Category: Geocaching

Discussions & comics dealing with the hobby (obsession) of using multi-billion dollar satellites to find Tupperware in the woods.

Dr. Who Cache Series Update

Posted on January 30, 2011 by Bruce

Well, upon recollection maybe the scope of my original idea was a bit too much (at least until summer. That said I am moving ahead with the idea of 11 geocaches placed around in honor of the good doctor… just “the Doctor.” Today I took some time between lunch, grading, & cat brushing to figure out how it was going to work. As I believe Stephanie pointed out- if I have these placed all around the country, what would happen if one goes missing? Since the original plan was to create each cache by hand. I took some time and thought about this and decided to go a hopefully simpler route. I would put a wrap around each decon container that would be the same, yet also illustrate each doctor.

The first mock up of the basic TARDIS geocache. This is the background from which I will add the Doctor.

So with my trusty laptop and black & white printer I came up with this… From this I will add details to make sure that it is as close to what the Doctor in question had as possible. While the chameleon circuit may have been damaged… it is amazing how a number of Doctor’s TARDISes have slightly different exteriors as well as interiors. You would figure that as long as the circuit is broken it would keep the same outside. (logic doesn’t always work in Science Fiction)
So the actual wrap will have something to distinguish one Dr. Who decon from another…

This is the mock up (final) for the 11th Doctor's TARDIS that I have decided I will place. I will not show any of the others so if you want to see them, you'll have to find them.

So as I complete each cache and send it off to be released in the wild I will let you know the GC# and which doctor it is for. If you want to see how it turned out… hunt it down.
I still may go with a fantastic final cache. I still have an idea what I’d like to do (& WHO & therefore WHERE I’d like it placed), but I’d first like to get all 11 doctors out saving mankind.

New Project for 2011: Doctor Who Cache Series?

Posted on December 29, 2010 by Bruce

Here’s the deal… last year my creative project (outside of the comic) was Project: Pinewood, in which I went back to my days as a Cub Scout and made a pinewood derby car, using only a pocket knife and sandpaper.  This was in honor of the centennial of Scouting in America. The car became a travel bug and is is presently wandering the United States from cache to cache.  Being larger than most caches I completely understand why it hasn’t gathered the miles.  So what should I do this year?

Here’s the plan it might work, it might not.  I know a number of the readers of this comic also (because they have some geeky traits) watch Dr. Who.  My plan is to create a geocache for each incarnation of the Doctor.  These would all be decon containers (TARDIS) that I have added some decoration for the unique doctor.

My first idea was to have Cecil place the series as I had time to create them, and be done with it… then another idea started to germinate.  What if those caching Dr. Who fans from across the country received a cache and placed it in THEIR community?  What if each cache had part of the coordinates to a final cache filled with Dr. Who swag and a commemorative Pathtag?  What if I just turned this whole project in to way too much work?  Could it all be done in a year?  A dozen caches placed around the country (the world?).  I’d need to really learn more about Dr. Who (I remember Tom Baker – the fourth doctor, but not well.) I picked up the series with the 9th Doctor and still haven’t seen all the 10th Doctor’s episodes.  What do you think?  In the immortal words of John Belushi “Who’s with me?”  Thoughts?  Ideas?

10th Anniversary of Geocaching

Posted on May 6, 2010 by Bruce
All of the crazy people in Oak Ridge, Tennessee celebrating the joy of Tupperware in the woods.

While attending MINIs on the Dragon last weekend (more on that later) Sue, Cecil & I had the chance to attend a 10th Anniversary Event Sunday in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. It was great to take a little time from the drive home and meet with fellow geocachers. This was one of the many events close to the Dragon, but due to US129 being closed it was the most convenient. If you have never been to a caching event you should try one (next weekend is the Spring Picnic here in Indiana).

If you don’t know what I’m talking about (geocaching) check out some of the geocaching links here, then again you should have attended the Geocaching event at MINIs on the Dragon… I was there helping out new cachers to find joy in not only motoring, but also getting out of their MINI an looking around.

Logging caches when you are tired… not a good idea.

Posted on June 9, 2009 by Bruce

Well as Cecil got his 600th find yesterday I thought I had everything planned out to make the run… except for logging when I was half awake and needing to comeback a relog a few this morning! We started in Greenwich and I had a pad with my countdown on it so that the virtual cache at the Prime Meridian would be #600. This was the plan and it was a pretty good one. I know that I can be forgetful at times and can even be called “random” so I was trying to make sure that everything worked out. That was until I back to hotel and started to log the caches. I pulled up the map and just started logging from the caches on the map… not my carefully orchestrated list. I suddenly came up with an extra cache! so I tweaked my logging order so it worked out and tried to get some sleep. Well, Sue comes along this morning (being all concrete/sequential) and reminds me that we skipped one of the Greenwich gate caches that I had logged! SO I go back and fortunately only need to delete a couple entries. I am not changing the map for the tracking coin… I’m an old Boy Scout, but its trail is close enough. My plan worked perfectly- I just didn’t. Cecil did get his 600th at the Prime Meridian and I bought a baseball cap to celebrate. As Cecil would say “ook!”

Cecil celebrates his 600th find at Greenwich after a lovely morning wandering the park and the town to get the numbers right.
Cecil celebrates his 600th find at Greenwich after a lovely morning wandering the park and the town to get the numbers right.

Exploring our "neighborhood" through Geocaching

Posted on June 1, 2009 by Bruce

The past two days have been relaxing, but interesting as I continue to find out more about normal life in England. On Sunday after visiting the local castle (Broughton Castle) Sue and I decided to go roving… Wandering along using the footpath system which runs throughout the country. A fantastic idea which really makes it easy to go for a walk since there is a trail fairly close to everywhere. We took the “Shutford Circular Walk” which (shockingly enough) had a series of caches placed along the route. About 4.5 miles later we had found 10 caches and were sitting at the local pub thinking about food. Unfortunately, we discovered that while pubs are open and serve beverages, no food is serves in pubs (or at least the small local ones) on Sundays. Slightly different than Indiana where you can’t buy alcohol on Sunday, but can buy as much food as you like! After that we headed back and Sue made a wonderful salad.

Today it was time to tick off another thing on the list… a visit to the Swindon Pressing Plant. This is where all MINI body panels are produced. Again (he says with a shocked tone) there was a cache nearby (called MINI). If it wasn’t for the cache I doubt we would have even known where to look. I dropped off my Mini Cooper Rally Car- the green team. in the cache and we headed off away from Swindon and back to the Cotswolds and quaintness. After a stop in Burford- lovely needlework/knitting shop… I assume it was lovely, Sue bought stuff. We headed off to another cache this one located near an old church that once was the place of worship for a medieval town that died out from the Black Plague. No one returned to the town, so this small church is still there and being used by the locals (no town, but some wonderful homes nearby. After walking around for a while we started to get tired and decided to head back to Swinford Gower. Tomorrow will be another adventure, but it was nice to get one more little thing off the list as date to return home gets closer and closer.