Showing posts with label GIGA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GIGA. Show all posts

Thursday, May 31, 2018

GeoWoodstock or Bust! Going GIGA


They did it! With over 5,000 Will Attends, GeoWoodstock went GIGA this year and members of Team Free Range Lobsters were there in Cincinnati!

TaGeez, scrapcat, WikidKriket, and SnakeyLicks
We headed down to Cincinnati, the Queen City, on Friday. Can you believe it? All those magical stops like Shawnee Look-out, the Earth Cache tour, new Virtuals in Louisville, and we managed just ONE CACHE on the way down! Luckily it was a hoot!


Ah, I can't compliment the staff and volunteers enough. We headed right to registration and didn't even stand in line! Quick in & out and off to the hotel. I heard rumors in past events the line could've taken hours.


As a special treat we reserved a table at the Montgomery Inn Boathouse. It's a double-decker restaurant that overlooks the Ohio River.  Sitting at our table next to the windows we watched riverboats and loaded barges meander up and down the waterway. 

I can see Kentucky from here!

The next morning the view was another classic instance of Americana. Alongside 7,500 other cars we pulled into Coney Island for the largest geocaching event in North America!



The weatherman had predicted thunderstorms all day, and yet we found plenty of sunshine (and humidity) until almost 3 pm. That gave us plenty of time to explore and pose with friends!

Mr and Mrs Yellowjeeperman


ProBob, A2QueenCacher, Lincoln's Aunt and ACL

GeoConsumer, ProBob, Detour, ACL and Lincoln's Aunt





Along the way we enjoyed vendor booths and Lab Caches. 

There were vendors from as far as Norway.
Reps from several GeoTours and Mega Events.
Special tables for Vloggers and Podcasters.

There were 30 Lab caches around the grounds.
10 Augmented Reality like the one below.
10 Coney Island History
10 Gadget caches



Continue down the midway and there were more geocaching delights. One geocacher recreated Cincinnati landmarks in Legos. We walked around snapping pics of Lego brick trackables on many of the buildings.


Across the way was a Lego landscape. I was most moved by the recreated historic cemeteries including Arlington.



No major geocaching event is complete without the appearance of the Original Can of Beans! Hey, did you know it has it's own Facebook page???? What a hoot!


AND SIGNAL!  Why does a grown adult go ga-ga over a fake-furred, 6-foot frog? Because he's cute!



It was an amazing day! Coney Island was a brilliant choice with amusement rides and wave pools for all ages. Friends, snow cones, geocaches and geotours, giveaways, swag bags, and photo booths. Top it with a Giga icon and a virtual souvenir. 

Da Finns, SnakeyLicks, Prong and WikidKriket

Rumor has it that 5,000 Will Attends and 7,500 parked cars could actually turn out to be 10,000 geocachers in attendance. Let's do this again next year!

Do you see us????

Sunday, May 27, 2018

Geocachers Do It In Cemeteries

Look at my nifty souvenir from GeoWoodstock! 


It's trackable - I bought it from Red Hat Geocaching supplies.


More about GeoWoodstock tomorrow!


Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Banner Week for Geocaching

Geocaching.com is having a banner week with happenings and announcements!


GEOWOODSTOCK 2018

Cachers from all around the world are heading to GWS18 in Cincinnati, Ohio- America's first Giga event. Requiring at least 5,000 attendees, I believe the event will far exceed that with the draw of "first Giga" and the location of Coney Island. Interesting fact: 95% of Coney Island's traffic is at the waterpark versus the amusement rides. Use that as a deciding factor when selecting your park option with Saturday's rainy forecast.

Highlights on this trip with the fabulous WikidKriket and SnakeyLicks will be the Giga souvenir, taking our pictures in front of the GEOWOODSTOCK sign and the 30 lab caches. Regrettably we won't have the time for the two new geotrails but hope to do them this summer when the mega trail in Cincinnati is released.

Join the GeoWoodstock Facebook group and bookmark the very helpful FAQ if you are going.



NEW TRACKABLE PROMOTION

Yesterday at noon an email went out announcing the latest trackable promotion: DuckTales with Huey, Dewey, Louie and Webby. I posted to the Southeastern Michigan Geocaching Community (almost a thousand strong!) right away and POOF! It appears they ran out of the 5,000 commissioned. Now cross our fingers TaGeez or I will win one! No idea what they look like yet, but, as you can track them individually, they must be character-specific. I hope it does better than our Magic the Gathering trackables. 

#DuckTalesCache



NEW SOUVENIRS, TOO!

This last announcement elated me for about 5 minutes, but now I have mixed feelings. Complete an official Geocaching.com geotour and earn a special Geotour souvenir. Cool, right? But I completed the Smithonian Natural History Geotour and the Butler County Donut Trail and didn't receive one retroactively. Rumors are flying in the groups - the Butler County geotour now has 15 stops but only 13 when we completed it. The Smithsonian one (which cost us a fortune in time and expense) has since been archived. There's also a little bit of conflicting information on Facebook and the forums so I guess time will tell. 

Amazing how some people take a virtual sticker to seriously!


NATIONAL VOLUNTEER DAY

Today is National Volunteer Day and TaGeez & I want to thank DeRock, VanMan, Allenite, Rusty, and all the volunteer reviewers for all the hours you spend putting up with this craziness so that we can have geocaches to find. THANK YOU!