GeoCaching Are You Obsessed With It - Articles - Zimbio

Daughter Geoness Milestone of 100 Finds!

Fri, 19 Jul 2008 10:53:37 GMT

posted by headhardhat
The second half of Team HHB miss Amanda aka Geoness hit the 100 find mark. Not bad for someone who just started a couple of months ago. She has already attended several events and has taken on Difficulty 3 / Terrain 3 caches. Like the one at the FlashMob Flower Hill caches in North Carolina.

Geoness has cache finds in five states including Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina. Often seen with dad HeadHardHat in the Raleigh and many neighboring cities. Geoness competes with HHH to find the cache first so she can be the first to sign the log. She helps a lot when it comes to micros and small caches but her eyes light up the most when ammo boxes are the target.

Please help congratulate the better half of Team HHB, daughter Geoness on her latest find milestone.

Congrats Geoness!

Milestone: HeadHardHat Reaches 300 Finds

Wed, 17 Jul 2008 21:54:39 GMT

posted by headhardhat
Taking a quick break to note I finally reached my #300 find yesterday. Now granted this is microscopic compared to many of the other cachers in North Carolina, I am extremely determined about my continuing voyage to the four digit mark.

As an important side note, actually, I am more proud of this than my milestone. My daughter Geoness (Amanda) is six shy of her first hundred finds. How fast they grow these days. So kudos to her will be coming out soon.

TimMcGrawlookalike is Mess'n With My Old Suede Shoes

Tue, 16 Jul 2008 18:48:04 GMT

posted by headhardhat
Came home last night from another successful evening run in Smithfield, NC and did a quick glance at my email to see if any new caches published; and what to my wondering eyes did appear? Not one but two new caches just a few miles from where I work in Oxford. The posts came rather late and in a secluded part of the country so I was pretty sure they were not going to get found until today. Especially since both of them were from TimMcgrawlookalike and he is the only cacher that I know who has a working pair of night vision goggles. For now...

Anyhow, I get up this morning and drop daughter Geoness off at the bus stop. Yes I did remember this time to completely halt the forward motion of the vehicle so she didn't have to do that death roll thing again. She looses her lunch money every time she does that. We said our farewells as the gleam of the red flashers approached. I could feel my palms grip the steering wheel just a little tighter with the sound of the bus echoing in the distance. "Lets do this", I thought to myself and I stepped on the accelerator. The engine whined from the strain, tires lurching forward and I was pressed hard into my seat as my car lunged ... to a safe and legal posted speed as all good driving citizens should. "Morning officer", I said and waved when I noticed the police car driving just up the road. Have to stop watching all those spy movies.

But I digress, did my 60 mile venture to the cache sites and had a grand time playing follow the bouncy arrow in the tall wet grass. Hey they were First to Finds and what's a little water when it comes to suede? The first cache was a unique tin can hidden in a nice cozy spot. Opened it up to find a brand new log book and best of all clean sheetz! I happily signed the white papers and moved on for number two.

The second was one of those mean little caches that I just hate. You know the ones that are hidden in plain sight. I knew it was there but could I see the darn thing, oh heck no. Coords were just a bit off but that was expected. I could feel the moister of my now soaked shoes seaping through my work socks. A few more minutes passed and then booyah - success. Signed the untouched log and then jogged, well okay skipped to my car so I could get to work.
So that was my morning so far. Sure I now smell like wet dog and it will take me an hour to pull all the burrs out of my pant legs but when it comes to finding First To Finds. I may be a bit obsessed...

A Little Caching, A Little Rain, A Whole Lot of Friends

Sun, 16 Jun 2008 03:54:00 GMT

posted by headhardhat
Had a really great day on Saturday. Spent the afternoon with my daughter Amanda (Geoness) caching in the Fuquay-Varina, NC area.

We started out by being able to get a handful of caches during the afternoon and even though we did not get huge numbers we did visit some real interesting places. For example, the photograph to the left shows the remains of an old mill off of Terrible Creek Pond. This was actually a DNF for us and with more search time I am sure we will eventually find the cache but that day we were tied to the clock and it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. There were just so many areas the micro sized cache could be. Micros in general tend to be frustrating for me and after a short while my eyes were wondering much more on the actual mill wheel, granite pilings and other ancient tid bits that were just way too cool not to explore. We will come back soon and take another swing at this fun cache but for that afternoon more caches were waiting for us.

One of the most fun and most painful was a rather sharp edged adventure called The Heart of Fuquay which put us in a nice wood surrounded by wild raspberries and briers. It did not help that we were in shorts because of the heat but we managed to make it through and I just loved seeing Amanda's eyes get wide when we found the ammo box filled with goodies.

We traded a small tea set for Amanda with one of my signature first aid kits and the satisfaction of another smiley waiting for us when we log in at home.

Of course the icing on the cake for the day was attending the Our Friends the Wolves 5K Celebration Event. Here our good friend Horsegeeks a.k.a. Kenny and his wife hosted a fantastic get together at his home. The event was to celebrate the 5000th cache found by team Billwolf1 which is utterly amazing. About 30 of us invaded Horsegeeks Ranch where we had great food, fantastic conversation and a whole mob of fun people. Even though we did get a brief thunder boomer that came through it was not enough to even slow us down. What a fantastic time was had by all.

Missed FTF's, Night Vision Goggles, Mutants and Fellow Cachers

Mon, 10 Jun 2008 12:05:00 GMT

posted by headhardhat
Missed FTF's - Well that's it then.. I am selling the house for a new pair of night vision goggles!

My phone went off last night around 11 p.m. telling me a new cache was posted. Jumped online and saw the cache named "The Lion Sleeps Tonight 3" was right on my way to work.
"Perfect", I thought. First thing in the morning I will drop off my daughter at the bus stop and boogie right over for a quick First To Find.
All the way over to the cache site I was really hoping to beat TimMcGrawlookalike to the punch, especially since the post came out so late last night. Would I make it in time? Would nice clean log sheets be waiting for me? My hopes were high as I opened the cache to see my prize, but nooooooooo. Not only did Mr. TMLookalike hit it last night but another relentless cacher mobettamerf who I do not think actually sleeps beat me too . Heavy sigh, better luck next time. Congrats to all and I will be out there next time.. Me and my night vision goggles .
MUTANTS! - If you have been reading my blogs you will see every once in a while a Mantis Sighting. Photos of this interesting TB have been taken by me in five states from North Carolina to Michigan and back (twice). With the permission of the owner I have been hanging onto the little guy for several months now and even though he seems to enjoy hanging from my rear view mirror very much I think it is time to let him go back into the wild.

There is a problem though. I too enjoy having a travel bug hanging from my rear view mirror but what could possibly replace my well travelled friend? Meet my new little friend - Mutant Mantis!

This guy reminds me so much of the old great B movie mantis monsters. Seen at left teasing my daughter Brianna. Mutant Mantis is going to be travelling where ever I go and will be photographed doing what movie monsters do, wreaking havoc upon the world! So look often to see what MM has been up to. Last I heard he was heading for down town Raleigh, NC. This should be fun!

Fellow Cachers- You just never know who you are going to bump into in the morning whilst caching. Was pulling up to my Taxman Cometh cache to verify it's coords and who do I see with a GPS in his hand but my friend Ringer2410. I scooted by not wanting to disturb his hunt but he must have seen my car and pulled up next to me after he was done. He apparently must have liked the hunt cuz he used cool descriptions like "very clever and devious". Just love making geocaching fun. We gabbed a good ten minutes or so before having to head off for work. This brought a smile to my face because it is always a treat getting some time to actually talk face to face with fellow cachers. Special Note - Received a really nice email from Team P and USAFSP. They came by the Oxford, NC area this last weekend and hit everything. Since I have about twenty caches there myself including two series (Barnyard Fun and Playing On The Train Tracks). They had me on standby incase needed. No need necessary because they hit 43 for the day! So congrats to team P for doing a fine job of caching and in 100+ degree heat ta boot!