Insane who me no way! Day one

Insane who me no way! Day one

I call them day one, two, three… because they are not Thursday, Friday, Saturday they are from when we get out of bed to when we get back into one. 

So as it gets closer the guys are asking how many caches and which ones are we getting. While an exact number won’t be known until after our trip I am looking real close at the route to lock it down a lot closer.  Most of the stops are planned around stopping every couple of hours and making those stops at highway rest stops with caches. Also gas is spaced out about every 300 miles and I also used Gas Buddy android app to see what areas had better gas prices. If we could save 10 cents a gallon by driving a bit longer I used those places to get gas. With traveling over 3,000 miles every penny counts.

So here is day one of the Insane Train Part Deux Rise of the Tweens!

Group 1

4:00 AM PDT  Leave Uniontown Wa to Spokane Airport  93 miles

6:30 AM PDT Depart Spokane fly to Dallas

2:05 PM CDT Arrive Dallas Love Field and meet up with Group 2

Total Time 8 Hours

Group 2

? AM PDT Leave Terrebonne OR to Portland Airport 138 Miles

? AM PDT Depart Portland fly to Dallas

2:05 CDT Arrive Dallas Love Field and join up with the Insane 

Train

Insane Train All times will be CDT on the Insane Train until arriving back at home

I have given us a few hours extra time in Dallas just in case of delays and traffic.

6:00 PM  Leave Dallas Area

8:41 PM  Arrive Rest Stop  GC21RCV 15 minute bathroom and cache break

10:36 PM Gas stop / Bathroom break West Monroe , LA 15 minute stop

1:21 AM Rest Stop GC3511M 15 minute stop

2:24 AM GC90 30 minute stop

4:30 AM Gas Stop Citronelle, AL 15 minute stop

5:56 AM GC3MA76 10 minute stop

7:21 AM  GC2A7TE rest stop/cache 15 minute stop

9:40 AM GC126 30 minute stop

10:30 AM gas stop 15 minutes Leeds, AL

1:15 PM GC1D 30 minutes

4:37 PM Gas Stop Blacksburg, SC 15 minute stop

5:15 PM Stay the night near Gastonia, NC

Time since landing in Dallas 27 Hours and 1268 Miles

Time since leaving Uniontown, WA  35 Hours

Time to get some Shut eye and start fresh the next day.

I am still debating on having an event that night because a lot can happen in this trip to make us late and or way to tired to want to talk to anyone.  If anyone lives near Gastonia, NC and would like to host an event Friday night around between 6-8 PM CDT we would love to stop by for a bit let us know.

How many days?

How Many Days?

 

That is what I hear most from non-cachers when I try and tell them about our trip. I also hear it a bit from fellow cachers who don’t know us very well. This is one reason I love to plan and do these types of trips, it a Smokey and the Bandit thing and most people don’t understand.  If you have never seen the original Smokey and the Bandit then I suggest you sit down with some popcorn and give it a go so you might have a little clue as to how and why I do these runs. I still love the theme song and sing it often on our caching trip.

 “East bound and down, loaded up and truckin' a'we gonna do what they say can't be done We've got a long way to go and a short time to get there I'm east bound just watch ol'Bandit run”

An old video of my daughter and I going to Victoria BC on a caching vacation.

 

So yes we are going to travel  in 2,800 miles by car and 1,400 miles by plane as the crow flies in just 5 days  2 days flying and 3.5 days driving.  We are also thinking of hosting two or three events around the country. But only on the nights that we actually sleep in a hotel.

So if you know of anything on our route that is a MUST do and won’t take up very much time please let us know so we can look into adding it. Time permitting of course. We already are adding a cache by one of our local cachers who has one near family in Oklahoma.

The Route

The Route

The Route for the Insane Train part Duex is getting close to done-ish.  While this route will always be fluid for the trip depending on what is thrown at us during our trip, but this gives a good guide for where and what we want to do.

Click on map to see full size

So here is the Streets and Trips map of our route. This route includes 13 states and 7 caches the are the first caches placed in each state. So over three and a half days we will be traveling 2,800 miles for an estimated drive time of forty three and a half hours. Should be no problem since we only have one all nighter scheduled. A walk in the park for these four crazy guys.

In order to get the route made first we had to decide on some goals for our trip. The guys really don't care all that much what we do they trust my judgment to make it crazy enough and I hope I don't disappoint.

So the goals of the trip are  #1 get as many states as we can, #2 get as many first caches in each state, #3 finish the Jasmer Challenge for me and help the guys get closer to finishing but the most important goal for the whole trip is to NOT GET ARRESTED!!

Stay tuned for more Insane Fun.

It's Official

So it is official three of the four boys riding the insane train this year have purchased their tickets. So the next step is trying to lock down the exact route and old/cool caches we can get.

So when is it?  June 6th- 10th 2013

$311.40 each for our airfare. When we go on these trips we try and keep the costs down, our goal is $500-$600 for the whole trip with food, car, hotel and anything else we need.
So stay tuned for updates on the planning of the Insane Train Part Duex: Rise of the Tweens


We had to add a day to keep airfare prices down........


 

Insane Train Part Duex: Rise of the Tweens

 

Insane Train Part Duex: Rise of the Tweens

 

 

 

  I have been going caching in bigger groups since our first cache machine GC10X8A March 2007. Since then I have been planning caching trips all over the western United States with my friends and family. Most of these trips have centered around power trails and big numbers for a weekend+ So now that I have 10,000 finds and have done way to many power trails. My focus for the Insane Train has shifted. First we are not taking a big group this time just four guys in a small car acting whatever age we want! Since our wives are going to be at home there will be no remorse for things we do. I am not going to fully get into that just use your own imagination for that, just think four twelve year old boys going cross country unsupervised! Now we will not be getting into trouble with the law or anything even close to that, but chili and onions are acceptable snacks on this trip. And bring on the Red Robin Onion rings! Second high numbers of caches is not on our list of priorities anymore. We are going after states and oldest caches this time.

 

 

You now know what is going but you don’t know who. You also know what we are going after but you don’t know where. And when may we be coming near you?

 

 

 So stay tuned for some new blog posts about 2013 Insane Train.

Getting back to the basics

Getting back to the basics

While I love the numbers runs with my friends from all over I am very glad to have hit my 10,000 cache (not logged yet Washington Delrome Challenge Sept 16^th) so I can slow down with all these self-imposed goals and deadlines and get back to what was the most fun about geocaching.

   

 
 

All these pictures are from our first three months of caching. September 16^th 2006 through December 2006. I loved caching with my family and while I still cache with them the last year has seen me go on these long weekend caching trips with friends while I leave my family behind.

Well I am happy to say we have cache a ton as a family since I got my 10,000^th. Almost all of the finds have been as a family, and most of those are day long caching trips.

These pictures are all from the last two months. While I am planning a couple trips for next year that will take me from my family, I am planning a bunch that we all go together. I am going to try and take them on a power run this spring, 5 or more waterfalls in a weekend. I hope we can get five to ten caches that weekend but who cares if we do, we are getting back to the reason I loved caching so much when I first started, adventure with the whole family.

Please don’t think that I am bashing numbers runs or anything like that, I just love geocaching and the fact that you can make this game anything you want it to be. I am just getting back to friends and family caching without a ton of numbers. Thanks for reading now get off the computer or phone and go caching!

Going Super Social

Going Super Social

Well if it wasn't for Geocaching I never would have even gotten a FB account. Now I am hosting a Live Google+ hangout televised on YouTube! How did I get here from there? 

Really I don’t know how it happened but with the rise of Google+ I have started to go super social. Accepting cachers into my circles from all over the world because of the relatively easy way to separate them from friends and family posts. And with the expansion of geocachers sharing things with me I have started to listen to more Podcasts and read more blogs that  are out there. I even have been featured on Cache-A-Maniacs Connections episode. Episode 8 Quadsinthemudd  This is something that never would have happened had Google+ not come around.

One other great thing from Google+ is the hangout that you can see and talk to others all over the world directly through your Google+ feed. I have not done a ton of this since you have to be stuck at a computer for this (my smart phone is not able to do it but some can). And Google has also made Hangouts Live, so now as someone records a show through Google Hangouts you can watch them live while they record it.

I was introduced to one such show Ultimate Caching Quests. This show while not my favorite has one of the best segments of any Podcast, Blog or Hangout. They challenge us to a geocaching related task every other week. This has become a fun way to cache for Globaltreckers and I. We live 7 hours away from each other but still have found ways to complete these challenges together.  I find that every other week I am just chomping at the bit to find out what they are going to try and get us to do. This has really inspired our caching and given us ideas at new ways to cache and we have had some fun thinking up some new challenges for them.  We even sent them a video challenge for them to complete.

So this brings us to the point of going super social.  We have been challenge to find a cache blindfolded while we are being directed by a fellow cacher. Sounds fun but there is now way John and I can complete this one together……..or……..wait a minute.

Technology + determination + geocachers = Super Geeky Fun!  We are going to use John’s smart phone with Google+ hangout capability, my home computer with webcam and Live Google+ hangout to find a special cache. I will be directing John from my home computer while he is blindfolded and searching for the cache all while you can watch this LIVE WHILE IT HAPPENS!  

So now I am blogging about my Super Geeky Social Fun. If my English teacher in high school could see me now writing for fun she would have a coronary right on the spot.