Finally...we've done some geocaches!

Hello to everyone who reads this blog! We'd love to hear from you, so please leave us a message under the "Comments" section!

Yesterday we headed to the big city of Manhattan for an afternoon of geocaching! (hahaha...for those of you not familiar with Manhattan, Kansas...well...to put it nicely, Manhattan is not a big city...I'd call it more of a town than anything...) We had the radio set on the Kansas/Texas A&M game and we did 5 geocaches while the Wildcats did their thing. We caught up on the game action in between caches.

We were led to some areas of Manhattan that we'd never been to...areas we never knew about! We traipsed through the Linear Trail by the Manhattan Zoo in search of the GeoSunset Cache. It was a nice hike through the woods in the middle of Manhattan! We headed across the Kansas River to find Fuss Ball. In fact, we parked within 15 feet of the cache! We traveled to Hastings to find an easy cache in the parking lot. Our next cache, KSU Kat's Kache, was really interesting. I was amazed at the trails through the woods! The "kache" is located near the rocks that spell "Manhattan" on the side of the hill by Tuttle Creek Blvd. It was a really cool area! Our last cache (or part of it) was Multi Colombian Seekers. We made 3 stops on this cache; each stop gave clues to the next place. We didn't finish it, but will on our next trip to the big city of Manhattan! :)

Overall, it was a good day of caching. And the Cats won.

We're headed west this afternoon to do some more caches...hopefully making it to the 200 mark!

Thanks for reading...have fun caching!

Mulitcache Bang on the Head

I don't think I've mentioned our multicache that we've set. Our multicache consists of 4 different caches. The first 3 have numbers written on them. Once you find them and write (or remember) the numbers, you travel to the 4th one, which is in our yard (hidden in a tree.) The 3 numbers are the combination to the padlock. So you have to do them in order so you can open the padlock and sign the logbook. Or, I guess you could just play with the 3 numbers until it opened.

Here's the link to the mulitcache
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=86a3e86c-926a-4f78-b226-4d2348a0dbce

Here are the ones to the other 3
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=4069acf5-fa39-42f7-be16-70a3e0fe269f
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=b35d45c3-532a-468e-96bc-4c67f6ad1ea0
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=b23c77b0-2a16-4513-b7f4-c41b45823153

So...a few nights ago, one of my friends dropped off some cookie dough that her son was selling as a fundraiser. We were busy talking and Jacob wanted to show her the ammo box that is hidden in the tree. He's not quite tall enough to reach the ammo box (it's propped up in a vee of the tree.) Jacob is all stretched out, standing on his tiptoes reaching as high as he can. He was able to push it a little...and then it promptly fell on his head. OUCH!!! No blood, just a bump, which is amazing! Every time Jeff is gone, we end up in the ER...knock on wood, we have 2 more days until he's home and we haven't been to the ER yet! Anyways, Jacob tried so hard not to cry, but a few tears escaped. After he put some ice on it, he was fine.

So that's the bang on the head story. Once Jeff gets home, we'll be back to caching a little more. We're getting close to 200!

Jeff's in California

Hello everyone!

So Jeff made it to Ft. Irwin last Sunday. There were a few bumps in the road, but Jeff and his team have settled in...they're providing medical care for soldiers that are out in the desert training.

On Thursday, which just happened to be September 11, Jeff did 8 caches with one of his soldiers. Here's what he wrote on http://www.geocaching.com/:

I just had to do some caches on 9/11 and found it fitting that I was at the Army’s National Training Center providing medical support on this day. I took out one of my medics with me today and introduced him to geocaching. He had a great time and I think he is hooked.

Follow the link to read about one of the Ft. Irwin caches. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=32091360-86b1-4f5a-83ef-386d011c2486

We've managed to hook several people into geocaching...my brother, my dad, and a few friends. It's so much fun!

Jacob and I have plans to get some geocaching in here in Kansas while Jeff is away. However, after receiving a few inches of rain last night, we're waiting for things to dry out a little before we venture out in the wilds of Kansas!

Have a great weekend!

Greetings!

Hello to everyone!

We've had some positive feedback on our blog lately! Glad you like it! :)

Jeff went on a wild goose chase the other day for a cache. He's been trying to do this multicache for a while and just hasn't been able to do it... The coords for the first leg were right on, and there was math involved to make it to the 2nd set of coords. Once he got to the 2nd place, which was a monument, he had to answer a question with a date, and that gave him the coords to the last leg of the cache. However, the question didn't match up with the info that was given at the monument. So...Jeff emailed another cacher who was nice enough to help Jeff out...and lo and behold, he completed this multicache!

Jeff's unexpected TDY to Louisiana was changed at the last minute...he is en route to Ft. Irwin, Ca (as I write.) Jeff made sure that he packed his geocaching stuff, and he's printed all of the caches that are within that area of the country. In fact, the cacher that helped Jeff out with the multicache is returning to Ft. Irwin and they've talked about getting together and doing some caches! Small world.

While Jeff is away, Jacob and I are going to do some caches to fill up our time. No driving on old railway beds for me, though!

Happy caching!

Kansas Delorme Challenge

We have decided to do the Kansas Delorme Challenge! This challenge will take us all over the state of Kansas! Here's the deal...in order to accomplish the challenge, we need to find or hide a cache in every section of the Delorme map of Kansas. Delorme has done a super job of putting their maps of each state into a book. The map is divided into sections, and each section is an entire page. Kansas is broken down into 66 sections, so we need to do 66 caches. The thing is, Kansas is really big and we will need to make several trips around the state!

We have already mapped out several weekend routes that will take us to all points in Kansas so we can get this done. It will take us a while (we've only done 8 sections!) and we'll put many miles on the car. We will be very excited when my new Toyota Prius comes in, so we can save on gas money!

Happy Caching!

Yesterday continued

Yesterday on our very eventful caching trip, we saw some Kansas wildlife. Turkeys, deer, horses, cows, donkeys, 6 foot long black snake, fish, and a turtle crossing the road.

Here is a picture of us on the last cache of the day (number 8.)

Stuck part 2

We spent yesterday afternoon goecaching. We were gone about 6 hours and drove about 150 miles for 8 caches. We were in rural Kansas (east of Council Grove.) I'm talking rural...really rural...like miles and miles and miles in between farmhouses. We were out in the middle of nowhere. And as you can tell from the title, we got stuck.

We were on a highway 59 driving east when we turned south onto a gravel road. After driving for a few miles, we turned west on what we thought was another gravel road. (Did you notice that I didn't say we turned left or right?? I've been in the Midwest too long if I'm saying we turned west!) The "gravel road" was an old railroad bed...the track had been removed and we were driving on crushed rock. We drove several miles to the cache site never realizing what we were driving on. There was no place to turn around at the cache site, so we kept driving a few more miles looking for a good place to turn around. We finally came upon an area that looked wide enough to do a 30 point turn. So we began to turn around and as soon as we left the center of the "road", we sunk up to the axles of our new Chevy truck. There was no traction to be had and rocks and dirt kept flying as we tried to get out, which made us more stuck. And remember, we are in the middle of nowhere. We haven't seen a house for miles, a car/truck/tractor for miles and not even a cow for miles! Jeff tried to drive while I pushed, I tried to drive while Jeff pushed. Nothing was working. Finally we made a little headway and were out of the ruts we dug with the tires! (picture 4)

Now here comes the unbelievable part...Jeff drove the truck down the embankment (it was pretty steep) and down off the railroad bed into weeds that were about 4 feet high. (picture 1) He turned the truck around, then gunned the engine and tried to get back up onto the railroad bed a little further down at an angle. (picture 2) Jacob and I stood back in awe...the tires were squealing and smoking, the engine was revving, and then he slid back down. There was no traction on the loose rock. So he tried it again! And made it back up! (You probably figured out that we got unstuck since you're reading this blog...we obviously made it out!)

Look out everyone, Jeff is going to be the next off road Baja racing champion!

We lost an air dam that was snapped onto the front bumper, and we had lots of grass stuck in weird places under the truck. There was even grass stuck in the top part of the front license plate! But overall, the truck seemed OK...or at least we hope it is!

So we had an adventure caching yesterday...we did eventually find the cache on the old railroad bed (and we saw other tire "ruts" of where other cachers tried to turn around.) (picture 3)And we will be more careful about where we drive from now on! :)

Happy caching!
~JEN aka Mrs. Diecast64

We've been muggled!

Hello everyone!

We got some bad news last night...one of the caches that we set had been destroyed, or muggled! Jacob was very upset that someone would purposely ruin our cache! Our cache that was ruined was Near Highland Cemetery...check it out on www.geocaching.com. Anyways...we went out last night and cleaned up the mess that was left behind. We fixed up the area, and left another cache there in hopes that it doesn't get muggled again.

Yesterday Jeff also found out that he'll be going to Ft. Polk, La for the month of September. The only bright side of this unexpected TDY is that he may possibly be able to do a few caches that are in that area!

Jeff has been busy making a notebook of caches that are in our area. It'll be great to have all of the information in one place, so we can just have everything all ready at our fingertips.

Happy caching!
~JEN

Mrs. Goose Island

I have been wanting to do a geocache rated level 5 (1 being the easiest, 5 being the hardest) since I started geocaching. Mrs. Goose Island is on an island in Milford Lake. So I went out and bought a wave runner just so I could do this cache. (not really but it sounds good...)

This afternoon, I took the wave runner to the island. I rode around the island a couple of time to find the best spot to "park" and tie up. I found a spot and as I was getting ready to climb up a branch in the water, I spotted a beaver under a tree close to my planned route! So I splashed water on it and chased it away. I did not want to get attacked by a beaver on this island! The spider webs were all over the island and the sticker bushes were really bad. I was wearing a swim suit, a life jacket, and a pair of water shoes. Not a very good combo when it come to geocaching.

Once I got on the island I made short work of hunting this one down. I walked right up to it. The cache is in great shape. Everything is in plastic bags and the log was dry. I signed the log and replaced the cache as I found it.

It was a good time getting this one...what a story...had to ride to wave runner to get it, got all muddy trying to get "parked" and then having to chase a large beaver away!

diecast64
aka Jeff

Good morning!

We haven't been blogging (or caching) lately due to school starting and the craziness that goes with the beginning of the school year! Jacob started first grade and I have started another year of teaching first grade. Along with the craziness, we've had a few things go wrong this week (our basement flooded, we had a flat tire at the lake with our new jet ski, my dad was in the hospital, our garage door broke, Jacob was sick, our AC stopped working...oh, that was last week...) Hopefully we're in for a spell (a long spell) of good luck!

Last weekend we traveled to Iowa and we did 3 caches along the way...one in Kansas (Fancy Creek Resting Place...the only cemetery that I've ever seen with a picnic area), one in Nebraska (I Pledge Allegiance to the Flag..nice little park), and one in Iowa (Tannenbaum Cache). The Tannenbaum cache was our 150th find and it was memorable! It was located in a Christmas Tree Farm on the side of the hill. It was a nice cool night, with a few bugs out. All and all, an easy find.

While we were in Iowa, we set 2 caches (Grove Township and People's Park.) We drove out in the country with my father-in-law, Leonard, and brother-in-law, Craig, to an old cemetery in Manteno. We spent about an hour looking around. Leonard had plenty of stories to tell...his uncle was buried in the cemetery. Fred Brown had died from a hunting accident when he was 17. Leonard's grandparents lived about 1-1/2 miles from the cemetery and he'd grown up in the area. We walked around looking at the old grave stones. We found some that were marked with "GAR" stars, which stands for Grand Army of the Republic! These men fought in the Civil War. Some of the stones found have dates that would place the birth of the people in the 1700's. Lots of interesting history.

Our other cache that we set (People's Park) isn't as interesting...it's located in a small public park in downtown Dunlap. It's a quick park and grab right near the parking area.

During our busy and hectic week, Jeff did manage to do 1 cache and got a FTF (first to find for all of you non-cachers!) Since the weather has cooled down, we're hoping to do a few caches during the weekend.

Happy caching!
~JEN

Geocaching in the rain

Hello everyone.

I had today off so I thought that I would venture out into the great outdoors and try to find some newly posted geocaches. We have been caching for about 3 months and we have never been the first ones to find a new cache. Last night (Aug, 6) we spotted 5 new caches on the web site. So this morning I loaded the new Chevy pickup with the Geo Bag. Our Geo Bag has everything we need to go geocaching in it. It has two Garmin etrex GPS, a compass, some spare batteries, a couple of pencils, our camera and our trusty diecast64 car. We always take a photo of the cache with our diecast64 car. That way we can prove that we have been there.

Today I started out on the interstate and it started to rain. My first thought was "Great, no one else will be out here looking for these new cache's in the rain." Then I thought "What the heck am I doing out here in the rain?" The first three finds were pretty uneventful... Unless you count the constant downpour of rain. Then, as I was driving to the last two caches, I was following the guidance from the GPS and I turned down a "dirt" road. Well almost immediately I realized that this was a bad idea. I stopped and tried to reverse my course. Well did I mention that it was raining? So here I sit buried with my new truck (less than thee weeks old) stuck in the mud. Hey guess what... it's raining and I am on a "dirt" road. I guess I was lucky because I was only a few feet into the "dirt" road. But I was stuck. So after trying to get myself out for about 15 minutes I took the short walk to a farmers house about 1/4 of a mile away. There was a teen aged boy at home that helped me out. He did not have to get muddy because he could stand on the road and pull me out with no troubles. I guess I was lucky that someone was home. I would have had to use my new On Star button on the truck. I am sure they would have had a good laugh at that call.

After I got pulled out of the mud I made it to the last two caches and then drove home. By the time I got home it had stopped raining. I then spent about an hour cleaning out the mud from all over the inside of the truck. I washed the outside and was happy the day was over.

All in all, it was a good day for geocaching. I did five today and all of them were first to finds. Something that might not ever happen again.

diecast64
aka Jeff

Hello everyone!

My family has been spending lots of time lately geocaching. We LOVE it! It's been a lot of fun traveling to different areas; seeing places that we'd never venture to on our own.

So I thought we'd keep track of our escapades and jaunts on this blog to share with the world! Enjoy our tales of the hunt.

Check out www.geocaching.com to get started with geocaching! It's been great family fun!