Geo-Coder

I discovered Tiny Geocoder today. This site allows you to type in an address and it instantly converts the address to the exact latitude and longitude coordinates. This site is free and does not require you to register (no login/password to remember). A map is included in the results. It also gives you a tiny url so you can Twitter your results.

I think this site will be useful for traveling. Later this month, I will be joining some friends at 318 Cafe in Excelsior, Minnesota. I typed in the address for this cafe and got the GPS coordinates. Now I can simply enter them into my GPS and be guided right to the restaurant. Cool!

Creating My Own Google Map - Thing 32

I had fun creating a map with Google maps. Since we like to geocache, I decided to create a map that takes you to some geocaches in Elk River, Minnesota. I tried to include links to websites, photographs and a video. Let me know what you think.


View Larger Map

Letterboxing and Geocaching Adventures

My friend Kathy noted that I hadn't updated my blog recently. This time of year is always busy with back-to-school and the holidays. I have been doing lots of things with family and friends. Thanksgiving weekend I spent in Des Moines, Iowa with family. I introduced all of them to letterboxing. This was the first letterbox we found near Des Moines at the Saylorville Lake and Dam.

It was really interesting to see the flood damage at this location. The roadway that you were directed to take in the original letterbox clue had been completely washed away. Luckily the clue had been revised since the Spring flooding.

This past weekend, Steve and I went to visit Signe and attended the Concordia Christmas Concert. It was awesome, as usual. On the way up to Fargo/Moorhead, we found a letterbox at a wayside rest stop off of Interstate 94. Before the concert on Saturday, we went geocaching in Moorhead and successfully found 1 of the 4 caches we searched for. We still are getting the hang of geocaching. Hopefully it will become easier the more we do it. The new GPS is fun to use!

On our way home on Sunday, the temperature was 5*F, it was snowing, windy and really, really cold. Oh, what to do on a miserable day??? You look for letterboxes! We successfully found 5 of the 7 we looked for on the way home. Quincy (our dog) even wore his jacket, much to Steve's embarrasement. We had to carry him at times because his feet were too cold.

We stopped at Loso's art sale in St. Joseph to do a little Christmas shopping before finally heading home.

Geocaching in Minnesota State Parks

YouTube Video: MN State Parks Geocaching

I am hoping that we will have time to do a little geocaching this weekend. We recently learned about the geocaching promotion at Minnesota State Parks and would like to get to some parks before it gets too cold and snowy. To learn more about this challenge, click on the following link. It is sponsored by Best Buy, and rumor has it that if you find a cache at a state park, you get a 40% off coupon for Best Buy to buy a new GPS. This may be a good Christmas gift idea. (hint, hint)

Minnesota State Parks Geocaching History Challenge

A Skeleton's Picnic!

On Sunday, Steve and I attended our first ever letterboxing event.

We woke up to slush falling from the sky and the whole day was very blustery. We arrived at Moir Park in Bloomington and were quickly greeted by "Two Free Timers" of Rochester. The event organizer, "The Red Cat" was also very welcoming. We got to stamp our logbook with the Skeleton's Picnic event stamp and also several other traveling event stamps. We then did some exchange stamping with the other letterboxers that came to the picnic. An exchange is when a letterboxer stamps his/her personal signature stamp into the logbook of another letterboxer and vise versa. We were really impressed by everyone's signature stamps! Some letterboxers carry "Personal Travelers". You can get these stamps by asking or answering a certain question, telling a joke or just about anything. We were able to collect several of these in our logbook as well. Then it was out to the park to collect letterboxes. It was fun to letterbox with other people and we were delighted to tag along with "Incredible Magpie", "MC Bear", "Lars", "ASL Girl" and "Found Unicorn". In our conversations with our new friends, I discovered that "Brandicat" also works in a library and is a 23 Things finisher! Also, "Lars" knows a couple of our friends from the Minnesota Mineral Club. Talk about a small world! Even though the weather was pretty miserable, we found 20 letterboxes! Moir Park is connected to Nine Mile Creek. This park is really pretty and the trail system is great. Thanks to "Incredible Magpie" we also found our first geocache!

All in all, we had a fantastic day and will definitely attend more of these events!