The Adventures of JJTally

Geocaching 101 Presentation

2012-01-26T09:35:00.004-06:00

To view the presentation, follow the link!

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B6XaHXYlP7MuNjM2Zjk5OTctZTIyYi00ODcwLTk2OTUtN2MwYWUyYTEwMTA2

Challenge on the Mind

2011-01-29T19:20:00.002-06:00

It's official, I have challenges on the mind. I can't stop thinking about them. Of course, a few of them have been on the list for some time now, but new ones just keep getting added. As of this moment, I am working to complete the Kansas County Challenge, the Kansas Delorme Challenge, the Kansas Virtual Challenge, the Kansas 2001 Challenge, and the One Hit Wonders Challenge. I know, it seems like a big list, but luckily, some caches overlap each other. The problem is, I have spent more time looking at the list instead of executing it. I have made Excel sheets, route sheets, and even a bookmark with all of the caches in it, so I can look at them all in one map. Tomorrow, we are making a larger than normal trip to pick up five caches on the list. In February, I am taking advantage of a trip my wife must make to Wichita, and planning on picking up some 67 caches on the list, including nine counties and two Delorme pages. And now that my wife and I are on the same work schedule, we have our weekends open for long road trips. It is going to be a fun trip, but I am looking forward to it.

Its been awhile...

2010-10-13T10:52:00.002-05:00

Hello folks. It has been awhile since I have written anything on this blog. Times have been busy, and a lot of things have happened since then. We finally hit our 1000 mark! These last couple months have been really slow for geocaching. Finding time between our two work and class schedules has been a real pain, and our geocaching trips have suffered. It is nearing our last semesters of school though, and time should really open up from there. Since our last post, we have also hosted our first event! We were asked to host a geocaching event in conjunction with our hometown's 125th anniversary. It took a lot of time, a lot of miles, and a bit of money, but we were able to place 35 geocaches around the county (of course some cemetery caches), and we had a decent turn out of about 25 people. We are already looking forward to hosting another event soon. Also, we are only two caches away from reaching our 100th FTF, and we are really looking forward to it. Now all we need are some cachers to place more caches! So keep an eye out for us folks, as we have not forgotten our blog. Happy caching!

FTF #74 Out of the Park #2

2010-04-07T16:14:00.000-05:00

So there I was, minding my own business at home, when the phone rings. Finally, a geocache close enough I don't have to waste 1/4 of a tank of gas to get it. The computer was being unfriendly and wouldn't connect me to geocaching.com, so I got the coords from the text and hit the road. As always, every red light and old grandpa stood in my way. Had to back track a bit due to closed roads, but got close enough to the cache to hoof it. As soon as I reach the grass, a vehicle pulls up with lights flashing. Oh great, another LEO encounter. Haha rkars, very funny. Turns out he has some caution lights also. Well, we walk our way over the GZ only to find Eric popping out from the trees. The search ensues, with four flashlights searching the area for a micro. Finally, rkars was able to come up with the find, and was generous enough to let us all log an FTF on the cache. What a guy. After shooting the breeze in the breeze for awhile, talking of course about geocaching, we headed our separate ways. Thanks for bringing us together again. It is always more fun running into other geocachers.

"The Canoe Crew"

2010-04-06T17:52:00.003-05:00

With such a beautiful Saturday before Easter, we could not help but hit the open waters! Five canoes and ten geocachers equals a whole lot of fun. Nicoole (Nicole and Debbie), Boxstalker (Julie), Crawcocoa (Marty and Jessica), The Ravens (Michael), Phil and Verla from Oz (Phil), Legolaws (Eric), and us (JJTally) made a road trip to pick up a few paddle caches. We started in Lawrence to find seven geocaches located on an island in the Kansas River. The paddle was short, but the hike was long, and we were all tired from climbing through and over trees as we went. We stopped for a brief lunch on the island, and headed off to find more caches. We regrouped at Pillsbury Crossing to pick up another two caches down Deep Creek. The water was up and was the most beautiful blue color I have ever seen on a creek. We finished our day of paddling at Tuttle Puddle. The wind had picked up considerably, and caused us to finish our day early, but just in time to enjoy some great food at The Little Grill. All in all, it turned out to be a great day for geocaching and hanging out with friends.

FTF #76 Smoky Hill Oxbow

2010-03-03T20:53:00.003-06:00

Picked up another JJTally FTF today with the completion of the earthcache Smokey Hill Oxbow, GC24DY5. This one took two trips to complete, since the coordinates listed were wrong. I know earthcaches are kind of a funny thing to log an FTF on, but I was the first to log. Don't judge.

Searching for Nothing

2010-01-25T09:36:00.000-06:00

The better J and I had just sat down from a long day away from the house, and had just started to get comfortable when the cell phone started singing that song. There is only one or two times I would have said this, but I sighed, "Darn, another geocache." So, on went the boots, cache got downloaded, coats got zipped up, and out the door we went. I swear we hit every red light in town on the way out there. All five cylinders of the Colorado were pumping fast as we finally got to 177. As we pulled in, another car was already there, and another was just pulling in ahead of us. I put on my pouty face as I knew I had been beat. I still had enough adrenaline flowing through my veins to jump out of the truck and run through the grass, as I exclaimed, "Dang it Travis, I knew you would beat me!" Joykillers were the first on scene, followed by JBnW. Luck had it that nobody had found it yet! THERE WAS HOPE! After a few laughs, we quickly began to disassemble the hillside. Rocks, grass, twigs, nothing could stand between us and a FTF. Rkars soon joined in the search, and 5 flashlights became 6. What was once prairie now looked like a tornado had ripped through it. One by one, we got fed up, each of us having a theory as to where the cache could or couldn't be. Joykillers was the first to throw up the white flag, and then there were four of us left. We searched for another five minutes, then finally called it quits. We said our goodbyes, and pulled out, downhearted. But, as we pulled out, we noticed a black jeep pull in. My wife, who had spent the last portion of the search in the pickup keeping warm, said that the jeep had pulled in before. Interesting. They were obviously up to something, so I pulled out onto the road, drove down a little ways, and hit the ditch trooper style. Back to the overlook we went, and I knew something was going on as there was a flashlight by the tree. Well, it was either some geocachers, or drug dealers. I chose geocachers, and went down to say hello. As I walked down I noticed a pile of rocks that wasn't there before. I said, "How are we doing today?" The response was, "Good, are you a geocacher?" I had a good laugh. Turns out Shark101au had got the cache published just before he got it placed. Oh what a good laugh we had. After we said our goodbyes, I found the cache pretty easy, and signed an FTF. Now I know that the cache hider feels bad, but I feel terrible about this FTF, because there was a lot of good cachers out there in the cold searching quite hard for this one. But, look on the bright side, we all have one heck of a good story to tell!

Evil is my One and Only Name

2009-12-27T16:37:00.003-06:00

I love a good challenge. There is nothing better than the feeling of completing a difficult cache. So, I wanted to give back to the geocaching community. Actually, I just wanted to be pure evil. I love it, making people practically cry out in frustration. Well, I made one of those caches. The code is GC224A1, and the name is a Crash Course in Landscaping. If I hadn't said it before, I am a Landscape Management major at K-State, and I wanted people to know that landscaping was more than mowing lawns and planting flowers. And I wanted it drilled into their heads. So, I created my masterpiece. No, I am not going to give out any clues to ruin my creation. I am simply letting the world know (or the few people that actually read this blog) that I love to be evil, and I have a few more caches in mind to prove my point. Check out the cache, who knows who will claim the FTF prize.

Spoiled

2009-12-27T13:12:00.002-06:00

Alright, I know I am spoiled now. My in-laws, the ones who got me started in caching and gave me their old eTrex Legend, decided to upgrade my hardware. I am now the proud owner of a Garmin Oregon 400t. This is going to make life soooo much easier to deal with. No more bouncing between the Legend, the car GPS, and the cell phone. We now have an all in one GPS to take care of everything. I can already see that trips are going to be easier on us both. City Navigator was a bit of a hassle to download, but other than that, it works great. On to the next 500!

500! Our New Milestone

2009-12-23T09:00:00.003-06:00

Well folks, we finally did it. We hit the big 500. After setting our goal to finish 500 caches in a years time, we pulled it off with just a few days left before December 27th. We were racing the weather the whole time, picking off counties and virtuals as we went. So we only killed about 3 birds with one stone on this trek home. And to top it off, we made it home to spend Christmas with our family. Hope everyone has a safe and Merry Christmas.

What else were we to do?

2009-10-15T20:52:00.003-05:00

This week has been hell. No other way to describe it, just hell. Between my regular quizzes and tests, I had my Commercial Certified Applicators test that is no walk in the park. Study, study, study is all I have been doing. But Wednesday night, while taking a break from the reading, I was chatting it up on Facebook with the area geocachers. While talking to Nicooole, she kept dropping hints about a certain cache. Alright, I'll bite. Hey, is that cache named after us? What? Apparently, Nicooole had read my previous blog about Topeka being the micro capital of the world, and those were fighting words. So, she in her caching ways set out to show me I was wrong. The cache I am talking about is 'JJ Come Find Me' GC1ZNVH. I couldn't believe it, the cache had my name on it, and it was calling to me. Of course, the better half of JJ was at work until 10, and I wasn't about to drive 50 miles by myself to find a cache in the dark. So I waited for someone to log an FTF on my cache. Ten o'clock rolled around, and nobody had found it! Of course the weather might have deterred a few. It had only been raining all day, and it was dark out by the time it was published. And it was a 3/3 to boot! I explained the situation to Jenny and surprisingly she said, "lets do it." Down the Interstate we go, windshield wipers slappin' out a tempo. Once we get there, we begin to scope out the area. Dawning our waterproof shoes and coats, we walked the parameter looking for some way into the thicket of trees and ground cover. And what happens next, why a black and white pulls up, and that spotlight goes directly into my face. Ya, our first encounter with a cop while geocaching. We played it cool, explaining what we were doing, why we were being stupid, and he was completely cool about it. We got our info written down, and handshake, and a clue to a possible trail. I don't know what this guys idea of a trail was, but what we found was a small clearing and a back ache. Bent like an L, we walked through the trees, coming to dead ends, thorns, and more trees. Finally, we find the creek mentioned in the cache. Now, I am sure that on a normal day this creek is nothing more than a trickle, but after a day of rain, it was practically a river. Walking the banks, we found our only means of crossing, a small waterfall of tree branches. With obstacle one conquered, we moved on through the trees, stopping only to find coordinates. Scratched and dirty, we finally found the cache at the end of the woods, next to the fence bordering interstate. WOOHOO, an FTF on our own cache. Now, how do we get out. Having scouted the area previously, we decided the fence was the easiest way to get out. Besides, we had forgot to mark our vehicle location, so we had no clue where it was. Over the fence Jenny goes with my help. Now comes my turn. Now folks, I am not athlete. I cannot jump or climb anything. So I grab a hold of a tree branch above me and thrown myself over. Yeah, didn't work. I ripped my jeans and lost a glove. Not so graceful, but it was easier than searching our way through the woods again. We made our way back to the car, happy with our find. As I grabbed a hold of the steering wheel to pull out, I noticed that something was missing. MY WEDDING RING! Oh man, did I feel sick. I searched my pockets, my gloves, the ground around the car, any everywhere in between. Luckily, Jenny wasn't too worried about it, so I didn't get into too big of a worry. So, somewhere out there is a ring, most likely at the fence, which we are going to check tomorrow. I guess I can say that I have left a pretty nice swag item for the next lucky cacher. And so our day/morning came to a close around 12:30 am on a rain soaked interstate heading west. Sleepy eyed, we were fortunate enough to miss a spin out not 30 feet ahead of us. How much more excitement can we take? Needless to say, I think we paid for that cache, but I would do it again in a heartbeat. Down a ring, up a FTF and geocoin; a pretty fair trade. A big thanks goes out to Nicooole for an exciting cache and a story that will be fun to tell many years later.

Topeka: Microtropolis of Kansas

2009-09-10T15:51:00.002-05:00

It is not too often that I get a weekend day off when I don't have to work. Thankfully, moons and stars lined up and Labor Day was mine! What to do on a full day, geocaching of course. We decided that Topeka was our target, and we set out to get as many caches as possible. We hadn't cached in Topeka before, and didn't know quite what to expect. What we found was nothing short of horrid. Micros here, micros there. Where were all the ammo cans? The lock-n-locks? What about a coffee can? Now I am no stranger to micros. I even place them every now and again when smalls are even too big to work, but this town has them crawling everywhere. Hanging in trees, under park benches, stuck to anything metal. I didn't even bother asking the co-pilot what the size was halfway through our trip. To make matters worse, Topeka has some sort of anti-gps field that always takes you here, then there, then back over there. Don't get me wrong, we loved our cache filled day, but I will take the country roads with ammo cans to micros any old day.

Discovery Through Caching

2009-08-28T21:09:00.003-05:00

The other day while geocaching in Abilene, Kansas, we came across an interesting discovery. Driving out to a cemetery, we noticed a lot with red brick stone pillars and white inlaid crosses. We really didn't think to much of it, but as I drove by, I noticed a dark looming mass in the back corner of the property. We drove to the cemetery, which had a cache about a nearby orphanage and how the many children are buried there in unmarked graves. While driving back, I noticed the dark mass again, and my curiosity just got the best of me. We pulled into the decently kept lot and down the gravel path. The figure mysteriously didn't brighten as we drove closer; revealing it was no mere shadow illusion. We came to a stop in front of the object, looking up as it towered above us. A cold chill ran up my spine, hair standing on end, feeling as though evil was flowing out of it. It was made of a black rock, twisted and mangled, cold as steel. Three cavities were built into its mass, constructed to hold something that was no longer there. Arches marked the sides, leading to nowhere. After a round of photographs, we headed home, bound to find the purpose the object. A quick search for the orphanage showed that it was indeed the property we were on. The object, the only thing on the property besides a small brick building, turned out to be a grotto. A grotto is a place of outdoor worship, usually containing a statue of Mary, made of stone to resemble a cave. Statues made of black rock once stood in the cavities, while the whole structures is made from volcanic rock. The origin of the stone is unknown, but most likely from the Smith Center area where lava seeped from the ground. A black rock also resides in the area which traveled from France used by the nuns of the orphanage as a shrine. Probably my most memorable find, geocache or not.

Back to School

2009-08-26T12:33:00.003-05:00

That's right, school has arrived. And while most of you still have your regularly scheduled jobs for eight hours a day, I now get to sit through boring classes in the morning, and work sporadically in the evening. This crazy unpredictable schedule is terrible for geocaching. We don't get to make those all day trips anymore, and even if our schedules and the moon and stars line up, we still have homework to complete. If you add up the numbers, that leaves zero hours to geocache. Now we will get the occasional new cache in the area, but when we have to drive 30 minutes for more than one, our finds per month will drop dramatically. But enough of the crying. We will still be out there, occasionally taking a weekend off to enjoy the caching countryside. As always, see ya on the trail.

Brown Sign Fever

2009-08-11T21:00:00.004-05:00

Today, we officially started our perilous journey across vasts spans of earth just for simple caches. That's right, we started the Delorme and County challenge. With only 10 counties already completed, we set out to stake our claim on the northern territory of Kansas. We were already heading home on Thursday to celebrate our one year wedding anniversary with our family in Oberlin, Kansas, our hometown. Picking up a few on highway 36 in the dead of night was fun, but the big excitement came today when we made a normally 4 hour trip into a 9 hour round trip, taking us to Goodland, then back home to Manhattan. Our trip gave us 16 incredible finds, 10 extra counties, and a trip to the holy land. Thats right, Mingo. The oldest of active caches, now the end of many pilgramages for the most dedicated cachers. On Thurday and Friday, we will make our way through the Northeast corner of Kansas, camping along the way, just like our honeymoon. Hopefully, we run into more interesting sites, including those brown signs that always point towards a beautiful spot, or historical location. Can't wait to get on that trail!
<-- The Holy Land

Kansas ABC Challenge

2009-07-27T22:57:00.000-05:00

How many caches do you have? 10, 100, 1500? We currently have only 209, and yet, we are now eligible for the Kansas ABC Challenge. If you are not familiar with an ABC Challenge, the goal is to discover a cache starting with every letter of the alphabet, a through z. I really wasn't familiar with very many challenges in Kansas until recently. At the JC Meet and Greet, someone asked Legolaws if he just finished the ABC Challenge. I had never heard of such a thing, and didn't think too much about it for a couple of days of no caching. After so long of no caching, I hit the website hoping to fill that empty void inside, and just happened to come across a bookmark list of the ABC Challenge. I wonder how many letters I had? How many would I have to find? How far would I have to travel just to retrieve a rare letter? I sat down and started down the list of caches found. What, I only have three left??? Only Q, Y, and Z, of course the hard ones. Where am I going to find those? I just happened to be taking a trip down I-70 to Kansas City to watch our annual Royals game. Surely Kansas City would have a few. As it turns out, all three were on my route, and within easy reach. I returned this Sunday with six new caches under my belt, a slightly larger beer gut, and an almost completed ABC challenge. Now all we have to do is find the time to drive to Wichita to log the final cache, and pick up our first level 5 difficulty. Now I am obsessed with completing the other Kansas Challenges; Counties, Delorme, and the impossible City. This might take awhile...

Where Have all the Cachers Gone?

2009-07-10T17:55:00.000-05:00

When a new cache pops up on the radar, I go from a mild mannered person to get the hell out of my way! I love competition, and there WAS nothing better than racing fellow geocachers to the cache site, just to gather up those coveted FTF's. I love it; I can't get enough of it. The white knuckle driving, cursing under my breath at every car passing me thinking they are other cachers. But lately, that trill is fading away. Now, it is not uncommon for myself to be the only find for a cache for a whole week or more. I don't even bother for late night finds anymore. So where has all my competition gone? Are they afraid of the sun, or is the heat too extreme for them? Maybe they are too busy mowing the lawn or playing 9 at the golf course. We even have an event coming up next weekend, and we have a total of 7 confirmed guests coming. So where are they all at? I feel like a child knocking on doors asking, when will my friends come out and play again?

Unconventional Methods

2009-06-30T22:04:00.000-05:00

My body goes into hyper mode whenever I hear "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen on my phone. Not because of Freddie Mercury's vocals or the mental image of zombies being beaten with pool cues, but because it means it is caching time. And trust me, it is always caching time. Unfortunately, this multi-cache involved business hours, and 2:30 in the morning is not within the time slot. So Sunday night caching was out, and unfortunately Monday was also not in the open time frame. This means that I would not be able to properly complete the cache until Tuesday. The cache, GC1V5NZ, involved the cacher to visit a local museum to find coordinates for the final cache. I love FTF's; I live for FTF's, but there was no way I was going to sit and wait for Tuesday to role around to find this cache. So after class, I drove to the museum grounds and decided I would try my hand at blind caching. Now I know this museum pretty well, but I had no clue where I would look first. I just decided, where would I hide this cache? Could be in a bush, under a rock, in a tree, up a tree, heck, it could have been anywhere! So, I just started walking to the first evergreen tree I saw. It is amazing how 95% of the time, a tree hide is an evergreen. And what do you know when I peeked through the branches, why a green ammo box. My blind cache adventure was over in 5 minutes, with a FTF tucked under my belt, and a big grin on my face. Although I feel like bragging a little bit, I decided not to tell the cache owner about my luck, as it might be a blow to his self esteem. So, I will keep this little secret to myself, and to this blog.

Kansas State University Cache

2009-06-29T14:55:00.000-05:00

I don't want to give too much away, but this is a spoiler to our new cache. This multicache will take you to every corner of the KSU campus, and to many places you never knew about. Ok, I admit that the current plan is a little challenging; I mean, some 40 individual places to visit is quite a daunting task, but who am I kidding, I am evil. I love to challenge people, and this one will be no different. We are currently awaiting permission for property placement, but I am estimating that it will be up and running by the weekend. Have fun, and lets go caching!

New to Blog

2009-06-29T14:49:00.000-05:00

Hello, and welcome to our blog. Our blog will not be about our boring everyday life, but our secret life of geocaching. We will talk about interesting caches we have found or new caches we are creating. It is a big part of our lives, and we want to share our adventures with you. So sit down, strap in, and get ready to have some fun.

www.geocaching.com