Cache Grab: Ep. 11&12 (7/15/10 - 7/28/10)

Today the geo-monkeys and I set a personal record. We grabbed two FTFs this morning, courtesy of rcflyer2242 and wingwalkers. Since we were up early and ready to go, we headed out west of Madison and managed to pick up the two new WSQ caches. This also helped keep my cache-a-day streak alive. Our streak is currently at 37 days and going strong, which also puts me well on pace to have the Cache Ba$h in West Bend be my 200th milestone.

I'm really excited for our very first Mega event and it's local to Wisconsin. This should be a lot of fun because it falls over my birthday weekend and we have a lot of friends in the area, one of whom is letting us crash at their house. I also recently found out that an old co-worker is an avid geocacher. He also caches with his son and we are planning a couple of group outings for our families.

This week's successful trips:
161. Pay It Forward: P-38 Rider
162. WSQ Jackson Cemetery
163. WSQ County Line Cemetery
164. WSQ Fayette Cemetery
165. Willow Springs
166. Fort Definace II
167. Henry Dodge
168. WSQ Cottage Grove
169. WCQ: Don't take life for GRANTed
170. Acewood Greenway - North
171. WSQ 1st Lutheran
172. Mr-Magnet
173. WaunaCache #5
174. Stuck at the Dead End
175. Another Padawan 1n The Oven
176. Bucky's Bike Trip
177. Leopold Legacy: October
178. Harriet Park
179. Leopold Legacy: May
180. Wayward Song
181. McCache
182. Shawnee National forest - America the Beautiful
183. Cuckoo's nest
184. PIF S.T.E.D. at Camp Turkey Feathers
185. Ice, Ice, Baby

Cache Grab: Ep. 10 (7/8/10 - 7/14/10)

This week, the geo-pirates and I were out and about in every direction. We spent a day in McFarland clearing out a few of the caches left there, then we made a nice long road trip out to Lone Rock and Spring Green and another day was spent in Oregon picking up the caches there. Finally, there was a roadtrip down to Walworth County, which netted us another county for our challenge and a sweet Landsharkz Gecko coin to move along.

I have to take a minute to address a pet peeve of mine, logging promptly! So last Friday, we made a FTF run down to Iowa County after three new caches. After tracking down the first cache and opening the log, there were not one but two signatures on it already. So be it, but the second cache was also found by the same two teams and now on Monday (3 days later) they still haven't logged the FTF. I think that if you are going after an FTF or grabbing trackables, then it is your responsibility to log that as soon as you can. You have to know that other people go after FTFs and GC/TBs, so by not logging these timely it messes with other cachers plans and enjoyment. Grrr!

This week's successful trips:
131. TST: Pets Saving Gas
132. Vermont Pioneer Cemetary
133. Highland Oak Park
134. Playing and Laughing
135. Cedar Ridge Park
136. WRR96 - In the Valley of Nora
137. Small Town Bison - Utica
138. WSQ Ezra Holton
139. WSQ Oak Hill
140. WSQ - Dover Cemetery
141. Colorful Non-conformist
142. Western Escape
143. WSQ Cornerstone
144. WSQ Spring Green
145. Lone Rock History 2
146. WSQ Trinity Cactus
147. WSQ Button Cemetery 2
148. WSQ Unity Chapel
149. Farmer in the Dell #7
150. Hyde's Mill & the Old Mill House
151. Blue Mounds Fort - a WSQ?
152. "T"
153. WSQ Prairie Mound Cemetery North
154. WSQ Prairie Mound Cemetery South
155. A Joyous Bark in Bethel Park
156. WSQ A Tribute to my Parents
157. Gather at the Liberty Pole
158. WSQ Mt Hope
159. Do Horses Smile?
160. Nearly Batty



The Hyde's Mill virtual was a very interesting and peaceful place to spend a bit of time. I recommend you check it out if you haven't already.

Cache Grab: Ep. 9 (7/1/10 - 7/7/10)

This last week I finally managed to get my very first FTF! Hooray, I still can't believe it. I didn't think that I would ever beat out all the FTF hounds in my area. Everything just kind of worked out for me to get there. It was a weekday and the cache was far enough from Madison that no one ran out before work but close enough that I didn't mind driving for it. Luckily, my sister is visiting from Canada and she was watching the geo-pirates for me. That let me move quickly and not have to deal with any baby issues while on the way to the cache. As I was driving there, I checked and there were no logs posted yet so might as well attempt it. I arrived at the park and there are a ton of Muggles at the pool, so I'm thinking to myself how am I going to get this cache. As it turns out, the cache was hidden in a nicely secluded area and I was able to make a relatively quick find. It felt good to grab the FTF, especially since the day before I had a run of STF because the FTF waited over 4 hours to log their finds.

I also was able to take another chunk out of the America the Beautiful series on the Glacial Drumlin Trail, I've really been enjoying them except for the mandatory blood donations to the mosquito nation. Finally, another of my friends has decided to try out geocaching and I'm pretty sure he is addicted. It's always nice to bring another Muggle to the light!

This week's successful trips:
106. Harper's Ferry Historical Park - ATB
107. Theodore Roosevelt National Park - ATB
108. Fort Moultrie (Fort Sumter National Monument) - ATB
109. Effigy Mounds National Monument - ATB
110. WSQ Hope Lutheran Cemetary
111. Ahuska Park Cache
112. WSQ Oak Hall
113. But I Would not feel so all alone...
114. Goeres Cache
115. Eli's River
116. Happy Birthday Rich Cache
117. Happy B-Day Chez
118. Jenni's Cache
119. Bella's Cache
120. Elliot's Treasure
121. Grassy Lake Boatlanding
122. WSQ: St John's Lutheran Cemetary
123. WSQ - North York
124. HIGHWAY VIEW
125. Bullseye #3
126. Jenni's Cache IV - Strength on the Prairie
127. WSQ B&B Series - Everyone's The Same
128. WSQ B&B Series - Cemetery Fun
129. Ole's Sign
130. Skybrid Cache

Cache Grab: Ep. 8 (6/24/10 - 6/30/10)

We had a busy caching week, finally hitting the 100 find milestone. Over the weekend, the boys and I made it to an event at Carver-Roehl Park. It was a lot of fun and even though the forecast called for thunderstorms, it was a beautiful afternoon. We got to play in the park and enjoy a barbeque along with meeting quite a few local cachers. CommanderUSN, WStemple, Bushwhacking Queen, rcflyer2242, wingwalkers, NursePat, GeoJorg, RLR x2 and The Professor of the EcoRangers were just a few of the people that we got to meet. I also managed to grab an EarthCache at Miller Park while we were in town for the Brewers & Mariners game. Afterwards, we took a detour to a TB Hotel and dropped some travelers for a vacation to the Scottish Mega Event. Thanks a ton Cache_boppin_BunnyFuFu for giving them a lift! Lastly, I managed to introduce both my little brother and sister to geocaching, we'll see how it goes. The master plan is to convert all of our family from Muggledom to caching addicts.

This week's successful trips:
79. Roads End
80. ECL720
81. CLR209
82. A Silver Box for CommanderUSN's 1000 Smileys
83. '69' Easy Dead End Cache
84. Rock and I-Beams
85. Sugar River Prairie Cache
86. WSQ Frenchtown
87. Swan Pond Kettle
88. Swan Pond
89. WSQ Bradford Cemetery
90. HAPPY HOLLOW EVENT V
91. The Crossing
92. This Old Skavlem House
93. My First Cache - WSQ
94. HAST EarthCache: Changing Landscape
95. Return of Landsberg Center Travel Bug Hotel
96. WSQ Mt Zion Cemetery
97. Morningside PNG
98. Circle of Friendship
99. WSQ Top of the Hill
100. Kaching with Kids - Go West!
101. Hot Springs National Park - America the Beautiful
102. Grand Canyon National Park - America the Beautiful
103. Gettysburg Military Park - America the Beautiful
104. Madison's Hidden Creek Geocache!
105. Bambi is safe for another Season