Behind The Scenes: Geocaching World (RVNN.tv) - Geocaching Swag and Night Caching

Yeah I know, this is a late edition for my behind the scenes observations of this weeks Geocaching World (RVNN.tv). I do have to apologize for being a day late but lets face it. It's a short work week with the holiday, we moved the recording this week to Wednesday and I have been running around like a geocacher with a bad satellite signal. It's been crazy.

Not that I am complaining but here is what Wednesday was like for me.

• Completed a standard work day. I am a Sr. Software QA Engineer.
• Rushed home to film a one minute commercial for our newest sponsor ADT.  It had to be done TODAY!
• Setup lights, sound and computer for Geocaching World recordings. We tape two shows a week.
• Was asked to come on early and be a guest on RVNN LIVE. Had a lot of fun as usual talking with the gang and discussing geocaching in general.
• Filmed two Geocaching World TV shows. 
• With three minutes to spare tear down Geocaching World setup and prepare for Geocaching Podcast recording.
• Do the Geocaching Podcast show.

Around 10:30 pm EST I was finally able to eat some lite dinner, answer emails and then go to bed to get up for the next day. Phew.

All part of the fun and to be honest I wouldn't have it any other way. So now that you know how hectic things can be lets break down this weeks Geocaching World show.

As stated above I came on early and was a guest on RVNN LIVE. There Dave Dufour and I talked about some of the subjects we would be discussing. When that was finished it was time for pre-show prepping which meant after my equipment was in order I was busy Tweeting everybody and letting them know that we were about to start recording, did they register for Geek of the Week, meet up in the chat room in XXX number of minutes. That kind of stuff.

That night we talked about two different things. First was Night Time geocaching which was a lot of fun. The chat room was really hopping with the introduction of Geek of the Week, where we have a contest that you can win prizes for bringing people to come see us record live (more information on our website - http://geocaching-world.blogspot.com/ ). So basically Courtney our Producer had a lot of fun trying to keep up with the chat room AND produce the show.

Each show consists of three segments. In between is all the commercials and interest points RVNN wants you to know about. As always we get into discussions with the people in the chat room and I really believe we talk more about geocaching in between sets than in the actual show. We really do love talking so the more the merrier. It also shows why it is so very important to see the live recordings. You get that much more information.

Anyhow the first show was a breeze and the second dealt with the subject of geocaching swag. Very good show except we ran out of disk space half way through segment three and had to redo that one from scratch. Eh, it happens. You grin and bare it. Part of show biz.

We had our first Geek of the Week winner that night who was 'NYC Geocaching'. He came up with a rather unique way of getting the most number of people to come and watch the show. We will have to tell how in a future posting. Very creative is all I can say. Stay tuned for more details on that too.

Well this has become a very long posting but we had a lot to talk about. See you on Monday 6/6/2011 at 6:30 PM EST for the next tapings. Be sure to check out our Geek of the Week postings so you can get in on the prizes.

Until next week!

-HHH

GeoCache: I'm NOT Obsessed... Right?
http://headhardhat-geocache.blogspot.com/
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@headhardhat

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Please don't forget to visit our GeoSnippits Geocaching Tutorial Videos Website at
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What A Geocaching Record Breaking Day!

Wow! Saturday was amazing and it turned out to be a day full of new geocaching records and achieved milestones. Went out with CarolinaTrombone, UNCSweetchic (a team of three people), and Miss Geoness.

The day started at 6am with a bright sunrise and a van load of people. The idea was to attend two geocaching events. One in the morning and the other in the evening plus find as many geocaches as we could during the

day. What is commonly known as a numbers run.

Before the first morning event we were able to find quite a few geocaches. To get as many geocaches as possible we concentrated on only the ones that had a difficulty of 2 or less. That way we

could get in, find the geocache and move on at a really fast pace. The morning flew by as our tallies began to increase. We paused long enough to do a quick 15 minute meet and greet event then it was time to get back and find more geocaches. I had never seen so many bison tubes, 35mm containers, nanos and magnetic key holders in one day before. One after another flew by until we had to stop for a few moments to celebrate a milestone. One that I am quite proud of actually.

HeadHardHat Reaches 1000 Finds!

Yep the old HHH hit the four digit mark and found his 1000th

geocaching hide. I could not be more happy than to share this milestone with such a fun group of people. Miss Geoness gave me the big high five to congratulate me which made the experience complete.

Some geocachers like to save the big milestones and do something

special with them. For me this was all I needed and wouldn't have had it any other way. The cool thing was this would not be the only milestone for today. Soon after the celebration ended we were back at it. We came to get some serious numbers today so on we drove.

Geocache after geocache we continued to find as this unstoppable team marched through the Greenville, NC area. Before we knew it the afternoon evaporated and it was time for the evening event. It was held in a really nice Chinese restaurant that provided a huge buffet. Inside about 60 or so geocachers did what they do best and gabbed about geocaching, ate loads of food and swapped adventure stories. We had a lot of fun but once again the call of the geocaches beckoned and this time it was dark out.

Night caching is a whole lot of fun and it adds a bit of difficulty to the hunt. For one the geocaches are harder to see and you search most of the time via flashlight.

The next milestone reached was for CarolinaTombone who in the darkness found his 1200th find.

As the night progressed and midnight approached we all hit a personal best of 100 finds for the day. This included two events, a virtual, a mystery and a host of traditionals. What a great time!

So if anybody asks you if you want to go on a geocaching numbers run grab it with both hands and say yes. Sure we were on the road for 18 hours but the fun, friendship and memories is worth the fatigue from being in the car for so long. In fact, I am planning on my next 100 finds day right now.

See ya out on the trails!

Now see the GeoSnippits Video and experience it for yourself!

Go Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgaMcHNNuss

GeoCache: I'm NOT Obsessed... Right?
http://headhardhat-geocache.blogspot.com/
-------------------------------------------------------
Twitter me at @headhardhat

Please don't forget to visit our GeoSnippits Geocaching Tutorial Videos Website at http://www.geosnippits.com/

CO-FTF on an Early Morning Night Time Cache Hunt

When you know that there are several very competitive FTF hounds in your area the urge to be first can be very compelling. For me, depending on where I am during the day and where the newly published geocache actually is will tell me who I am up against and how drastic of measures I need to take to achieve "clean sheetz".

For example, the posting to a particular geocache went live at 9:30 last night. It was about ten miles away and so I actually debated whether I just go out and get it or wait until morning after I drop my daughter off for school. After contemplating the effort that would need to be taken to tell my wife I was going out geocaching - again - or getting a good nights sleep in an actual bed. I decided morning would be best.

After booting my child out of the car and speeding into the night..., err, after waiting for the school bus to arrive and pick up my child from the bus stop I carefully and safely merged into traffic on my way to the geocache site.

Upon arrival I realized that it was still pitch black out and this would be a night hunt. Fortunately the area did not have anyone around so I was free to search undisturbed, or at least that was what I thought at the time. After taking my flashlight and blackberry with me I stumbled in the dark hoping for a quick grab and go. Unfortunately this was not the case and the geocache was well hidden in an area of multiple hiding spots. About ten minutes of searching and I see a car pull up and park behind mine. I was pretty sure it was not the police and I suspected a high probability that it would be my FTF nemesis Ikraynak.

"Ian, is that you", I called into the darkness. The return snickering told me that my suspicions were correct.

We combined forces and began searching the rather large, target rich geocache site. Another five or so minutes go by and I spot the geocache.

"Found it", says I.

Ian retrieved the small geocache and we looked to see if our efforts were in vain or not. We were not disappointed this time and the FTF was ours.

After a short chit-chat it was time for both of us to head off for work. Funny how we both get so much enjoyment trying to beat each other out in being first. That I personally had even more fun looking together with a common goal. Well okay I technically DID find it first anyways but that is not the point... TeeHEE... Until the next time.

Early Morning FTF on the Way To Work

Imagine if you will a 300+ pound fat guy climbing up an eight foot tall 80 degree angled berm, with evergreens, at night. What could happen?

Granted the large semi nearby made for good cover so security didn't have to come a looking and that is always a good thing.

Overall I had a great time scurrying in the dark and chilly temps whilst climbing on all fours up the rather steep and dirt covered hill. The exhilaration is really something in situations like this. While I am going through it in my head I am calm yet excited to make the find. My hands shake a bit and I'm not sure if it is because of the cold or the thrill of the hunt. Either way I am smiling ear to ear in early morning dark and would be hard pressed to want to be anywhere else at that moment. After a quick search I was able to add another FTF to my ever increasing collection.

Signed the log and headed off to work. Good Times.

Darkness Is Interfering With My Cache Time

When I started caching in the early month's of this year the days were getting longer. Even though I did not have a whole lot of time in the morning there was always time in the evening to hit a few quick caches before the sun dipped below the horizon. Now after Daylight Savings Time has kicked in I go to work in the dark and come home in the dark. How does one find our weekday smileys? Sure the first thing that comes to mind is caching during our lunch hours. That's all fine and good when you have caches available but I cleared out all the caches near work months ago. Now What?

Night Caching? I have hunted in the dark before and quite frankly I have a lot to learn. First if it is an urban cache I really feel uncomfortable using a flashlight. That whole burglar thing just doesn't feel right. Sure I have my geocaching speech for the boys in blue but why put myself in that position? There is always hunting in the woods but again, you never know who or what you can run into after dark. What do you think?

Now with winter approaching the weather is becoming a factor. Sure in the Piedmont of North Carolina I do not need my parka and knee high boots but we do get ice storms. It may not be blizzard weather here but it is a factor. All in all it looks like for the next few months I will be doing the majority of my caching on the holidays and weekends.

If you have suggestions for winter and night time caches, send them in. We will post for all to see.