Monday, December 31, 2012

SNAP 2012 Year in review... and the Winner of the "Coveted" SNAP Cache of the year!!!!

Nana & I have had a terrific year geocaching not only around the Hampton Roads area but also in North Carolina, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland and Tennessee.


January found us geocaching around the local area but two of the outstanding geocaches we found that month were Raiders of the Lost Ark (GC34RA8) and Temple of Doom (GC37QBC).  We only found 96 caches in January but I was still recovering from the sickness I had over the holidays.

February started off with the 5th Annual Meet n Greet hosted by episcodad.  There was a terrific turnout and everyone had a tremendous time.  The month ended with the publishing of The Treasure of Tull's Bay series (see GC3AQP4).  One of the best geocaches we found that month was The Rune Stones of Harwood's Mill (GC1YBHP) a fantastic puzzle cache and we attacked it as part of a huge team.


March had us mostly in Virginia Beach.  Somewhere in the middle of the month we officially renamed the new Rock Band Series (see GC39AF3) as "The Damn Neck Death March" after we tried (unsuccessfully) to do the series on foot!!!  The new name stuck, at least for a few months as we received more than one comment about the new name.  Note: we still haven't finished all of the caches in this series.


April was our biggest month ever as far as finds.  We found a total of 635 caches this month and set a new personal record of 309 finds in a single day.  I doubt we will ever break that record but then again - we are talking about doing the ET trail out in Nevada!  Also in April we managed to find more of the Damn Neck Death march series and also started the Amazing Geo-Race series (see GC34QA0).  We still, as of this date have not finished the Race but plan on getting back to it now that winter has set in.  One of the single day road trips we did as part of Team S&M (Jim & Lynn of jtmlam59) was a tour of West Point then coming back to Hampton Roads via Gloucester.  We finished off the month by teaming up with Jim & Lynn to form Team S&M once again and attacking the Bling Shelter Power Run (see GC37PT9).  We finished off the entire run and then found out from the COs that they had just place another 50 caches along the trail.  Going back and finishing the run is on our to-do list.





May had us on three single day road trips.  One trip had Pam & I going up to Midlothian and visited fellow geocachers at one of their Meet n Greets.  For the second we formed team S&M and toured the upper portion of the Outer Banks all the way to the Virginia state line (the Corolla area).  The third trip had alara joining us to form Team TNA - we drove out to Roanoke Rapids and grabbed caches in several counties in that area.



June we toured Gloucester and Matthews counties, took a day trip to Williamsburg and had a really great time at the WWFM #9: Hokey Pokey Hampton Roads hosted by LeoCaptKirk.



July seemed to be a geocaching series month with a few side trips.  I had a business trip to DC and picked up a few older Virtuals around the capital.  We made a day trip to Petersburg to grab some more caches but most of the month we were busy with new caching series.  We started the Get a Clue Series (see GC3EWX3) which we never finished.  We then tried the Battleship series (see GC3F96T) which we also never finished.  We solved most of the Patriots series (GC37M91) but never went out and found them all (yet).  The one series we actually started and finished was Smithfield's Porcine Parade - this is a fantastic series using the new Smithfield Pigs that have been placed around the downtown area.



August was a month of local caches mainly concentrating on the Battleship series.


September started out with Virginia's first Mega-event - the HRGC annual picnic.  The rest of the month consisted of Team S&M attacking several different bike paths in the South Hill area.  Team S&M also made a short trip down to the Knotts Island area.  Pam & I participated in the M&G at the pier (GC3TYXV) and then had a great day taking the ferry over to Tangier Island.  There are only two geocaches on Tangier Island but it is well worth the trip.



October had us teaming up again with alara (Team TNA) and attacking one of the Wacky alara geocahes - GCP49Y - Hoop Hole Hide.  We then grabbed some other caches in that area and then headed over to Augusta county and started and finished the Miles of Smiles series.



In November Jim (of jtmlam59 and I went up to Fredericksburg and took part in the Night Caching events hosted by Chip'n'Lori.  Pam & I toured Williamsburg, Richmond and Petersburg but at the end of the month we decided (last minute) to take off and spent several days geocaching around the upper part of the state and finished the trip by completing the C&D Canal in upper Delaware.



For December  Pam & I started by going up to Charles City county and wiping out that entire county.  We then started the new D/T series but have barely put a dent into it.  I participated in all the events surrounding the 12/12/12 date and gathered a few caches in the dark between events.We finished up the year by taking a Christmas geocaching trip to the western part of the state.  We wiped out some more Virginia counties and managed to also get 2 more squares for the Virginia Delorme Challenge.



Pam and I were talking recently and decided to award winners for the year.  The problem was how do we separate caches but more importantly - how do we pick not only the best cache of the year but also the best trip.  To further complicate things we have day trips and then multi-day trips.  At the end of the discussion we settled on three awards.

Best single day trip during 2012:
Runner up:  our trip to Corolla with Jim & Lynn (jtmlam59)
WINNER:  Tangier Island

Best multi-day trip during 2012:
Runner up: The trip to Hoop Hole Hide and the Miles of Smiles with alara
Winner: C&D canal in upper Delaware

The BEST Cache of 2012:  There were numerous caches in consideration but once all the caches were listed there was an obvious winner.  Congrats!!!!

Smithfield's Porcine Parade

As always - Stay Safe & Keep Caching!!!

SNAP!!! - Suffolk Nana & Papa



Tuesday, December 25, 2012

2012 Christmas Geocaching Adventure

Over 1300 miles spread over 3 days.  We started early on Saturday the 22nd and found at least one cache in each of the following Virginia counties: Amelia, Appomattox, Buckingham, Carroll, Charlotte, Claiborne (TN), Cumberland, Franklin, Lee, Lynchburg City, montgomery, Norton City, Nottoway, Prince Edward, Roanoke, Roanoke City, Smythe, Southampton and Wythe.  In addition to all these counties we also added two blocks on the Virginia Delorme challenge that we did not have including that pesky block 18 in Virginia.

To make sure we got block 18 we went all the way to the end of the state - and I do mean all the very end!!!

We enjoyed our trip even though we cut it short but we found plenty of good caches.  Our only disappointment for the trip was missing a cache in Floyd county.  We had three caches mapped but one cache was missing and the other two we decided not to try as it was too late in the day.

We made it back home safely in one piece and slept in on Christmas morning.

May all of you have a quiet and enjoyable Christmas Day and hopefully we will see y'all out on the trails.

The best caches on the trip were:

GC6120 - Wave to the Indian - a virtual cache in Appomattox county
GC1X5G1 - Buckingham Hole (in the wall) - located in Buckingham county
GCWJQY - Geographical Center of  Va - also in Buckingham County - this was also #4200 for us!!!
GC2WT55 - Sailor's Treasure - a very nice cache in Charlotte county - winner of the "Coveted" SNAP Cache of the Day award for Dec 22
GC1RNR7 - The Newlee Iron Furnace - located at the Very far West Corner of the state - a neat Earthcache located so far in the corner of Virginia you HAVE to go into Tennessee to get to it.
GC1NG6C - Man's Best Friend - located in Montgomery county - also winner of the "Coveted" SNAP Cache of the Day award for Dec 23
GC23NAZ - Too Many E's in Cemetery - an extremely nice cache - winner of the "Coveted" SNAP Cache of the Day Award for Dec 24th.
GCH5KF - ROANOKE CACHE - a really nice Virtual cache that takes you on a walking tour of the downtown Roanoke area.

As always - Stay Safe & Keep Caching!!!

SNAP!!! - Suffolk Nana & Papa

Friday, December 14, 2012

3 events in less than 24 hours!!!

For those of you who have never been to an event - please come on out!  A resturant full of other cachers who are willing to give you hints on local caches, tell you stories (believe it or not!) and just get together and talk about geocaching.  Who knows - you might even win a door prize!!!

Tuesday 12/11

After getting off work I went home to get ready for all the 12/12 events around the area.  Just before leaving the house Nana informed me she wasn't feeling 100% so just to be safe I left her at home and headed out on my own.

GC3Y5GD - 12/12/12 at 12:12am GMT - the first of three events scheduled in the area for the 12/12/12 date.  This event was hosted by steve-n-kim.  I made the mistake of getting there on time, which means that I was all the way at the kitchen end of the table as the place was already packed when I got there.  Plenty of door prizes were handed out and there was all sorts of talk about plans over the next few hours.  After a good meal, I joined a group of cachers who had several nearby caches on their "waiting to be found" list.  Over the next few hours we all managed to caravan from  cache to cache and make numerous finds before the next event.  Some of the caches on the list I had already logged as finds but I was more than happy to go along and offer whatever assistance they needed.  Among those caches I got to log as finds were:

GC40THR - D/T Grid - 4/1 a very simple puzzle cache located right in the parking lot where the event was held!

GC3Y9MT - OTM #7 Our Eyes Met - a quick park and grab close to the event local

GC40PF2 - 867-5309 - another quick P&G (btw... loved the song!)

GC37QN3 - Half Moon's Mau5 Trap - this one had been on our DNF list for quite some time and all of us managed to make the grab in the dark!!!

GC38RQ4 - Who's Your Legend? - another cache that had been on our DNF list!!!

GC41ZY8 - 20/20 vision needed - we didn't need 20/20 vision but the flashlights sure helped make this a fast find!

GC42MKK - Kilo India Sierra Sierra #1 - a cache that advertises itself as simple and it was!!!

There were other caches we visited and others got to get their smilies but the one that frustrated us most was GCRJ52 - Dancing in the Street!!! - this one had been on our DNF for over a year and we even had a previous finder in the group and still couldn't come up with the find - after all - it was very dark out!!!

We eventually headed south to the next event, GC3Y0JK 12-12-12@12:12:12am - we arrived what we thought was about 10 minutes early only to find an IHOP packed with geocachers!!!  We all had a great time trading stories and getting door prizes.  This event was held by DMB4Life.  After how successful this event was I would not be surprised to see more midnight events!

As we all got ready to leave I was approached by Mitovirginia and asked about a nearby cache.  Since I knew Jim (the "j" part of jtmlam59) was riding with me we twisted his arm and got him to go out and do maintenance on the cache.  There is no simpler way to find a cache than to go with the CO and help him do maintenance!!!  We both added GC39AG7  - Rock Band #31 - Scorpions to our found list, checked on another Rock Band cache and discovered it missing and then went home to grab a few hours of rest before the next event scheduled in just a few hours!

GC3Y0JW - 12-12-12@12:12:12pm hosted also by DMB4Life - the 3rd and last local event for the 12/12/12 date.  This time at ChiCho's Pizza.  You might think that after 3 events in about 16 hours cachers might run out of things to talk about - NOT!!!  There was still conversations about nearby and favorite caches, plenty of good food and lots of tired cachers!!!

Latest Update - our plans have changed once again.  This upcoming weekend will be cache free!!!!  We are watching some of the grandchildren so caching will just have to wait!

As Always - Stay Safe & Keep Caching!!!

SNAP!!! - Suffolk Nana & Papa

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Last weekend (December 8 & 9)

Saturday Dec 8

After spending all day Friday walking around Lone Star Lakes park making sure every cache was ready to be found and had plenty of swag in each one I could hardly wait for the Bike n Hike Event to begin.  Nana & I arrived early (or at least what we thought was early) only to find the parking lot almost full and plenty of cachers either coming back from nearby caches or standing around getting info on all the caches in the park.  There were cachers not only from right here in the Hampton Roads area but I also met some folks from the Richmond and Williamsburg areas.


This was a great event hosted by the AllstarSS and you would not believe the number of door prizes handed out!!!  Once the formal part of the event wound down everyone split up into groups and headed off in different directions.  Having no caches to find (in the park) Nana and I decided to go with the group that was hiking the northern part of the park and act the part of a tour guide..  One by one we knocked out each cache as we walked the almost 2 miles (one direction) path through the lakes and the woods.  We were almost to the "just published" cache when the biking group caught and passed us.  We all made some minor attempts to distract/slow them down as they buzzed by us to get the FTF on the new cache.

Once we finished the caches along the northern part we made our way back to the staging area and then decided to stop for lunch at a quaint little eatery right outside the park.  We all had a great lunch and then decided to head home and call it a day.

Special thanks goes out to the AllstarSS team as they, once again, hosted a great event.  Fun was had by all!!!!!

Sunday Dec 9

Sunday morning Nana & I teamed up with alara to form Team TNA once again and headed off to Charles City county.  I had been looking at the Map of our Virginia finds and realized that Charles City county had zero finds for Nana & I so the purpose of Sunday's trip was to get all the finds we could in this one county!

We started off with GC30K07 The Courthouse of Charles City County - this ended up being a nice little cache that was NOT where we thought it would be.  Nana made the find after a few minutes and we now had 1 find in this county.

GC27PT5 - VCT Charles City Rest Stop was the next cache on the list.  This cache is near the VCT biking/hiking trail which, for those of you who have never heard of it, is a very nice paved trail that starts in Jamestown and ends in Richmond.  This was a rather unique cache and we luckily found it in less than 5 minutes.

GC179H5 - The Overlooked Cache - located in an out of the way park, we found this cache a little off from the coordinates but there is more than enough information on the cache page to make it a nice find.  The view here is amazing and the park is gorgeous!!!

GC27PP2 - VCT Travel Bug Motel - this cache is also along the VCT trail and it is a short walk from nearby parking.

GC1MB5Q - Fish Farm - if you manage to find your way to the fish farm - please take a hike through the area.  Although we found the cache with no problems we enjoyed the walk and the sights tremendously.  There is a gigantic Loblolly pine a very short distance from the cache that will amaze you.  Well worth the visit!!!

GC1CR08 - Curse of the FTF #12 (Richmond) Shirley, You Jest - other than all the old Shirley/surely jokes along the road on the way to this cache (which is a very easy P&G) - the Shirley Plantation is just down the road.  The Shirley Plantation is Virginia's oldest plantation, it started in 1613 and is a working plantation, a private family home, and a National Historic Landmark.

GC2YAA2 - Off the beaten Path - this cache has earned its name - in a nice athletic park - this cache is well worth the visit!

GC19WM7 - Looking for a good time in Ruthville.  A very nice multi-cache.  You arrive at GZ, get some information from a sign then do a little elementary math - then a short walk later find a rather nice cache.

GC1JGJM - Welcome to P.F. - P.F. stands for Providence Forge - Nana & I love these quick P&G caches at historic areas!!!

GC1P0ZB - Crawfords Cache - this is a very good example of the "hanging out in the open" but still very hard to find cache.  It amazes us how hard the totally obvious caches can sometimes be!

GCNG17 - Toe Ink - Located in the woods near a rest area - this is a very simple find.  Pull off the road, stretch your legs and make the grab!

GC1P0X4 - Something's Blooming - a very quick P&G

GC1P0FX - Go-fer Ride - another quick P&G

GC2GD4A - Fire Watch - you usually find no trespassing signs on these old fire towers but none of us dared to climb to the top!

GC1GD4M - Anomalies: #2 The Practice Field - this is a quick P&G once you get to GZ - finding your way to GZ may be a trick though!

GC1KN0W - Antioch School - another cache in a historic location - great hide!

GC1PYDY - Elko Community Center - this is another really nice cache.  You arrive at the community center, get some information from the signs, once again test your math skills with simple addition and subtraction and then go find the final.  This particular cache had some previous DNF logs on the page but we managed to make the find after wandering around a bit!

GCYCYP - Swamped! - another quick find at a road side pull off with 3 historic signs - great information!

On our way back home now, we decided to grab two more caches that were up this way!

GC3YTQ9 - Animal Pen - yes we paid the fee to enter the park just for one cache!!!!  The cache had been moved slightly due to construction but the name still fits.  We arrived at GZ and a park employee ran over to show us the cache without us even asking for help!  He had all sorts of information about not only the information but also the park!  If you have never been up here to Chippokes Plantation State Park - please make the trip - there are 7 nice caches in the park and another 2 right outside the park.  Be aware that there is a fee to enter this park but it is well worth the visit .  This is a rather large park so we recommend bring the bikes!

Last cache of the day was GC3YTQN - Off the beaten path to Chippokes - located on a now dead end road on the way to Chippokes Plantation State Park - this was our last quick P&G for the day.

Favorites on the day were:
GC1P0ZB - Crawfords Cache, GC2GD4A - Fire Watch 

Winner of the "Coveted" SNAP Cache of the Day was:  GC3YTQ9 - Animal Pen - CONGRATS!!!

As always - Stay Safe & Keep Caching!!!

SNAP!!! - Suffolk Nana & Papa

Friday, December 7, 2012

The day before the Bike/Hike Meet n Greet

I am officially tired, spent, kaput, dead, finished, beat, etc, etc, etc

I took off of work today and spent the entire day caching in Lone Star Lakes Park.  My total find count = 1

WHAT?!?!?!

Most of the caches in the park belong to Nana & I but I spent the day going to almost every single cache in the park - that's 35 caches total caches - no I didn't go to each and every cache but I hit most of them and........... I hid two more cache sin the park that will not be published until the Meet n Greet/Bike/Hike.

All caches were in pretty good shape.  Took some trash out of some and added path tags to a bunch.

The good news is all the caches are ready to be found.

The bad news is - I'M TIRED!!!!

Hope to see each and every one of you there tomorrow!!!

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Sunday December 2 Recap

After starting off December 2012 with a bang yesterday (## finds and 6 FTFs) we decided to press our luck and try for some more caches.  The day started off great!!!  The temperature was a little cold in the early am but it warmed up nicely and Nana & I were off by ourselves to start the day.

We headed north to grab some new caches in Smithfield and were more than pleasantly surprised by what we found!

Feeling a Little Boxed In (GC4064M) - a quick park n grab to start the day and all we had to do was dodge a few muggles around GZ!

WCP - Aragog the Acromantula (GC427QM) - a cute little cache located on the outskirts of Windsor Castle Park and believe it or not we had the park almost to ourselves!

This one's for you Pack... (GC427NG) - two cute caches in a row and we think we are on a roll!!!  This cache is beside Windsor Castle Park and again - no one was around to spoil our fun!

Now that we have wiped out Smithfield again we made our way back to Suffolk and Bennett's Creek Park.

High Five (GC3Y6ZK) - it is amazing to us how something so big can be camouflaged so well... we wandered around a bit, talked to some disc golfers but eventually made the find the hard way!!!

If you read the blog concerning Saturday's caching you know we spent about 6 hours deep in the woods.  Today we decided not to venture into the deep woods but wanted to try a new puzzle.

PortSuffApeake (GC3N6YD) - reading the cache page for this one you will realize the CO (seepaulgolf) set this up to be found either as a multi or as a puzzle.  We decided to try the multi version and found stages 1 and 2 easily.  Stage 3 eluded us and we ended up logging a DNF for the cache.  Lucky for us Paul was reading his email because a short time later he emailed us to give us a clue on reaching the final.  I researched what he told us and now believe we can find it next time we are out that way!!!

S7C #8: PACE Churchland (GC3RT2N) - this was our second visit here and we ended up logging another DNF for the day.  Once again though luck was on our side.  A day or two after our log, one of the Cos emailed us with a clever little hint that made us go "DOH!"   now we have two caches to find in the Churchland area that should be easy pickings next time we go out!

Not wanting to press our luck to far we ventured over to the Chesapeake Square area.  We had very good luck with the D/T Grid caches yesterday - we were hoping our luck would continue.

D/T Grid - 2.5/1 (GC3WHH2) - a rather quick find but I believe luck had a lot to do with it now that I am home and reading the other logs!!!

D/T Grid - 3/1 (GC3WHGA) - this is listed as a puzzle cache.  If you are a cacher that is shy about puzzle caches - go ahead and try this one - it is very simple (no math involved)!!!  A rather quick find!!!  Actually - it was in the last place we looked!!!

D/T Grid - 2/1 (GC3WHGV) - silly us figured the easier the rating on these - the simpler they would be to find.  No luck here today even though the cache page says you can see it from the parking space - we must not have been in the correct spot cause we were blind to it!!!

D/T Grid - 1.5/1.5 (GC3WHHJ) - another simple cache that Nana nor I could put our hands on!!!

As tired as we still were from Saturday's 14 hour adventure we decided at this point to call it a day.  Not an impressive day as far as numbers were concerned but we did give out 3 favorite points amongst our 6 finds!!!

Favorite points were awarded to these fine caches:
WCP - Aragog the Acromantula (GC427QM) - hidden by chihuahuak94
This one's for you Pack... (GC427NG) - hidden by chihuahuak94
High Five (GC3Y6ZK) - hidden by toystory2

Winner of the "Coveted" Nana & Papa Cache of the Day Award was........  High Five!!!!  Congrats to toystory2 for another win!!!

As Always - Stay Safe & Keep Caching

SNAP!!! - Suffolk Nana & Papa

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

It may be December - but still bring the bug spray!!!

Saturday morning (12/1), Nana & I loaded up the car and got an early start.  We met jtmlam59 in Portsmouth and reformed Team S&M once again for a run around the area.  We were all bundled up as the morning temperature was in the lower 40's when we started.

First on the list was some of the new D/T Grid series that Jim still had left to find.

D/T Grid - 4.5/1.5 (GC3WHF3) - we searched for almost 20 minutes before the CO took pity on us a gave us a small clue.  With clue in hand we made the grab quickly and claimed the FTF for the cache (a devilish little hide if I do say so myself).  WOW! - do you know it has been almost 8 months since Nana & I had a FTF!!!

D/T Grid - 3/1.5 (GC3VT4W) - getting to GZ proved to be the problem here as Chesapeake Square was having a Christmas parade and most of the ways into the mall area were blocked off.  Once we figured out where to be we made the find quickly and got the heck out of there!  Too many muggles!!!

D/T Grid - 4/1.5 (GC3WJ1A) - another FTF was waiting for us here and to be honest it did take us a few minutes to locate this devil but we did and claimed our 2nd FTF on the day!

D/T Grid - 1.5/2 (GC3WJ1P) - right down the road from the last one and numerous cachers had found it already - we made the grab after stopping for a quick bite to eat - this is a quick P&G.

D/T Grid - 5/3.5 (GC3WJ1Z) - this was another one we had a chance for a FTF on today.  We made the grab and then we all were pleasantly surprised to see a clean log for our 3rd FTF on the day!!!  On a side note - it has warmed up so much we are out of our coats and Jim is walking around the woods in a tee shirt!

D/T Grid - 3/4 (GC404XF) - a very long (at least it seemed that way) trek through the woods for another find on the day!

D/T Grid - 3/3.5 (GC3XW4F) - this was a multi and believe it or not another chance for yet another FTF!!!  Stage one happened to be right in front of me in the first place I looked.  The final stage though eluded us for quite some time.  Eventually - maybe just as we were about to give it up for lost - Nan yelled out those words all geocachers love to hear!  "I FOUND IT!"  Can't believe this one eluded us for so long!

D/T Grid - 2.5/3.5 (GC404Y6) - this was another puzzle cache.  Having found the previous multi we were set to go on this one.  A fairly easy walk back towards the SNAP-mobile yielded this cache and it was far easier than we thought it would be.  Since we were FTF on the last one we knew we would be FTF on this one!

D/T Grid - 2/4 (GC4105J) - this was yet another puzzle cache.  The ladies took one path and Jim and I the other.  Eventually, we found out later, the ladies headed back to the SNAP-mobile and waited for our return.  Jim and I made the find and eventually made our way back to the ladies.  I was sitting there writing my notes when I looked at my hand and what did I see - not a tiny reindeer but a TICK!  I gladly deposited him outside of the van then realized I saw another on my pants.  I slowly exited the van and brushed off some more.  A total of 5 ticks - WOW!!!  So much for it being December!!!

D/T Grid - 2.5/4.5 (GC3XW0D) - we found a nice place to park and the walk wasn't too far but finding the cache proved to be too much.  We poked and brushed - knelt and looked everywhere we could think of but in the end we gave up and headed towards the peninsula to continue our caching day.  The good news (or bad news depending on how you look at it is - no one has found it yet so maybe we can get another FTF in the coming days!!!

Old Rusty (GC41QBD) - a very simple park n grab started the peninsula part of our day off with a quick find.

When in Rome...2 (GC3KFA6) - a very short search made up for the fact that this is a puzzle cache.  Jim had solved it and we went along to make the find.

Marker 20 (GC407GZ) - this proved to be very elusive.  We conducted an extensive search and then used a PAF to make sure we were in the correct place.  Our PAF info proved to be off just a little but we eventually made the find and proceeded onto the next cache.

Turdus Merula (GC3WFVM) - we had been to this park before and knew the location - but we were pleasantly surprised by the find - great cache!!!  Quick find.

FTL #2 (GC40R99) - we walked down the path but it took us quite a few minutes before we located the container.  Located the log quickly and left for the next cache.

A Beachin' Ditti (GCMQDD) - we had been here before and came up empty - Jim thought he knew where it was - after quite a few minutes we even tried another PAF - got a hint - looked for far too long and ended up going away with our heads hung low - another DNF on the day.

The black hole (GC3XV2K) - This was another cache that took too long but this time we came away with the find!!!

Christmas Lights #13 - Newport News (GC41Z41) - we heard about this series a month or two ago and had been looking forward to it - as it happens this was a quick find - or maybe we were just very lucky!!!

Christmas Lights #16 - Newport News (GC41Z4R) - this one took us a little longer to locate but it is already getting dark and we may have to start using our flashlights very soon!!!

Urban Renewal 1 (GC40Q99) - some of us had flashlights - others decided to find it the hard way - but I yelled FOUND IT as my flashlight lit it up!!!

Centric (GC3NM8H) - Spotted this one right away!!!!

Clock's Ticking (GC3NM7P) - Another quick grab and all of us will be using flashlights from now on - it is officially DARK!

Q S & L (GC3T5WZ) - would you believe the others in the group barely gave me time to get out of the NSAP-mobile before they were yelling they had it!!!!

PACE of the Citi (GC3VK4E) - another cache where I barely made it out of the van.  Good thing they needed the tweezers that were in my pocket!!!

HOHOHO!! (GC421HD) - made very quick work of this one!!!

Christmas Lights #01 - Newport News (GC41YYY) - we ended the day here as even with flashlights this one took too long.  Funny thing is, we expected to see 3 or more names on the log!!!  When we unrolled the log we were surprised to see a blank log - Did we get FTF????  After calling the CO - we got it straight - we were FTF on the RED light but not on the other colored light that was accidentally placed there also!!!  CO apologized and promised to remove one of the lights - wonder which one they remove???  Note: now days later I look back at the page for the cache and the CO awarded GoodSunCachers, SNAP!!!, and Jtmlam59 on a triple FTF!   Thank you for our 46th FTF!!!

Favorite points on the day went to:
D/T Grid - 3/1.5 (GC3VT4W) - really cute container
Turdus Merula (GC3WFVM) - a lot of work went into this one
FTL #2 (GC40R99) - a neat idea

Winner of the "Coveted" Nana & Papa Cache of the Day Award goes to.........Turdus Merula (GC3WFVM)  - CONGRATS!!!!

Note: On Monday night I was sitting there and all of the sudden I had to scratch!!!  My ankles!!!!  Not only did we run into ticks on Saturday - but obviously I got into some chiggers!!!  So even though it is December - please remember the bug spray and spray yourselves down before going into the woods!!!

As always - Stay Safe & Keep Caching!!!

SNAP!!! - Suffolk Nana & Papa