JaxParks 2015: Walter Jones Park

It's been years since I've posted anything here but today we were out for a walk as a family and my son saw a Geocache in the brush.   Family walks are scarce at his age, so finding a Geocache on a spontaneous walk in the park was an added bonus!   This was obviously easy to find since we weren't looking for it.   There was no pen so we didn't get to sign the log and of course had nothing to leave in it since we weren't expecting to find it.  It was fun to find and go through though.  It makes me want to do it again.  I'd love for my son to take over our account and look for Geocaches when he leaves home, maybe get some friends interested in it along the way.

As you can see from the photos, it's been a long time since we posted on this blog, my son is all grown up and graduating this year.   This is a nice little park to visit for a short walk, taking photos, and especially to watch the sunset.

  

July 4th Weekend

We wanted to get a GPS that would work in the car, and that would work for Geocaching so we've been putting off buying one until we decide which would be best. We finally read this info on the Garmin Nuvi and paperless caching so we decided to give the Garmin Nuvi 200 a whirl. After downloading the programs suggested and running the macro, I had 500 caches within 200 miles loaded and ready to find in my new GPS! Although it doesn't do one thing we hoped it would, it's pretty cool since it holds all the info from Geocaching.com so we don't even need to print anything out to carry with us.

I think I'm going to like this one. We can find caches anytime we're out riding around without having to worry about having the computer to look them up. When we travel, we can download Geocaches for any area we go to and load them into the GPS. Way cool in my book! It will take a little to get used to maneuvering with the GPS when we're out of the car and walking, but we proved today with the caches we found that it can be done. I found it easier to use than the handheld Magellen we had tried.

Here is the info on our latest finds since my last post...

7/06/2008 - Sunday
Hail To The Chief - Z
This was the first cache we went looking for with the new Garmin Nuvi 200. It took us a few minutes to figure out how to use the Nuvi out of the truck properly, but we did manage to find the cache. This one was quite clever and took all 3 of us. I pointed out the location, JT spied the hide and Tim figured out how to get it out. Tungett teamwork! This was a 35 mm cannister.

Beyond the Horizon
This one is just around the corner from our house, down a street we've never been down. We saw a HUGE rat down by the water. It was at least 15-20 lbs. We also saw a snake and a turtle. We researched the "rat" when we got home and have decided that it was a Nutria. Basically a big rat that causes more harm than good to the wetlands. After wondering around for awhile, we finally managed to find the right coordinates and locate the cache. It was supposed to have a couple of trackables in it, but they were missing. We dropped the Road Warrior Cache Movers Geocoin we had picked up last month. This one was a quart sized plastic container.

Goodby's Current
This is at the new boat dock about 1 mile from our house. We've been meaning to stop and grab this one for awhile. It was a neat hide with cool camo and Tim was the one who managed to find it.

Is That What I Think It Is?
This was just around the corner and a fairly easy find. JT's sharp eyes spied this one. This was a small camo pouch.

Volunteer Cache
This one was down a path into a swampy wooded area. Although we were looking for a gallon sized plastic container, we walked around in circles alot looking for this one. I was stung on the legs several times by something, we ran into quite a few banana spiders, and Tim did a really cool jig when he ran into one. :) It started raining, we were sweating like pigs and I was ready to give up when I finally spied it hiding under a palmetto. It didn't have anything good in it so we signed the log and headed out.

Beat the Heat Meat & Greet (Event Cache)
At 3:30, wet from sweating and being in the rain, we headed to The Loop for an organized NEFGA event. We thought it would be a good chance to finally meet some Geocachers so we went. There were quite a few people and we met a few whose names we recognized from caches we had found. There were lots of coins to look at and be discovered. It was nice to put a few faces with names we've seen.

7/05/2008 - Saturday
Today we went to Alpine Grove Park off S.R. 13 to possibly spy out a spot for a Geocache. When we turned into the park entrance we saw 6 adults circling a tree across the street. They were obviously looking for a Geocache. We went for a walk in the park looking at possible hiding places and we crossed paths with them as they came in looking for a couple that were already placed in the park. We spoke to them briefly, but didn't introduce ourselves or get their names so I don't know who they were. Hopefully they'll log some finds there and we'll find out who they were. Now that we have our GPS we can go back and see about finding the ones that area already in the park. It was a nice park and we'll definitely have to go back with the dogs sometime and maybe do a picnic.

7/04/2008 - Friday

Joker Undercover
We were headed to some friend's house for a July 4th cookout when we realized there was a cache nearby behind a grocery store so weH stopped by to grab it before the cookout. Tim found it pretty quickly. It was a magnetic key holder with no magnet. We signed the log and left a travel bug in it.

6/21/2008 - Saturday

I-295 Loop Cache #4
We took my sister out to look for a few geocaches on this day. We only found 1 out of 3 we attempted. I was hoping we'd have a couple of exciting finds with her in tow so she could understand why we enjoy it so much, but unfortunately we didn't. This one was by a very busy road with lots of people looking at us and some people on a nearby bench waiting for the bus. JT managed to get down on the ground and find this magnetic keyholder's hiding place. Now if I can just teach him not to yell "I FOUND IT!!!" while holding it up in the air when there are muggles around we'll be doing good.

6/16/2008 - Monday

Henry Flagler's Railroad - Sunbeam
JT and I headed out on this afternoon hoping to be the FTF a new cache. It was nice location near the railroad tracks and JT found it. We weren't the FTF though. A friend of the guy who placed it claimed FTF.


6/12/2008 - Thursday

Pushing Tin
This one has eluded us a couple of times and we decided it was time to go and find it once and for all. 3rd time was a charm and we found it! Tim had looked at the area before, but apparently not quite close enough. He was surprised when he realized he had missed it before. This was a neat camo job, although it should have been easier for us. Finally, we can mark this off and not have to go back.

Took JT's friends out Geocaching

We kept a couple of our friends' boys this weekend while they went on a retreat. We decided to kill some time today showing them what Geocaching is. Since it was 92 degrees outside, we pulled up just a few to search for. We wanted to look for camo boxes to make it more fun for them since micros are harder to find and not fun for kids. The boys seemed to really enjoy it and both of them found one.

Lake Front
Our first stop of the day. There were a bunch of Canadian geese walking around the field, but that didn't last long with 3 boys to chase them screaming. This one took a little buchwhacking, but Jake saw it first but couldn't get to it. Mr. Tim stepped in and tried to claim the find though!

Pond with a view
Our next stop of the day was behind a shopping center on a little peninsular of land that jutted out into a pond. It looked like the type of place where homeless people were probably living. The kids and Tim went bushwhacking and I stayed on the outer edge. When I saw it and pointed it out, Tim argued he had already seen that and that it wasn't what we were looking for. One of the kids reached under the palmetto and sure enough, it was a plastic container painted green with the goodies inside.

Hot to Go Again
This one was hidden near Krispy Kreme so we decided to find this one and then go inside and have a quick sugar fix and head out again. JT found this one after having a little direction from his father. I sat this one out in the air conditioned truck while it idled burning diesel at $4.79 / gallon!

Pushing Tin
Even with 4 additional eyes, this one eluded us again!

Where's Jack?
Joseph saw this one before we even go close. This was a nice location behind an office building with a gazebo near a big tree and pond. I commented that it looked like a nice place to have lunch, my son JT (10 next week) said it looked like a great makeout spot! He's ONLY 10 and thinking like that already?

More Photos Here...

Out of town at a conference

I had to go to Lakeland, FL for a few days for a church conference and I checked out the area to see how many geocaches were hidden nearby and there were actually quite a lot of them. I didn't want to go hunting for them by myself though, it's more fun with JT and Tim or at least someone. There was one close by my hotel though, right behind a 7-Eleven so I was tempted to stop one morning.

Brain Freeze 6
This was a pretty quick find. Hopped out, grabbed it, signed it and was on my way. I was in and out so quick, not one muggle spotted me.

There are actually a lot of geocaches in Lakeland. It looks like a great place to run through grabbing numbers. Maybe another time when I'm not alone. At least I got to get at least one find while I was there!

Racoon, Ants, & Chiggers...

We took the GPS out tonight to give it a whirl as a family. Truth be told, in some instances we found it helpful, in some, we just walked around in circles. Of course, it would help if I actually read the manual, but I'm just not a manual reading kinda girl. :)

We started off the evening looking for a couple of caches, had dinner (played with the GPS during dinner trying to figure it out) and then went and looked for a couple more. I say "looked" because we didn't find a couple we were looking for.

So, here's a rundown of today's hunt.... dirty hands, ant bites, chiggers, stung by something, Racoon in the woods with a message, fun & aggravation.... typical geocaching experiences? :)

Grandpappy Amos & Luke
Made a quick stop on the way to my son's Karate class today. Took us a few minutes, finally found it. Once you find it, it's obvious. :) SL

Not Roy's Brother's Park
We looked hard for a long time and never found this one! I hope it's still there. We will be back after we see someone else finds it. Nice park though... never been there before. Nice stroll, good place to come and play. Thanks for the exercise, and the exercise in hunting...however futile. :)

At Home in the Woods
Too cute! Found this one while out caching close to home tonight. Wish I hadn't read the logs before we went though. SL In: Bracelet, toy car & toy coin Out: Baseball cards

Ride the Stadium Shuttle II, Almost
We found this one tonight while caching in the dark. It was a little scary after reading the snake post earlier! Found it without too much trouble, had to fight off some huge red ants though. SL
In: Red Serendipity Travel Bug, bracelet Out: Nothing

I'm a Grinnin'
This is at a business office planted by a worker there - I'm sure for their entertainment! Someone would have been grinnin at us had they been watching us tonight. We were like the 3 Stooges searching in the dark. It's pitch black there at night and we only had one lousy flashlight! We looked high, we looked low. We didn't find it. But, we will be back during the daytime!

Geocaching in the News

First Hide ... "24 Hour SVC at the Y"

Today I hid my first Geocache. Just a little camouflaged magnetic key holder hidden just about 1-1/2 miles from my house.

Since it's so small and there's not really room for anything, I only left one of those gold dollar coins for the FTF. It's a fairly easy find. The name gives the location away pretty well and it's in a location where it should be found quite a bit.

We are putting together our first ammo can to hide. Trying to figure out someplace really good to put it where we can still have access to monitor it and take care of it. My son is really excited about this one and wants to do it NOW but until we figure out where, he'll just have to practice patience. :) I'm glad he enjoys Geocaching with us. The only problem is, he's not really into "looking", he only gets excited when it's found and he gets to open it and check out the "goodies". Probably very typical for a 9 year old cacher!