After so many weeks of working… now everything is coming to a head. All Dr. Who caches (except #12) have been sent out. They are arriving in their final locations and those “companions” are placing the caches how ever they want. All I can say is one Wherigo is in the works (& I have some drawing to do). So instead of a comic strip for today (sorry, it has definitely been a day) I thought I would go through the process as to how these were placed.
When I came up with my 2011 creativity project I tried to figure out exactly what to do. After some thought I finally decided a series of caches based on Doctor Who would be fun (BBC America was pushing that the next series was going to based in the U.S.). Once the idea was finalized then the issue was what were the details, what rules would be set for the caches? I decided that I wanted them placed around the United States, and that I wanted there to be a “bonus” cache of some sorts. I worked with a friend in Atlanta to come up a “wrap” which ended up a sticker. I started with a few simple designs based the Doctors of my history (#4, #9 , #10, & #11). These went through some testing and fortunately the weather cooperated so I could check how it would last through various weather conditions. I learned that my original design was too big and wouldn’t fit on a decon container (Super Genius had ended up giving us a nice supply).
I redesigned the template and after a weekend of intense drawing & watching episodes of Dr. Who I had 12 caches designed. Now, who should get the caches? I checked Cecil’s friends on both Facebook & Geocaching.com. I ended up coming up with over eleven possible “companions.” An email request (and one through Facebook) eliminated one. Now the work really started… I needed to come up with a a location a “final” before sending out any caches or creating a generic cache page. After some “discussion” with the local reviewers the final was placed and everything was ready for the final steps. Caches were sent out on April 15th- ten in the U.S. one in Canada. Caches are being placed from “Sea to shining sea.”
I have been overjoyed with the response from the geocaching community – everyone involved in this series has been so wonderful and creative (aren’t all cachers?). I’m not sure what format each cache will end up as – it is up to the companion (multi, puzzle, wherigo, traditional) how they want place it. I’m looking forward to what the series will end up with. The bonus (series finale- GC2R1VF) will have a link to each cache once they have been posted. Then again as of right now the cache hasn’t been published since I need a few caches in the series posted beforehand. By Monday there will be caches in the series published and it will be up to the companions to keep everything going. What a great adventure and a great way to give back to a hobby that has really opened the world to me.