realized that this was too much fun to forbid its practice just because we couldn’t get the five of us together at the same time. We’ve also discussed how bumanfam Kid #3 loves to ride in the backpack carrier during the wooded hikes, frequently leaning forward to whisper into bumanfam Mom or bumanfam Dad’s ear, “I love you!” Certainly it’s been told that bumanfam Kid #3 also asks to go Geocaching several times a day (and she’s a whopping three years old). Well, the saga of how this crazy game/sport/hobby thing provides the bumanfam with some great family bonding experiences continues, this time for bumanfam Dad and bumanfam Kid #1. The story can be heard using the player below, or read by clicking on the "Read More" link below that.

It started out simple enough: the allure of an event big enough to draw the attention of cachers from all over the Midwest and beyond, compounded by the appeal of sixty permanent caches placed for the event, and aided by the draw of camping was simply too much for bumanfam Dad to ignore. In 2007 we had to pass – it was the same weekend as the high school play that bumanfam Mom was directing in her new employment, and bumanfam Dad has a certain background and training that lend assistance to such ventures. 2008? Same problem! But wait – the event date changed! Drat – so did the play date – to the same date, of course. Fortunately, bumanfam Mom was ready to make a deal: program the lights and sound for the production and train some students to run them, and the bumanfam boys could go play for the weekend! A later decision would keep bumanfam Kid #2 at home, setting up a one-on-one father-and-son adventure for bumanfam Dad and bumanfam Kid #1.
We left for the event on Thursday evening with two other cachers. The plan was to cache all night long on our way to the event, an eight hour drive without the caching. All night didn’t quite pan out, but we got a few. Friday morning we added two new states to our cached-in map before setting up camp at the event. We briefly attended a pre-event event Friday night before settling in to our sleeping bags at the campground for a good night’s sleep. The event involved two competitions, one for individuals in the morning, and one for teams in the afternoon. We were in the team event, so we had the morning to go caching on our own. The other two weren’t ready to get up, so it was just us, father and son.
We’d gotten hold of an additional GPSr for the weekend from CaritaCacher, bumanfam Mom’s mom (we’d given it to her as a gift) and bumanfam Dad had a brand new GPS-enabled PDA, so bumanfam Kid #1 had his very own GPSr for the first time. He’d picked up the basics of its operation pretty quickly, and we had a great time going from cache to cache. The location of the event was beautiful. It was early spring, and most of the flora was not yet out of dormancy or had just begun. The park itself wasn’t actually open for the season, and this event was therefore special. We hiked in some woods, along some trails, and near a lake and some streams. The birds and chorus frogs were singing, we spotted deer, and you just couldn’t see bumanfam Dad behind the smile on his face. Several times, and without any sort of prompt, Kid #1 said simply, “Dad, I love you!” or, “Dad, thanks for bringing me here!”
At one particular cache, bumanfam Dad decided to pull one over on Kid #1. The cache location was pretty obviously in a fallen tree trunk, covered by some bark and leaves. bumanfam Kid #1 gave a feeble attempt to look there, but passed it up. So, Dad grabbed it without Kid #1 noticing. Dad turned his back, opened the cache, and was signing the log – the whole time encouraging Kid #1 to keep looking. At one point, Dad dropped his PDA and Kid #1 picked it up and handed it back, still not noticing what Dad was doing! Dad was able to slip it back into place while Kid #1 was exploring another possibility only inches away – again without noticing. When bumanfam Dad finally could no longer contain his laughter, he pointed out the whole event to Kid #1, who had a great laugh about how Dad had managed to fool him. It’s now bumanfam Kid #1’s favorite caching story (along with how he was able to return the favor on another part of the trip!).
After we’d shared lunch back at the event headquarters, it was time for us to take part in the team event. We were just about last in line to get our coordinates, and we had problems getting them loaded into all our GPSrs. We actually missed the instructions and official start of the competition. That’s okay – we weren’t in it to win it, we were in it for some fun. Once we actually got into the woods, we quickly located our first cache. To our dismay, it was already out in the open, opened, and there was no punch. At each cache you were to find a unique punch with which to log your find on your scorecard. Disgruntled, we signed the logbook, traded some stuff, and headed off to the next cache. Same situation! At the third, we ran into some other contestants and they said a word that sparked a light bulb in bumanfam Dad’s head; offset. We’d noticed that there were some numbers and such written on the outside of the ammo cans at both the first locations, but had ignored them. They, of course, were bearings to the location of the punches. About this time, bumanfam Dad quickly discovered how his new PDA did waypoint projection (our other GPSr did not at the time, the functionality has since been added), and he was bolting through the brush, yelling at Kid #1 to catch up. Suddenly, bumanfam Dad noticed Kid #1 sitting on a log, frustrated and in tears. He was trying to figure out why Dad was heading off in the wrong way and what the heck a waypoint projection was. Time for a break!
We sat there on that log for a while. bumanfam Dad explained to bumanfam Kid #1 just what a projection was, and that Kid#1’s GPSr simply didn’t do that. We spent some time learning more about it with Dad’s new toy. We discussed that Dad had gotten a little excited to have found the solution to his frustration, and thus didn’t notice Kid #1’s frustration building. After a true heart-to-heart, and some water, we were ready to head off for some more caching, at a much relaxed pace. Some of the finds made us smile, some made us take note so that we could perhaps replicate the hide method, most of them went unfound by us, but we had a great time, meltdowns and all!
That night, after having a great feast at the event’s banquet, we were sitting on a picnic table bench watching a slide show of photos taken during the day’s activities, and bumanfam Kid #1 kept pushing and tugging at bumanfam Dad’s arm. Finally, the realization came that what was wanted was some closeness. bumanfam Dad put his arm around Kid #1 and we watched quietly, both elated with the day. We slept well that night, and the next day we cached our way back home. We only found something like thirty-seven caches that weekend – way below our hopes – but it didn’t matter. The weekend couldn’t have been any more perfect for a father and his son.
The icing on the cake came when we were only a few miles from home, after dropping off the two friends who were with us, when bumanfam Kid #1 took a moment to thank his dad for an awesome weekend, and suggest that bumanfam Dad take bumanfam Kid #2 on a similar private weekend adventure soon. He got it! He fully understood that what had happened that weekend would be something he’d treasure forever, and that his brother should be so lucky. The weekend’s activities could have been anything, really, but for us, it was geocaching that got the two of us out together for a quintessential father-and-son bonding experience. Thanks, Dave Ulmer!

WWFM

2007-12-06T12:37:00.000-06:00

On 10 November we hosted an event called the World Wide Flash Mob - Ice Cream Capital. As many of you already know (you would if you were listening to the PodCacher Podcast like good little geocachers), it was part of a huge effort to host simultaneous 15 minute long events all over the globe. There were 83 events that drew a total of over 4300 attendees! Ours was a little smaller, drawing about 28 cachers on a chilly and windy Saturday morning.

During the event, everyone logged in for a chance at some prizes, ate a "meal" of Hershey's Kisses, had a group photo taken, waited in anticipation to see if they'd won anything cool in the drawing, traded swag, met new cachers, and had a great time. After the 15 minutes was up, we all split like a log! Check out the video (but you might want some Dramamine).

After that event, we hosted a second, non-timed event. It was just a meet-and-greet, an opportunity to vist more at length, especially with gachers we'd never met. We also gave out information on five new caches we'd placed. Two of them are a bit more, um, special! We had some creative finds going on (cheaters!), but hopefully all enjoyed the challenges we put out. If you're in our area and would like a couple of challenges (we hope), check out GEOSCAMS and Innertubes and Baseballs. Another local (but older) cache that seems to make people smile (after cursing) is We Wood Eaven Put a Cache Here. Give 'em a peek if you're going to be in our neck-o'-th'-woods!

Cache-vangelism at the Library

2007-10-18T23:46:00.000-05:00

bumanfam Dad stopped in the local library between appointments recently to use the wireless access and check up on email. No, there weren't any new caches to run out and grab, getting all bloody and grass stained! But I did receive the weekly cache update from Groundspeak. As most of you know, there's a section of that email that lists news stories about geocaching. One this week had to do with a library that started a project using some of the ideas of geocaching. That gave me an idea.

I started for the library desk to talk to the powers that be, but stopped. There's just too much concerning this on the internet to do it justice in spoken word. So, I authored an email to the library. That email follows:

I'm actually sitting in the library as I type this - thanks for the wireless!

I am an avid geocacher. A what? Let me breifly explain. Geocaching is a sport/hobby/game where users use an internet site (www.geocaching.com), a handheld GPS receiver (global positioning satelite), and good old-fashioned treasure hunting skills to find containers hidden by other geocachers. The containers hold logbooks, and perhaps some inexpensive trinkets like McD's toys or dollar store items for finders to trade. The finder signs the log book, and perhaps makes a trade, then rehides the container in the same place. He then logs his find on the website. The activity is not so much about the treasure in the cache, as the treasure that is the act of finding it. This is a site that has a lot of information on geocaching, including a geocaching 101 lesson: http://www.geocacher-u.com/index.html

Over the past year-and-a-half that I've been geocaching, I've hidden several in and around Le Mars, and I have found nearly 300, mostly in Iowa. There are currently just shy of 500,000 located world-wide.

I've just come across an article online that talks about one way that a library has gotten involved in the fun - with a bit of a twist. I'm sharing that article with you as a suggestion to be implemented here in Le Mars. The link to the article is here: http://www.dailyherald.com:80/story/?id=55420

Also, please visit the www.geocaching.com site to see what the game's all about. If you search the 51031 ZIP code, you will see that there are many opportunities around the area to go on cache hunts. Here is one cache in particular that I've found in Sioux City that I would love to copy here. It would, obviously, require permission from the library! This is that link: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=d614bec8-030e-4191-9df9-045a39de7c7e The cache container in this case is a hollowed-out mathematics textbook! There is a similar cache at the downtown Sioux City library, but I have not yet found that one.

I would love to help implement an idea like these in Le Mars, and am willing to discuss the ideas and answer any questions about geocaching and GPS treasure hunting. Please do not hesitate to ask! I can be reached at this email address or at xxx-xxxx.

Thanks!

I then introduced myself to the library's director, and briefly said much of the same, invited him to take a look at the links I'd shared in the email, and let me know when and how we can work together on some similar projects. He said he's about to purchase a GPSr himself, and that he'd like to give it a try! He'd actually read about our CITO in the paper this past spring, and has been interested since.

I sure hope I get some new caches to hunt around here out of this!

Another Nice Canoe Trip

2007-09-18T13:03:00.000-05:00

Our canoe trip last weekend was great! We met the group (50 - 60 people) at the put-in location at 8:00, in upper-30-degree weather. We grabbed our canoes and loaded up our gear (if bumanfam Mom's involved, you can be sure we'll be toting lots of stuff!). We put bumanfam Mom and bumanfam Kid #3 into a canoe with our exchange student, and bumanfam Dad had bumanfam Kids #1 and #2. Although the weather was cold, the water was warm, so the trip was quite comfortable. Lucky for us, the wind held off until the last hour or so of the trip.

The trip was fairly well uneventful (only once did bumanfam Dad have to doff the shoes and socks and get out of the canoe to push it off a sandbar), and really was quite relaxing. It was fun to see the kids enjoying the outdoors. Even bumanfam Kid #3, who is only 2 years old, stayed calm and relaxed. She didn't complain even once, and even took a nice nap in the canoe. When the trip was done, we met back at a city park and had hamburgers and hot dogs, and enjoyed the local Scarecrow Festival going on at the same time and at the same park.

While on the trip, bumanfam Dad kept his eyes open for a spot to hide a bring-your-canoe-or-get-very-wet cache. Not finding one this time, we plan to return to get 'er done!

What's Under That Log?

2007-09-12T23:46:00.000-05:00

This past weekend, bumanfam Dad took bumanfam Kids #1 & 2 and our exchange student to a local county park for a Cub Scouts outing with the county naturalist, learning about some different habitats. We were on a trail through the woods when the group stopped to examine some oak leaves. The naturalist had the kids do some crayon rubbings of the leaves and told them to find a log to work on. bumanfam Kid #1 happened to choose a very familiar looking log. bumanfam Dad said, "Hey, what's under that log?" Sure enough, it was the location of a cache we had found months before. Of course, now all the kids wanted to know what that thing was.

We didn't get too detailed about caching (after all, we were here for other reasons). The naturalist approached bumanfam Dad, knowing he was a geocachers and knowing the cache existed, and shared a story about finding a cache in the bottom of a volcano while on a recent trip. She's not a cacher, bu there were cachers on the trip with her, and she was with them on the hunt. We're still trying to convert her into a cacher, contemplating a geocaching event at the county park sometime. This, incidentally, is the same naturalist who was and will be our guide on the canoe trips mentioned in the previous post.

The scout leader really got into the conversation and wants to know more about caching, so we're planning to take his family caching and then set up a teaching event with the Cub Scouts. So, the bumanfam continues trying to convert muggles! Stay tuned for more news on our efforts!

Canoe Caching?

2007-09-12T23:19:00.001-05:00

In July, bumanfam Dad and bumanfam Kid #1 took the opportunity to join a group on a river clean-up project, using canoes to access the trash. It really had all the markings of a CITO (pronounced Kit-aw, right Sonny?) event, minus the caching. We met very early in the morning in a park shelter and headed with the group to the put-in spot. We got started down the river, picking up trash along the way. We were rather surprised at how little trash there actually was (refreshing, at least). The trip was going very well, although we were having a bit of trouble with the wind. It seems that if you have a large weight differential between the fore and aft seats in a canoe, you tend to create a sail with the hull of the boat! We managed, though, and there really weren't too many areas that the wind became a major issue, as the river takes many bends and is mostly protected by trees.

After a few miles (we were told the trip was to be about 6 - 8 miles long), we pulled up to a beach area to unload the trash we had picked up so far. Things were going great! We headed out after all 14 canoes had caught up. As the morning drew on, the heat rose, the sun came out from behind the clouds, and the wind picked up. Our guide, who had paddled the route before, kept saying we were getting close. Several canoe loads of folks were looking pretty beaten by the time we finally got to the take-out spot. I pulled out my GPSr, which I had tracking our trip. First, instead of being noon, the planned finish time, it was 3:30! Then, the 6 - 8 mile trip was actually 12.7 miles! No wonder we were so tired! The guide was a bit more than surprised (and perhaps a bit embarrassed). But, you know, bumanfam Kid #1, not yet 8 years old, really did a great job at the paddle. He hung in there very well and really learned how to help guide the canoe. He also did a great job of jumping out onto banks and sandbars to pick up trash.

After the canoes were cleaned and loaded onto the trailers, we all headed back to that park and had a delicious meal, prepared by the local Pork Producers organization. While visiting about the trip, and my use of GPS on the trip, geocaching came up. There was another casual cacher among the group, and many were listening in on the discussion. It wouldn't be surprising to learn that some of those present became cachers after that day (but we're not sure as of now).

Fast forward to the present, we're planning another float down the same river course - this time with the whole family, our newest exchange student (from China this time) included. There will be no trash pick-up this time, and we'll be better prepared for the distance (like, we'll take drinking water this time). The guide (same one) seems to have some of the technical issues that added to the time ironed out this time around. Hopefully, we'll finish by the 1:00 goal, and get some lunch sooner!

We're thinking up a cache to place this time, perhaps a multi that involves going to the put-in spot, getting some instructions, and heading down the river afloat to the cache location. It's still in the works, but we'll see. The trip is this coming weekend. We can't wait!

A Cleaner Homepage, Just For You!

2007-09-12T00:12:00.000-05:00

Yeah, we know. bumanfam Dad is pretty long-winded. He likes to relate stories and tends to get into the details a bit (a bit? a bit? a bit of an understatement, perhaps!). Well, one of the things that suffers as a result of this is that the home page of the blog gets pretty long and scanning for a post can take a while. So, a solution was in order and bumanfam Dad did a little research and learning and now we have these neat little links, like this one:
Then, when you click on it, you get the whole post. It's called expandable posts. Do you like it? We do!

Takes a Lickin'

2007-09-11T22:51:00.000-05:00

On our summer drive to California and back, we did a bit of geocaching. Not a huge amount, but some. We used the GPSr all the way there and back (two of them, actually). When we were almost home, we stayed at bumanfam Dad's parents' home a couple of nights before the last 100 miles of the trip. While there, we got notification emails on a couple of new caches right on our way home. So, we loaded up the GPSr and headed homeward.

We got to the cache location, an area with which we're pretty familiar. In fact, the hider of this new cache had recovered a muggled cache of ours some time earlier, hid it in this spot, gave us the coordinates, and we went out and retrieved it. So here we were again, searching for a real cache.

We looked and looked, but finally decided to move on. We jumped back in the van (jumped - yeah, like it's that easy with the little ones, more like we fought our way back into the van). We headed up the road and passed a fork in the road (what someone was doing eating dinner in the middle of the road. . .) . We quickly realized we were on the wrong tine of the fork. We turned around and headed back toward the other road.

Somewhere along the way bumanfam Dad asks bumanfam Mom where she put the GPSr. Now, you must understand, we'd just been on a more-than-two-week trip across country and back with 6 of us in the van and a rooftop carrier. We couldn't find an elephant in that van! So there we were on the side of the road, digging around inside the van. No luck. bumanfam Mom began to walk the ditch along the road, thinking perhaps bumanfam Dad had left the GPSr on the roof while buckling in the youngest bumanfam Kid. We ended up back at the first cache parking location to check the ground and the cache location.

When we got there, we encountered another cacher. We visited with him for a while, found out we're not the only cachers in our town like we thought we were, shared that we hadn't found the cache, and that we were now looking for our GPSr, not the cache. He spent some time looking with us, but we had no luck. We decided to head up that "wrong" road and see what we could see. bumanfam Mom walked the ditch for quite a while and bumanfam Dad drove the shoulders slowly. After spending about 90 minutes looking, we called it quits and headed home.

Once we got back to the house and unloaded from our trip, bumanfam Dad got ready to head out to a business appointment. He jumped in the car, and promptly backed into a semi trailer parked behind him. His taillight was broken and the bumper had a big dent in it. Oh, the day just gets better!

Three days later, bumanfam Dad headed to his regional office for a meeting. On the way home, he passed that same cache location. Thinking there was no chance in, well, anywhere, he stopped to have a walk along some ditches anyway. After walking about 2 miles down that "wrong" road, he decided he must have gone too far. So, he turned around. Many passing motorists honked, waved, and stopped to ask if he needed help. He explained his futile activity and they headed on. So, there he was, about a quarter-mile from his car, thinking about whether or not to go up the other road or give up (imagine this, he's in wingtips; shirt-and-tie attire!), and there IT was! Right there on the gravel shoulder was the GPSr, lying on its face, not even in the grass. We should have been able to see it from the van on our search three days earlier. Oh, well.

Now, bumanfam Dad didn't have any high hopes. He was sure it was smashed - we'd been driving at least 55 mph when it fell off the van. Even so, it had been through a major rain storm that came through two days ago. But surely there would be no way to know if it was okay if it weren't visibly destroyed - it was on at the time he left it on the van, the auto-off feature had been disabled, and the batteries were certainly dead. No spares handy, he thought it'd be a good hour before he'd know the fate of the GPSr.

Guess what. He picked it up and it had only a few scratches - and they were on the back. He hit the power button and it started! Would it get a lock? Yes! It even still had the caches loaded! And the battery was about 80% full! What elation! What to do now? Find those new caches! And that's exactly what bumanfam Did. Three finds, including the one we'd DNFed. None of them were FTFs - but were just as satisfying!

That cacher we met? Sure enough, we discovered him again and he said he had been unable to find that cache after we left, but came back later in the day and found it - perhaps something with the angle of the sun? He also told us that he'd gone back to the site two days later to do some painting and spent some more time looking for our GPSr. How nice it that? Geocachers simply rock!

Oh, yeah - even more, when bumanfam Dad got home, he looked at that smashed bumper on his car. Not smashed! Apparently the heating and cooling of the plastic in the sun and dark popped out the plastic. Amazing - you might call it a very lucky day, but in truth it only balanced out the terrible luck of three days earlier. So, wouldn't you guess we had no luck at all?

200 Finds

2007-09-11T11:03:00.000-05:00

On Father's Day this year, our exchange student from Korea was to fly home after her ten months with us. Her flight was to be at about 10:45 out of Omaha. So, on Saturday (the night before), we were just enjoying some time together as a family before she had to leave. Most of her packing was done. She got a phone call from a friend who was an exchange student in Omaha, with whom she was planning to travel. They got to talking about where to meet and at what time, when he informed her that the 10:45 flight was cancelled and they'd been re-booked on another flight - at 7:00! Now, we're a good two hours from the airport and they were being asked to be at the airport two hours in advance. I really didn't like the idea of leaving at 3:00 am. So, we decided to grab everything we needed and head to Omaha immediately and we'd find an hotel for the night, thus making the whole trip easier on the bumanfam Kids (and bumanfam Dad, for that matter).

Wrong! As we approached Omaha it was going on 11:00 pm, and we had MS Streets and Trips up on the laptop (remember our cool geocaching rig set-up?) and were looking for hotels. MSS&T has a great feature that lets you look up nearby places, and one of the types is hotels. It even gives you complete addresses and phone numbers. So, we started calling. Know what? Father's Day weekend is the start of the College World Series, hosted at Omaha's Rosenblatt Stadium. Know what else? There are a whole lot of people who go to Omaha for the CWS!

We couldn't find a hotel for anything. We tried all over Omaha, Council Bluffs, into the suburbs, and even called to Lincoln - some 45 minutes away from Omaha. There were no rooms, save one huge suite (read: expensive) in Lincoln. It was after 1:00 when we found what amounts to be the most awful motel room ever in a nasty little dive motel. They had jacked the prices up (should have been about $24, but it cost us $79) because they knew they were the only show in town. The room was so small that they had the two double beds pushed all the way to the walls and there was only about 18 inches between them. You had to duck under the TV to get into the room because it was mounted right in front of the door and the bed came all the way to the door. There were two towels, so bumanfam Dad went back to the office (which reeked of curry) to ask for more. Now, the office was a window, placed at about belly-button height for bumanfam Dad, and was only about 12 inches square. No desk, no gathering area. It took the guy about 5 minutes to go find towels, and he came back with, get this, one towel! There also was a $5 deposit on a key card! You know, those disposable little magnetic cards that anyone who stays at hotels has a bunch of? (We moved a travel bug of hotel room key cards recently). Ugh!

Anyway, we got to the airport on time, and sent our temporary daughter/sister back to her family in Korea. Then, we went caching! We only had a few to do to reach the 200 milestone. We were planning to do that before she left, but had to scrap that idea. We found a park in Omaha that was new to us and some very nice caches therein. We took with us 200 pennies to leave in the cache to commemorate the event. We decided at our 100th find that we'd leave one penny for each cache we'd ever found in each 100th cache. Now, this could one day make the first cache rather expensive for us, but at the rate we're going, we'll have trouble finding pennies to leave in caches as they'll be discontinued by then!

Our 200th cache was Off The Path by Team Kryptos. It was a beautiful place for a cache and a nice little hike for the bumanfam. The photo is not of that cache, but is of another in the same park. We used the photo we took of our 200th in the upper right-hand of the blog, in the section with our information. Please disregard the date on the photo - we didn't notice that problem until we got home. If it were correct, there'd be many fewer leaves on the trees!

We set a goal of finding our way to 300 caches by the end of the summer, but we fell way short of that goal. We're hoping to pick up the pace this fall and keep at it over the winter - there are less obstacles in those seasons than in Summer - both on the path and off it seems!

Fine Dining with Celebrities

2007-09-10T16:48:00.001-05:00

Our Celebrity Encounter
Originally uploaded by SonnyandSandy

Our family vacation this past summer took us on an excursion across country to Sunny San Diego. We covered a huge area on our slightly-longer-than-two-week-trek. We started out by camping at Custer State Park in South Dakota and had a nice visit to the Mount Rushmore National Memorial. We headed across Wyoming (and stayed at a motel due to bad weather), then into Utah. We headed southward from there and into Nevada where we checked out the Hoover Dam and spent a few hours walking around the Vegas Strip. Then, on to San Diego.

While in San Diego, we visited bumanfam Mom's family and many of our friends (we used to live there), and took a two-day trip to Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure. When we left San Diego, we headed eastward and stayed in Yuma, AZ and crossed into Los Algodones, B.C., Mexico. Algodones has an astronomical number of dentists per capita - all catering to Americans! From there we visited bumanfam Dad's brother in Arizona, including a trip to the ghost town of Oatman and camped at the Grand Canyon.

We continued on from there rather quickly, but enjoyed some time in the Rockies and stayed at bumanfam Dad's parents' home in Iowa before returning to our own home. The major reason we took the trip was that we wanted to share some more of America's treasures with our exchange student who was with us for the year from Korea. Well, that made a good excuse anyway!

The real reason for such an elaborate (4200 miles or so) trip? To visit Sunny San Diego? No, to visit Sunny & Sandy! You know them (shame if you don't) from the PodCacher Podcast. Now, I titled the post "Fine Dining with Celebrities," and I may have exaggerated on the Fine Dining part, but not at all on the Celebrities part. We picked up some sub sandwiches from Antonelli's Deli, one of bumanfam Dad's favorite delis (come to think of it, this is fine dining, and we have a friend who works there!) and met the pair at Sonny's Park (you've heard of this park if you've listened to the podcast). We had a great time visiting about geocaching and the podcast, did an interview on the cache mobile (we posted about the van earlier), which was heard on show 109.

Our time with the PodCachers was limited, but was truly a honor. Sonny & Sandy just keep on giving great stuff to the geocaching community and really are the fun & friendly people we love to hear every Monday.

Thanks for taking the time to meet with us, Sonny & Sandy. Let us know when you visit the great state of Iowa!

Can We Post Now?

2007-09-10T15:02:00.000-05:00

For some time we've been trying to post to the blog but have been experiencing some sort of problem with the Blogger WYSIWYG editor. All that would post would be the title, and no "guts." Looks like the thing is working now (perhaps it's just the bumanfam's problem), so here goes. If you can read this, game on!

Our Geocaching Rig

2007-05-23T23:25:00.000-05:00

In preparation for our summer geocaching adventures (including a summer vacation road trip), we've done some work on the family van. A few frustrations have been keeping the laptop accessible and safe (instead of under all the other "stuff" on the floor and in the line of fire of beverage spills and such), keeping it powered, keeping the GPSr powered, mapping our route to the next cache, managing cords for all the other devices (phones, fuzz buster, GPSrs, etcetera, etcetera). So, here's what we came up with! You can see better photos on our flickr page (our first use of flickr).

Grass Stains and Stigmata

2007-05-17T01:27:00.000-05:00

On a recent FTF attempt, bumanfam Dad had a rather unpleasant experience (well, he was geocaching, so how unpleasant could it really be?). Now, surely he did not really have the stigmata, but there are painful holes in his hands for certain! Here's a copy of the log on this geocache:

So, there I was - sitting in the Le Mars public library, trying to catch the last episode of Survivor via the internet before a business meeting, when it happened - a new cache, and it was only about 2 miles away! Well, duh. I downloaded the GPX file into GSAK and ran for the car. Once there, I loaded the cache into my GPSr and pulled it up on MS Streets & Trips and drove like the wind. Who cares that I'm in a shirt-and-tie and wingtips? It's only a 1-1!
Well, now. I'd have made it maybe a 1-2 for the embankment, but that's just me! My tractionless shoes lost it and I went down the hill on my rear end. Thankfully there was a slope change enough to stop me short of the water! I found the cache and headed up the hill. That's when (traveling now on all fours) I put my hand on something very sharp. I thought to remove whatever it was, hidden in the grass, but getting up that hill took all my attention as I was sliding backward constantly. Once at the top, I realized I didn't have my GPSr. Back down I went, doing the crab walk/slide. I figured better to start on all fours! It took some looking, but I finally found the GPSr. Back up the hill. Wouldn't you know it, I found that same sharp thing with the other hand. Now I had two bleeding hands. I looked to see what it was - it's barbed wire, laying in the grass! Finally at the top, I looked at myself - bloody hands, a scraped up leg, and with grass stains all over my blue dress shirt! Man, bumanfam Mom's gonna be mad!
And what else? Even though I was there only about 50 minutes after publishing, I wasn't even first to find! It was hard to read the log, but looks like it was found on the 12th pre-publishing. Darn the bad luck. At least I beat you, olgezzer! I've called in to the PodCacher Podcast voicemail and told of my adventure. You might be able to hear it at http://www.podcacher.com/. (edit: you can hear the adventure in episode 104.1)
TFTC, but maybe up the terrain a bit and add a warning for the barbed wire? Otherwise a nice hide!

Are We FTF Hounds?

2007-04-28T17:23:00.000-05:00

Well, apparently so.It was just after 8:00 last night when we sat down for a bite to eat in front of the tube after a day of yard work. bumanfam Dad picked up his laptop and saw them - four brand new caches about 30 miles away! FOUR!!! That could easily put us over the 10% threshold of FTFs to total caches. bumanfam Dad was ready. bumanfam Mom had some stipulations: we had to go to the home improvement warehouse for some lumber to build a sandbox and some fence posts to put up the fencing we already have. They closed at 10:00. Now, the home improvement place is also about 30 miles away, but with about a 30 degrees variance. This was going to be a long trip. We finished our eats, grabbed the cache bag, the laptop, and GPSr, and hitched up the trailer to the cache mobile (for the lumber and stuff), and headed out just after 9:00. We got to the store and quickly hunted down our list of materials and were off! No, wait. Our exchange student needed to go to Wal*Mart and the van needed gas. Should be quick, besides, something to drink would be nice. So, bumanfam Dad dropped the exchange daughter and bumanfam Mom at the door and headed for gas. Oh, what a wait! While they were shopping, bumanfam Dad had time to load the GPSr, update all the cache data on MS Streets & Trips, clean out the cache bag, and people-watch (Wal*Mart is a busy place late on Friday night!). Finally, at about 11:00, they emerged. Now, there aren't too many FTF hounds around here, but this run-around has seriously hurt our race.Not so far to go, if there were a road that went that exact direction. There isn't. About 40 miles of driving to go. Sigh. On the way, bumanfam Mom read the listings, now loaded in GSAK. The first one has a hike of about .5 miles. The kids were sleeping. She nixed the idea of going after that one. Upset, bumanfam Dad passed it and went to the next one, supposedly just off the road. When we got to the parking area, we saw another car! After speculating a bit, we decided it must be some teenagers "parking." Since we had a trailer, we decided to turn around and park, then go search for the cache. Our GPSr said it was only about 100' away. Just as we were about to get out and nab the FTF, the car pulled alongside us and stopped. When the driver opened the door, there was dordtman, a "local" cacher we had met at our CITO event the prior week. Local in quotes, because he's about 25 miles further away than us! We'd been beaten to the cache! After a brief discussion and learning that he had not found any of the others yet, bumanfam Dad feigned a mad dash to beat him to the FTFs. Then, we decided to work together, and that perhaps it wasn't so foolish to go for a long hike! Back to the first one!Once we made our way to the parking coordinates, we geared up, left the exchange student in the van with the bumanfam Kids 1, 2, & 3 (who were still sound asleep) and started the hike. The GPSr said it was .49 miles. We hiked. We hiked. We hiked. It seemed the trail was leading us in a circle, almost exactly .15 miles from the cache. Let it be forever noted that bumanfam Dad suggested the "other" trail very early on. The breadcrumb trail on the GPSr when we were done went FAR beyond the cache, around the other side, brought us back again - and it's pretty obvious where we just decided to bushwhack it! Not sure just how far we went, but surely it was well over 2 miles in total (and some pretty good hills to boot). 12:50. AM. One co-FTF!Yeah, let's go for more!On the way back toward the other three, we decided to stop again at the place where we'd met dordtman. You see, he said he'd hiked well over 1/2 mile to that cache, but burning in our heads was the cache listing, which said there was no need to actually enter the park, that the cache was right on the fence. So we jumped out to grab it. dordtman still was certain the cache was some distance away. It wasn't, it was right there. Just a tiny bison tube. He had found an ammo can full of stuff. bumanfam Dad got inquisitive. Seems that dordtman is the nephew of 5K Team, the cache placer. Not only that, he had just come from 5K's home. Upon asking whether he had been given some insider information, he admitted that he had, but just the coordinates. 5K had told him that some new caches were placed, but not submitted yet. He wasn't sure how long it would be before they would be. Once one his way home, dordtman took a look at the geocaching.com website on his cell phone, saw the listings published, and turned around to grab them. He just used the coordinates he'd been given. That one is in a park that opens 30 April, so we suspect the publishing of that cache is to be deferred and that he has now a find on a cache before its publishing. Can you say "nepotism?"Now, here's the funny part - while we were hunting the first cache, we had a conversation about a fellow geocacher, olgezzer. olgezzer is a bit of a local celebrity. He'd been FTF on many of our caches, including our very first hide. He also sent us some "blinkies" to use as nano cache containers when we were just starting out. We'd long been hoping to meet him, as his name was well known at the bumanfam household. At the CITO we hosted the previous weekend, we met olgezzer. Not only that, but he was there for his 1199th find! He brought tons of prizes to give away, he had a cake to share that - well - looked like kitty litter (and was in a kitty litter pan). In short, he was a hit! After the CITO, we released six new permanent caches, one of which olgezzer was to have as his 1200th find! When we released the caches, others made a mad dash, and olgezzer missed out on the FTFs. In his logs was much lamentation about getting no respect for the elderly! Also, not long before that event, we (bumanfam Mom & Dad) went out for four FTF's (by the same hider), also late at night, and there were later some logs by the famous olgezzer mentioning something about needing some police to get these late-night prowlers (us) off the streets. So (long aside aside), we were feeling a bit sorry for the old man that here we were taking more FTFs away from him. None of us live particularly close to the caches placed this night, and there are no cachers we know of right near them, and we were pretty certain that it was far past olgezzer's bedtime by now. So, yeah, we were feeling sorry for him (but not giving any hunts up).Yeah, you guessed it. Right there, in the log, at 11:00 pm - olgezzer! We roared with laughter! No way would we have believed that he'd beat us to the punch! On we went to #3.This one was very easy, just off the road, and bumanfam Dad's red headlamp has a way of making camouflage tape glow in the night. We opened the film canister, and right there at the top of the log was "olgezzer." What's more, it had "Ha Ha!" written right under it! He was there about 9:45 - less than 2 hours after listing. That may be a long time in some parts, but here in western Iowa, we cachers are few and far between and none of us had less than an hour's drive, so the old man got right on these caches! Another co-second-t0-find.On to the fourth, just a short drive up the road. Of course, bumanfam Dad took the wrong road. After noticing a discrepancy between what MS Streets & Trips said and what the GPSr said, he turned around. Ever turn a trailer on a 2-lane road with ditches on either side? The geocaching obsession makes it possible!Once at the new parking area, we decided to turn around before finding the cache. It looked a bit swampy, but bumanfam Dad went for it. No problem (not like the week before when he got the van, with trailer in-tow, stuck while turning around on the trail we were CITO-ing!). On with the hunt.The cache was not far away. Again, we left the kids and our student in the car. The cache was found, the log opened, and we read, "HA HA bumanfam! olgezzer." Not just ha ha, he had to add "bumanfam!" It wasn't we who beat him to the FTFs last week - we placed them for crying out loud! What is this? Were we being called out? Is he calling us FTF hounds? Well, talk about the pot calling the kettle black! As far as we're concerned, game on! There is no cache safe - we're racing from now on!On the way out, dordtman suggested that he may place a cache right in the center of a line from olgezzer and our houses, just to sit by and watch the fun! I noted that he too was here at about 2:15 in the morning!We headed on down the road, all the FTFs gone. There was one other cache that had been here for some time but we hadn't found (nor had dordtman), so we figured we might as well nab it. But wait - there's no car following us! bumanfam Dad parked, and walked back to the parking area where he found dordtman stuck - very stuck in the mud, right where the van and trailer had turned earlier!After unhitching the trailer and attempting to pull the car out with the van and a tie-down strap (that promptly broke), bumanfam Dad and dordtman got into the mud to push and bumanfam Mom drove. What's kind of funny here is that we had just related a story about how she had been stuck once, was pulled out by a truck, and promptly backed into the truck and demolished the back door of the van! And here we were putting her in the exact same situation! We pushed and pushed, and just when bumanfam Dad was going to give up because of the tremendous amount of mud flying at him from the tires, we realized we were winning and just kept going! We got it! And the car ended up about four inches from a post that would have done just as much damage to his car and had been done to the van previously! Close one! Back to business, there was still another cache to nab!We got there quickly (despite bumanfam Dad missing a turn for heading out without checking the map) and found ourselves in a cemetery (at nearly 3:00 am). It wasn't a long walk, and by now bumanfam Kid #1 was alert enough to go on the hike with us. An easy grab, but it was in an outhouse. We mean IN an outhouse. In the hole. Where the dootie goes. Thank goodness the outhouse had been moved here long ago and was not ever in use here!Oh, what a trip! None of the caches were difficult, but so many little things made this trip completely out-of-the-ordinary that it just needed a full account recorded. It is these kinds of little things that make this goofy game of finding basically worthless stuff by GPS so much fun! Had we not gone after the FTFs, were it not in the middle of the night, if we hadn't met up with dordtman, if olgezzer weren't an FTF hound of his own right, this might be less addictive. But this night goes down as one that will long live among our fondest memories!Oh, and now with 15 FTFs and 150 finds, we have the 10% handled, at least until our next find. And, yes, Virginia, we are FTF hounds!

Dead Duck!

2007-04-18T20:34:00.000-05:00

We were out today placing some caches for an upcoming event and witnessed a murder! Now don't get too excited - it was bird-on-bird violence, not the human kind. But this was a new one for us.

At first, we saw what we thought was a beautiful display of mother nature at work. A goose had a young bird under its breast and was shoving its head under water. Our thought was that this was a mother teaching her young to swim under water, perhaps to catch fish. Then we thought perhaps this was some sort of mating thing. But as more and more geese got in on the action - and got much louder - we took even more interest. It seemed upon closer investigation that the smaller bird was a duck, not a young goose. And the geese were ganging up on it, taking turns holding its head under water for extended periods of time. In the end, the geese were throwing a limp duck body around! The whole thing took about 20 minutes and was the strangest animal activity we've ever seen.

I've Been (Mis)Quoted!

2007-04-17T23:05:00.000-05:00

So, we're planning this big CITO (Cache In Trash Out) Event here in Le Mars. Well, supposed to be big. Looks like we're not getting quite the response we thought we might from the cachers in the area. That's okay, though. We're also inviting local scouts and the public in general. So, to get the word out, we decided to put out a press release to the local media - papers, TV and radio stations. The Le Mars paper picked up on it right away (time will tell if any of the others will bite). Now, some of the quotes, well, they're not really. But, for the most part the article is fairly accurate and hopefully will attract some interest. You can check out the article here.

Trimble

2007-02-27T22:21:00.000-06:00

Wow! Over a month since last posting. Come to think of it, it's been around that long since we last went geocaching. Sad. Very sad.

Well, thought it was finally time to sit down and share my thoughts on Trimble outdoor's Geocache Navigator. We tried it out in December and have been wanting to put down some reflections on it.

For those who have no idea what it is to which I'm referring, Trimble's GN software goes on your cell phone, utilizing it's GPS chip and data access to become an all-in-one ceocaching tool - from the browser to the GPSr, to the logging tool. It's available for some phones on some networks. You can check out if yours is supported here. As you can see, it is tied right into geocaching.com. We had the opportunity to try the application out on our phone for free as they were looking for some feedback on that particular model. Our phone is a Samsung A920 (great phone, btw). Rather than start fresh with a review here, I'll post my email to one of the developers (with perhaps some editing to aim it better toward readers of this blog).

We used GN while on a business/family trip to the Des Moines area in early Dec. Our time for geocaching was less than anticipated, but we got some in nonetheless. We were in a wooded area along the Des Moines river. It was great to look up the cache listings while in the field (my version of paperless uses GSAK on the laptop in the car - once out of the car, we're on our own - no listing to view). I think the most handy feature is the availability of maps and satellite views. Since
we were along a river, going to the nearest cache may have proven problematic as it may be across the water. So it was great to take a look at the maps and see which side of the river it was on. We had it side-by-side with our Magellan eXplorist 210, and there was little difference in where they led us, though sometimes the GN on the Samsung 920 seemed a bit behind. Stop, and it caught up quickly (I suspect the
phone, no the app). We did try while moving in the car (not the driver, of course!). It had lots of trouble with keeping up. Our speed bounced all over the place, usually in the hundreds of miles per hour range (at one point it said we were going over 900 MPH!). I loved that if I closed the phone, the app kept running and that the arrow appeared on the outside display. Very handy! One trouble I noticed was that the entire screen flashed frequently - as if refreshing, but it did make it hard at times, especially if reading the cache listing.

I know that one must be in Sprint's network for the app to run as that's the only way Sprint has data access. However, for those of us in areas like the Midwest, the caches are mostly spread out into areas without Sprint coverage. In fact, I live outside Sprint's coverage area and am usually roaming. Most of the caches (the good ones, at least) are also outside coverage. What about being able to log onto the listings while in coverage and save some to the phone's memory card for access while
roaming? I understand it would make the use of maps impossible, but perhaps some basic info on the listing could be stored and the app run while out-of-service? I'm not sure the phone would work, but isn't GPS info still available for an on-board app?

I also played around with the app for a while, even in areas I had already cached out, and could really see myself using it more and more. What I don't see is subscribing to the app permanently. I know some users will already have the data plan with their phone, but as for me, I don't see the justification for spending $15 on data. Now, adding geocaching to the picture may make me re-think how I could use data in my business (justification!). But to add another $7(?) to the mix is another question all together. I love(am addicted) to geocaching, but that's too much for me. I may be likely to add both data and GN on a month-at-a-time basis while traveling, perhaps. In fact, my in-laws live in San Diego, and when I next go there, I fully intend to pick up data and GN for that month at least (will it be ready for my phone by May?). If I could instead pay a one-time purchase fee for the software (as an option, maybe?), I'd better be able to justify it. I'm not sold on the monthly "rent" of the software. For my trial, I got the data plan for 30 days free from Sprint. When it ran out at the end of Dec, I stopped using the application.

I love that the phone is something I always have with me anyway, and this app on the phone can give me the opportunity to turn any down time into (urban) caching time. It gives me everything I need in one handy tool (OOH! Idea! Can the app turn on the "flash" LED on the phone so I can use it as a flashlight while caching after dark? That would really make it an all-in-one tool!). I can get an email from GC.com
that there is a new cache listed on the phone. I can look up the listing on the phone. I can use the phone as my GPSr, I can call a friend to come help me out (or the owner for a hint, or my wife to say "I have a flat tire, I'll be late!), I can take a photo while I'm there, I can call an ambulance when I fall off a cliff. . . On and on. In fact, I can even use it to listen to MP3's while out caching (though I doubt I could do that while using GN - possible?). It makes my phone the ultimate caching tool. I just wish I worked everywhere even if only on a limited basis). The refresh flash I think could be worked out - that would help. But I'm one user who likely will not subscribe as I think it's use for me, based on where I live, will be too limited.

So, I love the WAY it works, just that it doesn't work well enough WHERE I am. Make sense? I'll certainly recommend it to those in high-cache-concentration, urban Sprint network areas.

Well, not much editing - that's what we sent! I know it rambles, but hopefully it shows you, fellow cachers, what we thought of the phone-based application.

You can read more about other users' experience with this cool new product in the GC forums. There are also some thoughts at the PodCacher forums.

Just One Quick Cache

2007-01-26T20:30:00.000-06:00

We recently had a weekend business trip to a city about two hours away. It's a trip we make every January, but this year it was complicated a bit. bumanfam Mom had a school function all day Saturday (as did our exchange student). bumanfam Dad had a meeting at 1:00. With three small kids, we needed a sitter. The kids look forward to the trip and the pool at the hotel, so we decided to take a sitter with us. The normal sitter unavailable, we took her younger sister. To alleviate concerns over having a too-young sitter with three kids, we also took her friend. So, bumanfam Dad took five kids to the hotel, left them there and went to his meeting. bumanfam Mom and the exchange student joined us later, and bumanfam Mom & Dad went out for the evening with colleagues from work.

So much for the set-up, what about the caching?

Well, the next day we were driving home (in two vehicles, this time bumanfam Dad and Boys in one car, bumanfam Mom, Girl, exchange student, and sitters in the other). bumanfam Dad had the Cache-A-Maniacs podcast playing in his car, and bumanfam Mom was tailgating so the FM transmitter's signal was strong enough from his car so she could listen in her car too!

bumanfam Dad saw on the map a cache located right in the path (we use Microsoft Streets & Trips on the laptop, connected to the Magellan 210 GPSr, caches loaded onto the map via GSAK). He quickly looked up the listing in GSAK and thought perhaps this one could be done sans GPSr. Now, we had told the sitters about geocaching over lunch, but the consensus was that because the temperature was in the teens and there were about 10 inches of fresh snow, we'd skip the caching today. Besides, bumanfam Dad had only dress shoes and clothes.

So what!?! He pulled over, jumped out and headed for the cache. The clue said to "think inside the box," and the best candidate for a box at this little roadside park was a pit toilet! Yep, an outhouse! He ran in (plodding through the snow), and looked. No cache here (he'd seen that kind of hide before). The park's shelter was a little box-like, but a quick inspection there was fruitless. By now the caching newbies (still in the heated car) surely thought bumanfam Dad insane, but there was another possible "box." It was a three-sided sign. The snow and the dress clothes made bumanfam Dad think twice about crawling under - luckily, bumanfam Kid #1 came out of the car and crawled under himself. There it was! We took it back to the cars and traded swag (the sitters now understood and were likely sad that the weather would keep us from doing any more today).

Now, to put the cache back. . . bumanfam Dad, excited to have done at least one cache this trip, ran to replace the cache. He decided to take a new path to the hiding spot - bad decision! The new path had snow that was drifted to about 36 inches and under it was ice! bumanfam Dad had a spectacular face dive right into the drift. Getting up (to the sound of laughter from the cars), he realized he really was having a ton of fun with this geocaching thing (duh!). The cache replaced, we were on our way home (with one of us rather wet as the snow covering melted).

So, this fits into the category, "You know you geocache too much when. . ." (deep snow is no deterrent, even when wearing dress clothes).

New Photo

2007-01-13T23:09:00.000-06:00

Okay, all. We've posted a new, updated photo. No more kid's head sliced down the middle. We also chose one to include our exchange student, MaRi Land.

Poor Kid!

2007-01-10T23:35:00.000-06:00

I was just taking a look at the blog and noticed something odd. Anyone else notice that the family photo to the right has been cut off? Right through bumanfam Kid #2's head! I assure you, the original did not have that problem. I guess I have some work to do before he notices, adding to the "middle child syndrome." Good grief!

Thanks Sonny & Sandy!

2007-01-10T22:26:00.000-06:00

Just picked up an email from our friends at PodCacher that they've used one of our posts on their site and linked to our blog. Thanks so much, you two, for your vote of confidence in our ability to write something that others may be interested in reading!

For those of you who now have found this blog via PodCacher, welcome! Look around and share your thoughts. We're happy to have you here!

Coming soon(ish): a review of Trimble Outdoors' Geocache Navigator - using your cell phone as a GPSr, paperless caching tool, map browser, etc, etc. We've tried it and will share our thoughts with you.

Geocaching With the Whole Family

2006-12-20T23:26:00.000-06:00

Geocaching is a ton of fun, and I (bumanfam Dad) love to go cache-to-cache, logging as many finds as I can, as fast as I can. I've never really gotten to do that. You see, when we first got into this wacky sport/hobby/thingamabob, we made a rule: no one caches alone. We got into caching as a family activity. And here's what that means:

Des Moines. Business meeting. Whole family goes for the weekend. Done by about 1:30 on Sunday. Tons of time to cache before sundown and the five-hour drive home. The plan, according to bumanfam Dad: "pack the car, check out of the hotel, and grab a bite while I'm in my meeting and as soon as I'm done, we'll jump in the van and cache until dark." Eleven caches in the plan with some others for fun. Location ready. GPSr loaded. What could possibly slow us down?

For starters, Mom decided to stay in the room so Dad can change out of his tie and into some jeans (even though he could quickly do that at the van). Still have to check out. And finish packing the van. Finally on the way, we see the Iowa capitol building, which begs a stop for some photos - that's real gold on the dome, you know - 100 ounces to be exact. One hour gone.

Then, "We're hungry!" Wait a minute, weren't they supposed to eat during the meeting? Dad's thinking: wolf some drive-through burgers down on the way. Mom's thinking: sit down at a Chinese buffet. Mom wins. Kids are running wild. One won't eat. Youngest won't stop wailing for lack of a nap. Mom is always the last one done. A good hour-and-a-half gone.

Finally, it's off to the trails for some caching. Once there it's jump out and get 'em, right? Heck no. There's hats and gloves to don. There's bottles of water and snack bars to load up. There's diapers to change. There's shoes to switch. There's flashlights to ready. The baby backpack needs adjusting. Valuables must be hidden in the van so nobody breaks in. "Mom, I'm hot!" "Dad, wait for me!" "How come he gets the red flashlight and all I get is this stupid blue one?"

Ugh! Finally on the trail. Harry Potter themed series. Ten caches with clues that will help find the eleventh. Couple of mile hike. No problem. Nice trail. Brisk pace. Everyone is calm and in the zone. Yeah, that's it! "Dad, I have to pee!" Groan. We're off again. "Found it!" Mom's good at this. Swag trading. "But I want that doohickey!" "You got to choose first last time!" "I saw it first!" "Who has the bag? You have to trade even! Did you get a signature item in? Sign the log!" Man, this takes forever! Number two? Let's go!

Okay, back in the zone. Moving well. "Dad, brother fell in the mud!" "Whaaaaaa!" Uff-dah! "It's all better now, can we keep going? Good." "Found it!" Swag trading (just re-read the last half of the last paragraph, replacing "doohickey" with "gizmo"). Off to number three.

"Don't you think we should head back? It's pretty dark already." And that was Mom. bumanfam Dad: "But we have flashlights!!" Overruled. Twenty percent. TWENTY PERCENT!!! One more quickie on the way back to the van, not part of the series. "Dad I'm hungry!" "But you wouldn't eat at the restaurant! That's your own fault!" "Oh, stop and get him something, besides, I'm thirsty." "And I have to pee!"

Complete caching failure! No, wait -- we had a great time! bumanfam Kid #3 fell asleep in the backpack carrier whatchamacallit while giving bumanfam Dad a hug and whispering, "Dad, cache! Love you!" Kid #2 learned to "see" the trail in the dark by listening to footsteps in front of him. Kid #1 was nice enough to let others choose swag first. We met a nice fellow cacher on the trail and compared GPSrs. We can't wait to come back to finish the series. And on the drive home, we hit five, just bumanfam Mom and Dad, while the kids slept in the van under the watchful eye of their foreign exchange sister along for the trip.

With so many minor frustrations along the way and expectations set way too unreasonably high, the day so easily could have been seen as a flop, but I loved it! And the time with the kids is excruciatingly aggravating while incredibly satisfying and eternally memorable. Yep. Gotta love geocaching. Now, if we could just find a weekend to go sans-kids. . .

Happy Birthday!

2006-12-17T14:12:00.000-06:00

Today is bumanfam Dad's birthday. Not enough an event in-and-of-itself to warrant a post. It's the way bumanfam Mom celebrated it that deserves to be told. First, the cake:

bumanfam Dad thought to look around the trees and rocks to find the cache (thinking he was being funny). Then, bumanfam Mom said, "The hint is: One, two, three, look between these." Upon cutting the cake, bumanfam Dad found a cache! Not sure whether it's a micro, or if scale should be taken into consideration - then it would definitely be an extra large! The log was made by bumanfam Kid #1. And the FTF prize was more "rocks" like on top the cake - Whoppers.

You can probably see that there had been some rain at the cache location and mudslides followed (the frosting proved to be a bit thin ). Then, bumanfam Dad opened his gifts and was thrilled to receive a new headlamp for night caching - the Energizer 6 LED version - right off his list of most-wanted caching gear!

Now, off to find a new cache. . .

Snow Caching

2006-12-17T13:43:00.000-06:00

The first time we ever went geocaching in the snow was back on 10 November 2006 while en route to bumanfam Dad's hometown for a weekend outing with friends. We had planned to cache our way there but had a surprise when we woke to find about 4 inches of snow on the ground. So what!?! We cached anyway! We did several caches and passed several more that were in places requiring a trip on dirt (not even gravel) roads to get to them. The temps were too high, so those roads were mud. Deep mud. We got stuck on a couple of them. . .

One cache stood out for us, though. It's in a wooded area with a nice foot bridges. Probably a nice location all year to go for a walk, but this day was perfect. The snow had stuck to all the trees, flocking them in pristine white. It gave us a great background for some photos.

We found several others that day also, even one on which we were First to Find (for you muggles (non cachers) out there, being FTF is a big deal for us cachers, a bit of bragging rights). It was a bit funny because we had seen the new listing on the geocaching.com website several days earlier and thought we had no chance at an FTF. But the cache had not been logged yet as of that morning, so there was hope. Getting there (it was near bumanfam Dad's hometown), we encountered a deer hunter (who was not at all happy about families tromping through the woods spooking his deer away) and another caching team out trying for the FTF. It came right down to the wire, but we got it by seconds. It turns out the other cachers were from bumanfam Dad's hometown and were fairly new to the sport. It's always fun to meet cachers on the hunt. We also placed a new cache that weekend and the same caching team were the first to find on that one. Fun community we've got going!

Geo-what?

2006-12-13T13:48:00.000-06:00

I alluded to geocaching in my earlier entry today, and I know some of you are curious to know just what geocaching is. Now, if you're quick on the draw, you may have already clicked the link to find out for yourself - but maybe you'd rather just sit back and wait for me to tell you. Alright you bums - here we go.

How we got started:

In April 2006 bumanfam Dad was doing some research on campgrounds, hoping to spend several summer weekends on short camping excursions (then the camper failed - but that's another story all together). I was looking at a website for a county park and noticed a reference to a geocache placement permit. I said, "a geo-what?" I followed some links and found the geocaching website. I spent some time looking into this sport/game/hobby/whatever and thought it sounded pretty darn fun as a family activity. I had heard of it once before while discussing GPS with a friend who is into Jeeping. He described it and I thought it sounded pretty dumb - you'll likely have that thought too at some point, maybe forever! But this time it caught my attention. bumanfam Mom came home that afternoon and I suggested she take a look at the website while I was out for the evening working. When I came back several hours later, she was still on the site! She said, "We need to get one of these GPS thingies!"

I started looking for one of those "thingies" online and was surprised how many options there were. I had no idea what to look for. Some of the features sounded great, but many seemed to be luxuries and I had no idea what was truly needed. So, it came down to price, not genuinely having proper disposable income for the purpose. I found what I now know to be a screaming great deal on a Magellan eXplorist 210. In fact, I have not been able to find a deal on ANY GPS that comes close to what we got. To top it off, we're extremely satisfied with what we got. Hmmm, but I digress; probably better for another post.

While we waited for the GPSr (that's Global Positioning System receiver), we created an account on geocaching.com and began to dream of all the fun we were about to have! Several days later we had it. We played with it in the yard, hiding an old pill bottle, setting the coordinates in the GPSr, and sending each other on the hunt.

Finally, we were off to find our very first cache - hidden only a few miles away behind an old school where bumanfam Dad's aunt used to teach. Unprepared, bumanfam Dad was in a shirt-and-tie and wearing wing tips. It was after dark and we had no flashlight, so we searched by the light of a cell phone! We did find it, though.

Wait! Stop! Found what?

The geocache, of course! Geocaching is a game where someone, somewhere hides a something full of stuff that someone else then goes out to find. Now you know. Okay, okay. The first someone finds a location, usually with some redeeming quality, maybe a great view, an odd surrounding, or some historical value. Then, they grab some sort of container - perhaps some old Tupperware, an ammunition can, one of those new plastic coffee or paint cans, whatever - and fills it with some neat things to trade. Now, while we often think of this as some sort of treasure hunt, what's actually in the container is rarely the real treasure. Usually its small toys and dollar-store trinkets. McD's toys are common. Sometimes there's something really useful like a compass or a flashlight. Once we found an old GPSr in need of repair. In fact, we still have it and Garmin says it will refurbish or replace it for $59. If you're excited to get started, we'll be happy to give it to you and you can be on your way!

So, then they take that container to that cool place and hide it. Not bury it, hide it. After that, they post it on the internet, at geocaching.com. Others then look it up on the site (perhaps by ZIP code) and go out to hunt for it. Using the GPSr, they navigate toward the location where the cache is hidden. The accuracy of the system varies by how clear the sky is, how many trees are around, which way you hold your tongue in relation to your eyebrows and toenails, but it usually gets you to within 20 feet or so. From there, you're on your own to find what you seek. When you find the cache, you trade items if you like (the rule is that you have to trade even, trade up, or trade nothing), sign the log book in the cache (to prove you were actually there), and put it all back. Once back home, you log onto the site and create a log there as well, letting everyone know you found it.

Tupperware in the woods?

Yep. And sometimes it's just a 35mm film canister hidden in the middle of the city with only a strip of paper to sign and nothing to trade. But that's not really what it's all about. You see, it's that hike through the woods to some hidden lake you never knew existed. It's that historical marker you've driven past a hundred times. It's that view at sunset. It's that whole day with the whole family where nobody gets cranky. Our signature in the forums at some of our favorite geocaching websites says, "Geocaching - bumanfam's best family day ever!" And it has been. Sure, there's times when it would be easier to run out and log some finds without the kids in tow, but seeing their faces when they are the ones to find the stash is priceless. Now trips anywhere involve a side trip or two to log a find. bumanfam Mom, Dad, and Kids 1, 2, and 3 all love it. bumanfam Dad is perhaps the most into the whole experience, reading blogs, sharing ideas on forums, listening to podcasts about geocaching, and now writing his own blog, but we all love the hunt are motivated by the idea of finding a new one before anyone else does!

So, if we're late to an event, and show up with leaves in our hair, mud on our shoes, and smiles on our faces, you can bet we cached our way there! And we'll likely tell you about it and drag you along on a hunt. You'll probably enjoy it, though!

Joining the blogosphere

2006-12-13T08:47:00.000-06:00

Well, folks, the bumanfam has decided to get into this crazy thing called blogging. We've friends with blogs and frequently visit blogs about some of the things we enjoy. We're not sure just how involved we'll get with this, but it seems easier to maintain and update periodically than our website. We'll probably keep some sort of presence there, but this format makes quick updates easy to post.

I, bumanfam Dad will do most of the posting as writing is more my cup-o-tea. In fact, the previously mentioned decision to get into blogging has so far been pretty unilateral - bumanfam Mom doesn't even know yet! I thought it might do well to have the thing up-and-running to show her what I mean.

We'll have things posted here about family events and milestones, links to interesting or funny things on the web, and likely a weighty dose of posts about geocaching. Geo-what? For those of you who don't know what geocaching is, stick around, you'll learn more!

So, who knows where this will go (nowhere is among the list of possibilities). Look around, keep in touch, make comments, start your own blog. Whatever - not too many rules here!