Keepin' It Green is Traveling the World

Last year, Troop 505 planted a travel bug that we named "Keepin' It Green Frog" in a our troop's local cache a.k.a. Keepin' It Green. The TB promptly headed out of Evansville and traveled east. She quickly crossed the ocean and stayed in the Czech area for many months. Now she is traveling in Germany. She is a pretty lucky frog to be traveling the world!

We haven't been caching much lately, but we did have to replace the cache noted above after someone stole the original, container and all. We're waiting for the reviewer to re-activate it now. While we were in Wesselman's Park, we decided to find two caches that we didn't have yet. Now I'm ready to cache some more! There's a new letterbox hybrid near our home that I hope to get later today.

Later today: We did find the letterbox hybrid (GC29PJX) and it's pretty cool. What's funny is that we passed by this location the other day on our way into town and there was a truck parked nearby. I even commented out loud that it was weird that some one was parked up there and wondered if something fishy was going on. Well, today, we were the fishy ones parking there. :) We also found a really interesting cache (GC25Y17) today, a type of hide that we hadn't seen before. I should have been the one to find it as I had the right idea, but I didn't discover it on initial instinct. Jim saw what I did and tried again and he was the finder. :) Very fun!

Isaac won this leg of the TB Challenge!

April 2010: Isaac's TB, Guitar Hero, made it to the Denver area first. We hope he stays there awhile so we can catch up with him when we go. Grace's TB is still on the west coast and Karen's TB is in the midwest trying to make it's way to CO. Unfortunately, Jim's TB is out of play. We hope he will resurface, but we haven't had any luck tracking him down.

CONGRATS GUITAR HERO!!

Caching down Green River Road

Jim and I had a few hours to ourselves while the kids were with Mimi and Dale in Owensboro. We weren't particularly motivated to do a whole lot because it was freezing cold outside and we have the post-holiday blues. We decided to head for B&N to buy a guidebook for our trip out west. Jim suggested that we cache along the way so we plugged 8 or 10 geocaches in and headed south. Our luck was "hit and miss", but we added a few smileys to our map.

LBK caches

We decided it would be fun to see how a Floridian park compares to the parks of home. We rented some bikes from a local shop owner and hit the trails at Joan Durante Park in LongBoat Key. It was a beautiful day with the sun shining and the cool ocean breezes blowing steady. The park had lots of trails and we thought we were riding on trails until we stopped to find our first cache and discovered the white rock was actually tiny little sea shells of all varieties. Many of them were whole so we spent a few minutes looking through them and listening for the ocean in their tiny openings; Grace said she could hear it without a doubt. The park was very nice in that there were palms and other tropical trees and plants lining both sides of the trailway. We rode over a winding wooden bridge with marshy water on both sides and at the height of the bridge on a curve, we stopped to take in the beautiful view of the bay. Are we dreaming or is this for real?

TB update

Our family TBs continue to make their way around the U.S., and we hope to catch up with them in Colorado come June, but today I wanted to write about the TB our girl scout troop planted in the Keepin' It Green cache at Wesselman's Park. I got a note today that a cacher picked it up on a business trip to Virginia and (s)he plans to take it home to....the Czech Republic!!! How cool is that? That is so exciting for our troop since we hoped this TB would travel the world and inspire our scouts and other scouts/people around the globe!

The only caching I've done lately was of the urban variety involving Hacienda, pedicures, and surprise birthday parties. Hey, my girls just don't get it, but that's okay...the turtle 362 team was at the party so they shared my enthusiasm for the sport!

Looking forward to caching on vacation both in December (Florida) and in June (out west)!

Tipsaw Lake in the Hoosier National Forest

9-12-09 We camped at Tipsaw Lake in the Jackwood area of the campground. On Saturday night we headed to downtown Tell City to eat at Caper's. While we waited for our carryout, Jim and the kids found two caches. Jack and I were hanging out in the truck. It was a beautiful evening!

GSA fun on 09-09-09

09-09-09 After school today, the third grade girl scouts met at Wesselman's Woods to do a little dayhiking and geocaching. We had fun trying to find one of the Goldilocks' caches and then we went to Odanata Pond to find another temporary cache loaded with swag for the girls. We practiced CITO while we were having fun in the park.
One group of girls happened upon a letterbox which was an added bonus. The other group of girls found a turtle hanging out near a cache. How cool is that?!
We ran out of time to do it together, but The Martin Family made sure to get the troop 505 cache planted before we left the park. We're calling in Keepin' It Green since we're hoping that cachers will bring their recyclables to the park and then look up this cache. We also hope to inspire others to CITO. The scouts are looking forward to seeing where our Keepin' It Green Frog TB gets to travel via the cacher train.

We love Blue Grass!

8-30-09 The weather today was absolutely beautiful! The sun was shining and there were beautiful white clouds placed perfectly on a true blue sky. After mass this morning, we headed to Blue Grass with our canoe. We paddled for a little over an hour and took this opportunity to find a second island-based cache. We're the second ones to log this find. Fun!

FTF!!!

8-9-09 Jim suggested that we spend our last day of summer break picking up a few caches. In writing down some in the area, I noticed that one had just been published through the night and that no one had yet logged it as a FTF. We headed in that direction first to see if we could find the "Copycat Cache" (GC1X0ZB); It was published as "a new type of cache for this area" so we expected a challenge in finding this nano. We went to the area and Isaac began to search while we watched closely for muggles. Jim joined in the search and soon came up with it. With our breath held, we carefully unfolded the tiny log to see if we were the First To Find and sure enough we were!! High fives all around...and a photo to capture the milestone. By the time we got back home to log it on the computer, another team had entered a note that began, "Dang and double dang..." Boy do we know how that feels! It was fun to be the FTF this time.

Camping and Caching

8-1-09 K/V/G/E joined us for a two night camp trip at Lincoln State Park this weekend. On Thursday the campground got four inches of rain in just over two hours. Not a great start for our weekend, but between J/I returning from a youth outing and V getting home from work, we were late to arrive anyway. The rain at least muted the snoring in our camper! : ) We woke up to a beautful morning on Friday and went to Holiday World like everyone else who lives within a 300 mile radius; it's a busy place on one of the last weekends before school starts. Saturday, we stayed around the park for running, walking, hiking, biking, and cacheing...oh, and eating. We found 4 of about 13 caches we still have to find in the park, but decided to save a few for a geocaching event coming up in November.

Get your hand outta there!

7-20-09 This is the funniest DNF I've had to date. G and K stopped by Huck's to get a grab and go only we didn't find it. Instead, we were screamed at by the neighbor who was apparently watching our every move while we searched the fence post bordering Huck's. Wow, I barely reached my hand around the post (we're talking less than 2 inches) on the property border when I hear this screaming old lady say, "Get your hand outta there!" just as serious as can be. Now, I really want to get a look at her, but I'm slightly afraid she's packing and since I have G with me I decide it's better to come back on a different day to try again. Hard telling if she's the cache owner getting a good laugh at us hightail it out of there OR if she thinks there's a lot of drug-seeking thugs like us checking her fence post for a supply. : ) Either way, it was too funny.

Audubon on a beautiful day

7-19-09 The weather this week is like the finest days of fall, warm sun with cool breezes. We couldn't resist. We spent a few hours this morning doing our homework in choosing a new GPS unit and then we got moving to Henderson for a great afternoon of caching. There were some really good finds in and around Audubon Park. This is such a great way to get out and about to enjoy the great outdoors! We're back in the game. Woo hoo!

Go Nuts!

7-7-09 We were about to go nuts because our GPS unit wasn't working. We were on the trails and knew there were some good caches along the route, but couldn't find any without our unit. We were bummed until the Wises came along and we overheard them talking the language. They were kind enough to help us down the trail a little ways to find a very unique cache in "Go Nuts". It was a highlight of this camping trip!
The fever is back...we have to get a new GPS!!!

Spring Fling

March 2009: We spent an afternoon doing a little caching around town and added a few more finds to our list. We even started a new one, "You Otter See This" in the Blue Grass area.

Cache the New Year In!

12-31-08 We were pushing for our 100th cache this week, but knew we might come up short with the short daylight hours, the cold weather, and the plans we have for celebrating the new year. We made it to 94...not a bad effort. We had a lot of fun caching on our way to New Harmony (GC1Jt18, GCK5C5, GC1592R, BCTMFC, GC1KOPF, GCPBV7, GC1FRTD, GC13F8T) and even more fun celebrating New Year's Eve and Day in cabin 8 at the state park. It was so nice to lounge around playing games, eating, and reading by the fire. We got in a few games of Life and a couple rounds of dominoes (Mexican Train) when V and K came to visit. The kids enjoyed the Wii, fondue, and silly string. We were dozing off and on when the new year rolled in, but it was all good.

12-28-08 J. and I. went out to the woods at Hemlock, an after-Thanksgiving tradition. G. and I took advantage of a few after the holiday sales and worked in some cache stops, too. It was great girl fun! We met up with Aunt KL and E. for a few errands and then the storm broke loose. It was wild, but we made it out of Target and over to Qdoba to dry off. Yeah right, we were soaked! When the boys got back, they told us about their accidental find along the trails. We'll take it...we're nearing 100 finds now!

12-21-08 We hadn't been caching in many weeks, but we kept getting e-mails that other cachers had found our hides here and there. The weather has been unseasonably warm so lots of people were taking advantage and getting outdoors. We finally carved out some time to go today...and it is ICY COLD outside today! We went anyway, warming up in between stops so our fingers could thaw. : ) We only found two and struck out on a third, but it was fun while the sun was up. We picked up a TB today that orignited in the Ukraine. Wow!

A perfect weekend for camping!

10-11-08 We were blessed to be outdoors all weekend. The fall weather was perfect-warm sunshine with a chill in the air by night. We just love Lincoln State Park! Between bouts of being lazy sitting around the campfire, we took a hike, rowed the canoe around the perimeter of the lake, and played a little whiffle ball. We snuck in a little caching, of course, and though we didn't know it until we got home to log the finds, we weren't alone. Two other teams were caching, too. Our favorite of the three caches we found was Towering Inferno (GC1DTZX). This cache was at the fire tower. Revision: This cache was at the TOP of the fire tower. Whoa! For me, the one afraid of heights, this was a challenge. First, J and the kids went to the top without me and came down empty-handed (at that point we didn't know it was at the top-we suspected it was at the base). After decrypting the hint, I headed for the summit. I think it was actually the fastest I've ever made it to the top, but then again, this is the best motivation I've had to climb the frighteningly high chamber. I. and I searched as best we could between the wasps and fear, but descended without a find. J. decided to give it a second go and we heard him holler, "Huckle Buckle Beanstalk" after about 10 minutes of silent searching. Woo hoo! Unfortunately, we didn't have a pen with us so we took photos of the cache to confirm the find. The hike was a good one. Post Script note-One of I's highs from the weekend was waking up to find deer just a few feet from our campsite. He got to take a few photos of them, too.

The sun peeks through and then it pours rain!

9-20-08 I had to be in O'boro by 8am this morning so that meant waking up to a 5:50 AM alarm...ugh! It takes me like 20 minutes to set my alarm clock because it's insanely complicated with options and I only mess with it about twice a year. After finally feeling like I could relax that it was done correctly last night, I went to sleep. Sometime near midnight, I hear it beeping, louder and louder. ARGH...don't you know I HAVE to get a good night's sleep so I can cope with the chaos that will ensue tomorrow morning???!!!! I hit every button I can reach while straddling over Grace who is asleep next to me. Nothing works. I finally realize, it's not my alarm clock after all, it's Isaac's alarm clock upstairs. WHY THAT LITTLE...boy scout, out in the woods hundreds of miles from home. URRRR! I race up the stairs and unplug both of his blasted clocks just to be sure I get the right one. If I could have gotten the window open, they might have taken flight. I get back to bed, but never really back to sleep since I know I've screwed up my alarm now and I cannot oversleep!!

When morning came, Grace and I got ready and headed across the bridge. I just kept focusing on the mantra, "Caching after the walk, caching after the walk". Caching is seriously such a stress reliever and source of fun for me. It's outdoors, it's exciting...I just really enjoy it. Well, Grace and I compromised, I'd take her to the mall (her favorite place in the world) and she'd cache in O'boro with me. We ended up finding five caches, one of which was a new type for us. (Big Bugs GC1EJYA) It was awesome! I got home to log them and then down came the rain!
I had an e-mail message waiting that some jerk found GeoGazebo, our cache that was moved during the hurricane-like wind storm last week, and apparently put porn-like drawings and references all over it. How ignorant, how freakin sickening! (Jim Morrison, right again. People are strange. FYI "T", people still put their trash outside their door and wonder why the world is such a mess. How do you change that? I am so tired of fighting, so tired of trying. Social work, yeah, right.)

I better get back to counting my blessings because if I don't, I'll be awful sour about the world.

Loon Pit aka "Canoe to Cache"

9-16-08 This cache has been calling my name since I first read about it months ago. What a great idea...an island-bound cache in Bluegrass. Jim was finally able to buy a canoe so we took it our for its maiden voyage on Loon Pit. This evening was Jim's valiant effort to help me out of a black hole I seem to be sinking in this week. His efforts weren't in vain-the fresh air, the perfect warmth of sunshine through cool winds, the beauty of a herron's flight, the glide of the canoe over still waters. God is good. I'd have liked to pack in a month's worth of food and a sleeping bag to hide out there until the dark clouds pass, but I guess that's not possible in "the real world". Anyway, back to the cache...the journey was good, the cache was trashed. It hadn't been found for many months (9 maybe?) and it was unsealed so water had staled in the ammo container and ants had invaded everything. We hated to leave it unrepaired, but we had no sack to haul it out and the ants were unbearable canoemates. Hopefully the cache owners will provide some maintenance and reset this one for others in need of a little respite from the world.