The Start of our Geocoin Collection

We've loved finding geocoins since we first started caching. They are all so beautiful and unique and it's always fun to discover a new one! We have finally decided to start our own collection. In February we joined the Geoswag Geocoin and Pin Club and we are expecting our first coin of the month at the end of March.

Last night, we did some shopping at Geoswag and purchased 3 new coins. It was tough making the decision on which ones to purchase because there were so many we loved.

We chose a Deaf Awareness Coin together because since taking American Sign Language classes, we have become involved with the Deaf Community and have several deaf friends. I had a really difficult time in ASL class the first time I attempted to explain geocaching in sign language, mainly because there is no sign for geocaching. Because we both talk about our hobby/obsession so much while in our ASL class, I finally made up a sign for geocaching, I combined the signs for "earth" and "find." Our ASL instructor, who is deaf, said she loved the sign! For those wondering about the signs on the coin, the hands are fingerspelling the word "geocaching."

I chose a Supercacher DNF Duo Geocoin because it definately takes a supercacher to have 2 (or more) DNFs in a row and still keep on going. This has happened to us on more than one occasion!! It's also happened to us many, many times when searching for Stressmaster's caches (the Master of camo). But, even though we all have those days when it seems like we come up with DNF after DNF, it's still fun just to be on the hunt! Plus, we decided on this coin because we both just thought it was really cool looking!

John picked out the 3rd coin we purchased, which is the Four Elements Geocoin. This is one of the most beautiful coins we have seen yet and we were both immediately drawn to it. The design is amazing!

The 4th coin we are adding to our new collection is the Leap Year Geocoin and which we won tonight during an Ebay auction. I received an email about the coin going on sale, but when I checked on it, the coins had already sold out. I was really upset because not only is it a truly beautiful coin, but we found our 900th cache on Leap Day this year and we wanted the coin to commemorate the find. Well, today there were four of the coins on Ebay and all of the auctions were ending this evening. I lost the first 3 auctions and was terribly disappointed. Someone beat me during the last few seconds each time. But the last auction proved to be lucky for us and I prevailed and won the coin! I was so excited and John was excited for me because he knew how badly I wanted it. We immediately paid for the coin through paypal, so hopefully it will be on its way to us soon!

We have no plans to ever release any of our coins. Even if we didn't have to fear them being stolen, we still prefer to be able to enjoy them ourselves and we also like having the opportunity to share them with our friends at events and/or on the trail. If you ever meet up with us, feel free to ask about our coins and we will be more than happy for you to discover them!

Just Another Caching Story...

We headed up to Jekyll Island this morning for the 'Geocaching for Treasures event'. Got the coords around 11AM, picked one to go to, put the coords in the GPSr and headed out. Looking good so far.

Arrived at the first location and looked around. Hmmmm. Certainly they wouldn't put it out THERE, would they? Well, it MUST be safe if it's for the event. 300 feet out. Hmmmm. Why not. Of course I joked to John as he headed out, "Now don't get out there and get stuck and make me have to call 911."

I stood and watched him. The area was clear and I had a perfect view. I watched him take a step with his right foot, then his left.. uhoh. That's not good. His left leg was in up to his thigh. He looked over his shoulder at me and hollered, "uhoh!" I asked him if he was ok and he said he was fine, said he just needed to get turned around and get out of there. I watched as he just managed to get deeper and deeper in the more he tried to get out. Before he knew it, he was almost chest deep in a sinkhole with the tide coming in. Finally he stopped and looked at me and yelled, "Umm, honey? Help!" At this point, there was nothing left to do but make the call none of us ever want to have to make. 911. Now it took 3 calls to 911 to finally get someone out there, it's a good thing it wasn't an emergency or anything! 3 firetrucks later, John was pulled out and on solid ground once again with wet mud dripping off of him. For those who are wondering how they got him out, they used backboards to walk out to him and then pulled him out. One of the firemen took a wrong step at one point and got one of his feet stuck and had to be pulled out. The firemen did a great job and they were all so wonderful!

Where was the camera, you may ask?? Well, naturally it was in his pocket with him out in the sinkhole. So not only did we not get the prize after all that, but I didn't even get pictures! The only pictures I got were of him standing at the back of the firetruck with the fireman hosing him down.

Thankfully, the GPSr, camera, and cell phone that he had with him were all ok. Also, as luck would have it, there were public restrooms near where we were and there was actually even a shower there. The lady working there was sweet enough to run down the street to a hotel and grab some towels for him. I went into the ladies restroom and washed all the mud off the electronics (and his wallet and money) while he took a shower and washed the mud out of his clothes.

We decided it was probably best if we called it a day, especially since all John was wearing at this point was a soaking wet pair of jeans. So we headed back to Jax. But, the day was not a total and complete flop, we picked up one smiley on the way to the event, we got a smiley for the event itself, and I stepped out and grabbed a lamp post hide for a smiley on the way back.

I think it may be a while before we head up to Jekyll Island again!

#900

At 6:51PM we hit our next milestone at Gizmo's Revenge (GC108DD) by GT. Find #900!! Even though we didn't plan it, this turned out to be a very memorable cache for our milestone. Took us a little while to find it because it was not WHAT we thought it would be and it was not WHERE we thought it would be (of course it was in the last place we looked). Finally, John found the prize and he was grinning from ear to ear. He handed it off to me to extract the log. What a fun cache!

Meet and Greet Osceola Style

We had an awesome time yesterday at the event in the Osceola Forrest! It was the first time we have ever been that deep in the woods and the first time we have ever purposely driven through mudholes (John spent a couple of hours this morning washing the mud off the truck).

We completed our most difficult cache ever while riding around the forest with the NEFGA crew, Lakes of Osceola - Surrounded (GCT1JF). John had to wade to get this one and he had a blast doing it! He's been telling people all day about getting to play in the mud!

We can't wait to get back out to the forest again. Hopefully there will be another event sometime in the near future! We are also dying for a jeep 4x4 now, but, it'll be a few years before we can afford to get that toy.

Our First Travel Bug

Meet our first travel bug, Scubie the Cute Snorkling Fish. We pulled him from a cache last weekend in St. Augustine and thought he was just too cute and would make a nice travel bug. So we brought him home, activiated a tag, and attached it to him. We have yet to send him off into the great big world; we want to take him to a few events first so some of our friends can discover him before we set him free. So be on the look out for this cute little guy!

The Start of the Obsession

Back in September, we went with a friend of ours (Mrs. Booney of BooneyHunters) from school to grab something to eat in between our college classes. While driving, she pointed to a spot and said, "There's a geocache hidden there." Having no clue what she was referring to, our response was, "A geowhat??" So she turned the jeep around, pulled into the parking lot, jumped out, lifted a lamp post skirt and picked up a 35mm film canister. As we pulled the logsheet from the container, she explained to us what this sport was all about and we were fascinated.

A few days later, on September 21, 2007, Mrs. Booney took us around to a few caches in St. Augustine, FL and we made our first finds. We were immediately hooked! The very next day we arranged to meet Mrs. Booney in Jacksonville at an Off Your Rocker cache to go on our first long cache run. We were already itching for our very own GPS, so before we met her, we headed to Gander Mountain and purchased a Garmin Vista HCx.

This hobby of ours quickly grew into an obsession and before long, we were caching almost every day. By the end of December, we WERE caching every day and still are.