Lots of things happening right now, and sometimes you wonder where all the time went. Wanting to go geocaching, but having to do other things - you know "normal family life" and stuff. People around us wondering if there's not a chance that maybe some new rEDdOG caches will be published soon??

Well of course there will be caches published, but when? Time will only tell! We have a couple of hundred ideas or so. But we find ourselves trapped in the notion that everything has to be better, bigger, bolder - why is that?  Could it be all of the new repelling caches, all the swimming, the thrill of FTF-hunting or all of the mysteries that are still not solved (by us...)?

Perhaps it's time to slow down some? And wonder why we started this? To get together as a family, to have fun, to take walks, get closer to nature? Or should we just realize that we are thrill seeking maniacs. One could think managing a family with three small kids should be challenging enough - but it seems it really isn't

Ah well - one new rEDdOG cache published today. Not the brilliant "super duper difficult" mystery we thought it was (late last night ) but a little tid bit anyway for future caches to come

Have a nice evening now!
Over and out...

The last part of our trip was a bit shorter than the first two: from Umeå to Skellefteå and then just a bit further to a small village called Renholmen. I don't have to tell you that we had a few "I need to stretch my legs" stops on the way. We found ourselves a rusty car, the smallest fire station in Sweden, some old buildings and some other less remembered places, most with rather quickly found caches (... but some with no caches to be found... at least not by us = DNF)

Rosty old car (car type unknown...)

The smallest fire station in Sweden

The DNF Story 1 - or: getting chased by wasps

The DNF Story 2 - but at least we got to a really nice place

A really cool, large stone found on our way (dnf:ing...)

And now we are here in Renholmen, the place where I spent my summers as a kid. And it's still calm and relaxing (when our kids are asleep at least ;-)). And the best part? Well: there are caches placed not far from where we live - so we can still go out hunting when the geocaching itch gets to bad (once a day or so?)

Happy Holidays to all of you out there! And Happy Caching!

Part two of our Going North Trip - driving from Sundsvall to Umeå in "geocaching pace" (=slow and with many mostly planned stops) took us past many interesting places. The magnificent nature of Höga Kusten, with the bridge (that I don't like going over... because of my fear of heights) and Skule mountain (where you have to say: "Good day, good day mr Skule" three times every time you pass...) was our first goal

At Höga Kusten bridge, Markus took a walk uphill to find a nice fortification cache, whilst mommy-dearest and the three kids played at a supercool playground (pirate theme). The kids were not so keen on going into the car again, I think they wanted to stay forever (which would have been ok, if there had been just a few more caches)

Driving from the bridge, we thought we'd check out a TB Hotel right next to the road. And it was the coolest one ever!

Right by Skule mountain we found a place we had never been to before - Naturum. Needless to say, you could shop for climbing gear there (but we didn't... not this time...)

Naturum, quite close to Skule

The path to Umeå was paved with geocaches and cool (=historically interesting?) places. "Border" signs, memorial signs, old mills, history everywhere!

We stayed over in Umeå, had a nice meal, took a bath in the pool (cooold!) and then tried to convince the kids to sleep after an exciting day (difficuuult!). And then our trip continued (more to come...)

We usually drive up north in the summertime, but this year was the first year we've planned the trip with our geocaching hats on. Our usual goal is to drive 800 km as fast as possible with as few stops as possible. This year: as many stops as possible (well yes, sort of...) with a sleepover in Sundsvall AND Umeå. All those years passing by interesting places, some just looked at from a distance (The Viggen in Söderhamn, The Y outside Sundsvall...), places we have now seen - and happened to find a cache at!

The Geobus, all packed up and ready to go

Viggen in Söderhamn

We stayed the night in Sundsvall, hoping to make an evening trip trying to find som caches. But the few caches we tried to find could not be found, and there was something peculiar with the maps in Sundsvall, the street map and the satellite map were not in sync somehow (... and we had the sun in our eyes, and... and...). We had a nice walk anyway, and saw at least small parts of Sundsvall

DNF-trip in Sundsvall

Waking up to a sunny Sundsvall

The "Y" just outside Sundsvall

And the road trip goes on... part 2 coming up!

So... yeees... we've been power trailing in Halmstad

And to summarize: it was really fun and different!! A totally unique geocaching experience, and a new way to challenge yourself physically (and partly psychologically). We went to Halmstad early on a Saturday together with geocaching friends Lhasa_runner. We were aiming to reach 1000 finds and Lhasa_runner to pass 2000 finds. The plan was to go to Halmstad and find as many caches as possible in the four power trails, and after that try to log som mysteries as well (the mysteries in Halmstad were not fun to solve... but that is a different story!)

For the first power trail (E) we decided to use our bikes - and that was a really good idea! But... perhaps I should have tried our new mountain bike out for a bit before the trip . Falling helplessly while trying to get off the bike to find the first cache could have put a stop to our geocaching trip But, the only damage was a scratched arm (sometimes it's good to be stubborn?). For cache number two I used the wrong hand brake (front wheel) and almost fell again , but I only ended up with a sore and bruised stomach. After that I managed to handle the bike somewhat better.... until the first hill from hell came (I'm not really in shape right now am I...) and Markus took over (praise the looord...)

After power trail E, we went on to B, A and C - now in our geocaching bus since we were a bit tired. Most of the caches were easy to find, and the ones that weren't - well, they probably weren't there

And what happens now? Well... we thought we'd try geocaching up north in Sweden - or as Lhasa_runner described it: "absolutely-not-power-trailing-geocaching". Hopefully we'll manage to take some more pictures from the splendid (especially in the summer) country we do live in

Have a happy summer dear old geocachers! See you out there!

Well we have to start by thanking everyone for all the kind words about the event, we did have more activities planned but there simply wasn't time to do everything this time... Maybe the next time, who knows. 

Anyhow it is always exciting meeting with fellow geocachers and this time it surely was a good mix between familiar and unfamiliar faces and even nicks!

A few of the new hides have surpassed our expectations when it comes to the amount of logs and some perhaps have been a bit of a disappointment, though this will surely change during the summer and autumn. 

oops, this entry took a long time to write.. had to go FTF hunting... We will be back shortly with more entries.

Thank you dear geocachers of Västmanland (and beyond!) for a fantastic Sunday outdoors in the sun! How fun it is to be able to talk about geocaching, GPS, flashlights, tiny boxes etc without people going "Huuuuh?" or "Doooooh!"

Although we didn't manage to do everything we intended, it seems that most of the participants liked coming to Strömsholm and the event

 Now, let's hope for 10 more years of happy geocaching!

See you out there!!

And what a day it promises to be!

We woke up to a beautiful sunny morning and the familiar chime from the phones announcing that a new cache had been released! Could the day start off better than with a beautiful sun and an FTF? We are ready for the event, everything is packed and ready so we hope to see you all at Strömsholm this afternoon. Bring a smile!

I think we're ready, done, finished, prepared. The list:

• A sign (with coordinates) has been created
• Caches have been placed, and cache notes have been printed
• Name tags are printed
• Balloons (...are being inflated)

What's left? Hmmm... pack the car with tables, barbeques, food, things, more things

Are you ready to come to Strömsholm? We hope so! See you tomorrow!!

(Back to the balloons )

 This weekend it's time to celebrate 10 years of geocaching!

According to geocaching.com there are 335 events in the world celebrating 10 Years! this weekend. In Sweden there are 16 "10 Year!"-events. Even though we have only been geocaching since last year we are hosting our own little celebration event in Strömsholm/Kolbäck (Carbon Creek)

We've only been to two events so far (including one flash mob ) and are kind of nervous about hosting an event, but we hope we'll pull it off .... It can go either way really

Anyway, we've just been out placing new caches that will be released at the event - and are really excited about that as well! It will be hard going to sleep tonight.... Zzzzzzzzzzzzz

Zzzzz.... *snortle* ... where was I?

Ehm.... yeah: Welcome-welcome to the "10 Years! Carbon Creek, Sweden"-event, bring food and a plaid, good mood and a maid (what??)

G'night to y'all...Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz