Category Archives: nano

Change is Good!

Posted on February 5, 2011 | 2 Comments

Despite the cold weather today, complete with freezing rain and fluffy snow, it was a great day for caching with my brother. We don’t get to spend a lot of time together as he lives nearly a couple hours away. I have introduced him to geocaching, and while he enjoys this activity, he’s not as obsessed with it as I am.

We only had four finds today… but today wasn’t about the numbers. Any time I have the opportunity to spend with my brother, I take advantage of it. So, for the few hours we had today, it was filled with lots of laughs, good food, and of course – braving the cold for buried caches.

FTF Notice
This morning, I received notice that my geocache had been found at 11:30am. This geocache is the first one I have put out. My main goal behind this one was to see how the whole process works. Now that I know, I can begin putting more out there, and much larger containers. I used a bison tube for this first one. And while it was easy enough to hide, getting to GZ was a bit of a challenge. A very steep walk to the cache will definitely put some color in the cheeks of those who want a work out. I hope it is enjoyed by all who find it.

New Blog, New Location.
This WordPress blog is a new direction for me. At the time of this posting, I am not finished with it, nor do I feel as though I ever will be. My previous blog was at Blogger, which I found was simple enough to update and such, but had clear limitations. This WordPress blog has more possibilities and I was also able to purchase the domain at only $17 per year. Can’t beat that! I still have lots to do here including adding photos and additional links – it will all come in time.

Each time I visit a cache, I leave a signature tag behind that points others to this blog. I hope others will visit or subscribe and share their caching experiences with everyone who reads this blog. I’ve also changed my geocache name from KayakJim, to T4TH which coincides with this blog. Soon to follow here will be links, photos, and perhaps a weekly (or bi-weekly) video. While this blog is primarily about geocaching, I may write about other items that interest me from time to time.

PLEASE feel free to comment on anything you read or see here.

T4TH!

Can you believe finding a NANO on this beast!
Miller Observatory at the top of the hill.
Snowy and cold, but awesome scenery.

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Posted in family, FTF, geocache, nano, signature item

Trying to cache up…

Posted on November 23, 2010 | Leave a comment

I’ve been out geocaching these past two weekends, but didn’t have time to post last weekend, so I’m doing double duty to recap. The weekend of the 13th, I took my brother out to let him experience the thrill of finding a few caches. We had other plans that day besides geocaching, so the purpose wasn’t to find a huge number, but more to spend some time together, visit with my daughter who lives in the area, and to visit the grave our mother. It’s been 7 years since my mother passed away, and it’s still hard to deal with at times.

The first cache we came to is a park that I pass rather frequently, however, I never knew there was a cache there. After figuring out the location, my brother was the one who found it – and it was a nano. He was amazed at the size of the nano. Next cache on the list was further down the road, and with a few muggles in the area, we casually made our way over to it’s location. Bingo, he finds the second one! Ok, two to zero and while I’m happy for him, I start to wonder if I’ll ever find any. I could tell he was getting more excited and his mind was racing about the possibility of hiding a geocache. I explained there are a few guidelines to follow, and when that time comes, we can put one out together. While he was enjoying finding the caches, I was probably having more fun watching his determination during the hunt.

We’re both hungry by now and we meet up with my daughter and head out for lunch. After a nice lunch, we look for our third geocache. The tree canopy had the GPS all over the place and the muggles were everywhere. I was the lucky person to find this one. We set out for another, however, it elluded us and the three of us were tired and it was getting late, so we called it a day.

It was really cool seeing my brother get all fired up about geocaching. Once you get involved, you really start getting into it. He has since been asking questions regarding a new GPS and wondering if I can make him some signature items so he can start leaving them behind.

Geocaching the North Coast
This past weekend, we wanted to do something different – at this early stage of being a new geocacher, I’ve already grown a little bored with the countless cemetery caches. I was wanting something different. After scanning the map of Ohio, we decided upon a couple really cool caches off of Lake Erie. I had my wife shoot video for this trip, and while some of it was good, we really couldn’t get into filming everything I wanted to get. We had an issue with some creeper/stalker who followed us from cache to cache. He wasn’t into geocaching – as he followed us to areas that did not have a cache near us. To make a long story short – I turned the tables on him and ended up following him. I made sure he knew I took down his license tag. The stalking ended at that point.
Smiley Span
So, what was to be a really fun day, turned out to be more drama and missed caches. We did score the two that I wanted and we were very pleased with the way those turned out (GC21FTX and GC21FJE). In my haste to avoid creepy-guy, I overlooked the other two that were close by … we’ll have to get those another day.
Marblehead Lighthouse, Lake Erie
We did stop by Marblehead Lighthouse. Not as large as those we’ve been to in Massachusetts, but very beautiful. Can’t wait to return and hopefully add more smileys in the future.

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Posted in family, geocache, muggles, nano

Four out of five isn’t bad…

Posted on October 17, 2010 | Leave a comment

It seems as though every time we plan to geocache, we are determined to get organized the night before so we can leave early. Inevitably, one, two, or a series of events that night or in the morning prevent us from doing so, and we head out the door between 10am to Noon. Saturday was no exception.

Apparently Mary had heard enough about Lydia and decided to be buried elsewhere.

GC1YYMC

Our intention was to hit a couple sites on our way to a local festival. Then after spending the day there, hit a few more on the way back home. We stopped at a cemetery for our first find. My wife had the pleasure of finding it before I did. That made me happy – she isn’t as adventurous or willing to try a more physically demanding find, so whenever she finds one before I do, it always makes me happy.

On to the festival, with delicious food, music, people watching, a couple purchases, and on to the caches on our list. We were kinda tired after all that walking and activity, so our energy level wasn’t as high as before.

The next find was at a canal lock. These locks were built between 1827-30 and allowed for the travel of canal boats to cities across the state for transportation and hauling of produce and other goods. The lock at which this geocache is located has long since stopped being used, and is now a park that remains to educate visitors about this important milestone in Ohio history. There are canals that are still in operation in the area where canal boats are pulled by horse along the bank, but these are used for tourists.

My GPS had me right on top of this cache around the lock, but it was my wife who pointed it out to me. I sometimes complicate the search instead of thinking through the cache description, which results in frustration on my part.

The third cache proved to be too hard for us to locate, so we moved on. The fourth was my first nano geocache and I was happy to find it. Good thing we brought tweezers with us. The final cache of the day brought us to another old cemetery. The tree cover caused some GPS issues, but I worked those out and finally found it.

At the end of the day, we were tired, yet had such a great time together. And that is what this is all about … spending time together and enjoying being outside. After 27 years of marriage, we still truly enjoy doing many things together. Each week, we count down the days until we get to head back out and do it all over again. Hope you had a successful hunt as well.

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Posted in festival, nano