Birthday Madness Part 1 - My first two caches are live!

The past few days have been so busy, cache-wise, that I'm splitting this into two separate blog posts.

As I mentioned before, my 40th birthday fell on the 17th, so it was the perfect opportunity to use up some of my excess vacation time and take a few days off to both go caching and to officially submit my first few caches for review.  I'm happy to report that my first official caches (not counting my adopted one) went live yesterday!  Video Game History #1 - Breakout and Video Game History #2 - Frogger are officially out in the wild, and several people found both caches on the day they went live.

Breakout from the Atari 2600 version.  Wikimedia Commons image shown.

I live within walking distance of Eastlake Park In Ridley Park, and there was only one cache in the 14 acre area, so this was a natural spot for me to place them.  I was able to find spots that fit the theme of both caches, and I'm sticking by my "no generic cache container" rule.  Each container is pretty unique, though I have to admit that while Breakout is like nothing I've ever found, Frogger was inspired by a few caches I picked up when I first started caching.  Frogger is probably the more fun of the two containers as well.

Frogger.  Wikimedia Commons image shown.

This whole process was a series of firsts for me.  Originally, I wasn't sure what to put in the cache as an FTF prize.  Since Breakout was my first cache ever, I ended up splurging and left a new 8 GB thumb drive.  Frogger is a smaller container, so my choices were pretty limited. Conveniently I had a Where's George? dollar that I picked up at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire about a month ago.  Considering that it's kinda sorta trackable (not many people bother logging them) AND it's worth $1, it was a win/win for everyone involved.

I had spent a little time over the past few days getting averaged coordinates, and finally dropped both caches off on my birthday this past Wednesday.  I had been writing up the cache descriptions for a little while, and since I knew I would be in the area caching yesterday, I submitted them for review first thing in the morning.  I wasn't sure if the local reviewer would actually come out and check the caches or not, but I guess the answer is "or not", as they went live within about an hour of me posting them.

Cache number 3 was also ready to go, but apparently my placement is in an area that is unsuitable as it is pretty close to a train overpass.  The area itself is safe - there is a huge fence blocking anyone from getting near the tracks - but its very proximity to the train could be an issue due to federal law or something.

It's really no big deal as I had a "Plan B" spot picked out already.  It's less related to the theme of the cache, but it's in a busy park that has no other caches, and I'm sure it will get plenty of cacher traffic.  when I took it down to move it I noticed that I needed to beef up the waterproofing, so this being told that I had to move the cache alerted me to a problem that I may not have caught until it was too late. Sweet.

All in all, I'm pleased with how the caches came out, though I can foresee the next ones being more unique.

Shameless plug - if you're in the area, come check them out!  The three caches in this park are all within walking distance of one another, though it may be a bit of a stroll.  Come out on a nice day, check out the scenery, and find some caches!