My first day of geocaching was while I was on a business trip in Washington D.C.. Paranoia is marked with secret service men and armed guards nearly everywhere you go. Other than the Spy Museum’s caches (which get muggled pretty often), there’s only room for two types of caches in the monument endowed city: microcaches and virtual caches. I had not known of virtual caches before, just that there were little ghosty things on the map that made the DC area look more like a mortuary than a cacher’s paradise.
Had it not been for the good nature of two other cachers, WizardOfMD69 and Suzanne, who took me under their wing that day I might have missed out on a good thing. They introduced me to the world of virtual geocaching. We went to statues and monuments and plaques across the city that I hadn’t been to before. The questions took us down paths of politics, history, architecture, art, science and biographies that I hadn’t delved into before, or if I had, it wasn’t with that detail. Then the thought came to me that virtual caching is really a big outdoor field-trip. You go to places. You learn things. You experience things. Then you take a pop-quiz and get credit.
The main deterrent for virtual caches is that it’s a chore to go through the geocaching.com or geocaching app interface to send that person a message with the answers. Some answers require you email them directly with a picture attachment, which geocaching.com doesn’t allow from their messaging interface. Some cache owners are so strict that if you post your “find” before emailing them they’ll erase it. After finding the virtual cache, the experience goes downhill… so much that I gave up on posting my half-dozen virtual caches discovered that day.
There are ways Groundspeak could improve this experience and make it just as enjoyable as treasure caches. I already know one way which would be simple to implement and make a world of a difference… I won’t go into right now. That’s not the purpose of this post. But I will say it’s a shame that because of their kludgy interface and lack of forethought, virtual caches are being thought of as a lesser cache when in reality they’re often better. In the movie Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the final treasure was knowledge. Virtual caches are that knowledge… only with freaky ghosts to mark them instead of freakier alien skulls.
Whether you home-school or public school, virtual caches and earth caches are a fantastic way to get children excited about learning. Two weeks ago my family went to an event happening in a park downtown. That park happened to contain a virtual cache so I got to introduce virtual caching to my family. The children ran around the monument to take it in where they might of otherwise ignored it. It didn’t take long for my wife, who has an education degree, to come to the same conclusion I did. Virtual caches rock!
Looking at all the wonderful people out there who geocache, something has to be done. Some are celebrities. Some are only celebrities in their own mind.
Regardless of fame or infamy I’d like to introduce them to you… or if you’ve already met them then perhaps you’ll learn a little something new. If they have a blog, it’s obviously encouraged that you go visit. Without further adieu, it’s my pleasure to introduce you to …
Paurian: You mentioned that the proudest moment in your geek life was finding “Get a Life” (GCZJZ5) all by yourself. That’s about as nerdy as they come. However, your log on Geocaching.com shows a sad “ook.” Is that your way of saying the cache at the final coordinates was highly illogical?
Cecil: ook… Actually this cache was originally found by Bruce when he shared the caching name “ProfessorZoom” with his wife, Sue, so it was considered a B.C. (Before Cecil) find. Cecil believes in transparency in caching so, while assisted by Bruce, he only logs caches that he has actually visited and signed the log… don’t you wish every cacher was that noble? Cecil went out to find “Get a Life” and discovered the cache was missing, hence the sad “ook.” He has spoken with CyBret and will return when the weather is better and hopefully return the cache to its former glory. Qapla’
Paurian: What was your first geocaching experience?
Cecil: Cecil’s first caching experience was GC44F2 “Rest in Peace” while plaguing Indiana cachers for a few years he finally decided to log a cache upon ProfessorZoom’s 1000th find. Cecil’s first actual appearance was at GC100CE “Indy’s Lamest Cache” this was where Cecil’s legend began.
Paurian: What are your experiences or thoughts on caching with the smaller services, such as Garmin’s new opencaching.com, terracaching.com or navicache.com?
Cecil: With world domination, being the inspiration for a webcomic, and controlling a network of minions, Cecil has not had time to explore the smaller services, but as the weather turns (being a fair weather cacher) he is bound to branch out a bit… anything to gain a better foothold in his constant struggle to make the world a better place with more bananas.
Paurian: What is the most helpful non GPSr geocaching tool that you take into the field?
Cecil: Lots of Minions so Cecil doesn’t have to walk to caches… he believes it’s better to be carried, especially when ProfessorZoom just had to get GC776E “Ten Mile Cache” when the road was closed he thought it was nice to be along for the hike.
Paurian: What is the coolest swag you’ve retrieved from a cache?
Cecil: ook… The silly thing is when minions find monkey related swag they tend to drop it off to Cecil… like paying tribute. Some of the really cool pathtags Cecil has found in the wild (shiny things) are great. He actually likes finding them better than trading, it really does show what a small world it is and how we cross paths all the time. Then again bananas aren’t allowed in caches.
Paurian: What geocache do you consider the coolest hide?
Cecil: So many people have put effort into some wonderful hides (& so many archived), the ones requiring monkey skills (climbing) are fun, but View Carre (GCE02C) in New Orleans is one of Cecil’s favorites.
Paurian: I noticed your blog has several comic strips based on geocaching. Are these generally based on your personal experiences, or mostly imagined?
Cecil: ook… I’ll let Bruce answer this one. Bruce: While My Geek Odyssey is a comic, a great deal is based on my experiences. The ones dealing with “the Caching Curmudgeon” actually stem from things I have experienced while caching, either logs, or emails, or just varied caching personalities. As always cartoons tend to exaggerate, although some are pretty close to reality.
Paurian: What general advice would you like to give to newbie geocachers?
Cecil: Have fun! explore, be patient, send Cecil-EGCM any shiny things you find… If you want to hide a cache find a wide variety first (hit that 100 found milestone) so you have some idea of what makes a great hide.
Paurian: What excellent feature / element / idea … thing would you like added to the geocaching experience?
Cecil: ook… Cecil likes some of the changes going on to GC.com buy really would like to see more information in the statistics page. milestones, state county map (at least for your home state)… there were a number of things available at mygeocachingprofile.com that haven’t been brought over yet. Since Cecil uses a Mac (he’s that kind of monkey) GSAK hasn’t been a option. Then again he’s been playing around with a Chirp and is curious how that is going to work out once he removes it from his sock.
Paurian: I noticed that you showed some interest in creating a Dr. Who series. The tardis idea is awesome. Have you seen the Dr. Who. geocache (GCW6EM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19hCTky6S8w)?
Cecil: ook… Don’t remind me, due to social obligations while getting the triad last summer Cecil did not get a chance to visit Dr. Who or Voodoo Donuts. He will return and ring up goblindust along with few minions he has in the area. The cache containers for that series are in development and should be ready to release in the Spring.
A big “ook!” thanks to the ubercool Cecil and Bruce for taking time out for this interview!
Just over a week ago, I grabbed my first travelbug. I’ve noticed, at least in my area, that geocoins and travel bugs often go missing and are unreported through the proper channels. Sometimes a geocacher will post in the geocache logs that they found travelbug XYZ, but fail to log it in the trackables section. As a result, I search for a geocache, find one that reports a trackable and eagerly locate it only to find out that someone else took it before I got there and didn’t report it.
I think the trick is to make the travelbug either so incredibly cool that people want to log it, or make it so crazy difficult that it’s a bragging right to log it. So I took the liberty to locate three eccentric travelbugs to share with you (click on the travelbug names to jump to their Geocache profile):
This travel bug is a small mason jar, filled with a portion of my Uncle Elwyn’s remains. He passed away recently and asked that his remains be spread in the wilderness. This seemed a fitting way to do just that. (To ensure there are enough ashes to make it to every state, please use the spoon provided.)
Uncle Elwyn was always an adventurer, proud that he had hiked all 50 states. He loved to hike, camp and fish – plus he was quite the musician. Unfortunately Geocaching came along too late for Uncle Elwyn. He was about 45, well maybe 55, 60. I’m not sure. (Once he mixed me a drink, I was about 5 years old – it was Kool-Aid and pop, I thought that was cold. Cold meaning good, cold’s supposed to be bad … ah nevermind.)
As far as regulations in regards to scattering ashes, here is some information from funeralplan.com: “Most laws surrounding funeral service are based on public health. Once a body has been cremated, there are no public health concerns. Therefore, there are no requirements (or laws) with regards to handling cremated remains.”
But if you decode the dedication, it’ll be revealed to you the real nature of the mysterious powder (and I’m not talking about alien space dust… we’ll get to that travelbug later).
Joe, the quote bug, likes quotes. All kinds kind of quotes…from famous people, celebrities, friends, relatives, yourself, movie quotes, song quotes, etc. They can be funny, profound, weird, whatever. Joe just likes quotes and would like to collect them in the little book he carries around with him.
Joe’s up for traveling anywhere and everywhere to find good quotes. Can you help him?
If you find Joe during your caching adventures, please help put a smile on his face by adding a quote to his quote book. You could even add it to his online log for more people to enjoy!
Also, feel free to include a date, city/state/country, etc. to your quote entry.
Egnix dropped this travelbug with a unique purpose in August 2002. He tells us about the journey that brought it back around to his possession in a forum post: “Over the years I got to read about its travels around the country. I met people and received emails from people saying how much the liked Joe. I even heard Joe inspired a least a couple cachers to send out similar travel bug books. … 8 years, 18,160.2 miles, 16 states, 49+ caches, and 60+ cachers later, Joe’s book is almost completely full of quotes and writings from people all over the country.”
The International Space Station Geocache is literally “out of this world.” It orbits the earth at 17000 MPH at an altitude of 250 miles.
This listing was published with permission from Groundspeak.
I traveled to the ISS on October 12, 2008 becoming the first second generation astronaut. While there I created this geocache aboard the Russian Segment of the ISS. The cache itself is locker #218 as shown in the provided photograph. There is no logbook in this cache, out of respect for the Russian segment of the ISS, and the fact that it would be a fire hazard to include one in this locker. You will find, however, that I attached a Travel Bug to the locker. I am hopeful that any future geocaching astronauts will start my Travel Bug on its way home, and leave one of their own in its place to start a similar journey.
The International Space Station orbits about 250 miles above the earth and travels about 17000 miles per hour, completing an orbit of the earth every 90 minutes.
Today only the American Space Shuttle and Russian Soyuz vehicles can reach the ISS. This will be changing soon, not only is the shuttle retiring soon, but there is a fleet of private space vehicles coming soon, which will allow greater access to space and hopefully ultimately the space station. Thus, while today only about 500 people have made this journey, and I am sure I am not the only geocacher among them… many more will be reaching space soon, and I am hopeful to see many visitors in time.
– Richard Garriott
By the time anyone finds this bug, it will have traveled around the earth a great many times!
Please take this bug to the NASA NEEMO Undersea Lab. Once it has been there, it needs to return home to me in Texas.
In case Richard Garriott needs an introduction, he’s also known as Lord British, the founder of the former game giant Origin Systems, and creator of the Ultima game series that graced so many software shelves from the ’80s to the early 90’s.
This travelbug and the geocache that contains it is obviously of a high profile and has been blogged about a few times:
I’m still trying to find Michael Reed Barratt’s geocaching profile to see if he has anything to say about the cache. Until then, if I happen to bump into him on my tesseract tardis time and space traveling borg cube, I’ll let you know what he has to say.
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