When "House Rules" Don't Apply

Once upon a time, there was a type of cache called a "traveling" or moving cache. Caches of this type were much like travel bugs in that a person located the cache, took it with them, placed it somewhere else and reported via the online log on the cache page the new coordinates of the cache.

The Postcard Cache by Fresh_Meat (GC9660) is an example of this kind of cache. It is still active, having been "grandfathered" in by the folks at Groundspeak. Since it was based in Oregon, I have occasionally monitored its progress.

[This picture was taken by someone at GeoWoodstock 5]

On July 22 this cache was picked up by none other than my old friend "Stumpy". For whatever reasons, he chose not to follow the rules of the cache and report its actual location. He instead chose to hang onto this cache and take it to an event he was hosting on August 18. Once there it was logged by several attendees. No one at the event chose to follow the cache rules and report its current location.

The owner of the cache made several attempts - the last one on August 31 to convince whoever is holding it to please provide the coordinates. I left a note on the cache page, informing him of the event that it was recently seen at, so maybe he will be able to track this cache down.

We in GOWT had a "traveling" members-only cache that worked in much the same way. It too, was reported as picked up and then never reported as being put anywhere. When people like to talk about participating in geocaching following their own personal idea of "house rules", they need to realize that we don't all live in the same house.

Update: September 5, 2007: Another geocacher will be picking up the cache from Stumpy to take to another event on September 15. Maybe someone at the next event will choose to follow the rules specified by the cache for logging.

Change of Plans

In the last post, I mentioned that I would not be going back to the GOWT forums after my three-day suspension was up. After a night's sleep, I changed my mind. I will not let my friends down.

I have recently learned that my friends in JAG have "attempted" to block access to their site from certain GOWT members (including, but not limited to, myself). I think they need a better webmaster - one that recognizes that they are currently in violation of eamped.com's Terms of Service agreement. JAG is required to adhere to the TOS or risk losing their free forums. This same TOS is what requires them to make at least 70% of their content visible to the public and what stymied their attempts to keep their content private.

I'm coming back to the forums and I will follow the rules wisely created by the founders of GOWT. I will not allow the weak-minded members of JAG (a small, but vocal subset of the membership) and other so-called "influential" members of the geocaching community to win this battle.

GOWT's Destiny and Mine Part Ways

No, I didn't quit GOWT. I expressed myself inappropriately on the forums and was banned for 3 days (I think). I wish to say to my friends on the Executive Committee that I am sorry for allowing myself to behave this way. I am not sorry for what I said since most if not all of it was technically accurate. My personal breaking point was the primary geocaching reviewer for the state of Tennessee blaming me and my "baggage" for the problems on the forum. I should have ignored him since his opinions don't mean anything to me.

I didn't need to respond to any of the blatherous comments people made on the forum. I realized quite a while back that we can't have legitimate discussions about geocaching online because for most people who participate in our forums the standard answer to all discussion topics is "Quit complaining and let people play the game the way they want to!" It's a good answer - absolutely no thinking required. If you have an opinion that says otherwise, keep it to yourself.

As for some of the ignorant people we have on our boards (both GOWT and JAG) - my pointing it out doesn't make them any less ignorant.

I have many wonderful friends in GOWT. I hope to see them all out on the trails someday because I am not going back to the forums when my ban is up. I will also be more selective on the events I attend. Hopefully my posts from this point forward will be about my geocaching adventures.

Time to Get Out the Broom

The GOWT forums were getting back to normal when once again trouble reared it's illiterate head. Two of the Bluff Boys decided to make an appearance.

The one on the left (Stubby) decided that he wanted to get rid of the GOWT laminator he had been holding onto since we went ahead and bought a new one, so he called several people to "settle things". He tried to call me at least 12 times and left me several PMs in the forums. Having heard all of his crap before, I opted not to hear it again.

The one on the right (Elmo), well he just likes to fling poo.

How can you hate these little fellas. The new kids on the forum want to feed them snacks. "Why are you so mean, Uncle Mack?" Experience has shown that these "adorable" creatures like to get on your geocaching forums and crap all over your threads.

On a thread where a member inquires about what kinds of shoes/boots geocachers wear out in the field we get this nugget:
"the bluff boys wear high heels and thongs. the high heels helps me stay above the water and the thongs well thats just part of our caching costumes."

Ahhh, how cuuuuuute. One of the Bluff Boys just peed on the carpet. It's time to get out the broom and shoo these little guys off.

UPDATE: Monday, August 21 - Both of these illiterate goobers bombarded our forums with more crap for several hours this afternoon/evening. Several of their friends logged in to watch.

Perseid Meteor Shower - July 12

On Sunday night, August 12th, I attended The Perseid Meteor Shower by minismiths and 76Stinger (GC14MDA)

Since it was held in Atoka, TN and I have family in that area, I took advantage of the opportunity to visit with them for a while before the event took place. I recently adopted a cache in Atoka and have several in the area to find. I hope one day to get my family in the area involved in geocaching.

I arrived a little late to the event - around 8:15pm and there were already lots of people there. It was a fairly hot day but by evening had cooled enough where the temperature was not a problem. As it was getting dark, Prontopup, Sprout, and Itcomagic invited me to go hunt the nearby cache A.R.P. "Can you Fathom This?" by minismiths (GC150RN) with them. SpyGirl2011 was already at the first stage site looking around. The hunt was made more interesting by the fact it was dark, but we found the final stage after not too much time and headed back to the event. There were a couple of other new caches placed around the area for this event, but since I'm not a big fan of night caching I decided to save them for later.


Several people traveled a significant distance to attend this event and we were glad to see everybody. My good friend pcsenn drove all of the way from Troy, TN to attend the event and present Hoot Owl with the original GOWT banner he retrieved recently.

I was paying too much attention to the conversations to notice the meteor shower but I did manage to see a few impressive flashes of light moving quickly across the sky. I was amazed at how brief the flashes were - only visible for a few seconds.

We had sponsors for the event who generously provided door prizes. I won an Armed Forces Challenge Coin that was pretty neat. Lots of folks won poison ivy wash/block which they appreciated. One young cacher won a space pen which she later lost in the dark while hunting the nearby cache. PoohBear94 went by the site the next day and found it for her.

I'll have to get an accurate count of how many attended this event, but the turnout was great - especially given that it was held late Sunday evening/early Monday morning. I imagine I was not the only sleepyhead at work on Monday.

Hoot Owl and I were the last to leave at roughly 1:10am. I took my time driving home as I wasn't too excited about driving around in Memphis in the wee hours of the morning.

My thanks to minismiths and 76Stinger for hosting this excellent event. I am looking forward now to Geocaching At Munford Celebrate by 76Stinger (GC14B4V)

Return of the GOWT Banner

On Saturday, August 4th, pcsenn drove by and picked up the GOWT banner from the worthless stump from JAG who had been holding onto it for the last seven months. It was a rather unceremonious occasion as it was simply left outside for pcsenn to pick up. I won't be satisfied until "Stumpy" makes a public apology for holding on to it for so long but that would require honor which "Stumpy" doesn't have.

[My thanks to pcsenn for recovering the banner!]

As for the laminator that "Stubby" from JAG is holding onto, well we ended up buying a replacement thanks to cgeek who bought it for GOWT. "Stubby" was apparently waiting for "The Don" to tell him what to do as is the usual case.

I had an interesting chat session with "Stubby" the afternoon of July 24th - basically Chibongo and I were offering to drive to his house and pick up the laminator that very evening and he said he wouldn't give it to me: "When did you become a EC member?". It was an interesting chat session to say the least. Enjoy the laminator "Stubby". All of your friends think you are the coolest ever for stickin' it to da man.

Most of GOWT is happy to have these two matters resolved. Personally the "if someone takes your property, just buy new stuff and move on" tactic doesn't sit well with me, but such is life. If not for the generosity of the EC and the membership, we wouldn't be able to move on quite so easily.

Speaking of moving on... Looks like somebody who said: "A whole day without looking at the other site. I'm on a roll now. I can do it i know i can.... JAG RULES...." came back on our site today at 4:32pm. I guess you just don't know how to quit us!

Coasting to 2K Finds

I wasn't in a particular hurry while hunting my 2nd 1000 caches but the time seemed to pass quickly. Maybe it's because I made several big numbers runs with various cachers over the last year and a half.

Titansfan and I made a run to Nashville (my first) right after I hit the 1k mark. We managed to get around 40 caches and attend a meeting of the Middle Tennessee Geocaching Club on that cold day in March.

I made another run a couple months later with BigDaddyD and the Bluff Boys to Smyrna and the East Fork Recreation Area where we picked up 51 caches! We had a lot of fun that day although we got wet early and spent most of the day wearing wet clothes.

I made two trips across the country to Oregon picking up 120 or more caches each trip. I enjoy caching on long trips although I confess after driving and caching for 4-day stretches, I got pretty tired. Making those trips in June/July didn't help!

Cgeek and I made a run to Jackson late in the spring of this year and a run to Nashville a week or so later where, thanks to her, I set a one-day personal best record of 70 caches!

When I got close to the 2k mark, I invited my buddy jbgreer to cache with me for those final caches. I wanted someone in my family to be with me for the 2k milestone and jbgreer is like a brother!

I got 16 caches on this day - which was light for me, but very enjoyable! Cache number 2000 was : Sudoku Challenge: Easy by Chance Encounter (adopted by PsychicAsh) (GCVAZ0)

I did the other caches in that series earlier and actually became addicted to sudoku puzzles as a result!

Since I didn't bother to get a picture of myself at my 2000th find. I am just going to post a picture of myself with the guy who got me started in this hobby - jbgreer. In the picture below we are about to enjoy some barbecue. Today we also dined on barbecue before hitting our last few caches of the day.


Thanks to my friends for fun times over the last three years and I hope I get to do a lot more caching with all of you!