Friday, December 18, 2009

A step in the right direction

I had a little free time between meetings this afternoon, so I stopped off to grab a geocache called A step in the right direction. It was a tiny nano cache stuck on a pedestrian bridge that crossed over Route 130 in Cinnaminson.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Stop for a Minute

We attached our t-shirt travel bug coin to a little sand timer and named it Stop for a Minute. Our intention is to remind people of the importance of taking a moment every day to relax and also to appreciate something beautiful...

Fast Cache in York White Rose

After finishing some work in Thomasville, PA, on the way home I stopped off for a quick bite to eat and found the geocache York White Rose. It was a quick park n' grab at the far end of a shopping center parking lot. The container was much larger than what you usually find in places like this, and inside was a travel bug. The travel bug was attached to a little tiger and was named Fast Cache. I brought the tiger home to NJ with me and will bring him the next time Gino and I go out. Hopefully we can find a suitable place for him sometime soon!

Thursday, December 10, 2009

New Geocoins

My new geocoins arrived in the mail today. They were a gift for my birthday. Thanks Angie & Celeste!

The first one is a Tough Cache geocoin. I'll try to drop this one off in a difficult cache deep in the woods...

The second one is a Pennsylvania Railroad geocoin commemorating PA as the birthplace of the railroad 180 years ago.


The last one is a T-Shirt geocoin, but it's actually more of a travel bug than a geocoin. I'll let Gino decide what to hook the t-shirt onto, just like we did with the Recon Soldier.

What's the buzz?

Another geocache that I found between meetings today was named What's the buzz? This one had me stumped at first, until I took a few steps back from where I knew it should be and just stared for a minute. Eventually it jumped out at me.

This was a good urban geocache, basically hidden in plain sight. The "container" was a large magnet with numbers on it, and was stuck to some kind of electrical or mechanical unit in a parking lot. Beneath the magnet was a small log inside of a bag.

Twisted Bufflehead

Between meetings in PA, I had some time to kill, so I stopped off to grab this local geocache, called Twisted Bufflehead. I can't figure out how the owner arrived at this name. It wasn't difficult to find, but it took some stealth to retrieve the container, a bison tube, from it's hiding place. The tube was sitting inside a tiny hole in a brick wall along the sidewalk in front of a shopping center. I couldn't get my fingers around the tip of the container, so I had to use my car keys as tweezers to pull it out.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

PA Turnpike - Harrisburg East

On my drive home from Harrisburg, I got gas at a rest stop on I-76 and grabbed the cache PA Turnpike - Harrisburg East while I was there. The cache was located inside the end of a guardrail by the parking lot. The container was an ordinary blue water bottle with a long bolt attached to the bottom. There was nothing of interest inside the container, so I left the GeoSheriff geocoin that I picked up in North Carolina last week.

Monday, December 7, 2009

007 plus 1 is SUPER

This geocache name, 007 plus 1 is SUPER, is a little play on the name of the cache's location - a Super 8 motel. The container was a basic magnetic key holder stuck to the back of a terribly poor quality "No Trucks Beyond This Point" sign. It was easy to find, and I'm actually surprised that it was still there...

Last Farm Standing

This geocache, Last Farm Standing, was placed at a small historical site along Route 11 in Hogestown, PA. The site commemorates Thomas McCormick, a farmer who owned most of the land in that area in the late 18th century. This is another of those small historically significant locations and monuments that thousands of people drive past every day and have probably never noticed. If not for geocaching, I would never have heard the story of Thomas McCormick, nor seen the beautiful plauqe and monument that rests where his farmhouse once did over 200 years ago.

Pennsylvania F-Stop

This geocache, Pennsylvania F-Stop, is hidden in the wooded area beyond the parking lot at a truck stop on I-81 near Carlisle, PA. The container was one of the more interesting ones that I've come across in awhile. A bison tube was fastened inside a pinecone and hung on a tree branch. It was pretty difficult to find since it was hung overhead and mixed in with other pinecones and leaves, and it took me several minutes to locate it.

This was also my 100th geocache find!


3 Sheets To The Wind

I grabbed this geocache, 3 Sheets To The Wind , while stopping for gas at the Sheets gas station near Mechanicsburg, PA. The container was a magnetic key holder stuck to the back of the ice machine right outside the front door. It was easy to find, but rather difficult to grab while still being inconspicuous due to the number of people coming in and out of the little store.


Do you want Crem with that?

This geocache was a basic 35mm film canister hidden beneath the bolt cover at the base of a parking lot lamp post, a common hiding spot for urban geocaches. I couldn't figure out where the name came from, Do you want Crem with that?, but it was an extremely easy find in a pretty empty parking lot.

Coal Country C&D #1

This geocache is called Coal Country C&D #1. The container was a 35mm film tube hooked to a tree with velcro. It wasn't hard to find, but grabbing it without drawing attention was the tricky part. The tree was right on the edge of a shopping center parking lot, and for some reason there were a lot of people around when I was there.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Ice Breaker

When I finally reached my hotel in Carlisle, PA, I noticed there was a geocache right across the street called Ice Breaker. This was a quick and eash cache n' dash. The container was a normal bison tube with a magnet on the end that held it hidden by a telephone pole.

Travel Turtle Geocoin

On my way toward Harrisburg for work, I took a quick break from the long boring drive across the state on I-76 and stopped at a rest stop to pick up the Bucket of Balls, Bugs and Coins geocache. I left the Anthus Laptop geocoin and took the Travel Turtle geocoin.

Recon Soldier

Gino finally decided he wanted to hook our Cache Movers Geocoin tag onto one of his army soldiers. He liked the idea of the soldier travelling from one geocache to another and fighting off bad guys and protecting the cache containers. So, we hooked the tag onto the soldier and he's now ready to go out into the forest.


Hopefully, we'll get some good geocaching weather soon so Gino and I can hunt down a good cache location for our Recon Soldier.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

GeoSheriff Geocoin

On our drive back from Florida to New Jersey after Thanksgiving vacation, we took a quick break and stopped at the I-95 Coin Drop geocache. It was an easy find, and a decent sized container, the idea of which is to exclusively exchange coins and travel bugs. We left our DNF geocoin and took the GeoSheriff geocoin.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Anthus Laptop Geocoin in Pedro's Bridge

While travelling home from Florida, we stopped at the infamous South of the Border and found the geocache called Pedro's Bridge. It was a magnetic key holder hidden on the pedestrian bridge crossing the main road inside the rest stop. It was pretty cold and very dark, and I was surprised to see this place as empty as it was.



I was also surprised to find the Anthus Laptop Geocoin in the cache since there was no record of it being in there. The geocoin's logs also state that it's been in the hands of another geocacher for over a year, so I'm guessing that the other guy never logged it when he dropped the coin off...

It's a pretty neat little coin. It looks like a silver laptop and even has a working hinge. This particular geocoin has already travelled over 16,500 miles, and I'll be helping it continue its jouney very soon.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

KP-What???

While visiting the grandparents in Florida for Thanksgiving, we had a few hours to kill before the big dinner so Dad and I took Gino out to find the geocache KP-What???. He found it pretty quickly (he's getting very good at this now!) and was surprised that it was a pretty large container. He decided to take a water gun, and we left our Italian Flag Micro geocoin.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

NGS Benchmark KV6401-Florence2

In Florence at the Clark T. Carey Memorial Park, also known as Volunteer's Park, at the end of Broad Street by the Delaware River is NGS Benchmark KV6401-Florence2, which was originally installed in 1959. However, the benchmark disk located in the designated spot actually reads Florence 3 with a date of 1991, which indicates the original mark was removed because it was damaged, or more likely had to be re-installed after construction of the memorial park.


Heroes

This geocache, called Heroes, was the second that Gino and I found on our short search today. Still wearing his Super Cacher cape, he eventually made the find here too. This was a nice place for a geocache, right next to a boat launch ramp and a beautiful view of the water.


The container was hidden underneath the deck railing. Gino is getting getting better at finding them. Maybe the cape had something to do with it...

The container was interesting. The cache owner glued magnets to a small block of wood, and hollowed out a little section for a nano cache container.

Who is John Galt?

Gino and I went out to grab this geocache, called Who is John Galt?, while visiting the in-laws. He found it pretty quickly. Today he was calling himself a Super Cacher because he insisted on wearing his Superman cape while we searched...