Hard Caches - Failed

This evenig we went out to establish some more KCopoly cache sites, but decided to try to find a couple caches first. That was a mistake. We tried to find "Everybody Loves Micros" and "Adair you". After over 2 hours of hard sweat I gave up on both of them. Most folks find them in 10 minutes, but not me. I went through the woods like a bush-hog. I checked every limb, bottle, can, stump, tree, etc. that I could find and nothing. Some say it's in a container they've never seen before, but I check every object I can find and still nothing. It's hard to get your courage up to try again after trying so hard. Maybe tomorrow.

0 Geocaches Found today.
9396 Steps Today

More KCopoly Caches

We spent the evening putting out more caches for the new KCopoly Cache Series.

While we were out we found a new cache that was released last night. It was rated 3-3 and deserved every bit of it.

I'm back to using my old McDonald's Pedometer.

1 Geocache Found today.
6871 Steps Today

Lost My Pedometer

Tonight we were out placing new geocache sites for the KCopoly Game. Somewhere along the way my pedometer must have fallen off my belt. We placed about half of the KCopoly caches. We finally completed the Kansas City Fountains Cache tonight. It was a great series, but a lot of work.

2 Geocaches Found today.
Lost my Pedometer

Kansas City Fountains

We spent our evening chasing the Kansas City Fountains. We had pictures of 14 fountains around town and for the KC Fountains Geocache we had to identify which fountain goes with which location. After much googling, a trip to the library, getting my foot wet in on of the fountains, approached by a guard wondering what we were doing, and a whole lot of driving we solved the puzzle. At least we think we did. Solving the puzzle just gave us a coordinates to the real cache site. We'll go find that maybe tomorrow.

1 Geocache Found today.
9105 Steps Today - 4.16 miles.
3313 Aerobic Steps in 30 minutes.
386 Calories Burned - 22.7 grams of Fat Burned.

26 Caches And Home By Sundown

We finished up caching in Wichita, KS by 3:30 p.m. and headed home. We stopped to eat at Ruby Tuesday's in Olathe, KS and we were home by sundown.


26 Geocaches Found today.
13,182 Steps Today - 6.03 miles.
3406 Aerobic Steps in 29 minutes.
626 Calories Burned - 35.1 grams of Fat Burned.

Broke All My Walking Records - 28,460 Steps

I knew I was just completly give out this evening, but I was absolutly shocked when I looked at my pedometer a few moment ago. 28,460 steps today breaks all my previous records for steps taken in one day. Most of these steps were made in Swanson Park in Wichita, KS this afternoon. I was looking for 7 geocache sites and I kept running into a big uncrossable creek and then I had to backtrack. The creek was not shown in my map data for my GPS. This was a real problem. I would guess that I am more tired than any of our other weekend geocaching trips.

I also rode a bicycle for several miles today which is not reflected in the miles walked.

32 Geocaches Found Today.
28,460 Steps Today - 13.02 miles.
4581 Aerobic Steps in 39 minutes.
1436 Calories Burned - 81.4 grams of Fat Burned.

Geocaching in Wichita, Kansas

Tonight we're in Wichita, Kansas. We've located 20 new cache sites this afternoon. We found the original "Pizza Hut" this evening. It sure is small. We are staying at the Red Carpet Inn tonight. ($42.50)

1248 Geocaches Found.
12,251 Steps Today - 5.60 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps in 0 minutes.
567 Calories Burned - 31.4 grams of Fat Burned.

Packing for a Geocaching Trip

This evening we're packing and getting ready to travel to Wichita, KS tomorrow. I've loaded the laptop, the GPS, and the PocketPC with all the waypoints for our trip. I think we're ready to go.

1228 Geocaches Found.
5604 Steps Today - 256 miles.
3137 Aerobic Steps in 27 minutes.
239 Calories Burned - 14.3 grams of Fat Burned.

KCopoly In The Testing Stages

Tonight I put Mary to testing the KCopoly code. Right off the bat she broke it. After a few fixes it seems to be about ready for production mode.

We spent some time plotting the KCopoly Micro-Cache Sites on the map. The next step will be to drive by each location and figure out what kind of container we need for the each site.

1228 Geocaches Found.
4750 Steps Today - 2.17 miles.
3167 Aerobic Steps in 29 minutes.
202 Calories Burned - 12.3 grams of Fat Burned.

KCopoly is Born

Mary and I have been in the talking stages of putting together a KCopoly series of geocaches. Tonight I started coding for the project. We hope to hide as many micro-caches around town as we can find places that would make people think of a square on the Monopoly Board. I didn't want to get into the mode of getting a lot of emails and record keeping so I am trying to automate the project with web pages. The goal would be for people to find all the KCopoly micro-caches and then they will be rewarded with the coordinates for the Grand KCopoly Cache Site.

1228 Geocaches Found.
7291 Steps Today - 3.33 miles.
3297 Aerobic Steps in 28 minutes.
330 Calories Burned - 19.6 grams of Fat Burned.

A Guitar Nutz Night Caching Adventure

Seems like the most exciting thing today was my trip to the dentist. They cleaned my teeth and gave me a clean bill of health for my teeth.

I wrote the above 2 sentences before a new cache site popped up on my screen. Now I think the most excitement was going out at 10:30 p.m. and being the first to find one of Guitar Nutz caches. This was a multi-cache with some tricky math to derive the final coordinates. Finding a cache site at night is always more exciting than finding it in the daylight. We had fun. Now I've missed over an hours sleep.

1228 Geocaches Found.
6030 Steps Today - 2.75 miles.
2095 Aerobic Steps in 20 minutes.
267 Calories Burned - 15.3 grams of Fat Burned.

Night Caching

We started caching in Omaha, NE this morning about 7:00 a.m. Sometime after lunch we decided to go over to Lincoln, NE. One of the cache sites in Lincoln was where a recent tornado touched down. It is amazing to see what wind can do to huge trees.

We left Lincoln about 3:30 p.m. and found several cache sites on the way home.

One of the highlights for the afternoon was touring the 1922 home of Bess Streeter Aldrich in Elmwood, Nebraska. She was a famous author who wrote "A Lantern In Her Hand". We really enjoyed the break from geocaching while we toured the home. I guess it wasn't a break after all. There was a cache site in the front yard which brought us to the home.

There were 3 cache sites we missed in St. Joseph, Missouri on the way to Omaha, but it was dark by the time we got there. I decided to go ahead and try to find them in the dark with my night orienteering head light. I located the last cache about 9:00 p.m. There's nothing like bushwhacking in the dark to raise geocaching to whole new level of excitement.

We were so tired when we got home about 10:30 p.m. that we just fell into bed. We'll have to log our 31 new cache finds tomorrow night. Looks like we located a total of 80 new cache sights this weekend.

1228 Geocaches Found.
16,638 Steps Today - 7.61 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps in 0 minutes.
759 Calories Burned - 41.9 grams of Fat Burned.

Geocaching in Omaha, NE

We spent the day Geocaching in Omaha, NE today. We only found 35 new cache sites today. We had 5 failures. That's awful. We're at the Super 8 Motel tonight ($45).

1197 Geocaches Found.
18,973 Steps Today - 8.68 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps in 0 minutes.
914 Calories Burned - 50.6 grams of Fat Burned.

Travel to Omaha, NE

We decided that Omaha was a goldmine of new geocaches so we traveled to Omaha this afternoon. We located 14 new cache sites by dark this evening. We are staying at the Starlite Motel tonight. It cost $48.10.

1162 Geocaches Found.
12,668 Steps Today - 5.79 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps in 0 minutes.
589 Calories Burned - 32.7 grams of Fat Burned.

BLUE Day all the Way

Today was my first day to work for Big Blue. I am now an IBM'er. The day went fairly smooth except that I still don't know who my manager will be. We had a big celebration in the Winter Garden on the Sprint Campus this morning to welcome us to IBM. They gave us an IBM Pen, IBM Mug, IBM Folder and now I have IBM on my Badge. Now I'm all Blue.

1148 Geocaches Found.
6607 Steps Today - 3.02 miles.
2055 Aerobic Steps in 19 minutes.
268 Calories Burned - 15.3 grams of Fat Burned.

A Decade with Sprint has Ended

This has been a sad day for me. I had to walk out of Sprint this evening for the last time as a Sprint employee.

I'll go to work in the morning doing the same thing as an IBM employee. I guess I'm happy to still have a job. They are talking now about moving us to the Sprint building at Gardner, Kansas. It just seems there is no end to the upheaval.

1148 Geocaches Found.
6134 Steps Today - 2.80 miles.
3265 Aerobic Steps in 30 minutes.
269 Calories Burned - 16.1 grams of Fat Burned.

Last Time Report to Sprint

I'm not sure I know how I feel about this. Today I turned in my last time report to Sprint. Tomorrow is my last day as a Sprint employee. I've been on this same job for 10 years. It's just not going to feel right not working for Sprint. I wish Corporations could just settle down. It seems to get more stressful as the years roll along. We've been in upheaval for several years with one reorganization after another. I guess working for IBM beats the alternative. I just want to settle down.

1148 Geocaches Found.
5788 Steps Today - 2.64 miles.
3201 Aerobic Steps in 29 minutes.
240 Calories Burned - 14.3 grams of Fat Burned.

First to Find

It's been a while since we were the first to find a new geocache site in Kansas City. Guitar Nutz seems to always beat everybody. Today at lunch we beat him by 5 minutes. Cindy with Team Samoyed was disappointed that she was not first. She got there 45 minutes after us and was so disappointed when she opened the cache and found that 2 people had beat her. I know the feeling.

1148 Geocaches Found.
3594 Steps Today - 1.64 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps in 0 minutes.
137 Calories Burned - 7.5 grams of Fat Burned.

Big Day in Tulsa, Oklahoma

This was a big day for Mary and I in Tulsa. We started just after daylight and kept on caching until a little after 6:00 p.m. this evening. We left town after 6:00 and only stopped once for gas. We got home about 10:00 p.m. We located 34 new cache sites today and failed at 3 others. These failures sure do cost a lot of time. When we got home we just fell into bed. We'll have to log the cache finds tomorrow night.

1147 Geocaches Found.
17,896 Steps Today - 8.19 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps in 0 minutes.
847 Calories Burned - 46.1 grams of Fat Burned.

Broke my walking record today.

We went geocaching again today in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I walked 20,023 steps today. That exceeds my previous record at Old Faithful this past June when I walked over 19,000 steps in one day. Plus I rode a bicycle today for several miles that didn't get counted with the steps. I'm tired. We found 29 new cache sites today.

We are at the Days Inn tonight in Tulsa. It cost $55.17. Mary said it was much nicer than last night at the Executive Inn.

1113 Geocaches Found.
20,023 Steps Today - 9.16 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps in 0 minutes.
983 Calories Burned - 54.7 grams of Fat Burned.

Geocaching in Tulsa, Oklahoma

We arrived about 4:30 this evening in Tulsa. A little later than I had hoped for, but we still found 13 new cache sites before dark. We then enjoyed a great meal at Ryan's. We stayed in the Executive Inn for $39.73.

1084 Geocaches Found.
13,137 Steps Today - 6.01 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps in 0 minutes.
627 Calories Burned - 35.1 grams of Fat Burned.

Loading up for Tulsa

I spent the evening loading the GPS, Street Atlas, and the PocketPC with all the waypoints for our trip this weekend to Tulsa, Oklahoma.

1071 Geocaches Found.
9086 Steps Today - 4.15 miles.
3340 Aerobic Steps in 30 minutes.
372 Calories Burned - 22.0 grams of Fat Burned.

Chris gave me a Bicycle

I spent the evening working with an old bicycle that Chris Wilson gave me. I guess he felt sorry for me. I'm always talking about needing a bicycle to find geocache sites that are located along bicycle trails.

The bicycle had a flat on the front tire. Chris even gave me a patch kit. I went to the store and bought a $10 tire pump. I quickly found a thorn in the tire and fixed it.

I took it for a spin down the Indian Trail for about 3.5 miles. It normally would have taken me a little over an hour to walk that distance. I was able to do it with the bicycle in about 20 minutes and I was taking my time.

Thank You Chris. Looks like I'm ready to go caching on a bicycle.

Then I wondered how I could mount my GPS to the handle bar. A Ram Mount would cost about $30. Somehow that just didn't seem right to pay $30 for a mount on a free bicycle. I went to work with spare parts and some plywood I had on hand. Here's what I came up with.


My Homemade GPS Mount
1071 Geocaches Found.
5331 Steps Today - 2.44 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps in 0 minutes.
234 Calories Burned - 12.9 grams of Fat Burned.

Mary's First Day Home from Arkansas

This was Mary's first day back home from Arkansas. She spent the past month down there taking care of our grand daughter, Ashley. It's really good to have her home.

We went geocaching this evening and grabbed a couple hard to find caches.

After caching we had a coupon for the 54th Street Grill and enjoyed a great meal together.

1069 Geocaches Found.
8783 Steps Today - 4.01 miles.
3172 Aerobic Steps in 29 minutes.
378 Calories Burned - 22.1 grams of Fat Burned.

A Great Weekend in Little Rock

We have spent the evening returning from a great trip to Little Rock, Arkansas. We had a good visit with my Dad, brother, sister, two sons and their families.

It's a pretty tiring trip coming back. It's about 7-8 hours of just sitting. Having access to Robby's Sprint PCS Vision PCMCIA card has really helped past the time.

I managed persuade them to let me grab 3 cache sites on the way home.

1066 Geocaches Found.
4766 Steps Today - 2.18 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps in 0 minutes.
131 Calories Burned - 7.1 grams of Fat Burned.

Geocaching in Little Rock

This afternoon I went caching with Mary, Scott, Laura, Ashley and Bradley around Little Rock. We located 7 new caches together and had a great time. Thanks gang for going caching with me.

We met Robby and Alison at the US Pizza Company in North Little Rock for a late lunch.

On the way back across the river we saw the new submarine that just arrived from Turkey this past week. North Little Rock bought it from Turkey and plans to make it a part of the new marine museum. The submarine is the USS Razorback from World War II. It looked to be in great shape. Turkey must have taken really good care of it.

8199 Geocaches Found.
5 Steps Today - 3.75 miles.
3361 Aerobic Steps in 27 minutes.
387 Calories Burned - 22.0 grams of Fat Burned.

Dinner at Delton's

We enjoyed a great evening at my brother's (Delton) house. After dinner we sat around and watched my mothers slides from the 1960's and 1970's. It was a fun evening of fellowship and good food.

Today Scott and I located 22 new cache sites around Little Rock. We stopped at Waffle House this morning for breakfast. We really enjoyed ourselves today.

1056 Geocaches Found.
18,848 Steps Today - 8.62 miles.
1649 Aerobic Steps in 13 minutes.
865 Calories Burned - 48.3 grams of Fat Burned.

Blogging from the Back Seat

I'm sitting in the back seat of Robby's Mazda riding down highway 71 south and online. We are about the cross the line into Arkansas. I've been online since we left Kansas City except for one time in Nevada when we stopped for lunch.

Robby brought his Sprint PCS Vision PCMCIA card and let me use it. Now I want one. There is just no end to wanting something. I have really enjoyed being online while traveling down the road. I found a geocache site in Nevada when we stopped for lunch and I've already logged it.

This is WAY COOL.

1034 Geocaches Found.
5002 Steps Today - 2.28 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps in 0 minutes.
216 Calories Burned - 10.4 grams of Fat Burned.

Offer and Acceptance from IBM

I received an offer from IBM today and I sent in my acceptance. Looks like in a few days I'll be working for IBM. My last day with Sprint will be September 15th. I sure hope this is a good thing. I really did not have a choice. I could quit or go to IBM. Those were my choices.

1030 Geocaches Found.
3,754 Steps Today - 1.71 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps in 0 minutes.
139 Calories Burned - 7.6 grams of Fat Burned.

A Dawggone Cache

Mary and I spent way too much time trying to find "A Dawggone Cache" by CCDAWG in Liberty, Missouri last July. I thought then that it had been swept away down the river by some of the flooding. Today CCDAWG posted a note that said it was still there, right where he left it. I couldn't stand it, so this evening after work I drove to Liberty and crossed the river for the 5th time on a log about 10 foot above the water in search of the elusive cache. After a long time of searching on the steep bank, I had to step back and wipe the sweat off my brow and rest a few minutes. It was then that I spotted the cache. What a relief. I took a coupon from CCDAWG for a free buffet meal at CC's pizza(CCDAWG is the owner). I was tired and bedraggled, so I went and had a feast on CCDAWG.

I decided to stop by the "Puppy Love" multi-cache on the way home at the Plaza. At stage 3 of the cache I met Team Samoyed. She and I worked for a long time and I finally located the tag we needed to continue. Then we met ajayhawkfan. We all teamed up to finish the cache. We finished finding the last stage in the dark with headlights and flashlights about 8:30 this evening. What fun to meet other cachers and find a cache together.

1030 Geocaches Found.
7,683 Steps Today - 3.51 miles.
0 Aerobic Steps in 0 minutes.
302 Calories Burned - 16.7 grams of Fat Burned.