I saw yesterday where someone had posted in the Groundspeak forum
"My worst day of caching was better than my best day at work"!

Isn't that the truth!

Share your happy caching stories with us!

Here is mine from today's caching adventure:

Great fun!

I got the emails at 9:28... a new series... Cache Course 101... 15 of them, but I didn't check my email until after 10 o'clock.

I haven't chased an FTF in years, but this is too good to pass up!

Order a PQ, load the query into my Garmin 60 CSx and into Cachemate on my BlackJack II and I'm on the road by 10:30. It's a weekday morning after work hours have already started... surely I won't get 15 FTFs... but maybe!

Got to #101 just before 11 - Old Boy Hiker (OBH, locally known as the Cache Ninja for how fast he gets FTFs) and Villagers3 have already found it! Looks like the Cache Ninja has a Ninja-ette hot on his heels!

Dang - This calls for a change of strategy!

Head for #115... FTF! Yes!

#114 FTF! Woohoo!

#113 FTF! There is a God!

#112 FTF! Signing the log and up comes We5Fish.

From then on it's a race, but neither of us wants to ACT like it's a race, so we just sorta casually saunter to the next few caches... trying to casually saunter one step ahead of the other, ya know. So, while he's signing the log I saunter on down the road!

#111 I get to ground zero first, but We5Fish nabs the FTF. I better step up my casual sauntering technique, this guy is quick!

#110 is a replay... score 2 for We5Fish. Huh. Drive faster than he's willing to. The hell with casual.

#109 Arrive at ground zero together. Guess he was willing to drive faster than I thought. He comes up with the FTF by literal seconds. That's my story and I am sticking to it!

#108 Okay, he got the darn FTF, and this is gettin' embarrassin'! But I am glad he did, turns out this is #400 for him! Woohoo! Took a picture for his milestone.

#107 Get there together, but he's on the phone! Oh yeah, I have it! Ooops... Villagers3 and OBH have been here. Not bad! We5Fish and I both got 4 FTFs and met the Cache Ninja in the middle!

#106 Got a 30-second lead on We5Fish, grab it... but the Cache Ninja and Villager3 have beaten us both. There won't be any more FTFs.

#105 Stopped at Play Ball! on the way to this one as I saw our friend Betaman there looking. I had already found it so I left We5Fish to find it with him and moved on. Was signing the log for this one when a Deputy rolled up. Can't have a Rambler Cache Run without cops! He wants to know why an old one-legged fat man is caressing his sign post. Not in those words, but the 'Jeez there's a lotta nuts out here' came through. I start to explain the game and his eyes glaze over... "Have fun" he says and off he goes.

#104 GPS says ground zero is right over there... just about right where that guy is working a bull-dozer! 'Well' says I to me, 'this ain't good'. Read the hint - Yep, the cache has gotta be right there where he's working. So I walk over to ground zero, about five feet in front of his big blade. Now, you think the cop thought I was nuts, wonder what the dozer driver thinks when I walk in front of his path and stand there with my GPS! The hint tells me it's in an oak tree, and this is the only oak left standing... in fact it's one of only two trees left in the area! The dozer driver shuts down his machine and quietly asks if he can help me. The underlying message I can read in his face is 'What the HELL do you think you're doing?!'. I explain the game, he thinks it sounds cool, gets down from his machine and joins the hunt... and finds it before I do! Now he explains that he is the property manager and gravedigger, and that they are expanding the cemetery. A co-worker walks up and they debate leaving the tree so the cache can stay there! How cool is that?! But it was decided that roots and caskets don't mix, so the tree had to go. He told me the cache was welcome to stay and pointed out an area about 60' away where it would be safe. I moved the cache, marked the new coordinates, then went and put a note in #s 105 and 103 with the new coords for 104 so that people coming from either end would see that it had been moved.

#103 Uneventful, TFTC!

#102 Since I started at 101 then went to 115 and worked backward this was the end of the run for me.

Jack and Jill Watch Out For The Hill is just across the street from #102, so I went after it. The manager came out and questioned me, said that he personally didn't care but that it was a corporate thing, we'd have to remove it 'till we got their permission. Liability, he says. So I moved it a block up the road and sent the owner the new coords.

On the way home a friend called and wanted to take me to lunch, so 16 caches, 4 FTFs, met We5Fish, saved 2 caches, and got a free lunch... now that's what I call a good day!

Oh yeah... we were supposed to record our completion times... I didn't, but I started at 11 and was done by 2, so subtracting talk-at-the-site time and moving the two caches I did it in about 2 hours.

By TheAlabamaRambler

TheAlabamaRambler is Ed Manley, husband to GeoRose (Teresa), father of five wonderful humans, grandfather of two more, and an avid geocacher.

Now retired after a decade in the US Navy followed by 28 years of owning and operating Knowledge Management Systems, an IT consultancy specializing in Workflow Analysis and Business Process Improvement, Ed now has the time to pursue his hobbies: Fishing, Geocaching and Ham Radio... the order of importance changes daily!

He is also W4AGA, an Extra-class Amateur Radio Operator with a passion for serving the public through volunteer disaster-relief preparedness and response. Active as a Communicator and Disaster Relief Chaplain in the Southern Baptist Convention Disaster Relief, American Red Cross (Shelter Manager and ARCHIE Team Lead), the Salvation Army Team Emergency Relief Network (SATERN), Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES AEC - Jefferson County Assistant Emergency Coordinator and OES - Operational Emergency Station) and Assisatant Director of the Zamora Shriners Ham Unit, he can be found on HF daily on 3.965 and on VHF on the Birmingham Amateur Radio Club (BARC) repeater on 146.88.

If you have any interest whatsoever in serving and giving back to your community, saving lives and taking part in the wonderful community of amateur radio please visit http://w4aga.com to learn about the many volunteer opportunities.

Ed is the Editor-In-Chief (sounds high-fallutin, don't it?) of the free online geocaching e-zine The Online Geocacher. He can be contacted via email at mailto:TheAlabamaRambler@gmail.com or by phone at 205-914-6814 from 7 a.m. to Midnight CDT.

73 de W4AGA