Our First Mystery Puzzle Cache

We began a cache yesterday while we were out called einszweidrei (GC1QNCF).  After reading the cache description I knew we'd need to find the first station and take a bunch of pictures.  We did that, looked around really good and then moved on to find the rest of the caches for the morning trip.

Once home we took a really good look at the pictures, narrowed down what it could mean to just one picture and went to work.  It was a stroke of pure genius when we figured it out the next morning.  Deciphering, we took a set of coordinates and drove back out.  Thank goodness Reese isn't too far from our house on this side of town.  We walked around a bit and my clutzy self managed to fall off of a concrete step and twist my ankle pretty terribly.  Pain is nothing, its all in the name of geocaching.  Finally we spotted the next clue and knew what it meant but brought it home again to decipher since the ankle needed some ice pretty badly by now.

By the time the ankle was good and cold, the second clue had been sorted out.  Slightly evil and very cool it was, but it was no match for the eldest 'he' of Nomesquad.  Coordinates in hand, we headed out one last time.  Ding ding ding, there's the prize, very cleverly hidden.  To our surprise we found a very nice tupperware full of toys and some cool signature tokens.  We traded our Nomesquad signature item for one of the signature tokens of Pa Pa and Nana to add to our collection, and took the travel bug that was inside.

We'd like to say a hearty thanks to geocacher Timber Wolf for coming up with such a great brain stumper!

5 hours!

We were able to go out caching this morning for 5 whole hours.  We got to see a bunch of new stuff on this trip and we had some adventures as well as met a new critter for the list.

Our first stop was in and around what used to be Reese AFB - now some of the buildings belong to local colleges and the police department.  Some of it stands completely empty as well.  The old barracks we were working on a mystery multi-cache around really reminded me of something off of an episode of "Life After People"

This sculpture was really cool.  He's holding our GPS if you look carefully.  Nice memorial to the old AFB:

They say there's no water around here, but we keep finding some.  There was a house across the street for sale here, and I wonder what kind of price it'd go for.  I know the ones down the street go for a half million bucks or so - we had the opportunity to go to a Christmas party out here one year.  This was in Wolfforth.  Yeah we got kinda lost heading toward Levelland.

So in the process of totally missing Levelland the first time we headed west, we ended up 3 miles down a backroad not far from Frenship HS.  After much rattling and uh-uh-uh voices giggling down the washboardy calliche road, we found the cache in the ONLY place it could be.... 1 lone tree.  Replaced the cache, got in the car and started to back up to the intersection a couple hundred feet back to turn around and head to civilization again.  I looked to my right and saw this guy out the window.  I'm not sure if it was fright for seeing such a large snake alive and in its natural environment or excitement because we got to add another critter to the list, we sat in the car and watched it hightail itself up in to the field.  We probably scared it more than it started us.  Its was about 6 feet long, and is a bullsnake.  For someone who's only really seen snakes in PetsMart in an aquarium before, that's HUGE!!!

 
The picture definitely wasnt his better side, he said, "No Photos Please!" as he zipped up the bar ditch to safety.  There was no way I was leaving the safety of the vehicle to try to get a better angle... hehehe

The Nomesquad Signature Item

If you go out caching, you might just have a chance to find our signature Nomesquad item.  Its a cool bottlecap with a nome drawn by yours truly.  We've been putting them into the cooler caches we come across.

Arts and crafts met technology - the nome was drawn with a pencil, then scanned, colored in Photoshop and then text was added, sized and printed.  Totally at home in this element, it sure is nice to have an identity now. 

It says, "NomeSquad Wuz Here.  Found It!"

In the neighborhood.. sorta

While waiting for the windows on the new Mustang to be tinted last week, we jumped out and picked up about 90 mins worth of caches.  We learned that the Brazos River runs (?) right through Lubbock and that there's actually some water left here!  It was really kinda pretty.

We also went out again this morning, its becoming pretty easy to just grab the GPS and stalk a couple of caches when we have an hour or two free.  Much nicer than sitting at home.

Here's a few highlights from the past week, but definitely not everything we've done.

Elm Grove Micro - a part of town that while we live fairly close had never much noticed.  Yes, that's a freshly plowed field.

Caching at Maxey Park - Had fun, found 4 total here, the little dude found his first treasure here, too.  "Mommy!  I see treasure in the tree, I finded it!"

Caching at Canyon Lakes - Brazos Overlook.  This was really pretty, I had no idea there was this much substantial water in Lubbock.  Either way, it was nice, and we even climbed a pretty steep hill today.  Go us!

 And now for the wildlife of today's caching - A prairie dog!  He posed for us and let me get reasonably close in order to capture his better side.

More coming soon!  We're going toward Levelland tomorrow morning to do some serious caching in the morning.  Can't wait to report back.

Definitely Loving This!

We went back out during the evening after supper to find a couple more since businesses were closed finally.
GC2JZH - Not an Ant Anymore - the sand out here was really deep.  Kinda funny to be "in a field" but still in town.  Traded a little dino toy for a tiny skateboard.

GCRAXV - Elm Grove Micro - Just down the sandy "alley" from the above cache we found this one.  Seriously.. fields.  Still in town, more or less. Maybe a little less than more.. lol.

GC2VK05 - Critters, Snakes and Spiders 3 - the name had me a little worried.  We did see a little bitty cottontail type bunny dash off as we pulled up, and another horny toad lizard.  He didn't like me stopping to talk to him much.  Being that this one was behind a business, we came fairly late in the evening.  The cache container was pretty cute too, it was a dinosaur
.

GC2VK07 - Critters, Snakes and Spiders 4 - Another of the series. Again we waited until almost dark because of the construction out behind Target (that strip mall)  Was a bit of a hike from where we parked the car.  Eew.  That's all I have to say about this container.

For some good news - our Delorme PN-60 GPSr has shipped.  Woohoo!  Now to decide where we'll go caching next time!

Spreading the Addiction

Today I managed to get my cousins, MurdockMania hooked on Geocaching.  I feel complete.  Life is good.

We went to take the Mustang in to get tinted windows, and while we waited, went caching.  We found several that we couldnt get, due to high muggle activity and being at businesses, we'll have to try again in a while.

But beyond that, we did find some up near the old soccer fields, at Lubbock Lake Landmark and Burl Huffman, and Canyon Lakes.  Really pretty scenery, who knew this was right near our house...

GC1 BEFX - West Texas #1, You Must Be Quazy! - My daughter's first!  Woohoo!

GC1RZPY - Not So Perfect Pitch
This one took a bit of work to find, and Sparky was the one to find it!  Good job, Sparky!  There was a tracking bug that we discovered here, and we traded swag in order to get a signature item from Tx Prowler.

GCN4A3 - Who Says There's No Water in Lubbock? (Again) - I really didnt realize there was water like this, this close to our house here.  It really was pretty.

GC1T9FR - Brazos River - Again, this could have been really pretty if there were more water running through here.  We saw a tiny school of small fish in the pool of the water feature.

 This little horny toad guy was hanging around near the water feature pictured above, we watched him for a while before he got tired of us and ran off.

 We have a new geocaching addict in the family now, only one more left to corrupt... erm.. I mean, addict.

Just Can't Get Enough!

We had such a good time finding the first 3 caches this afternoon that we quickly recharged the GPS on the phone, ate a bite of supper and headed out again.  We saw all kinds of awesome things.  Who knew that we could have such fun here in Lubbock.

GC2KXG7 - Cher Series #3 - The Beat Goes On - This cache was in plain sight, but it had some cool Cher info on the inside.

 
GC1M2HP - North's Corner - This one had recently been replaced because the previous version was stolen.  Some muggle saw it and put a used cigarette butt inside *GAG*  It totally reeked.  But the little dude was a good guy and put a little dino toy inside for the next cacher, and I threw away the cigarette butt.

Why did the turkey cross the road?  To gobble on the other side, of course!  This beauty was crossing the road right ahead of us - in the middle of a residential part of town!  Crazy!  I gobbled at it, it gobbled back, and I got a picture.  Who knew we'd see wildlife on this geocaching adventure today?

Speaking of wildlife - the next cache was in Jackrabbit Central.  Holy cow!  I forgot they were the size of large dogs.. LOL.  It was fun to watch the bunny herds run, I swear they looked like small deer out there.  Lots of ants too.  Ick.  This cache was fun to find, a new discovery just minutes from our house.

GC2QGTC - Nearly Greek to Me - This was the cache out in mutant rabbit land.  It was also the first time we'd seen a GeoCoin.  I hope it gets along to its next destination, we discovered it but left it there as we're not traveling out of state any time soon.

GC1KVNF - Over the Hedge - Slightly creepy seeing as how it was hidden fairly well near an old shed, storm cellar and large cactus.  Definitely wouldn't try this one at night.

GC26YMZ- Just for the fun of it... - This was the last stop on today's adventure.  Had a bit of a hike to get to this one.  Parked in cul-de-sac and walked through I guess what we'd call woods around here, and it was across a drainage ditch.  Trip back out proved that the "hike" was an easy walk if we'd come from the other side.. lol

See, we're totally hooked now.  This was a blast and I can't wait to discover more new things about the area we live in, as well as go geocache hunting on any trips we may take in the future!

Ready or Not, Here We Come!

All of a sudden this afternoon it was decided we should give this Geocaching thing a try.  After a bit of reading on Geocaching.com, we decided to go for it.

Sign up for website, check.
Get a GPS.. uhm.. Hey I have GPS on my phone, will that work?
Download Geocaching app - Check!
Get camera and pen - Check!

We are the Nomesquad and we're out to find all of the hidden treasures of the world.  Located in Lubbock, Texas, I wasnt sure how big of a deal this would be here, you know sometimes we get the current fads and fabs, and sometimes we don't.  :P  We started simply today - even though its nearly 100 degrees outside, that won't stop us!  And we even have our own Team Mom to hang out too!

We've decided to snap a photo at each cache site, even if they're only here in town.  The pictures arent necessarily of the hiding place, just the place in town where we were taken for the hunt.  Gotta start somewhere, right?  We won't post any major spoilers or clues, just a quick statement about each place.  Heck we wont even post the shape or size of the containers, no cheating!

Piled into the car, we grabbed the phone, clicked on the GPS and fetched Mom.  Off we go!  First stop:

GC202R0 - Energy Cubed - This one was pretty cool

GC163TF - TEA for 17 - Nice hide here.  Glad we went on a weekend.

GC2Y0H7 - Birds Eye View - I really thought we were going to have to come back to this one later, but we found it.  Excellent hiding place, was beautiful as well.  Only a little creepy.

By this time we were hot and parched, and it was about supper time.  Ok, I'll admit it, we're totally hooked and as soon as the GPS has more juice again we'll be on our way out once more.  Expect more pics soon!