Lake Michigan Circle Tour: Mighty Milwaukee Geocaches

ShelleyJean and I loved the Milwaukee webcams, and we had more amazing caches on our Lake Michigan Circle Tour! Check out these two - each one awarded over 1,000 favorite points!

The Doctor Is In! GC6YDR6

As a Whovian, I have wanted to do this cache since I heard about it as HQ's Geocache of the Week in September 2018. This was so amazing we visited it twice!

It's amazing after so many years it's still in pristine condition. It still has the sound effects, and the Simon game appeared brand new. 

I really hope newer cachers don't ignore it because it's listed as a puzzle cache.

Covert Cache GC3798

Walking along the riverwalk, you may overlook the "International Exports LTD" sign, but I didn't! Hmmm... I wonder what's down this unmarked alley.

Bond, Jane Bond

I don't want to give too much away, but, behind one of these marked doors, was intrigue, mystery... shall we call it a "safehouse" for geocachers?  

So much fun! To reach this pivotal spot, we entered a secret door, had to "prove ourselves to not be spies", locate a secret door, and navigated a darkened secret passage to reach the treasure. 

What we didn't know is that, as we were making fools of ourselves in the anteroom/entrance, there were 3 or TVs inside projecting the hijinks! I'm really hoping we weren't recorded 🤣

moving eyeball

As you navigate through the passages, there's a cold war room, French resistance. 

There are concealed doors. The one on the right has like 3 doors secreted. 

Make a point of adding extra time to your visits so you can stop to read all the walls, doors, and signs. Tell the bar staff if you have kids - they have special operations they can participate in (we heard rumors of labyrinth basement passages and a secret kids-only elevator).

Definitely one to bring TaGeez back to!

Both of these were highlights of the trip, but I have so much more to share!

🔍

Totally Tubular Cache!

Going through my laptop and backing up file, I came across this IG post from Geocaching HQ that I forgot to share! So geeked - HQ spied this on my Instagram account and asked to re-share.

Twisted! in Napoleon, OH

Midwest Geobash 2021

Huffing and a Puffing

I was called out by a friend that, with all I've shared on this blog, I didn't share our funniest geocaching video! This is Huff n Puff (GC48DRE) near Holland, MI.

Facebook video

We shot this video for the Geocacher Vlogger/Cache Advance July GeoChallenge of the month (needed a cache with more than 30 favorite points - this one had 97!). Because of the size, I can't upload it here so I've linked to our Facebook video.

If this keeps up, should I open a YouTube account?

Monkey in the Middle GC6WXQ5

TIME TO SHARE THE MONKEY PUZZLE!

Would you believe I picked this baby up at the Container Store? I did! 

However, it wasn't on a geocaching end cap. It was in the pocket of DarrylW4.

He had spent 18 hours 3D printing it, and he wanted someone to release it into the wild.

What is so special about this container? Well... it doesn't have a simple twist-off cap!

In fact, it has quite a few twist and turns.

Easy to find, but the signing the log could take a few minutes. Deviously wonderful!

Happy Caching!

The Great DC Adventure: WVTim Caches

Greetings from Detroit!  TaGeez and I are home again from a wonderful road trip to Washington DC! Six days plus 4 new states - 1,615 miles driving plus another 28 miles walking downtown. 

It was an amazing adventure! 

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Originally planning 5 days away, unexpectedly TaGeez and I found ourselves leaving a day early. What to do.. what to do.... Hey, guess what's on the way? WVTim caches! With an extra day, TaGeez and I decided to spend a night in Martinsburg, WV before heading to our Nation's Capital.

WVTim is famous for his highly-favorited gadget caches in the West Virginia/Maryland area. One of which, Evolution of a Rest Stop, is a traditional cache with over 1,000 Favorite points!  And many of his caches have hundreds of favorite points. 

After a quick stopover at a popular rest stop, TaGeez and I checked into the Comfort Inn. Main selling point? Our room was 122 feet from the closest WVTim cache! It helped that the room was relatively inexpensive and relatively nice.

Now, how cool is Tim? We attempted GBC 5 - 12 Seconds at first light and failed. Uh oh! But Tim wants people to solve his caches (he even has tutorials on Youtube to recreate his caches) so when we messaged him, he responded almost immediately! And left us his cell # in case we had any further problems. 

Here's one of his larges (no real spoilers here - not showing anything that isn't on the cache page or Youtube). Extraordinary TB hotel where we dropped off 9 stowaways from Detroit. 

This one was so much fun we videotaped it. Oh, one of the few caches I wish I could award additional Favorite points!

TaGeez, you're doing it wrong! I admit it took us WAY too long to solve this Large. Brilliant! Another one we had to videotape for the family back home. 

As we were pulling out of town, I told TaGeez I regretted we had to leave the remaining 60+ WVTim caches behind especially one of his most famous, Under the Lamp Post. He asked, "Well, where is it at?" And I realized we were only a few hundred feet from it! DETOUR! What a hoot!

Always a gentleman, WVTim emailed me after we returned home.

Loved reading your great logs, thanks for taking the extra time to tell me about your journey. WVTim

No fluff here. WVTim really sets the standard as a cache owner. Quality, maintained gadget caches located on business sites with owner permission. Ever responsive, he is willing to share his instructions on YouTube and his assistance via phone. TaGeez and I are determined to detour his way next time we're in the area. 

After the WVTim caches, we turned towards DC and Arlington Cemetery. But that was not the last of gadget caches on our journey. As we headed home, we found ourselves with a few spare moments so we detoured for one more. Down the road from the Antietam National Battlefield is A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words by GR8Caches. This cache deserved a thousand favorite points! I hope someone recreates it near home. 

Note to self: "10 miles away" in the mountains of West Virginia and Maryland is not actually "10 miles away". "This close" on the map is not close at all! But these beauties were worth the extra mileage.