A ‘lil HooHaa

OK, one more day or work, then a small vacation.

I’ve got 9-10 caches plotted for tomorrow. A little driving, but some cool hikes. My goal is to get 10-11 caches, thus easily going past the 100-find mark.

I have a 100-find geocoin and pin ready to activate as soon as I cross the milestone. I’ll post some photos here once I make it “official.”

Weather looks good for tomorrow, too. I haven’t been out on a caching day in a while, so I’m ready to go at it and have fun.

Hoping Friday works out too as I have a good path planned and look forward to adding many more!

OK, off to work. More later!

OK, I have a short vacation starting Wednesday. For those of you counting at home, that means two working days (including today) before I get to ignore the working world for a few days.

I took this vacation for two reasons — I’ve wanted a short break from work (thought I was going to take it at the end of March, but it didn’t work out, which is fine) and this weekend is a two-day golf tournament. The tourney is an annual thing at my local golf course, a memorial two-man scramble. Each year it’s in honor of someone connected to the course who has passed on. This year it’s in my father’s honor, so it’s something me and my brothers are obviously playing in (I’m partners with my brother Pat).

But, I plan on doing some other fun things before having to go back to the working world next Tuesday. Namely geocaching.

OK, I’m nine short of 100 and I plan on getting those Wednesday. The weather looks solid, so I want to go out and spend a day caching and then work my way back to town to hopefully have a softball practice. I’ll have to contact people so they make sure to make it, however.

Thursday, my car goes in for brakes. I’ll try to hit up a couple close caches (if the weather is decent) with the loaner car. In the end, I’ll probably just go hit the gym for a little while to spend the time and hopefully get me back into going to the gym on a regular basis.

Friday, the plan is to head to Binghamton and catch a baseball game. But, before that — more geocaching on the way and in Binghamton, hopefully. I’m also hoping to go to a military surplus store and grab a couple of ammo boxes for future caches. Could be a fun day.

The weekend is golf. Hopefully with good weather. And hopefully good scores.

Monday is my final day off before heading back to work. So I’ll probably relax, maybe find a few local caches and call it good.

A vacation with some fun plans without a ton of traveling (outside of caching). I like it!

More later!

OK, note to self…

It’s that time of the year. Start wearing sunblock when outside. Got my face a little burned today and it stings a little.

I was taking photos at a track event today for many hours and I didn’t think it was supposed to be so sunny. My mistake.

No caches today though.

I have a mini vacation beginning Wednesday and I’m hoping to do some caching several of those days. Next Saturday and Sunday I have a golf tournament I am playing in, so it will be tough to do any caching there. However, I am hoping to do a bunch Wednesday, maybe some Thursday, although I might just place a few I have in mind on that day. Then Friday, at least on the way down to watch a baseball game.

Tomorrow there’s some golf. We do it every year with Mom on Mother’s Day.

More later!

Did some caching today going too and from Cobleskill today. Hit a total of three, including a first to find, which is pretty cool.

Left early this morning and as I came toward Cobleskill, there’s a quick-hit cache off the main road. Found that one pretty quick and then headed to my previous commitment. Afterward, I hit Interstate 88 for a short trip to a rest area. There had been a new one placed there about a week ago and nobody had stopped by, so I figured I’d go check it out.

For a rest-area cache, this one is pretty solid. Good hiding spot and a pretty good walk. It’s a TB hotel, so I swapped out a TB, claimed the FTF and moved on. I headed back toward Cobleskill as it’s quicker to head home that way then stay on the interstate.

I saw there was another cache close, so I went to it. I ended up on top of a mountain. It was an interesting ride up the hill with some pretty good views. Found a small cache up there and picked up a third for the day.

I went for a fourth, came close, but ended up on a road that looked like it turned private. It might not be, but I found when I came home that there is a different way to hit it, so I’ll do it some other time now that I know.

—–

I have three caches nearly ready to be put out. The containers are painted and dry. They each have a sticker on them, awaiting the information about the cache. I’ll be putting some swag in them, too.

One thing I am going to do is put a camera in each. Disposable, of course. Hopefully people will take some images when they visit the cache. Once the camera is full, I’ll go get it and develop the images and upload them to the cache page!

Each will also have a homemade log book. I created a cover and made it small (like the geocaching.com logbook size) and will be having them coiled at OfficeMax, probably tomorrow. Each cache will also have a FTF prize — an FTF pin.

Outside of that, they are smaller lock and lock containers, so there won’t be a ton of “great” swag, but there will be small items for trade etc.

—–

Also, I’m now up to 91 caches. I’m hoping to reach 100 caches by the end of the weekend and make that milestone.

Hopefully I’ll also place a few caches out there.

Man, this hobby is addictive!

More later!

Now, now, don’t get all excited for me, yet. It’s just possible.

I’ve been trying to figure out what the heck I was going to do come the end of July when the lease on my 2005 1/2 Volkswagen Jetta ended. I have two months left to pay and then I have to turn it in/keep it at the end of July.

Here’s the situation:

• I’m already 10,000+ over my mileage limit
• This car has had a bunch of repairs on it (it was one of the first of this model).
• Not sure if I want to keep it.

All that being said, there’s more to be considered. If I kept it, the buyout is $9900. Not bad for a 2005 1/2 VW with 57K miles on it. And now is a buyers time for cars… interest rates are low as hell. However, I’d be without any warranty and I’d be in the hole for the $400 in brake repairs that this sucker needs.

Going to a new lease is out of the question — I don’t want to pay the mileage charges if I can help it and having mileage restraints is crappy. Plus, I don’t have the 3K to put down on a new lease again.

Things happen by chance though, don’t they?

Like, for example, when I got the Jetta. I was in bad need of a car. The engine in my Olds Alero was basically gone and I was in a rental. I was calling around looking for stick shifts, somehow asked about leases with VW, got a good price, went, test drove and signed up.

So, I head in today to get a free brake inspection. One salesman recognizes me from my job and we get talking. He asks about my car, I tell him the lease is up soon and he said “Come see me whenever you want to explore options.”

I said “Now is good for me.”

We chatted and I looked at three cars — a 2007 VW Rabbit and two 2004 Jettas. All 5-speeds, sunroofs  in the Jettas and all in a decent price range. I’m waiting for an e-mail from the guy with some numbers.

If things go well, I get some numbers I want and everything fits, I could have a new car soon — without having to do the brake job. I’ll keep things updated here, but it looks like I’ll be sticking with VW one way or another.

More later!

Unfortunately, I don’t have many places around here that sell the ammo cans (which I’d like to get my hands on a couple of them), so I have to make due with what I can get and make them the best possible.

So far, I have three caches out there. All are different sizes. One is a nano, one is a film canister and one is a decon container. I want to have a few bigger ones out there as I want to be able to put better things in them as well as a disposable camera to have people take a few photos that I will eventually get developed and put on the caches webpage!

So, I purchased some Lock & Lock containers from the local Price Chopper as I know these are quite waterproof and deal with the elements in our area pretty well.

I purchased some of that camouflage paint as it is supposed to be good on plastic and coated them once yesterday and I just hit the second coat on them. I think, however, I’m not going to attempt to camouflage them, rather leave it with the green. I really like the look of it and in our area, this green will work out very well.

Here’s the painted containers:

The best part about this paint is that it dries to touch in 15 minutes and to use in an hour. Therefore, I can bring ‘em in before I head to work to let them dry some more and avoid any possible rain showers tonight.

Tomorrow, I’ll get the geocaching sticker ready for them and start filling them with some swag. None of them will hold a ton of stuff, but all will hold a few things, which is cool.

I’m hoping to land a few ammo cans soon and I’ll have them prepped up and filled a little bit more.

I also want to attempt to get out and grab a few caches this week. We’ll see what happens. I’m quickly approaching 100 and want to get there soon! Such a blast this hobby is! All I need is some continued good weather for the week, but unfortunately, it looks like some rain is coming.

More later!

A day of geocaching this past Saturday started with my first geocaching event.

I won’t like — on the ride over, Darren and I were skeptical. We wondered what this event would be like? Would the people be non-sociable? Annoying? People we knew? Friendly?

Oh, the possibilities.

One thing was for sure — we felt a little odd walking in. Soon after, however, that all changed. It was a good time. We chatted with other cachers, met some really nice people and had a blast for a few hours. I look forward to other events in this area and there was talk of a local geocaching club, which would be really fun and maybe some monthly get-togethers to be able chat and all that.

The best part was having the chance to meet some people who had placed local caches — especially the caches that were crazy hard to get to or find.

In the end, we had a blast. We also grabbed the quick cache that was set nearby to go with the event. Then it was off to find some other caches!

Oh, no.

Well, where we were planning to go was going to be good, alas I had left my PDA home (with all the cache info stored on it). So, we trekked the 20 minutes there and decided not to go backward to where we had been and instead headed toward the Monticello area.

We hit five caches (well that I could count, we stopped and Darren found a couple I had already logged). We also picked up Bill — a muggle who went for the ride.

The first we hit was in Roscoe, a simple snag and then we jumped on 17. We ended up just beyond Monticello as we were aiming for this one new TB Hotel. Had been there a few days and had a ton of TBs in it. Thought it would be good to stop there and swap a couple out, which we did.

Turns out we were the FTF, too. Team HooHaa scores!

I swapped out two and I think Darren did the same. We had stopped and logged the ones we grabbed at the event, so that was nice to get them elsewhere quickly.

One thing is for sure — Monticello doesn’t have a bunch all in an area. We had to drive around a little.

Second one was in a little park with an old Blue Angel fighter plane. Rather cool. We then hit up a “Welcome to” at Livingston Manor. I really liked it, actually. Also got a signature wooden coin, which was hand painted. Very cool. Ended it with one called “When Nature Calls” at a rest area. Go figure.

All in all, a great day. Lots of miles, but it’s all good. We found some good caches, which is always nice. I’m now 12 away from 100, so hoping I might be able to land that milestone this weekend. But, I have some sports photography I have to do, so we’ll see what happens with it.

Also, I placed my third cache yesterday. I had held this one for a while and finally got out to hide it. I think it’s a decent hide and it should be somewhat quick.

This week, I’m planning on putting several caches together and ready to be released. Hopefully things will go well and I can get them out by the weekend. Darren and I found a nice little spot for a short walk on a fishing trail for a small multi — basically just letting you get from one spot to the other. It will also make it so people can’t get the coords for the final spot and be able to get there from an easier spot.

Anyway, more later!

OK, I’m ready to attempt this again. I went to a geocaching event and did some other caching today, but that will have to wait until tomorrow after work.

For now, I’m going to attempt to re-hash Thursday so I can somewhat stay in order.

Darren and I met up in Oneonta on Thursday morning and set out to hit a bunch of caches, as well as take the Tony Gwynn Travel Bug to the Hall of Fame before setting it free again.

The first cache was a pretty easy puzzle cache that we did quickly. We followed that up by hitting a multi in a small park here. This one was quite clever, as is becoming the norm I see from the one cacher in our area. She has some really good caches.

Anyway, the first part was easy enough (outside of dealing with all the bugs), then we were off to the second part. This one was quite interesting, but we didn’t realize that it wasn’t just the second spot, but rather a tool for the third part.

We made the trek to the third part and realized how handy that second part actually would be for us. So, we just made due with what we could use.

IE: Darren.

After scoring that one and feeling pretty good, off we went to a local hiking trail — of which I didn’t have a clue that it even existed. There were two on the path, however, so that was a nice thing. We decided to try it out.

The first one seemed a little too uncovered, so we made sure to get it a little better. The second was at the end of the trail, so you’d have to be diehard to be back there and steal the cache. Found both and headed back to the car.

After a quick gas stop and to grab some cache-stuffing items, we made the move to Cooperstown.

The Gwynn TB got to meet Gwynn’s Hall of Fame plaque, which was very cool.

After the Hall, it was time to hit up the caches in Cooperstown. We visited one near Doubleday Field (Darren actually “dropped” the Gwynn TB there, I picked it up and did the photos). After that, an interesting one in a park which seemed like it should be easy.

Yeah, right.

We were right where we though we should be. Nothing. Looked all around. Nothing. We were preparing to throw in the towel when it stuck out to me. A cool find because it was tougher than needed.

Following that, we walked to a small cache where in a nice area of the village where I don’t think many people go. Got a good view of the lake and all. If not for the bugs (which were bothersome all day), it would have been nice to sit there and hang for a little while. Alas, we bolted.

(Also, before all these caches, I did stop at my favorite hobby store and pick up a couple of packs of baseball cards and got a dual auto of Robinson Cano/Cabrera (Indians), which was nice).

We got the car and headed to the next cache, which was in a neat little place on the edge of the village. A short walk took us to what seemed like a good fishing spot. Signed the log and moved on to what turned out to be our final cache of the day.

And what a cache it was.

The terrain is a 4.5 (which is much deserved). The difficulty is a 3 (probably should be a 4). The bugs made everything like an 8 (out of 5) for me.

Basically it’s at a pull-off rest area. Then it’s about 450 feet (give or take) from the spot. Oh yeah, straight (and I mean STRAIGHT) uphill.

We found it though. Second and third to find — since the cache was place in early November — so that made our day. Took it slow going down, of course, as I didn’t want to wipe out.

All in all, a great day. I won’t be making 100 by the end of the weekend, which is fine because we found some great caches. Saturday was a blast, too, and I’ll be posting more about that later (and shockingly enough, I didn’t take one photo! Argh!)

More later!

I just spent 30 minutes writing a post and when I went to publish, my web server decided it didn’t want to allow me. So it all disappeared, just like that.

I might consider re-writing or I might say hell with it for today. It was about my adventures yesterday. Needless to say, I’m a little peeved, so don’t feel like writing again right now. Dammit.

OK, so my geocaching stats are at 72.

Can I get 28 this weekend to reach 100? I’m guaranteed once with the event I’m hitting Saturday. I’m going to hit a ton (we hope) with Darren tomorrow. A bunch in the Cooperstown area and then branch out some to see what’s out there.

I don’t know how many we’ll actually hit Saturday. Maybe a few before the event if planned well enough. But have some other plans after, which hopefully includes setting a couple of caches out there.

The weather looks like some showers, too. So that could hamper things.

I don’t think I can reach it this weekend, but we’re getting a start at 10 a.m. tomorrow, so we might be able to find 15-18 if we plot it well enough. That’s the key. We kind of go off the cuff and just do what looks interesting. We need to get some numbers!

Well, at least this weekend!

More later.