What a great weekend of caching!
Lobocs and I found a total of 81 for the weekend (Fri through Sun), with 47 of them on Saturday. We found 45 of the 51 caches placed, but failed to win any of the prizes.
The caches were a lot more difficult than we expected. There were very few that were "easy" to get to, and only 1 or 2 that were wheelchair-accessible.
Overall, it was a fun weekend.
This weekend, Lobocs and I will be going to West Bend, WI, for the West Bend $1,000 Cache Ba$h (GC1AW6D). I'll be driving to Bloomington, IL, on Friday, and Lobocs and I will leave from there. We plan on getting 17 caches on the way and making it in time for the Drink and Think and Coin Clink (GC1CDJ6) event being held that night.
After a bit of sleep, we'll be at the event around 6am. 51 caches are to be found, as well as some GeoGolf (we'll see how that works!). After several hours of caching, there's a drawing for CASH and prizes.
After the event, we're driving to Madison, WI, for the night. The next morning we're off to Dubuque, IA (another state!), then Davenport, IA, then back to Bloomington. From there, we'll either stay the night or drive back to St. Louis. There's a total of 30 caches on the list for today.
My hope, if I don't win cash, is to win a TB or geocoin so I can track my mileage for this trip as well. If I don't win one, someone has offered to give me one for free.
If we get every cache on our list, as well as the 51 at the event, we'll have 100 caches for the weekend. That's a stretch, as I don't think we'll find all 51, but it's doable.
Most likely, my 800th will be in the midst of the event. Lobocs' 1100th will be early on our first day.
I'm planning on taking the camera, so expect a lot of photos when we return. I haven't been "true caching" (more than maintenance or finding 1-2 caches) since July 5th, so I'm ready.
For those of you that are interested, click here to see my MOGA 2008 TB's travels. It began and ended in the cache nearest my house and was placed in every cache we hit that weekend (in order).
Total of 328 miles.
OK. So this is written several months after the fact, but I simply forgot to do it, so here we go:
MOGA was great! I had 73 finds for the weekend, which is definitely a record number of finds for a weekend for me. I also met a lot of cachers from all over the country, as well as seeing fellow SLAGA cachers in a more "open" atmosphere.
On Friday, Lobocs (my father) and I met half of quailman02 and cached our way to the 2007 MOGA caches. When we got to Mark Twain, we met up with some other cachers and hit a good number of them. There were very few caches there that didn't involve another group, which is a lot of fun.
I had a small fall at one of the last caches of the day. The hills in the area are rough and there are NO trails (luckily, the trees weren't blooming yet, so bushwhacking wasn't too difficult). As I was walking down one of the hills, my foot gave way. I fell on my butt and slid about 5 feet down the hill.
Nothing major... until the next morning. I woke up and felt like someone had taken a hammer to my hip. I was able to move, but my speed was equivalent to a snail. I thought I could walk it off, but it never went away. Lobocs and I were only able to get a handful of the 60 new ones. He didn't seem too upset about it, but I still felt a little badly for holding him back.
After lunch, he dropped me off at the hotel room, while he went to get a few more caches with quailman02. The nap was great! That night, we attended the awards ceremony and had a great time.
On Sunday, we drove back home. We took a different route, driving east to Hannibal and then south back. We hit 24 for the day (with a couple of DNFs). After dropping quailman02 off at her car, Lobocs and I went to his house and crashed for a few hours.
The leg pain lasted a few more days, but all is better now.
If you're anywhere near Missouri and love to cache, MOGA is the place to be. I've heard it mentioned that it's the best event after GeoWoodstock. I can believe it!
Well, early Friday, Lobocs and I will be heading to MOGA (Midwest Open Geocaching Adventure). We expect over 100 caches for the weekend, which is definitely a record for me.
Our plans are to leave out early Friday, drive to Columbia, then up to where MOGA 2007's caches are. We've planned 16 caches on the way, with 60 on the list from last year. Friday night, we're headed to BYO... Bash Before the Bash.
Saturday is MOGA! Another 60 caches to be found, but most importantly is meeting tons of other cachers. Lobocs finally gets to meet OzGuff, to whom he's had a few "arguments" with. Long story, which I'll retell one day.
Sunday, we take off after breakfast, heading to Hannibal, and then back home. 27 caches are on the list, and we're hoping to get them all.
If you're headed there, let me know. We'll try to meet up. If not, have a wonderful weekend!
Got the following email last week:
Dear Blogger user,
This is a message from the Blogger team.
Your blog, at http://yawetag-cache.blogspot.com/, has been identified as a potential spam blog. For an explanation of what spam blogs are, please see Blogger Help: http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=42577
You will not be able to publish posts to your blog until we review your site and confirm that it is not a spam blog. To request a review, please fill out the form found here: !!!LINK REMOVED!!!
We will take a look at your blog and unlock it within four business days. Please note that if we do not hear from you within 20 days, we will remove your blog. If this blog does not belong to you, then you do not have to do anything. Any other blogs you may have will not be affected.
Since you are an actual person reading this, your blog is probably not spam. We find spam by using an automated classifier. Automatic spam detection is inherently fuzzy, and occasionally a blog is flagged incorrectly. We sincerely apologize for this erroneous result. By using this kind of system, however, we can dedicate more storage, bandwidth, and engineering resources to users like you instead of to spammers.
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Of course, I did what I had to, but it made me think: what about my blog and its one entry made it a "potential spam blog"? My only thought is that using the word "cache" in the URL flagged it.
Anyway, things are back to normal and I'm able to post.
Welcome!
This blog will outline my geocaching travels. I live in St. Louis, Missouri, and, removing a few during a trip near Chicago, I have basically cached the area. I have almost 600 finds in just over a year of caching.
I normally cache with my father, Lobocs. Sometimes, LilyDell the Geo-Dog comes as well.
Welcome again, and I hope to see you again soon.
