WINNING CAPTION: "Ask him if he has a pen."- hpacheco
EDITOR’S NOTE: The voting was close between this caption and Spade76’s entry, “My mother in law wants to get into geocaching so I set this one up for her.” Many Facebook users who voted for Spade76’s caption also admitted they really do like their mother-in-law.
Exercise your caption writing wit and wisdom in the 23rd installment of our Geocaching.com Caption Contest. You could earn a barely coveted prize! What caption would you write? “Now I know why this is rated as a difficulty five.” You can do better!
Barely coveted prize
Submit your caption by clicking on “Comments” below. Please include your geocaching username in all entries. Then, explore the captions that other geocachers have crafted.
You can influence the voting. “Like” the caption that you think should win. If you think your caption should win, convince your fellow geocachers to “like” your caption. Lackeys decide between the top captions to crown the winner of the Geocaching.com Caption Contest.
Click on the image to see the winner of this Geocaching.com Caption Contest
The winner receives a barely coveted prize from Groundspeak Headquarters. This contest the barely coveted prize a sheet of eight Geocaching.com stickers.
16 Lackeys voted to award the winner of the 22nd Geocaching.com Caption Contest a barely coveted prize. Click on the image at right to discover the winning caption from the previous Geocaching.com Caption Contest.
A rusty ammo can has been hidden in the woods southeast of Berlin since October 2, 2000. The geocache’s name explains the significance this cache holds for Germany.
“First Germany” (GC77) was the first geocache placed in the country. It’s now a popular favorite, accumulating more than 230 Geocaching Favorite Points.
Ferenc originally placed the difficulty 1.5, terrain 1 cache. Later BlackyV adopted the historic cache.
More than 1600 geocachers have logged a smiley on the cache. Some geocachers even adjust their vacation to make sure they can log “First Germany.”
One geocacher wrote this log just yesterday: “When we planned our Berlin tour we definitely planned this cache, so we made our way back a little detour and found the [geocache]. A must have for real geocach(ing) fans. Thanks to conservation and the maintenance!”
Continue your exploration of some of the most engaging geocaches from around the world. Explore all the Geocaches of the Week on our blog or view the Bookmark List on Geocaching.com.
Editor’s note: Groundspeak Lackeys are traveling thousands of miles from H.Q. this year to share smiles, shake hands and make geocaching memories at more than a dozen Mega-Events worldwide. Jessie, aka Foxfire, attended the Mega-Event MOGA (Midwest Open Geocaching Adventure) this past weekend in the U.S. state of Illinois. Jessie has been a Lackey since 2009 and answers your emails as a Community Relations Specialist. This is Jessie’s account of her trip. I was very happy that Signal made an appearance at 2011 MOGA thanks to SLB4U and friends
By: Jessie, Foxfire
This past weekend it was my privilege to attend the 2011 MOGA event in Rend Lake, IL. I don’t think I could have asked for a more interesting and fun weekend.
I was able to fly into St. Louis Airport Thursday afternoon to pick up my rental car and start on the 2 ½ hour drive to Rend Lake. I have never been anywhere near Illinois so I was excited to see a little of the state on my way. This included a lot of amazing architecture, “little” Nashville and my first glimpse of an actual swamp. I was born and raised in Seattle so yes, seeing a swamp was exciting. I spent my first night relaxing and doing some work on my laptop before turning in for the night.
On Friday, I woke up to a sunny and very brisk day and the strange sight of snow on my car. I decided I needed a good cup of coffee and better shoes for the weather, so I headed off on a mission into the small town of Benton. I soon figured out that there were no coffee shops but I was able to find a very large Wal-Mart where I could pick up some rubber boots. These boots ended up being the best thing I could have bought.
The ship's log and log book for the event
Friday night was the opening event of the weekend and my first chance to get to meet some of the geocachers that would be participating in the other events of the weekend. It was the BYO…Buccaneer’s Booty Bash Before the Big Bash. Everyone was dressed in their best pirate gear, including one very well dressed dog. I have to say pirates are my favorite! To my surprise even Signal was able to make an appearance. Everyone was so shocked to see our green mascot that they all fell quiet when Signal entered the picnic area. You could hear crickets. After a long night, it was back to the hotel to get some sleep before an early – very early – 3 am Seattle time wake up to make it to breakfast.
Saturday had to be the best day of them all. I was able to spend the day talking with local geocachers, answering questions about the website, troubleshooting issues and just socializing. I heard great stories about tornadoes on New Year’s Eve, muddy fields that apparently everyone at the 2010 MOGA ended up driving their cars into, the year of “The Snow Storm” and many more fun stories of past events. Little did we know that this would be another year in which we would end up with somewhere between three to six inches of snow by the end of the night. However, as many cachers kept saying, “Weather will not stop us from caching.” And it did not. For many people a little inclement weather may have brought down the spirit of the event, or made them unhappy. For this group it seemed that they found it a greater challenge. Through wind, rain, sleet and snow this group of about 600 cachers was out searching through the woods looking for the next cache. Each came back with a smile on their face and excitement for the awards ceremony at the end of the night.
I am now back home after a drive through the snow and a long plane trip but I will never forget the kindness and welcome that the cachers at the 2011 MOGA showed me. I only hope that I can make it back again to share in the fun of 2012.
The Iowa Geocachers Organization. The hosts of the 2012 MOGA Event
You can also find a Lackey at one of these upcoming Mega-Events:
EarthCaches draw geocachers to wonders of the natural world – often hiding in plain sight. Gary Lewis, Geoaware, and the Director of Education for the Geological Society of America created of the very first Earthcache in 2004.
Mt. Yasur on the island of Tanna
An EarthCache delivers adventurers to a location found at specific coordinates. But rather than discovering a container and signing a logbook you earn a smiley by undertaking an educational task and learning about the natural environment.
Watch this video to go along with Terry Baker, TerryDad2, who has set up more than 250 EarthCaches in six states and two countries. TerryDad2 takes you on a tour of West Sulphur Mountain Oil Spring (GC1A5E2) in Ojai, California, where oil is naturally seeping from the ground.
TerryDad2 exploring an EarthCache
EarthCaches started with one in Australia and three in the U.S. state of Colorado in 2004 and now there are over 11,000 published EarthCaches. There is at least one on every continent.
Examples of educational tasks are answering questions about the site: how far something has eroded down, the size of a waterfall, or, in the case of the Oil Spring, the affect the oil has on the adjacent plant life.
Have you found an EarthCache? Tell us your favorite EarthCaching experience.
Premium Membership allows you to spend less time at the computer so that you can spend more time geocaching!
Here are four ways that you can save time using Premium Membership features:
1. Search for caches in an area using Pocket Queries. You won’t need to sift through search results to find caches that meet your requirements, because this super-advanced search allows you to specify which cache types, cache sizes, difficulty and terrain ratings and attributes (such as “recommended for kids” or “long hike”) are returned in the results.
2. Receive up to 1000 geocache listings per Pocket Query. You may think, “I’ll never find that many caches,” but having 1000s of listings ready to go on your GPS gives you the freedom to change your mind about where you are going geocaching at the last second.
3. Upload more complete geocache listings to your GPS. In addition to information that Basic Members receive when uploading cache listings, your file includes the cache description, hint and 20 most recent logs. This means you’ll no longer need to print out papers with the cache information!
4. Sort by most “favorited” caches. Do you only have time to find a cache or two and want to ensure that you are seeking the best ones in the area? You don’t need to look at the listings page by page… Premium Members can organize search results by how many Favorite Points each cache has received. Caches that receive a high number of Favorite Points are likely to be quality caches that offer an enjoyable adventure.
Premium Membership is only $10 for 3 months or $30 for one year. See the full list of Premium benefits to learn other ways that these features can save you time and improve your geocaching experience. You can also read what current Premium Members have to say about the benefits of Premium Membership on the Testimonials page.
