[Crockett3663]

This injury didn’t actually happen to me, but rather my son, Drew, and I felt horrible about it afterwards.

It was during 4th of July week last year (2008). I had taken the whole week off of work, and decided to spend one whole day with each of my kids. On Drew’s day, we decided to go caching. We were still relatively new to the hobby, so I gues we were a bit unprepared for certain “events”.

Well, we decided to go after one cache “Slinger Water Tower” (GCYHYJ). It was/is a coffee can hidden in a small group of trees at the edge of a dead end road, and right near a subdivision. You should know that this dead end road actually used to cross US Highway 41, so the highway is clearly visble from the dead end and vice versa.

When we got to the site, Drew volunteered to go in after the container since it was in a tight area and he knew that I (being a rather large guy) would have difficulty getting in and out of there. BIG mistake!! As he was retrieving the container, he was attacked by a small swarm of biting flies!! Normally for most folks that might have just been irritating, but to a 9 year old boy, who’s definitely a “city kid” and not used to roughing it, the bites hurt like hell!! He had several of them, including a few that got up into his shorts and bit him around the groin area.

He was in so much pain and started crying. I asked him where he got bit, and he pointed “down there” I asked him to lower his shorts so that I could see them. Suddenly I realized where we were!! In this day and age, if someone driving by on HWY 41 had seen a grown man on a side road kneeling in front of a young boy with his shorts down, you can see how they’d get the WRONG idea!!

Quickly I suggested that we move around to the other side of the truck to shield us from any passing motorists. He lowered his shorts and allowed me to examine the bites, all the while crying in pain. I grabbed for the first aid kit and applied some bite ointment, not knowing if the stuff would even work. Surrpisngly, after all this was over, we still had to go through the cache container and complete the task, and he STILL volunteered to put the container BACK!! Talk about a brave kid!!

After we were finished, we sat in my truck and just collected our thoughts for a minute. Honestly I didn’t know if he’d want to venture on to the next cache , and I wouldn’t have blamed him one bit if he’d have told me he “never wanted to do this again”. But after a few minutes of catching our breath, I asked him if he wanted to continue and he said “yes”. By the time we completed the next cache (which ironically was immediately on the OTHER side of HWY 41 from where we were), his pain level had dropped dramatically and he was fine the rest of the day. Let’s just say it was a painful initiation into the world of geocaching for a father and son from “the city”, but it hasn’t driven us from the sport. We’ll just be more ready the next time!!

[Crockett3663]

My log of choice is the latest entry from the only cache I happen to have hidden (so far), GC1P1GV, “Union Cemetary”. Since I hid it back in March, I’ve gotten the standard “TFTC”, “Quick find”. etc., and while I appreciate those as well, I kept hoping that someone would expound on how much they liked my first attempt at hiding. It was given to me last week, in the person of Mr. Putz of Elk Mound, WI and it reads like this:

1 of 5 finds while in town for the day for my nieces graduation party. This cache is two backyards away from her house. I found this cache with my nieces and nephews, and without the GPS’r. I need to check my log book, but I think that this is about my 4th find without the GPS’r! We then spent about a half hour walkint around the cemetary looking at headstones. The earliest burial we found was from 1847. And we found t people who were born in the 1700’s. One was in 1772. Born before the Revolutionary War started. What a history lesson this place is!!! Thanks for getting us off of the swing set and in to an even bigger backyard!

Thanks Mr. Putz!! Your appreciative and entertaining log was just the type I was hoping to get from the day I placed the cache. It made me feel as if my efforts were appreciated. Hopefully I’ll get more logs like this in the future.

[Crockett3663]

Between my desire to lose weight (I’ve lost 5 pounds this week!!) and cutting back on eating out due to the economy, I can’t recommend any restaurants right now…sorry.

[Crockett3663]

The very first time we went out caching, my son and I encountered another young boy about my son’s age, right when we were near ground zero. He asked what we were doing, and not wanting to look suspicious or sound like a jerk, I was up front with him, even letting him see where the cache was hidden.

About a week or so after our find, I went back to the cache page to see if there had been any more finds of that particular cache. No too surprisingly, there were a couple of DNFs, and one person speculated that the cache might have been muggled. This hide was not in a particularly high traffic area, so I’m going to assume that our little muggle probably went back to the cache at some point and cleaned it out, especially since it was full of just the kinds of little toy items that kids love to find in caches.

Since that time, I’ve been more careful when encountering a muggle. Depending on the individual, I’ll either clue them in to what we’re doing, or else I’ll try not to bring attention to us. If I encounter kids that are not accompanied by parents, then I am much more secretive. I certainly don’t want a replay of what I believe happened to that first cache.

[Crockett3663]

…instead of using wrapping paper, you wrap al of your family’s birthday and Christmas gifts in cammo tape!!

[Crockett3663]

You know the location of every unfastened lamp post skirt within a five mile radius!!

You have an arrangement with the guy at the Photomat who saves all of his film cannisters for you!!

You wrap all of your family’s Christmas gifts in cammo tape!!

[Crockett3663]

If you’re gonna live in Wisconsin, you could at least be a Kenseth fan!!

Going for the trifecta today gang!!!!!

[Crockett3663]

I LOVE the laminated card idea!! I’m going to make sure I make a couple of them up before I head out caching next time.

[Crockett3663]

I think you’ll love the Xterra. I was given a brand new 2008 model one year ago after a small accident put my Explorer in the shop for about two weeks. I LOVED it!! Big and chunky…it was a real MAN’S SUV. I loved getting my Explorer back looking like new, but I kinda hated to give up the “X”. My 10 year old son loved it as well. He wanted me to buy it!!

[Crockett3663]

No “real” information here…just a guess, but could those caches be archived due to flooding last summer? That would be my guess. Sounds like an enjoyable ride, though. Drive safe, and happy caching!!

[Crockett3663]

I signed up back around the holidays, but then didn’t do much with it until I ran across an alumni group from my old high school. Since then, I’ve been re-connecting with a mess of my old friends. It’s neat to look at pictures and see how everyone has grown and changed. I know a lot of you might say “If you want to see everyone, just go to your re-union”. Well, I wasn’t friends with too many people from my actual class. I had more friends in the classes that were a year or two behind me, so I don’t get to go to those re-unions. This way I can re-kindle old friendships.

I also like it for putting a face with a name on the WGA page. I’m really hoping we can organize some group caching excursions without it having to be an official “event”.

[Crockett3663]

Congrats and Best Wishes to the Happy Couple!! If you hurry and come back today, it’s gonna be 60 degrees here in Wisconsin today!! No snow!!

I’m jealous tho….I WANNA GO TO HAWAII!!!!!!!!

[Crockett3663]

Someone with more knowledge can correct me if I’m wrong, but BEFORE you think of welding or putting a grinder to the box, MAKE SURE they are VERY clean!! Keep in mind that these were AMMO boxes, meaning that small traces of gunpowder residue might still be contained within the box, and the last thing you want to do is to apply heat or a spark to any leftover powder residue which might be present!!

[Crockett3663]

I originally signed up on FB about a month ago, but had been relatively inactive with it until this past weekend, when I found a group of alumni from my high school. I joined the group and started sending out friend requests right away. Just this weekend I’ve added 20 “new” old contacts from my high school days.

I’m going to jump over to Facebook as soon as I’m done here and find the WGA group, because I’m always looking to meet more cachers to bounce ideas off of and hopefully get out into the field with someday.

Thanks for the tip!!!

[Crockett3663]

@SaraValo wrote:

I am a poor newbie Geocacher and I really have no money for a GPS unit, so if anyone is updating theirs and wants to do something good with their old one, I promise to use it well.

Have you tried Craigslist? You can find anything on there. I sold an old GPS on that site and have made other sales and purchases as well.

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