'Tis the tick season again. I've already pulled a few off of me. Every year geocachers find themselves exposed to these little critters over and over again. My worst encounter netted a whopping forty at just one cache!
From time-to-time I'll get an email about some new tick removal system or device. I've tried a few of them, but in a moment of tick-mania I usually just go with the "grip it and rip it" method. However, that's probably not a very good idea. Doctors are always telling us about the danger of pulling the tick off but leaving the head embedded and how that can cause infection.
And it's not actually Photoshop, it's Paint Shop Pro. It's far cheaper than Photoshop and has many of the same abilities. Purists don't care for it but, hey, I like what it does.
Last year I hosted the Moonshine Meet n' Meat n' Greet (with Bacon) event. Moonshine is a small town just south of me...and when I say small I mean SMALL...population TWO. But they have this incredible business there selling Moonburgers. People come from all over. And last year, cachers came from all over. What a great time we had!
After much prodding I finally set a date for Moonshine II last week. People are already excited. You need to be there! Moonshine is an amazing place and it's a thrill for me to get to share it with so many people.
I set up a separate website just for the event. However, it's been fraught with technical difficulties. It's starting to get really frustrating too. My host keeps promising me they're going to figure this out but my biggest fear is I'm going to have to reload the whole thing just to get it to work. Ugh. I don't need that headache!
I had lunch Monday with Margot Anne Kelley, author of Local Treasures: Geocaching Across America. I've had a copy of this book for a little over a year and have thoroughly enjoyed it. I suppose you would have to call it a "coffee table book." It's a series of photos and essays chronicling her geocaching trip across the United States (even into Hawaii). The pictures are amazing, the stories are ones that most cachers can relate very easily.
She was in the area doing an art show at Rose-Hulman in Terre Haute, IN. Unfortunately, I had some prior commitments and couldn't make the show, so I contacted her about grabbing some lunch at the Grand Traverse Pie Company (Yummmm). You've got to wonder about someone who takes me up on an offer like that!
At any rate, lunch was great and the conversation was great. One thing that really impressed me (and surprised me) was she had gotten hooked on geocaching first and then decided to write the book. Too often these days it feels like a lot of geocaching material we see is just the opposite--someone who sees geocaching as a way to make a little money and picks up the hobby to exploit it.
It's long been established that holding a geocaching event for the sake of going caching together is a "no-no." Events have to be purely social. Trailmix has managed to honor this and yet still offer a lot of fun for those who want to get out and nab a few finds too.
These are no "Cache Machine" runs with people piling in and out of vehicles at ever lamp post and looking for a cache. These are some serious hikes with some fun terrain and a bunch of great cachers who love to be outdoors. Most importantly this time - it was close enough I could make it!
A year ago or so I signed up for some Google News Alerts. It's a really cool service. You enter the keywords you're looking for and when they appear in a news story you get an email with a link to it. Handy, huh?
I entered "Geocaching" of course, but I also entered "Geocaching" and "Bomb" in a separate alert. That one's been...well...interesting.
This Article came across my desk a couple days as a result. Apparently someone spotted a Decon in a guard rail and mistook it for a bomb. All-in-all the end result seems pretty happy. The police aren't going to file charges against the geocacher (there was something about inciting a panic) and they've also come to realize that their department is ill-prepared for bomb scares--real or otherwise.
Cache Machine