November 13, 2011

The intent of the day was to wipe out all available caches between Scotland, VA and Suffolk. No we didn’t quite do it but we did end up with 13 finds and 1 DNF. We left a total of 5 caches between Suffolk and Surry that we haven’t found – that also means that the nearest cache to us (other than 1 DNF) is over 12 miles away.

We started a little late but drove straight to Surry and then Scotland and grabbed Ferry Free for All – Scotland (GC2D44R) hidden by seepaulgolf a 1.5/1.5 eay park and grab. We signed the log, dropped some swag and then started back towards Suffolk grabbing caches along hte way.

AgCache…College Run Farms (GC2BVAJ) hidden by Agtually, a 1/1 small cache and another easy park and grab was next on the list before heading over to Chippoles Plantation State Park.

We got within 20' of this lovely creature before he flew away

It was a great day for caching, not to cool and not to warm but the breeze was blowing hard at the water’s edge. CJS – Chippoles Plantation State Park (GC3F409) is a 1.5/2 cache that will take you on a great walk through the park. Sure was a lot of storm damage left but we managed.

Past the Pool (GC2BJBB) hidden by KE4GFM was a 2/3 cache that did have us going in circles for just a few minutes – we made the find easy enough – sometimes you just have to walk in circles!

VSP Chippokes 75th Anniversary Adventure (GC2PX10) is the first cache on off a walkway that takes you through the loveliest part of the park. This cache is located near the beach and there were plenty of deer and other tracks as well as a variety of birds keeping Nana & I company on our walk.

Further down the trail was The Vine Maze (GC231MB) hidden by KE4GFM was a 2/2.5 cache that tried to trick us but we made the grab in less than 2 minutes. Lovely area!

River View (GC1VRKB) also hidden by KE4GFM was another great location for a cache [wouldn’t you know we left the camera in the SNAP-mobile]. We even got to visit with the local cows while at this cache.

The next cache, A Redoubtable Cache (GC1XR42) ended up being our only DNF on the day. We made our way to GZ, did the GPS dance, then wandered around a bit more before finally conceding to the DNF. It hadn’t been found since July so maybe the hurricane took it away.

The Castle

We left the park and made our way further south to stop at A Castle Cache (GC2EDR9) hidden by grinnellian2001 – great place and we wished it had been open for business so we could visit but we settled for a quick P&G and a smilie!

We made a stop by Fort Boykin to do a puzzle cache. SSB – Fort Boykin Historic Park (GC22AJF) is a puzzle cache that takes you on a tour of the park. Not too hard a puzzle but I will give you one hint – make sure you count the correct row! It makes a difference! The cache container was right where it was supposed to be – we just had to count more than once! Great park and a great hide.

We finally made our way back to Smithfield and searched out another puzzle cache I had worked at home. When in Rome… (GC3777N) hidden by IH8TIX was an easy P&G – but we see where it could be difficult depending on the time of day. The puzzle is real easy also so if you are one of those cachers who stays away from puzzles – try this one.

BAKADAHI (GC337TE) hidden by bdramatic had been on our DNF list since it had been published but we went back and used a previous listed “better coordinates” and that took me right to the cache. The original coordinates weren’t that far off but it is in a high muggle location and could prove difficult if you hit this one at the wrong time of day.

Another cache we managed to get off our DNF list was Color Series – Red (GC2YHCN) hidden by Va_Bunch. We found this cache laying out exposed to the sunlight and hid it a little better than we found it. Once you know where to park for this cache, it is an easy walk and at this time of the year should be an easy find.

Well that’s the report for the 13th and also catches me up on all the back blogs that I am behind. hopefully I can do better at keeping up with our caching and the after-action reports.

Two caches were awarded favorite points on the day:

A Castle Cache (GC2EDR9) hidden by grinnellian2001 and

Winner of the “Coveted” Nana & Papa Cache of the Day Award (and a favorite point):

SSB – Fort Boykin Historic Park (GC22AJF) hidden by Star-Spangled Banner – Congrats!

Upcoming plans and events (please feel free to offer us caches to find or places to visit):
11/15 – Third Tuesday Pizza & Pasta (GCHR Nov 2011) GC35CMV – planning on it!
11/19 – Third Saturday in Rivah Country (GC36NTA) – planning on it also!
12/3 – Off the Beaten Path – Bike & Greet GC350ZR – we will be there
12/20 – Third Tuesday Burgers & Beers (GCHR Dec 2011) GC1WZE4 – planning on it!

As always – Stay Safe & Keep Caching ! ! !

SNAP – Suffolk Nana & Papa ! ! !

Back out on the trails…

As most of you know we have been taking a small break from caching as we were taking car of two of our grand children (ages 4 and 8 ) for a few weeks. Well our three-week babysitting tour was up and Nana & I decided to get back out on the trails. Although we didn’t get started until just after noon we had a terrific day, 16 finds with only 2 DNFs – not a terrific day but at one point we had 11 straight finds.

We managed to find caches in Suffolk, Isle of Wight and Portsmouth. 1st cache was the only Usta B that we were missing from the series. One note on this cache (Usta B #9) – the road leading to this cache is a very well-known speed trap. The local LEOs are almost always hiding somewhere along the road. Be careful.

From Suffolk we headed up to Isle of Wight for the 1st two of a new series done by bdramatic (you see UMC series). We can’t wait for more of the series to come out as these caches take you to United Methodist Churches on the back roads – places you probably would never see in your normal rounds through the area. If you haven’t tried this series – do it – great caches.

We then headed into Smithfield and started another new series by the Va_Bunch – we did really good on the series grabbing 4 of the 7 aches in the series with no problems (we did have to use the alternate coords from the logs) until we got to the Orange and Indigo caches. It’s not that we couldn’t find them – we elected not to even get out of the SNAP-mobile because of the number of muggles in the area. Better to come back another day. We did have trouble with the last cache in the series “Red” but we will keep an eye on the logs and get back there soon.

We then headed back into Suffolk and into Portsmouth grabbing another 5 caches.

Caches that earned favorite points on the day were:
GCRYVH – Park 4! Cache by Legomanandhisboys – great idea and could take you some time.

Winner of the “Coveted Nana & Papa Cache of the Day Award” was:
GC2YNKT – You See UMC #2 – Uzzell by bdramatic – great cache and location ! ! ! Congrats ! ! !

One last closing note: When we hid SNAP 43 – Holland’s First we put a note on the page stating that if you e-mailed us a specific answer we would put your name in our blog. Now I know not everyone reads the entire cache page (and neither do Nana & I) but this was NOT a requirement – just a question. “alara” was the first cacher to send me a message with the answer to the question.

For those of you headed towards Geowoodstock – wish we were going with you – we will try our best to make it next year.

By the way – we found a really neat building yesterday during our caching trip – so here is a neat question for everyone… Where were we when we took the below photo? Leave a comment or drop us an e-mail.

As always – Stay Safe & Keep Caching.

SNAP – Suffolk Nana & Papa ! ! !

Sunday March 1st

I don’t mean to get to off target but there was a time in my life when I tried to play golf. When asked, I always said I played Goof! Not golf as I was terrible at the game. But in the game of golf there is one thing that keeps you coming back time after time and that one thing is the perfect shot. A shot that goes straight down the fairway, that seemed like it took little or no effort, the type of shot that once I would hit it I would look around to see who actually hit that ball because I just knew I wasn’t me. Well this weekend in geocaching was like one of those golf shots. Nana & I had a terrific weekend. On Saturday, caching around Bell’s View Park in Chesapeake, cheering on X11fitter as he made and then exceeded his 2500th find. And then to top it off we reached the 1700 mark ourselves later in the day without even realizing it until after the find.

Sunday morning we set off to make a tour of the Hampton Roads area. I had this little voice in my head saying that Sunday couldn’t be as good a caching day as Saturday was. Boy was I wrong. We only had a total of 14 finds on Sunday, not a huge day for numbers, but what great caches we found.

We started off near Smithfield with a cache called Bridge To Nowhere – a simple enough cache but what a container – quite a lot of work went into it and the location was first-rate! Next was Far-Gig-Le…This isn’t Italian – another well thought out cache. We then headed over to Newport News and Hampton where the first cache we found was another outstanding cache – Always on Guard – loved the area and the cache. Yes there were a few LPCs in the bunch but the majority of what we found were well thought out caches in locations that made you pause and wonder at the beauty. Another one worth mentioning was Stroke and Turn at B-Q P – watch out for the poison stuff starting to grow up in the area. Mickie’s Dream Tara, another lovely area and Lil Island in Central Park were others in the area that we both loved. We did have one interesting moment trying to find 302’s Lucky 13 – USUALLY, Nana let’s me take the lead when we go through woods. I get to break all the spider webs, pick the path, etc. Today she decided to take the lead and when she paused to check her GPS I looked down to see her foot about 4″ away from a SNAKE!!! “Um, Nana” I whispered to her, as I didn’t want here to run me over once she realized what was going on – plus the fact it was a small snake – unfortunately for me she looked down before I said “Snake”. Also the snake saw her about the same time as she saw the snake. Not sure which moved faster but I am ok – she ran around me not through me. Made the find quickly as Nana slowly followed me to the cache!!

We then headed over to Ocean View for a fantastic puzzle cache I had solved. I had worked on the puzzle for a couple of hours and was interested to see if I had the correct answer. Not only did we find the cache but how often do you see a “Large” container in such a populated area. If you haven’t attempted it yet – this is a “TO-DO” cache. Well stocked container.

We finished up by grabbing a few in Virginia Beach before deciding to head back home. It was only then that we realized we had not had a DNF all weekend long. As we talked about our cache of the day trying to decide which cache got the prize it hit me: We had just hit that fantastic golf shot. Our numbers weren’t really great for the weekend but we found a total of 22 caches including 1 multi and 3 puzzles, didn’t have a single DNF on the weekend and hiked almost 6 miles. As we discussed which of the tremendous caches we found would have the honor of cache of the day we came to one conclusion – too many good ones to choose. We talked and talked and finally came up with the list for the day:

Favorites of the Day:
1. Bridge to Nowhere by Va_Bunch
2. Always on Guard by V.A.Jacksons
3. Lil Island in Central Park by Mermercheese

Winner of the “Coveted” Nana & Papa’s Cache of the Day Award:
Around The World by Conker10

Our plan for next weekend is a Saturday trip to Victoria Virginia – there are 24 caches in this little town in Central Virginia – we have already contacted a local cacher and he not only talked about the local caches but gave us the name of a great place for lunch. We plan on finding all 24 in town but also some on the way there and back. Wish us Luck!

As always – Stay Safe & Keep Caching – – – SNAP ! !

12 Finds today – Saturday March 12, 2011

Saturday morning started out in the lower 40’s but it ended up being a very beautiful day for caching in and around Hampton Roads. Today we had a list that started out in Isle of Wight and went through Portsmouth, Chesapeake, Norfolk, and Virginia Beach. We ended the day with 12 finds but also with more questions not only about why certain caches are where they are but also about cache maintenance.

We started our day with a newer cache (GC2PRP3) called April Showers bring May Weeds – a very nice cache and a simple Park n Grab. A cache called South of the James was next (GC2PV8Q). As we pulled up to this cache we noticed a neighbor out walking his dogs (in his backyard). The dogs were making all sorts of noise trying to get us out of their area – so we gave the cache sort of real quick look then headed back to the care thinking we would come back when the dogs weren’t out but the neighbor yelled to us “The thing you are looking for is right over to your left”. We thanked him and proceeded back heeding his directions and made the find quick enough. We did yell “thanks” to him as we drove to the next cache. Turtle Cove was our first DNF of the day – we spent about 15 minutes poking through the pine straw. Made our way down to a newer cache called “This Little Piggie went down the road” – another quick P&G.

Made our way back into Suffolk and quickly found a really nice cache called Scout Shed Cache (GC2PRMK) – if you get a chance – go by and grab this cache. Read the cache page first as you will need a tool for this one. Gave this cache a favorite point as it was a runner-up for Cache of the Day.

Play Ball (GC2PDD0) – we grabbed this cache only after reading the logs and realizing we needed other coordinates to get it. The coordinates you need are listed in another log. We did not take another reading because the coordinates we got from the log led us right to the cache.

Made our way into downtown Portsmouth to try to look for GC13FQK – Olde P-town 2 of 5 – London – we had been by this cache several times before and always have the same problem – homeless people sleeping on the bench where the cache is supposed to be. Guess we will have to go by on a rainy day to see if we can get this one cause we ran into the same problem today.

Found (sort of) a really neat cache in Norfolk today. If we had been able to log the find this cache would have received the Cache of the Day award but alas we were not properly prepared to do this cache. We found the ammo box but didn’t have the correct tools to get to it. We will be better prepared next time. Check out RED SQUARE on CT (GC26AM4) next chance you get.

Found about seven other caches today also but I want to concentrate on the really good ones we found today.

The Honorable Mentions (and favorite points) for the day go to:
Scout Shed Micro (see above)
Ranger in the Beach, Bridge, Sign, LINE! (GC2PE77)
Morbid Ivy TB Hotel (GC1910F)

But the winner of the Coveted Nana & Papa Cache of the Day Award (and a favorite point) goes to:
The Subterfuge Oak – Nana & I had tried to find a way to get to this little park in Norfolk about six months ago and never turned onto the correct street. Today was a different story. We finally made it to the park and the walked to GZ – WHAT A GREAT HIDE ! This is a cache that makes an average day seem great. Great Idea – Great Location – some scenery – and then a hunt that was not too difficult but just hard enough.

But we did end up with a two questions at the end of the day
1) We lost another cache today – so the question is Why is it when you find an excellent location and the perfect container to put there – it keeps disappearing ?
2) Why didn’t we read the entire cache page before setting out to get that darn cache?

One bit of advise we offer to other cache owners – getting accurate coordinates for your hides can sometimes be hard. If more than one finder tells you your coordinates are off – and others offer better coordinates that subsequent finders say are very accurate – Please update your page with the new coordinates.

Tomorrow’s caching trip is scheduled to be Elizabeth City and maybe even Hertford, NC. As always, Stay Safe and Keep Caching. – – – – – SNAP !