First Of Five's GeoCaching Blog

GC1HCK0: Old of Oaks Pond

noreply@blogger.com (Casey) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:50:00 +0000

Second cache of the day with the girls was GC1HCK0: Old of Oaks Pond.

Never been to this forest preserve before (Oldfield Oaks). Needed to find something close and big enough to drop of the Appalachian Music Goer Travel bug (TB2K8X5) I've been carrying around for the last couple months.

This cache as generally easy to find. Terrain was off path. There's a worn path and you find a pond that you can't see from the trail. Nice size ammo box. We left the travel bug and the kids took a noise maker and an Betty Boop air Freshener.

Note too self, nothing worse in a car than a noisy kid and a kid that smells like vanilla.

Casey

GC1FPHP: Old MacDonald comes to Downers Grove

noreply@blogger.com (Casey) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:45:00 +0000

Today, we went out with the kids and found a couple caches. The first one was GC1FPHP: Old MacDonald comes to Downers Grove.

We were driving to another cache and figured we'd hit this one on the way. Parking was easy... in a church parking lot. Kids got to play on a playground and we walked around the Mar-Duke Farms which are a bunch of garden plots that you can rent out. Pretty cool idea, never done it.

Cache was easy to find. Little nano container with a log. (Bring a pen)

Was a good start.

Casey

GC1KMG7: WOW JUNK!

noreply@blogger.com (Casey) — Mon, 25 May 2009 23:45:00 +0000

Found GC1KMG7 as the 5th cache of the day. Was hidden in public area next to a creek. Kinda shady so definitely get this one on weekends or holidays. Hell of a lot of junk.

GC1FVZM: Cache #1

noreply@blogger.com (Casey) — Mon, 25 May 2009 23:42:00 +0000

Found GC1FVZM as the 4th cache of the day. This was a very original container. Never had seen one like it and it's now one of my favorites.

GC1D7QJ: Meadow Park

noreply@blogger.com (Casey) — Mon, 25 May 2009 21:26:00 +0000

Found GC1D7QJ as the 3rd cache of the day. One of the many weird areas that Downers Grove has claimed as park land. Lots of construction materials laying around. And the pencil was broke.

GC1F000: A Tribute to Telephone Poles

noreply@blogger.com (Casey) — Mon, 25 May 2009 21:12:00 +0000

Found GC1F000 which was the second of my caches, but the first with my daughter, Lily.

Excellent Cache hiding place. Was very very cool.

GC1JJB4: Speed Bump

noreply@blogger.com (Casey) — Mon, 25 May 2009 16:30:00 +0000

Found GC1JJB4: Speed Bump while my kids were playing on the new equipment in Hummer Park. Am I the only one that finds this name of the park amusing?

GC17MAJ: Dedicated To The Fixer

noreply@blogger.com (Casey) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 17:38:00 +0000

Found GC17MAJ as the second cache of the day. Way more peaceful than GC18K9T. Still was like 70 degrees out (cause it was only a half hour later), birds chirping, and a decent playground.

Reading the cache description I expected this to be more interesting than it was. It is a pretty cool unexpanded soda bottle. We put a little eraser inside even though this is just a log cache.

Casey

GC18K9T: Keep your eye on the ball, get ahead of the game.

noreply@blogger.com (Casey) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 16:30:00 +0000

Found GC18K9T with the fam today. McCollum Park is awesome. It was about 70 degrees out and there were TONS of kids and people playing all over the place. So, with tons of Muggles all around we checked out a couple trees and eventually found it.

The Cache was in a really cool homemade container. No pics cause I forgot.

I think we took a couple things and left a couple erasers.

Casey

GC1F2W9: On Jersey Shores

noreply@blogger.com (Casey) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:59:00 +0000

Found GC1F2W9 while out shopping on State Street. Was pretty crowded, but people do a lot of weird stuff around there, so me looking intensely at a newspaper thing was less conspicuous than I thought it would be.

GC1D8NA: A rest for the Good Samaritan

noreply@blogger.com (Casey) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 17:33:00 +0000

Was out caching earlier with the family and my GPS was messed up. Found a setting to "calibrate the compass" and wa-la, found GC1D8NA.

It's named "A Rest for the Good Samaritan" becase of it's proximity to Good Samaritan Hospital and partially it's a clue to the location of the cache. .

This was the second cache I found on my way to buy a Hat from REI and Socks from TJ Max. Super easy, took me about 5 minutes to find it and hop back in the car. This was good, 'cause is was cold.

GC1EJXB: Scooby Snacks

noreply@blogger.com (Casey) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 17:25:00 +0000

Was at the bank and decided to give this one a try. Was super easy and got me on a street that I'd not been on before.

GC1EJXB is named Scooby Snacks because of it's proximity to "Scooby's" restaurant.

Small film-type canister with a log and a penny.

No Caching

noreply@blogger.com (Casey) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 03:09:00 +0000

So, I worked on my bus instead of going caching like I had planned to.

oh well.

Back in the Game

noreply@blogger.com (Casey) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 03:34:00 +0000

Alrighty, finding that cache this past weekend has re-invigerated me. I've re-loaded all the map software on my computer and set it up so I can push waypoints to my gps.

Tomorrow, I need to re-install CacheMate on my phone and then I'm set.

This weekend, maybe Sunday, I can run around and find a few caches.

GC1HBYR: CHAMP

noreply@blogger.com (Casey) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 19:02:00 +0000

So, we've had this Korean Tiger Travel (TBQANX) bug for like 3 months now. We actually intended to drop it off on our last trip to Missouri but failed miserably... didn't even cache. And since then we bought a VW Bus and really have been focused on that and some house projects.

That being said, we went down to Branson, Missouri to see some family and experience the campiness that is that city. On our way back we stopped in Springfield, Missouri for Julie to reminisce about her time in college and also to find a cache to drop the Tiger in.

So we didn't have to search long, we found GC1HBYR pretty easily. We dropped off the Tiger and picked up a sticker.

Was at a park in the middle of a neighborhood. Hint was off and the rating on this one was way higher than it actually was.

Casey

Good How To for Making a GeoCache

noreply@blogger.com (Casey) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 03:31:00 +0000

Found this link while searching around for information on steps to build a geocache container.

Just thought I would share. It's good step by step instructions for making a fake rock geocache with a Jar and some Great Stuff.

GC17J8E: Home Again

noreply@blogger.com (Casey) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 20:59:00 +0000

Found GC17J8E in about 15 minutes. Was more annoying than anything. Only thing really interesting about it was that the GPS took my mom and me onto a private road in an attempt to get us as close as possible to it.

We ended up finding our own way to it. Then hunted around. Cache was very small but pretty obvious once we found it.

GCHGF9: Where's Wears Creek

noreply@blogger.com (Casey) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 20:24:00 +0000

GCHGF9 was very cool. It has a great view of the Capital building in Missouri. It wasn't until a couple days later that all of the clues made sense... like the parking lots.

BUT, man, I looked all over that stump and eventually found it. It has a hole drilled into the back of the stump. There were ants or termites living in there, so when I pulled the cache out, eggs were all over it. I shook them off and signed the book.

My mom and my dog, Oscar, were with me. We had been sitting at my inlaws house and decided to go geocaching to kill time while Lily and Violet were sleeping.

GCKZNQ: Paved Paradise

noreply@blogger.com (Casey) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 15:45:00 +0000

Took the girls out in the morning and went looking for GCKZNQ.

This was the first time I had used CacheMate on my phone (Motorola Q). I don't think I'll ever do anything differently. It is an awesome addition to the GPS.

We got to the parking lot in what used to be the Jefferson City Public Pool. If you scroll down on this page, you can see pictures of what the pool used to look like back in the day. Now, it's a parking lot... a parking lot I parked in.

We followed the GPS to a cement wall that was heavily overgrown with tubors, vines, bushes, weeds. We followed the wall and found an overgrown staircase, went up the staircase and followed the path left by other geocachers.

Back about 10 feet on the right was an old round picnic table. Back further was a an old firepit. We found the cache, an Ammo Box, and opened it up. Inside were two zip lock bags, one with a notebook and the other with cachetoys. Notebook was kinda damp... guess ammo containers aren't really that waterproof.

We didn't have anything to leave, but we took a sticker... rather Lily got excited and took a sticker before I could stop her. It was cool. There were lots of stickers.

We re-hid the cache and got out of there. Was very cool. Very excited about this one. First REAL geocache with an ammo container.

After a good day of geocaching, I always make sure to find a park so the kids can run around. Conviently, most geocaches in cities are somehow associated with a park.

Source for Film Canisters

noreply@blogger.com (Casey) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 04:29:00 +0000

Was looking around for Film Cansisters online.

B&H Photo Video has packs of 5.
TeacherSource has packs of 40 and 200!!!
Hollywood Mega Store has reel film canisters.

Enjoy!

GeoCaching: Why

noreply@blogger.com (Casey) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 03:52:00 +0000

One of my friends mentioned geocaching to me a year or so ago, but it didn't register and at the time gps' were unattainable... or I just wasn't interested.

My brother started chirping in my ear about it again and this time it grabbed hold. I am hooked. The concept got me to buy a GPS and sign up on geocaching.com before I had even received the GPS.

We found our first cache about 2 blocks from my house. It was pretty simple located on the street under a wasps nest. It was an altoids tin painted black. Inside was a strong magnet, a ziplock with a log and then there were some blue army men. I was back in my childhood of hiding crap out in the yard... secret stuff.

I'm also not one to just go on a hike or have a hobby. I don't golf, don't go to the gym much (although I'm trying to change that) and lack some imagination when I have the kids and need something to do.

The answer is now: GeoCaching. Wanna go on a hike? Screw that, we're going geocaching and if hiking is involved then so be it. When we're done, we're not going to talk about the hike though, we'll talk about searching all over the place and finding a fake rock that had a bunch of stuff in it... and it was cool.

Hell, this is all I've talked about for the past week or so... have needed something to focus on other than work :) I think I may have successfully sold a bunch of people at work on the concept.

Right now, I'm down visiting my inlaws. Know what I did? Busted out the computer, downloaded 200 of the closest geocaches and we went out. I've never had much of a reason to explore Jefferson City, Missouri. Today, I've been all over the place. We went to parks, strip malls and even a senior's center. Found 1 cache that was the smallest metal container I've ever seen. It had a little thin piece of paper rolled up inside with people's names on it. Later that day, we went back and I took pictures of the girls finding the cache. Someone else had been there and moved it. We found it cause it was only a few feet away. I was just excited cause we weren't the only ones there that day.

We did something though. We got out of the house and went somewhere. Me and my 2 little girls. It was awesome.

Anyway, I'm hooked.

Source for Cache Containers

noreply@blogger.com (Casey) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 03:30:00 +0000

I've been thinking more and more about making geocaches myself. When finding them, I'm always amazed at some of the containers. Today I started looking around online for places to buy small metal containers.

http://www.sks-bottle.com/
http://www.specialtybottle.com
http://www.oberk.com/

They all roughly carry the same stuff. Some of them allow you to order in smaller quantities than 500 :)

GC19WDN: May the Schwartz be with you

noreply@blogger.com (Casey) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 15:50:00 +0000

With a newly bought GPS, this was our first cache ever sought.
Found GC19WDN using the GPS. Went out with the two girls and Oscar while Julie took care of some business. Wasn't a difficult cache at all.

Drove to a parking lot next to a creek. Walked across the creek and started looking around the sign. The name of the cache, "May the Schwartz be with you", is a red herring and has nothing to do with the cache at all... kinda stupid actually. Good name, bad application.

After walking around the sign for Washington Park a couple times, found a piece of the screw that looked different. This was the smallest cache I'd ever seen. Only had a slip of paper in it, enough to sign a name and date too.

GCWZVW: They Don't Make Them Like That Anymore

noreply@blogger.com (Casey) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 16:00:00 +0000

Found GCWZVW before I even had a GPS. Basically, my brother had told me about geocaching and I was instantly hooked. The idea of looking for a treasure was very appealing. Also, I was in desperate need of a hobby.

SO, a couple days later, Julie, Lily, Violet and I had gone to the Saturday market in Downers Grove. We were on our way back and we stopped. I knew by the description on Geocaching.com where this one was.

I opened the container and there was a wasp nest. It took me a minute or so to notice it though. This is an old electrical junction box. I think it's still working. The city has left it there. After I saw the wasps, I closed the door and looked underneath. Sure enough there was a container that turned out to be an Altoids tin with a magnet.

Inside was a zip lock bag with a log and a pencil. There was a couple items in there like a toy soldier. We looked but didn't sign or take/leave anything.

All-in-all this pretty much hooked us. Went home and ordered the gps.