Another Event...More Friends....

Attended the Roanoke Area Geocachers Grillin, Chillin and Caching Event on Saturday. Excellent Food. Met a few more folks and got to visit with a few people we met at our first event last month.

I had a really good time. The food was awesome. The park was really nice. Weather was perfect. And I guess I was just in a good mood. We heard some cool caching stories, and did I mention that the food was excellent?

We learned more about travel bugs. We took Daisy, and she just loved all the attention she got. We met a little dog, Krammer, who had a travel bug on his harness to be discovered. You discover a travel item and it goes into your stats. Krammer's mom, SnoopinAround, has only been caching about a year and has over 3000 finds under her belt!

Beth and Ms. Garmin participated in a field test to demonstrate the accuracy of different types of GPS's. Now you'll remember I mentioned the bias against highway-type GPS's in an earlier post. I am happy to report that Ms. Garmin did well and she found the coordinates nearly as well as the higher priced units. And for a fraction of the cost! I was pleased.

After the event we attempted a few caches that were placed specifically for the event. We bombed out. I was taken hostage on the Blue Ridge Parkway for several hours. Long story here, which I'll let Beth blog about if she so chooses.

I put together an eleven second video for the group, which if I can figure out how to post it here I will. Technology is great, but there is a learning curve.




Well, back to the work week. GeoCaching back on hold for a few days. Have a good one.

Pip (Dragon)


More pics from the event can be viewed here.

Hey Everyone...Meet Daisy!

We are anxiously anticipating the arrival of our first GeoCoin. Isn't she precious? Now what is the purpose of a geocoin, you might ask? (Play with me here, even if you don't care).

A geocoin is a special coin created by individuals or groups of geocachers as a kind of signature item or calling card. Each geocoin is assigned a unique tracking ID which allows them to travel from geocache to geocache or to be passed amongst friends, picking up stories along the way.

We chose Daisy as our first coin because Beth is a farmer by trade. She has cattle and sheep, a few horses, a herding dog and other critters she tends to...her farming activities sometimes interfere with our caching plans, but hey, there is always something it seems....(pun intentional)...as we may miss a geocaching BBQ event because she has to put up hay.

Our plan is to love on Daisy for awhile, show her to our geocaching friends...all three of them...then send her on a trip to visit Beth's brother in Edmond Oklahoma. And of course, I plan on recording her adventures here as they happen. I think I can upload a cool map that will highlight her location as it occurs. The blogging potential of this gal is massive. Who knows, Daisy might end with her own blog and get a special spot on Anderson Cooper's 360 political analyst panel....hmm...

As much as I'll want to hang onto her, eventually she will be sent on her way. We are considering placing Daisy in a cache while we are "geocationing" in Providence Town, MA this fall. If you have any suggestions for her pre-travel activities...let us know.

Pip (The Dragon)

Beth's Perspective On First Event

Our first event! I was psyched. I had a plan that would guarantee us some gold buttons if not silver, but it appears that others had the same plan. There were ten cache points, each with one gold, one silver, and ten bronze buttons.








As people started coming in to register I began to think, oh boy, this is going to be hard. There were about fifty to seventy five people. My plan was to go after the middle caches working up to ten then dropping back to the first set. What I did not expect was that the streets would be listed on the paper. This gave the locals an advantage I believe.

We got our paper at noon and watched the people run to vehicles, jump in and take off. We stopped in a parking lot to enter all the coordinates and took off. I was cursing all the red lights while Pippa was decoding the hints and handling Ms. Garmin.

Our first stop, we are going for the gold baby, oops, there are cachers, damn. Looks like others had the same plan I had, so much for strategy. The excitement of racing through Roanoke Co. was strong and I kept thinking of the reality show, "The Amazing Race." wow what they must feel for that much money on the line and different countries.

We saw some beautiful areas, and some not so beautiful, as Ms. Garmin took us through some rough areas to roads that no longer exist. We saw some areas more than once since we were not savvy on the streets of Roanoke, we did a lot of back tracking. We made it to eight of the ten caches points and collected four bronze buttons in the five hrs. allotted for this race.

When we checked in, we were told this was considered a great feat since we were unfamiliar with the areas.

I insisted on going to one last point which was off the Blue Ridge Parkway. This would have been a much nicer drive if I wasn't racing twenty miles over the speed limit and trying to pass every car we happened upon. We found this cache but it was empty. Pippa was worried that we would not get checked back in on time, and I the adventurous fast driving person I am, told her not to fret, we would be there in time. We got back with only three minutes to spare, that was a little close, but we were able to turn in our find.

We won nothing but had a great experience and met new people. Got to see new areas and just have a great day for only $48, gas and food. Oh, and I got a Pirate Bandanna which will be my new geocaching fashion accessory. Looking forward to the next event.

On the way home, Pip got to see her first double rainbow. Interesting enough, my sister, Mary Dee also saw one in Harrisonburg, VA. It was a really cool day.

Our First GeoCaching Event is Forthcoming!

As I said before, anticipation is a big part of this hobby. Planning, researching, strategizing....

Well tomorrow we are attending our very first Geocaching Event sponsored by Roanoke County's Parks and Recreation, Amazing County Treasure Hunt Caching in on Scenery Event.

The event begins at noon, when we are given the coordinates to 10 scenic or historic sites in Roanoke County Virginia.

Apparently there will be caches with colored coins of a specific value at each site, the goal being to be the first team with the highest value of coins to check in at the event's close.

I'm ready. Beth has her big knife. Ms. Garmin is charged. We'll take water and snacks. We also have a strategy, designed by Beth, which we'll not reveal here at this time.

And hopefully we'll kick some geobutts. We are going up against some highly experienced cachers...some have logged several hundred finds, one guy, moose something has over 2400. Beth and I just have 8...but we have enthusiasm!

I'll let you know how it goes. And did I mention it was free? That fits into our budget nicely.

Remember...weekends are for geocaching.

Pip