Geocaching?!

[Chino]

Those are rad!!!

[ich bin besser]

Nice work, Nick! 

[Nick]

Just dropping by to say I'm currently at 3 countries and 17 states cached. In two weeks that will be up to 3 countries and 20 states!

I'm planning on doing a WhereIGo on Boston's Freedom Trail the morning of the DT show there. I would need to get 52 Geocaches between now and then (Mar 25) to make that my 1000th. Definitely think I'm going to try.

[ich bin besser]

Have you done a Wherigo before? I haven't - as my devices don't support it. And I've heard they tend to crash most of the time...

[Nick]

I've done 3 before. One time I had it crash, and had to redo a few steps (knowing the answers), and that sucked. If they are done well, they can be a LOT of fun.

[Nick]

Last night I did my first night cache to celebrate 1,000 finds in 20 states and 3 countries. Had a nice group and a ton of fun.

[Nick]

Looks like I'll be heading West... https://midwestgeobash.org/

Going to be my first mega event.

[ich bin besser]

Never been to a Mega Event. I prefer Geocaching not to be exposed like this...
Nick, if you dare solving a mystery cache that is in German, try this one: https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC2257H_team-blind-mysterium-i
If you want to, I can give you translations. Basically, you enter 14 different rooms in a lost place and you have to solve very different riddles. Took us 3 days... 
We'll go there tomorrow - and to that one as well: https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC3V2C9_apollo-xiii-nc-prolog
Fun starts in the listing at "Hier beginnt eure Mission:" - what follows should be universal language.  )

[Nick]

Never been to a Mega Event. I prefer Geocaching not to be exposed like this...

What do you mean?

Also, I rarely solve puzzle caches in English

I wish I would do more, recently finally did the album cover one I had meant to forever ago.

[ich bin besser]

Mega events means that more and more people get to know what geocaching is. Which causes problems - at least here in Germany. Don't you have problems with muggles where you are? Here, problems with landowners or hunters happen more and more often.
The community in my area decided not to go public.

[Nick]

I've heard stories here and there of issues, but at least in my area there doesn't seem to be many issues. And I'd think that poor cache placement or poor cachers would lead to far more issues than a group of cachers getting together for something like this.

[Nick]

BTW, Chino, today I did something very sad. I archived the last of my Pokemon caches. While I don't doubt some got naturally lost (especially the two in storm drains), several were in places that neither nature nor muggles had any decent chance of disturbing. It's a lesson that has taught me to make my caches all premium only from this point on. I had 1 still going, but grabbed it today as I wanted at least one to keep. Jigglypuff has been through a lot, but still looks pretty damn good!

[ich bin besser]

It's a lesson that has taught me to make my caches all premium only from this point on.

Yeah, one should do that at least for the caches that are kind of special (like a more expensive container or a cache you put quite some effort in to make it).
My Sesame Street multi is still up and running - though not many people do it (it's a 5 mile walk, and you only get this one point - which seems to deter most people. Oh well...).

[Chino]

I feel your pain. All of my Turtles were stolen, all four of them. Two of them were taken twice in different sewers. So I guess six all together. So lame. I can tell they were stolen because the lines were clean cut. I'm glad you got to at least keep Jiggly Puff. I think I still have the Stars Wars series in storage if you want them. No charge seeing as my Pay Pal has been shut down. Something about too much money getting sent to it without being a certain type of account.

[Nick]

With the new movie creating buzz it would be really cool to do a Star Wars series or multi. If you don't want to do it then I'll more than happily take them! And I would happily send a check your way.

[Chino]

Just PM me your address, I don't know if I still have it or not. I'll get them in the mail on Saturday. I didn't even consider the fact that the movie is coming out, that'll be good timing.

[Nick]

Not sure if anyone would be interested, but a local cacher (and well known geocoin/mega event/whatever designer( has a pretty cool T-shirt sale going on. Just got myself one.

https://teespring.com/geocachingreboot

[ich bin besser]

Yep, I was interested. Thanks for the tip!  Nice design and a very good price, so why not?

[Nick]

I wasn't sure if shipping costs would be an issue for you, but glad you liked it.

[ich bin besser]

Actually, during the checkout with PayPal, the shipping costs were 3.85 $ (if  I remeber correctly), but on the receipe I got later, it says 10.50 $. That was a bit annoying (not knowing the real shipping costs beforehand - but yes: I could've asked  ). But all in all, the shirt is under 19 Euro which is a good price in the end.

[Nick]

So, this past Thursday through Sunday I attended my first mega event, the Midwest Geobash 2014 in Wauseon, OH. It's held on a nice simple fairgrounds and was celebrating the 10th year. We got nearly 175 finds, including a well done night cache, some cool earth caches, and the tri-state challenge caches for Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan, which required 10 finds in each of the other two states (or 100 for in state residents). I also got my first 10 lab caches, which from what I heard were a BIG step up from prior events. For one there was a large tote FILLED with golf balls, and 1 had the code on it that we needed. For another there was 7 ornaments and 7 presents hung randomly around the public areas of the campground. Each had a letter on it. Once you found them you could unscramble two 7 letter Christmas themed words needed for the lab cache.

The event was really well developed with good vendors, and lots of people looking to trade coins and path tags. I don't really trade or collect coins, but got a nice event coin, had a friend I went out with give me a coin he helped with, and actually purchased a MOGA 2014 coin just because of how much I liked it. Here it is (https://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=5417906) not that I'd ever use it, but the middle rings can be turned and used as various cyphers. On the other hand, without really trying too hard I traded for about 50 path tags using just the 1 personal tag I have. Also, everyone got a path tag for the current year of the event, but more importantly, they made a tag using each of the prior years designs, with a letter in each spelling out Merry Xmas. The hitch was you got 9 of one single tag, and had to trade with 8 other people who had other designs in order to complete the set.

Although we really didn't use it, there was a special area for after hours fires and drinking, and of course we met a ton of nice people while we were out there. I have an album of pictures up on facebook for those interested in checking it out.

[ich bin besser]

And there will be more. 
I find that I have more fun hiding caches nowadays than searching them...