Picking up a few P&Gs

Today we found:

• Zoom Zoom Chamberlain 2 (GC15T41) - another dominook hide, and a sequel at that, we knew it was out there but just hadn't taken the time to stop and peek in the bushes. We came, we found, we signed.
• Fender-Bender (GC126XE) - File this one under Another One Right Under Our Noses. This route is taken driving the little haunthunters to school and picking them up. Realised it was there and found it today. I have serious concerns over caches that use metal pipes. I know that anyone is going to overreact about anything, regardless of whether it looks dangerous or not, if they are determined to overreact, but a metal pipe container does lend itself to suspicion.
• Mosquito Bait (GC14PHY) - Our second attempt and when we found it, we wondered why we hadn't found it the first time. Maybe we overthought it? We swiped Fuzzy the Bear TB (TBPZY0).
• Our First Cache. (GC181G0) - A clever hide and fun find. A homeless fisherman was not amused by our bush-rooting shenanigans. We gave Fuzzy the Bear TB (TBPYZ0) a new home here. Mr. HH absolutely insisted that he fit.
• Ride the Big Red Bus (GCXH92) - A Doc-Dean hide. This was impulsive and we paid the price for it. If we'd taken the time to look at the online log, we'd know it was found wet and unmanageable many times before us. We learned our lesson the hard way. I couldn't even unravel the thing. Someone before us had tried and ripped the thing so I wasn't going to damage it more. I logged the find and then pegged it for maintenance.
  

We're at 60 finds now. To us, that's a big number.

I'd checked on the Visitation Cache - aka. Train Watch in the Buff(er) -(GC145EY) when another little haunthunter had to go with her muggle father on December 28th. Today, we checked on Ample Micro (GCXTCY) and Cache the Rat (GCY4Y3). All in tact. I made the unilateral decision to archive East Port Pond (GC146B1).

Ohio State Buckeye Avenue (GC144X8) is another Visitation Cache and it is currently temporarily disabled. Since I'm not going to be one of those step-mothers who complains about the birth-mothers, let me just say that visitation is creatively scheduled. As a result, maintenance on this visitation cache is unpredictable. I estimate replacement of the cache on the weekend of January 4th or the weekend of January 11th. This has been a successful cache up until its unfortunate muggling. We placed it because it was a visitation cache and named it for a surrounding element that would make it unique. Mr. HH has been a bit mortified at the idea that people might assume he's an Ohio State fan. He's Gators all the way.

- Mrs. HH

And we're back

Months have gone by with a serious hiatus from the sport. We could have probably pushed ourselves out the door to continue hunting but always decided in favour of other obligations or pleasures. We have picked up a few park & grabs that I haven't blogged about, although they have been logged in their prospective cache logs and web logs.

This past weekend, Mrs. HH (myself) had the obligation of taking two little haunthunters up to Indiana. With a crunch in time, we managed to find Florida in Texas in Georgia (GCY2TN) in Valdosta, Georgia. To be honest, I don't get how the name is a clue. This was our first out-of-state cache! Unfortunately, our stay the following night in Lebanon, Indiana provided for no geocaching thanks to the missing power source for the "free high speed" modem in our room. The details of this trip are on Mrs. HH's personal blog.

Christmas had some free moments, so the HH daughter and Mrs. HH headed out to grab the new Publix theme cache by 3birdfamily that was just down the road at the new supermarket, watch out for the public # 7 (GC182C7). HH daughter was instrumental in finding this one and is quite proud of herself for it.

We've still not managed to reset Good Boy! (GC147JP) and have temporarily disabled Ohio State Buckeye Avenue (GC144X8). Mr. HH was in the neighbourhood the following Saturday after we received notice that it was probably most likely muggled, but he failed to remember to stop and replace. We're hoping there's another opportunity to replace on January 5.

One thing I still have to do is begin checking for existing waymarks, logging visits, and applying for new waymarks, which are all abundant, from this trip. Bardstown, Kentucky was bursting with Historical Markers, not to mention all the other gems that I'm sure have a category to fit.

- Mrs. HH

Temporarily Disabled Good Boy

With such busy-ness, there wasn't a lot of time energy to devote to hunting for containers. I'd gotten an email from dominook a while ago about Good Boy! (GC147JP) and his descriptions lent to the sureness of it being MIA. It took until August 17 before I could check on it and until today for me to temporarily disable it. Frankly, I'm ashamed but my hands and time have really been tied on this. It's bad timing to have to tend to stuff. What's worse is that I never found the time to tell Mr. HH so he could do something about it!

So, it's temporarily disabled now until I can replace it, or Mr. HH can replace it. We need a sticker to say "No Trash - No Basura" to make sure that it doesn't go anywhere. I think we also have to give in and just put in some flowers.

We still have a geocoin, so we will be back geocaching soon to keep it moving.

Terrain restrictions + News item

Since Mr. HH's doctor didn't call in his pain prescription renewal before the weekend - he still requires some assistance with post-surgery pain - we're not ambition to do anything beyond a 1.5 terrain. That goes for just about everything. I'm still itching to go on the four-mile hike for Sable Trace (GC11Z20) and am willing to do it with only water, garmin, ipod, and nextel by my side. The Iron Ranger (GCHGTT) is also there.

I think Mr. HH wants to save Sable Trace until he can kayak it in. He really misses kayaking.

Yesterday, we did find:

• Tour de Smiles #7 - Toys (GCQ1BZ) - a quick hide in GoofyButterfly's intentionally easy park & grab series meant to rebuild the broken spirits of DNF-laden cachers. This one was high muggle and Mr. HH had to do it because I just wasn't comfortable.
• Tour de Smiles #6 - Olean (GCQ1BW) - another part of GoofyButterfly's series. I grabbed this one from its obvious spot and got it back no problems.

In the news of geocaching and national security, Sterling Silver (GC1016Q) was blown up by the Greeley bomb squad at the request of the Sterling Police Department (Sterling, Colorado) on July 26, 2007. Checking the logs of the cache, it would appear that OhioYankee wasn't very stealthy, especially since his rehide was described as "throw [it] into the bushes". Can't you sit on the curb nearby with the box open, still hidden in the bush, sign the log, play with your phone, tie your shoelaces, and then discreetly push the box back? A regular cache in an ammo box on bank property probably isn't the smartest hide, but it was found 36 times in seven months without a problem.

...Hat tip to paksen on the geocaching livejournal community for the story.

- Mrs. HH

What a tangled web we weave

Real life left no room for geocaching today but we did root around at Di-'sep-sh&n for a little bit. Mr. HH is becoming very frustrated as we're running out of places to look. I have the suspicion that we've already found it, maybe several times, and just don't know what we're looking at. A hint would be welcome but who could give a hint? Only the dajoneses have found it so far!

There's only half a million other caches in the area to find so we might have to just return after we're more experienced to look at it with keener eyes.

- Mrs. HH

50th Find

Tonight we reached our fiftieth cache find milestone.

We went out before dinner because we heard the distant thunder and wanted to pick up five finds before it started to rain.

We found:

• Tour de Smilies Deux #5 - The Mall (GCWZD0) - It took a minute but it was found.
• WHERE THE GEO GOES! (GC126Y7) - xj5teacher couldn't have made it clearer if there was a neon arrow pointing to it.
• Tour de Smilies #8 - Got Books? (GCWZCN) - The park & grabs are quick fun when we aren't able to go long distances because of time or health. It keeps us caching.
• STOP & Search Lows (GC10M3Z) - This was an exercise in stealth.
• EnTryDeNied (GC13CMX) - I could've yodeled while standing on my head and nobody would have cared. I made a wrong turn on the way and had to hop back out on 41 to come into the parking lot the right way. I was following my GPS instead of consulting common sense.

We DNF'd:

• Di-'sep-sh&n (GC13CN7) - GAH! We got caught in the rain on this one because we just couldn't let it go. It has to be there. Where is it? Where is it? If it weren't for the lightning, we would've continued to hunt through the rain. I was tempted to sign Team Crime Scene's rock. This aint no lamppost skirt park & grab, that's for sure.

- Mrs. HH

First To Find

The first two hides we'd done weren't found in over a month. The hides ever since are found within two days of publishing.

It's amazing that cachers respond so quickly!

- Mrs. HH

Safety In Caching

We didn't do any caching tonight so I've decided to issue a Public Service Announcement.

Northwoods Geocaching has the following safety tips [link]:

1. Geocache with a buddy. That way, if you run into any trouble, take a tumble or just get lost, you’re not alone. Plus, geocaching is much more fun with family and friends.
2. Tell someone where you’re going and when you’ll be back.
3. Consider bringing along water and some basic emergency equipment. Cell phones can come in handy in emergency situations.
4. Be aware of what’s around you. For example, don’t concentrate so hard on your GPS that you walk into a tree or into a stream.
5. Keep an eye on the weather and dress appropriately.

These are five excellent safety tips! Numbers 1 and 3 mention "trouble" and "emergency situations". What immediately comes to my mind is getting stuck, becoming injured or running into a very unfriendly wild boar, bobcat, bear, or Florida panther. What doesn't come to my mind or the mind of many of the people I've talked to is assault.

Let's face it, the woods have eyes in Florida. I like to believe in the goodness of humanity but I'm not naïve anymore.

One day last year, I went to Franz Ross Park by myself to take pictures and hunt a cache that's no longer active. I took this beautiful shot of the path leading behind the shelter.

I took the walk because there was a homeless man in the shelter and I didn't want to search around in the brush in front of him since that's where my GPS was telling me the cache was. I figured I'd take my photographs first and then eventually come back to the spot.

Well, he started following me and hollaring after me. I'd been approached by homeless people before and if I have something to give, I'll give it if they ask. I've also had nice chats. People are people. I had gone out solely to hunt a couple caches, record for EVPs at Restlawn Memorial Gardens, and take photographs around Port Charlotte. I had no money or food to share.

Unfortunately, I got a different vibe from him from the moment he hollared, "GIRL! HEY!" at me. I turned to face him and walked backwards, watching him as he jogged up to me. He looked me up and down, stuck out his tongue, and proceeded to describe how long it had been since he'd had sex and how nice and secluded this part of the park was. I told him I wasn't interested, that I am married and have four children who need me. I even remember telling him that I'm not on birth control and one more pregnancy could kill me (that's the truth, too). He kept pace with me as I walked faster, continuing on to share his opinion of my looks and gave a very detailed and grotesque offer that wasn't really an offer. At this moment, I did the math. He was larger and stronger, I can't outrun a gopher turtle, I couldn't remember any of my self-defense training, I had no weapons except for the damage I could do by using my camera and my GPS unit as clubs to his skull and genitals, and there was no one who could hear me scream... and if they did, would they even respond or know how to get to me? I'd forgotten one thing that I had on my person that saved me, my phone! I was reminded when Mr. HH DC'd (direct connected, a/k/a walkie-talkie) me from his Nextel to mine. "[Beep Beep] Hey, baby, where ya at?" his voice bellowed through as if Divine Intervention had given him perfect timing. I grabbed my phone from my pocket and before I could push the button to respond, the man was running back through the path. "Hold on." I told Mr. HH and jogged around the other side of the path and watched the man bike away.

I did not report him to the police. It honestly didn't occur to me. I just use my experience as a warning for others not to venture out unprepared. Franz Ross Park is a populated and well-used park. It has police surveillance often. I was supposedly safe there. Not so. Anyone can be victim at any time in any place. The crime depends on what the attacker wants to do, not what the victim is doing.

This is not only a warning for women to be careful. This is also a warning for men. Men can also be overpowered, taken by surprise, and attacked for a number of reasons, some of them being the same reasons that women are attacked. Watching a GPS can distract us from our environment, like is mentioned in the above list's #4. While we are supposed to keep an eye out for muggles, it might be harder to spot the people who don't wish to be seen while they watch us.

I carry mace everywhere now and my mace doubles as a baton. I have cached with the oldest little HauntHunter for fun regular and small sized caches in the area but have mostly cached with Mr. HH or the whole HauntHunters crew. I always have my phone and feel a bit of panic now that I hear Sprint is going to discontinue Nextel's DC service. Bad Sprint!

Cache with a buddy, keep your eyes open, don't talk to strangers, and stay safe!

- Mrs. HH

New Waymarking Group

We received an offer to be an officer for a new waymarking category for Plantations. I'd been entertaining the idea of helping manage a category for some time now but felt uncomfortable climbing on board this one.

I'm a yankee and I do love history and Old Florida but, again, I'm a yankee. I see plantations as different things than maybe a native Southerner would. To me, they represent slavery and prosperity on the domination of others. To me, they represent empty pride and braggart natures. While I think we need to preserve that history in a way to remind us that we are always capable of control, cruelty, inhumanity and racism (and, furthermore, what forms of these things are we still acting out today), I don't think that's really the somber and disturbing tone that the Leader is looking for.

The Old Florida that I love is oak hammocks shading white-washed two-room shotgun shacks, banjo picking, gators in the canal, spanish moss drifting from oak branches in a gentle breeze, grassy roads, unincumbered wildlife, etc etc etc. The Old Florida I adore is lower class, if anything, and as carefree and easy-going as can be. Snook Haven is a good example.

I politely declined and I hated to do it because it was a group, but honestly, I think I'd rather help manage Fairy Doors than something that glorifies the so-called magnificence of the upper class Old South.

- Mrs. HH

After Dinner Finds & Hide

After dinner, we headed out for some quick park & grabs before nightfall.

We found:

• Blue Star Reflections (GCWEZG) - We'd stopped by this earlier in the year and DNF'd it. We finally got back and found the thing. It is very interesting that you can alter something like this. I wouldn't think that would be allowed but as long as no one knows or no one cares, it's all good.
• Night Light For Wally (GC10FBW) - We DNF'd Apple at the Home Wal (GCVM6W) , which apparently doesn't violate the brand name rules, but I'm not ready to log a DNF because we're not done with it. This one, we found very easy and it was a good bounce back after tanking on Apple.
• Flamingo (GCRZWX) - Easy JJmac hide. I'm surprised.
• Sonny Florida (GC11EMA) - We picked this up from Mr. HH's Magellan as a whim. There was a creepy looking muggle eyeing us, which we didn't notice until after we had the cache in hand, signed and ready to put back. There was also a loose dog that was returned "home" to the RV that was parked in the parking lot by a Burger King employee. Not exactly the kind of traffic we would've expected at this time, but hopefully no harm done.
• Tour de Smiles #2 - Big K (GCMRPZ) - Another cache done on a whim since we were right next door.

Then we rehid Dual Roads (GCTG3V), which paperboy had archived after many DNFs from numerous cachers. Since I didn't have a problem with the coordinates and actually walked right up to find my first micro without any problems, I'm really baffled why others had such trouble, especially considering the hint. Mr. HH has a personal history with this location from younger days, so we decided to resurrect it as Duel Roads Rides Again (GC14K7M) in a tweeked style that others may find more pleasing to find. Hopefully that will be approved without problems. (And it was!) - a later edit.

- Mrs. HH

Oldest Active Geocache in Florida

Since I keep forgetting...

Oldest Active Geocache in Florida: Christmas Cache (GCFA) by Dogbone, adopted by anidanid.

An Evening Hunt

Since a little HauntHunter had to be picked up from the GC145EY location at 6pm, we reserved our strength for the evening. Actually, Mr. HH rested up, I planned waymarks since there's still a gabillion left to make in this area, and we tended to the necessary errands.

After we were done in south Punta Gorda, we found:

• Oh Boy! Jets with Killer Power (GCN55N) - Once we found the right road behind the airport, since the map was really not helpful with that, we got this one in no time at all. In fact, I just walked up to it. I spent more time inspecting a large plastic bag thrown in the area to make sure there was nothing inappropriate in it.
  
• East Coast A-10 Starrs Rock! (GC11MFK) - Off-roading in a minivan! This was fun to drive up to. We grabbed a US Geocoin out of it and left a toy. While the coin is very pretty and shiney, I still don't understand why people want to keep these things. They have no value once they're taken out of play.


• Watch out for the Public 2 (GC10M10) - Mr. HH picked this up on a whim while the little HauntHunter and I were getting milk. 3birdfamily has really done up a cute series of park & grabs.


• Tour de Smiles #1 - The Depot (GCMRPW) - I've known where this one has been for over a year and just never had the chance to stop and get it. Plus, I'm a big chicken when it comes to stealth-required searches all by myself. With Mr. HH with me, we got this one done, no GPS required. The log was soaked! It seems to be the protocol here that you write a regular "TFTC" type log and then email the cache owners with any problems. So, I did this in this way this time.

It was nice not to have any disappointments (i.e. DNF) this time. We found every one we went after, even the ones on a whim. They were all listed as Difficulty 2 and below, but I'm still very happy.

None of the murals have been waymarked in downtown Punta Gorda, not even the mural that a cache is hid under. There's several spots besides those that also should be waymarked. Only one statue has been waymarked so far. It's a shame but I'm happy to do it so it's done. It'll just take a day. It's a 2-mile walk, if you walk, to tour all the murals that are left after Hurricane Charley. Learn more about the Punta Gorda murals [here].

Bob_and_Kath got the FTF on our History Park hide this morning and found a few more of our hides. It's a good feeling when people find your hides. We have to head out to protect one cache with a baggy. I forgot about that today!

- Mrs. HH

History Park

History Park (GC14HB5) has been published. This is our twelfth hide and we did this one because there were none in the immediate area and there was nothing to bring cachers to this park if they weren't specifically inclined to do so.

- Mrs. HH

First Post

Hello!

This is our first post on the HauntHunters Geocaching Blog. This blog is meant to document the delights, frustratings and boredoms of our Geocaching adventures. In addition to Geocaching, we also Waymark and Letterbox. There is a link section on this blog that can give more information on these other activities. We're also interested in TerraCaching but are concentrating on Geocaching.com's caches for right now.

Previous to now, I had been documenting our team's progress amidst other personal life blogging on my [Mrs. HH] personal blog. Enough is enough of that.

In 2006 and again in 2007, Mr. HH had full hip replacements. Now that he's no longer overwhelmed with the pain and agony of his hip joints deteriorating, he's been quite keen on getting out and getting back active. It's been a welcome change back to the way things once were and we hardly find ourselves at home, anymore.

Well, today I slept in and it had been forever since I'd been able to sleep past 9am, so we didn't get an early start like Mr. HH had wanted. We had other errands to occupy ourselves so we didn't start Geocaching until the afternoon.

We found:

• Hurricane Jeanne, The Mean Machine (GCPZKZ) - This was quite surprising on how unhidden this hide was. We're concerned for its safety but since it hadn't been messed up by anyone before now, it must be okay to be the way it is. Mr. HH had to do some balancing to reach it.
• Marms On The Bay (GCQ2JH) - I love Old Florida, so I adore Historic Punta Gorda. While, Mr. HH noted the well-known mural and found the cache, I took pictures of the street and the Purple House. What I find most interesting about the mural this cache is named after is that there was no controversy over the sexist term "School Marms". Instead the only controversy was over the women featured in the mural being "ugly". It makes me want to quote Ron White when he says, "The next time you have a thought, just let it go." You can learn more about the Punta Gorda murals [here].

We DNF'd (did not find):

• Bisset Shelter (GCV8WX) - This DNF was somewhat troubling since what we did find was a syringe and spoon. Disposed of properly, we continued to look for the cache and thought we'd found it, just as a fellow approached the park with his three children. He sat right in proximity of the suspected cache and drank a soda while his children played on the playground nearby. Mr. HH informed him of what we'd found so he could keep his children safe and we left. We have to return to this one to find out if we're right or not.
• Auntcack's Enamor (GCQ1CA) - This cache is a four difficulty micro dedicated to one cacher's dislike for a piece of City artwork that used to be on the cache site and is now positioned across the street, and is also a waymark. I searched up into the sign and suspect that I didn't get far enough up in there. We should bring a mirror. I don't want to ask the hiders for additional hints when the one they gave in the hint section is pretty straight-forward.
• Nesbit (GC13CMP) - Another JJmac micro gets the better of us and night falls in. After having found three JJmac micro hides in the boondocks of undeveloped/under-developed North Port plus the Gilchrist Park (GCNKMQ) micro, I thought Mr. HH was getting the knack for the JJmac hides. I guess there's still more to get.

On the funny side, the littlest HauntHunter now incorporates poking into bushes and looking around as part of his play... because, you know, that's what people do at parks. At least the people he hangs out with do that.

We also took the time to hide one micro. I will take the time to submit that cache later on tonight.

- Mrs. HH