Urban caching

PhotoV5 told me that she didn't search for geocaches much in the summer. She also asked for some urban caches that didn't require a long hike in the summer heat. Here is my list of good ones (no poison ivy or itch weed, no long hikes) for summer in the Des Moines area. No particular order. By no means exhaustive.

1. BB Player
2. GCZQAT Mr. Schwab -- one of the best camo jobs. Whenever I drive by it, I feel compelled to ask everyone in the car, "Did you see it?" My husband still has no idea what he is looking for.
3. Happy Birthday, Johnny Cash
4. Man in Black #1 and #3
5. GCWBGD My Name is Merle -- Des Moines history buffs should check this out
6. Pepperoni Cache -- great if you're out running errands
7. Traveling Tracks 1 and 2 -- more history
8. GC12TB Waterbury Gardens
9. Geek Seek
10. GC133B Wise Guys
11. Ode to Everybody Loves Ray
12. Lights Out!
13. Needle and Thread
14. GC14PD4 St. Charles Place
15. GC1398Z Best Bridge in Des Moines
16. GC14BRV Historic Valley Junction -- you need to time this one just right
17. GC129QW Drip, Drip, Drip
18. GC13XXE Drop, Drop, Drop
19. Hope U Stop Ripoff
20. Batter Up!
21. GCVZ1K What the Hail Is It? -- for art lovers
22. all the Camelot's Quest caches by Accounting Goddess (hyperlinked to just one)
23. GCZORB If You Can't Lift It, Fork It!
24. GC12D9A If I Were A Carpenter
25. Enabling Gardens Cache

There are plenty more. I will edit for geographical diversity and add hyperlinks and details later. Happy Caching!

More geo-humor

This is me with my BIL's Geo Metro! Get it?

Once school starts, I hope to have a regular schedule that include weekly geocaching, combined with a regular nature walk.

Geo-humor

While preparing for our MN trip, I came across a hilarious series, Geocachers Anonymous, a 12 step program (series) by zoejam72. We go right through zoejam's hometown on our way to the cabin and back. My grandparents made Bridgemans' (no longer there) a landmark lunch stop. I think they they mostly liked the hard-pack milkshakes. That was a treat for them.

Although zoejam gave me permission to make a copycat series for Iowa, I decided that I am not up to maintaining my original idea with the timing and spacing that I originally envisioned. I am sharing the program here in case any fellow IGO members would like to take the idea. Enjoy the read.

Do your friends and co-workers think you have a problem?
Does your family think you are wasting your time?
Do you look for new caches in your area everyday?
Are your monthly and yearly goals for yourself all cache related?
Do you have to wait until everyone at your house goes to bed before you can sneak out to go caching?

THEN YOU HAVE A PROBLEM!!!!
We can help, just follow this simple 12-step program

THE TWELVE STEPS OF GEOCACHERS ANONYMOUS
1-WE ADMIT WE ARE POWERLESS OVER CACHING-THAT OUR LIVES HAVE BECOME
UNMANAGEABLE
2-COME TO BELIEVE THAT A POWER (OUR GPS) GREATER THAN OURSELVES CAN
RESTORE OUR SANITY
3-MAKE A DECISION TO TURN OUR WILL AND LIVES OVER TO GC.COM
4-MAKE A FEARLESS AND SEARCHING INVENTORY OF GROUND ZERO
5-ADMIT TO GC.COM, CACHE OWNERS AND OURSELVES WHEN WE CAN NOT FIND IT
6-WE ARE ENTIRELY READY TO HAVE GC.COM HELP US RETRIEVE INFORMATION
ON NEW CACHES
7-HUMBLY ADMIT ALL OUR SHORTCUTS
8-MAKE A LIST OF ALL CACHES WE DNF'ED
9-MAKE AMENDS BY SEARCHING FOR THOSE CACHES AGAIN
10-CONTINUE TO MAKE AN INVENTORY OF NEW CACHES IN YOUR AREA AND PROMPTLY GO FIND THEM
11-SEEK THROUGH THE POWER OF TECHNOLOGY OUR CONTACTS WITH GC.COM
PRAYING (AND SOMETIMES CUSSING) FOR THE KNOWLEDGE WE SEEK TO CARRY
OUT OUR MISSION
12-HAVING HAD A SPIRITUAL AWAKENING, CONTINUE TO PRACTICE THESE
STEPS AND TRY TO CARRY THESE MESSAGES TO GEOCACHERS WE MEET AS WELL
AS GETTING OTHERS STARTED DOWN THE ROAD TO ADDICTION.

OUR GOAL IS TO HELP YOU SO BRING YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS WITH TO COMPLETE THIS 12 STEP PROGRAM BECAUSE PEOPLE WHO SUFFER FROM THE SAME ADDICTION AS YOU ARE LESS LIKELY TO COMPLAIN ABOUT YOUR "PROBLEMS"

THIS IS ONE OF 12 STEPS (CACHES) THAT YOU MUST COMPLETE TO GET THE "PROGRAM" (BONUS) CACHE. IN EACH LOG BOOK THERE IS A LETTER EQUAL TO A NUMBER THAT MUST BE PUT IN IT'S PLACE TO GET THE COORDS FOR THE "PROGRAM" YOU MUST LOG A FIND ON EACH STEP IN ORDER TO CLAIM A FIND ON THE PROGRAM.

Track Back

Today, 3/4 of GAIN Academy and I met up with Trubador, the last finder of our "Foo Foo" geocache, GCY9ZQ. He showed me where it was (since I could not find it before my MN trip -- it was about 45 ft. from its original location) and I removed it for maintenance. While walking along, he mentioned that the main difference between his gps and our gps, in his understanding, was the amount of waypoints the unit would remember. (You know how it goes -- bigger, better, faster, more!) This is when I told him about the track function on Garmin units. We used it for our walk to and from the geocache.

Before school let out, I read about tracking (and "track back") in the book, _Fun With GPS_, by Don Cooke. I tested it in MN with my sister while driving to and from the nearest major town, and loved how easy and practical it was. It could be a pretty handy function.

It could be a fun function, too. The Cooke book suggests walking a path over a large field -- making a design or spelling something (your name, for example). You could also "track back" over your design with a lawn mower. Tracking can also be a useful function. After reviewing the July Geo-breakfast video, I thought it would be worthwhile to mention track and track back here for people who have a tendency to find geocaches, but get lost on the way back to the car. I'm not naming any names.

Here is an example sailplane track with GoogleEarth, found at the Fun With GPS website. Just look for the menu on the left hand side of the page and click on "GPS in Google Earth."