Riding the WAZE!

Ooh, AstroEricJ showed us a neat new app – perfect for Geocaching roadtrips!

WAZE is a GPS, Maps & Social Traffic app available for iPhones and Androids.  During our Chicago trip, we drove into a major rainstorm – you could barely see the hood of the car. Eric pulled out the app and saw other drivers (called Wazers) had posted trouble spots such as cars parked along the highway due to weather and lanes undrivable due to flooding.  He could also see construction, accidents, slow downs, closed roads, and policemen (FTF, anyone?)

I think this app might replace several I already have on my phone.

Yellow Pages: You can enter your search criteria and it will direct you.  It also has a Gas Finder feature.

Glympse: You can send friends notification of your arrival and connect with friends via the app.

Google Maps: On my phone GM is unresponsive.  WAZE does an excellent job updating as you drive.  Nice maps, too.

On the downside, it doesn't navigate to coordinates like a geocaching app.  It will suggest nearby addresses for selection.  So, if you are on an FTF run, it will get you as close as possible (while avoiding construction, slow downs, and possibly policemen—not that we ever speed, right?).

Discover Multiple Trackables Simultaneously

Saw someone on FB griping about all his work in discovering Trackables at an event. 

So I introduced him to the Project-GC.com discovery tool (on left).

Follow these easy instructions (images on right).

1. Click on Project-GC.com.

2. If you have not done so already, click the Authenticate button to link your Geocaching.com amount.

3. In the Tools drop-down menu, select Discover Trackables under Others. 

4. The Discover Trackables window will open. Populate the Date fields, enter your Log Text and then key in the Trackables codes (one per line).

5. Click the blue Discover button.

6. The History window will open and your logs will upload. You can view not only the original text of the log (click the Toggle Log Text button) but any codes that failed (click the + sign to the left of the record). 

I have spoken to a developer about creating an app that will read TB codes from pictures and upload the numbers for logging. We'll see if it's ever developed.

Mosquito Twister?

You’ve heard of “tornado”?  And “sharknado”?  But how about a “mosquito twister”?  Yeppers, a photographer in Portugal captured a funnel cloud of mosquitoes!  She hurriedly packed her things and raced to her car…. only to be surrounded by them!

Click here for images:

http://io9.com/why-this-tornado-is-infinitely-more-terrifying-than-a-1581975036

I must admit…. I thought the family suffered on Memorial Day in the Metroparks (it had rained for several days before), but we were lucky. We only had a few bites. 

Thanks to my sister, WikidKriket, we know to keep Witch Hazel nearby for bite relief.  When I get bit, I welt up quickly.  Rubbing Witch Hazel on the area sooths the bite and the welt diminishes almost immediately.  We even found these handy “hazelet” pads for our packs!

I’ll share our Memorial Day Metropark pictures soon!

PBN – It’s a Michigan Thing

Paint by number (or painting by numbers) describes kits having a board on which light blue or gray lines indicate areas to paint, each area having a number and a corresponding numbered paint to use. The kits were invented, developed and marketed in 1950 by Max S. Klein, an engineer and owner of the Palmer Paint Company of Detroit, Michigan and Dan Robbins, a commercial artist. [Source: Wikipedia]

The Palmer Paint Company is just up the road – on the way to my sister’s house.  And Michigan Geocachers have a particular affinity towards them. They invented one of our favorite little cache containers: the paint-by-number containers, or PBNs. Their benefits are the caching trifecta: Water-proof, durable, and inexpensive.

With or without magnets. You can use a 1/2" log and they camouflage nicely.

As discussed on the different podcasts, each geographical area of the US has different methods of hiding caches.  To excel in an area, you have to learn the quirks of each region.  Last month, at one of our events, we had cachers from Ontario visiting.  They had never seen a PBN before – didn’t understand it as a hint on the caches.  But they laughed because they are everywhere around Southeastern Michigan!  You can buy a package of 18 for $3-$5. And if you look around sometimes you can find slightly larger versions!

USES: We like to thread wire around the hinge and bend it into a hook.  We will adhere a magnet (preferably a strong ½” magnet with Amazing Goop!) and hide them in signs.  We will also use them to protect logs inside other cache containers.  And they camouflage beautifully using Rust-oleum camouflage spray paint!

There's even a tribute cache!  Visit Thanks for the Invention by TheGrundalows onsite at the Palmer Paint Company.  But don't ask for a hint on what the container is!