MiGO SE Chapter News 

Lazy Hayes Days III

Lazy Hayes Day III will be held May 15-17 2009 at Hayes State Park! We already cleared the dates with the park staff, we're a GO!! Mark the dates on your calendars and make sure to arrange to have this weekend off, you'll be kicking yourself if you miss out!! This will be a mixed emotion weekend as we will surely be remembering our dear friend Tod, but we'll muddle through in our normal fashion! Someone please remind me to make out a LIST of items needed....we just keep forgetting important stuff lol! I liked the dutch oven cookoff, we'll do this again (will have to start looking for a good prize for this)...I might even buy a DO and join the fun! Potluck will be the call for those who do not participate in the cookoff and we'll be bringing something for the crowds to munch on before the meal! And don't forget the SUNDAY BREAKFAST!!! We plan to have a special tribute cache honoring Tod, plus there'll be several new caches in place as is our norm! We also have a night cache in the works for a nearby park as well as a difficult tribute cache at Hudson Lake which we might just make plans to visit during the weekend if there is interest! More to come in the following months, I'm sure we'll set up another webpage for more indepth info as well!! I will also submit the event for publish as soon as I am allowed to! STAY TUNED!!

Todie's Wild Ride release/race and bike awareness!

As most of you already know, Tod Phillips of Team Rod & Tod w/KAboom, was taken from us in a motorcycle accident on Aug 12th 2008, just 2 days after the Geobash. Tod was a great friend, he was like a brother to me, a father figure to Kaleb and Kaleb's older brother whom I raised as well. We dearly miss Tod! I have many pictures of Tod on my desk and walls, some from our mountain climbing adventures, some from LHD etc...but the one thing I really wish I had was his laugh recorded somewhere...it was infectious!! Tod had a wonderful time at the BASH, we all had great fun! A few caches have or will be placed in his honor! If ever in the area, give me a yell and I'd be happy to escort anyone to his caches if I have the free time! In an effort to raise awareness for bikes on the roads, I have initiated a coin release/race cointest on the Geocaching.com coin forums...called Todie's Wild Ride! Todie's Wild Ride stands for the wild rides these coins will have while honoring Tod and raising awareness for us bikers on the roads! My goal is to get as many coins released into the wild with the name "Todie's Wild Ride: (and anything extra you'd like here)" and the mission of spreading bike (motorized or non) awareness! Anyone wishing to release a coin or 20 for this release/race cointest should email me or read the Todie's Wild Ride thread in the gc coin forums!! First prize is my 2007 LACKEY coin!!! I would very much appreciate anyone and everyone who would like to help with this cause!! Tod was killed when a truck pulled into his lane, the truck aparently didn't see Tod even though Tod's headlight was illuminated (auto illuminating headlight, you don't need to manually turn these on)...how is it the driver missed seeing Tod? The road was fairly flat, no obstructions to hide Tod from oncoming's view...what happened?? Well, since this has happened to me far too many times (being pulled in front of), I might be able to shed a bit of light... Drivers often get distracted by kids in the car, the radio, cell phones, a good looking opposite sex walking etc...it happens! Please don't let yourself get distracted!! Stop to make or receive a phone call (even the hands-free calls as you could still be distracted with the conversation going on). NEVER apply make-up or "fix" your hair or anything of this nature, DANGEROUS to yourself and to others! Guys, you can read the paper at home or work...and the map should be viewed when stopped (preferably in a parking lot???)! If the youngsters get too out of hand, pull over and take care of the problem...maybe the kids are tired of being in the car and need a break anyways! Oh...and let's not let ourselves get too involved in the GPS unit...PLEASE, pay attention when driving! Drivers often do "rolling stops" which GREATLY up the risk to others on the roads or even pedestrians! A driver hurriedly pulls up to the stop sign/light, glances quickly and keeps on going with barely a slow...easy to miss a car coming let alone a child on a bicycle or a motorcycle coming at you at the speed limit! Pull to a complete (and legal) stop (the 3 second rule comes to mind here...stop for a full 3 seconds before proceeding...it's the law)! ALWAYS look closely for kids, motorcycles, animals etc...our safety depends on you! Our younger male drivers make up a major portion of the ones doing this, but we're all guilty of the occasional rolling stop, I know I'm no saint! This goes for bikers as well, we need to make a full stop (this doesn't mean we "have" to put a foot down, I can easily sit still for a good 3 count and more most of the time)! Drivers OFTEN get too close to a motorcycle's rear!! PLEASE, stay a safe distance behind a bike (AT LEAST 3 car lengths, double that and we'd all feel better), your presence behind us alone puts us on edge! The closer you get to us, the more uneasy we feel, the more attention we take from the road ahead and place on the road behind! While we riders don't tend to ride "in the mirror" (watching overly close the traffic behind us and continually slowing or speeding up according to following traffic's) as an AWEFUL lot of cars seem to do (especially the older and in my opinion the women...sorry ladies, I call it as I see it), we do pay closer attention to close cars as being run over tends to hurt! A motorcycle handles obstructions and hazards MUCH differently than a car!! We sometimes need to manuever around objects which cars wouldn't...dead animals, a small item in the road...even paper as it could prove trouble for us! FOR THIS REASON ALONE, you should give us more room when following! An animal running out in front of a car may not even bother some motorists, it could be deadly for a biker! Having to avoid sudden emergencies only to be run over in the process...well, it's not a good thing to have to worry about! Now, some would complain about us bikers and you'd likely have a gripe about some of our "renegade" riders! They shouldn't be riding dangerous as they sometimes do! Hey, even us considerate riders make a mistake on occasion, we're human just like motorists! When we make a mistake though, it could very well be deadly as opposed to a minor fender-bender!! Being too close could compound the minor mistake we make, could seal our fate...please give us room!! Riders sometimes get close to the center line, causing motorists concern...why?? Why does a motorcycle near the center line worry you? A "friend" of mine once told me he likes to "crowd" bikes off the center line??? WHY?? We often ride the line merely to get oncoming (and following) traffic's attention!!! We're barely seen as it is, riding the center is the best way to assure we ARE seen! Believe me, I wont be coming into your lane purposely, and if I do by accident, you're crowding me will seal my fate!! Riding the line ALSO gives us a choice of "outs" in case of an emergency situation (say a driver comes across unexpectedly or such). Please give us due room!! Don't assume we're doing this merely to get a rise from you! If we're out in the rain, it's likely we got there by surprise! Riding in the rain is no fun for us at all, the rain feels like marbles hitting us in the face and on exposed skin! The roads get very slick for us as we're now on a greasy, wet slippry-slide, our brakes don't work as good and our tires hydroplane easily. We have much less rubber between us and the road as a car does, it makes things tricky!! Trickier yet, our sight is GREATLY diminished as our glasses and our windshields DON'T have wipers! Making it even worse, now we're hidden from motorists MORE due to the drop in visibility! PLEASE STAY A SAFE DISTANCE AND RESPECT OUR SLOWER PACE!! We've got to get there just like everyone else, we can't just stop and wait it out in many cases!! Oh...and for us riders....wear a DOT APPROVED HELMET....don't try to look "cool" riding without (in some states this is allowed) or even wearing a "fake" helmet. DON'T put your loved one's lives in a spin because YOU want to be cool! (yes, loved ones also pay the price...remember that when deciding on the helmet to wear...or not) Drive responsibly, respect others on the roads and please stay safe!! I want all of us to arrive safely and happily!! Remember that we ALL have the same rights to these roads, the same rules apply to all! I know my driving has greatly changed since Tod's accident, as has my riding! THANKS and God bless!

We're Back! More to come soon!

Well, the Chinese Year of the Rat event in Hines Park is in the books. We've published the last of the "Rat" series - they're in the park waiting for everyone. As of today, August 5th, there are 64 active caches in the 18 miles of the Edward Norman Hines Drive park system. Wooo hooo! Thanks to everyone for your patience. While we focused on the event this year things kind of stalled on the web site. However, we are getting our 2nd wind and are picking up some of the projects that were almost done this spring. Soon you should see some new content for our site. Hopefully just in time for the fall caching rush! Stay tuned!

LHD II

Well everyone, our Lazy Hayes Days II is now in the logbooks, THANKS to all who made it out! WOW...that pretty much sums it up for us....WOW! The fun, the food and all the friends, great fun! Congrats and THANKS to Cyclops for being the winning bidder on the El Diablo LHD II Staff, you got a wonderful steal there my friend! Congrats and THANKS also to SquirrelCacher (from Maine it turns out) for the winning bid on the Geocaching Jedi Mystery Coin! Your support here is much appreciated. Let's not forget Luke Skywalker and El Diablo who donated these wonderful items...and THANK-YOU to everyone who made donations which really helped to make this event The dutch oven cookoff was a HUGE success and great fun (for me, but I wasn't participating lol), I think we'll do that again next year! Winning dish went to The LightPeople with their Coca-Cola Chicken, but Sweetlife, BeenHere, and SeegertSeekers all made such wonderful dishes, the judging was hard! Who'd have thought we'd have cake out of the dutch ovens?? Well done all and THANKS for participating! We'll be hoping for more contestants next year! The scavenger hunt winner was LadyBee4T with 69 of the items required...WOW! Wonderful job to all who participated in this as well, the weather made searching out the items rough! Due to the last minute accident Kaleb had, we forgot to place some of the items in caches and even forgot the LHD Nerds altogether...D'OH! My hat's off to the wonderful crew at Hayes State Park, they truly were right on whenever we needed something! A HUGE job WELL DONE to all our wonderful volunteers as well, you people really made this event run smoothly! I couldn't have done this without each and every one of you! You were all very professional in your handling of the chores, CONGRATS on the AWESOME job! We'll have to get some better volunteer gifts maybe??? THANKS again to all who braved the brutal heat, the high winds and the stormy nights...WOW, did it ever rain Saturday night!! See you all next year!!

Geocaching Adventure 2008 in the Metroparks

Watch for the 2008 Geocaching Adventure in the Metroparks beginning in May, a series of geocaches placed by MiGO members as a tribute to the Metroparks Geocaching Adventure series. The Huron-Clinton Metroparks have always been a great supporter of MiGO and geocaching. In 2004, they started the annual Metroparks Geocaching Adventure, a series of geocache hides in the various Metroparks. In addition, each year they hosted a wonderful picnic event for geocachers. Last year 31 geocachers survived the Geocaching Adventure by completing a Sudoku puzzle and were entered into a prize drawing. MiGO and the geocaching community appreciate the support of the Huron-Clinton Metroparks over the years and are offering this new Tribute Adventure for your enjoyment. Caches are placed and maintained by the following MiGO members: Stinky&Stinky, CindyPray, Geotherapist, Jellyfish, SouthLyonTrekkers, VictoryMike, wigglewigglewiggle, Stan&Ruth and SEWdaugh. We have had considerable assistance and input from Tim Phillips of the Metroparks as well as the individual parks’ naturalists. In order to complete the 2008 Geocaching Adventure, you will need to find the 11 geocaches hidden in the Metroparks, obtain their keywords and complete a puzzle. The geocaches will be in place from May through December 2008 and will be listed at geocaching.com. The Geocaching Adventure 2008 brochure and entry forms will be available to download online at www.metroparks.com . In addition, we’ll be holding a picnic on September 13, 2008 at Huron Meadows Metropark in Brighton. Watch for the event listing at geocaching.com.

New Event Calendar Working

The new Southeast Chapter Event Calendar is up and working. You can see it by clicking on the menu item on the left side of this page. We have more gadgets to add to this calendar, but with the caching event season heating up, we wanted to get this out to everyone. If you have an event you'd like listed - for any of the MiGO chapters - please e-mail us. Also this doesn't have to be a geocaching.com event - we would like to begin listing MiGO related events such as chapter team meetings and other things that are open to our members. There are all kinds of links you can use to navigate on the calendar itself - please feel free to click around :-D We will be adding a weekly view soon, and will be adding chapter and group sorts shortly after that. Links to other features will also be added as they become available. As always your constructive feedback is appreciated.

Event Season

Rockin Roddy here... We are getting into the event season (sunshine, warm weather, green grass and long beautiful days are here)! Anyone needing help setting up event info pages (new commercial guidelines have made the necessary) or with the event itself can email me for tip or any help I can give!! Many internet companies ofer free webspace to it's customers, these sites are GREAT for event info pages (check out my Comcast site for the Lazy Hayes Days II event for example http://home.comcast.net/~roddyville65/site/?/home/ I set this up with very little computer skills and am very happy with the results). Most of these sites are simple, just pick the template, add your content and publish!! The LHD II site was a bit tougher since it was my first real setup, but it's easy...once you try!! Events are the best way to put faces to all those names you see in the caches, get out and enjoy one near you!! I'm sure Team Rod & Tod w/KAboom will be visiting many this year!! Keep in mind that anyone wishing to host an event can hit me up for donations (I'll give as I have available...which isn't much at this time, but should change soon)...and I MIGHT even be anle to lend a hand either physically or otherwise! Ask me for details!! HAPPY EVENT SEASON ALL...HAPPY CACHING! Anyone free June 6th-8th, come on out to Hayes Park in Brooklyn for our Lazy Hayes Days II event

BIG CHANGES ON THE WAY!!

BIG CHANGES are coming your way here in the S.E. Chapter website!! We've got a few surprises in order for you, we're sure these surprises will be very helpful to all cachers! Keep a watch on this site, we're really excited about these surprises and will be implementing them soon!! A HUGE THANK-YOU goes out to Jon (SeegertSeekers) for his hard work on this...if you happen to see him around, let him know how much we all appreciate him and his great efforts!!

Girls Scout GC 101 At Hayes Park

We will be hosting another GC 101 day for the Girl Scouts May 10th at Hayes State Park, I am really excited about this!! TR&T really love working with these young ladies (as well with ANY who'd like to participate some time), we feel this is a HUGE boost to our sport! Teaching the ladies how to use a GPS and how to properly search and hide a cache is GREAT for the sport as it gives the ladies an insight in how this is played as well as possibly intice the girls (and their families) into going caching!! We see the youth as tomorrow's cachers, we'd love that they get a good start! AND, can you believe they're giving out badges (or are they patches for the GS???) for GPS usage and caching!!! The day will be split up into several "section" where the ladies will be earning badges and learning about the great outdoors (and other GS activities as well of course). We will have roughly an hour or two with each group!! We'd LOVE to get a few volunteers to help with this, so ANYONE who'd like to come out and lend a heand, we'd be appreciative!! For more info on this or to volunteer your time, please email me at roddyville65@comcast.net!

LAZY HAYES DAYS IS COMING!!!

Lazy Hayes Days is just around the corner, I'm hoping all are making their plans now and marking their calendars!! This year, we're planning a "dutch oven cook-off" with prizes for the best entry!! PLEASE, all who are planning to participate, make sure you make enough to feed around 100 people (just a small amount per, of course) as we're hoping to have around 100 visitors this year!! Of course, we'll be making a main dish as well to help feed the masses as well as asking all who attend to bring a dish to pass. We'll be posting a list of items to bring soon and you will be assigned a catagory by alphabetical order! We're also planning on another scavenger hunt this year, we'll be placing items into caches leading up to the event, so many of the items on the list WILL be in a cache or two on the Hayes property!! We had soooo much fun with the scav hunt last year, we figured we'd leave that in!! AND, let's not forget the "evening stroll" cache hunt!! We'll be placing ALL NEW caches in the Hayes Park for this year's event (some will be published before the event, but many newly activated caches will be waiting for the FTF'r), we'll pick a few of the tamer ones for a stroll (I promise, nothing like last year's stroll...and NO WAY will I follow Tod this time). I've got a few surprises in store for you this year, be ready to be happy!! Bring your fishing equipment, we're working on having canoes, kayaks, rowboats and possibly even pontoon boats available for rental at a discounted LHD price!! We'll also have our "campers delight" Friday evening meal for those who camp with us (our treat on this, menu TBD) and a Sunday morning breakfast gathering for those who can stay through the wekend (this will be a bring something to add type deal, we'll be asking for people to bring something to help make this a great breakfast)! We will be asking for donations for the prize table as well as for the silent auction (we love to throw this shindig, but a bit of monetary help is always appreciated to offset our out-of-pocket), and we WILL have a coin for sale...and keep in mind the "surprises" I mentioned earlier! We're also looking for volunteers to help with everything from game ideas and set-up to contest officials to help with the cooking and cleaning etc...those who volunteer WILL be rewarded!! Send me an email if you'd like to volunteer or donate any items...roddyville65@comcast.net (and please. no spamming me, my protection is already working overtime!)!! THANKS! Hope to see you all there...and PLEASE, any ideas are encouraged!! Keep watch for the publishing of this event when time draws nearer...and watch for the coins to go on sale!! Rockin Roddy

Events for the New Year

As the old year closes it’s time to get excited about the coming events of 2008. Here is just a small sampling of events coming up in the SE MiGO region: “Operation Ice Safety - Saginaw Bay” by Cyclops (GC17MNF) Saturday February 9th starting at 10AM Event will include discussion of ice safety and equipment. If conditions are safe there will be a walk on the Saginaw Bay where 2 caches (accessible only by boat or ice walk) are hidden followed by a meal. This will be a wonderful educational and challenging event! “Belle Isle Spring Event” by Brummelbear (GC17HBP) Saturday March 29th The event starts at 9AM with breakfast at Big Boy across from Belle Isle. After breakfast, cachers will head to the island to seek approximately 20 new caches. 30 current caches will also be available through the event but 28 will be archived afterward. This is a great opportunity to enjoy this jewel in the river! “Belle Isle Spring CITO” by Rattrak and Metroparks Saturday, Apr 19, 2008, 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM Time to show our appreciation to the Metroparks and Mother Nature by cleaning a little piece of the earth "2008 Lazy Hayes Days" by Team Rod & Tod w/KAboom June 6th-8th 2008 at Hayes State Park in Brooklyn Michigan Always a rousing event with great "Rod" caches and plenty of fun! “Chinese Year of the Rat ~ American Style” by the Seegert Seekers Saturday, July 12th Last year’s ‘Pig’ event was a blast—can they top it this year? I bet they can! “Monthly SE MiGO Meet & Eat” Held on the second Wednesday of each month from 6:30 -8:30 PM at Panera Bread, 27651Southfield Road, Southfield. An opportunity to meet with cachers to take caching, trade coins and signature items and just have fun! January’s meeting will be hosted by Team Maddog. Other annual events not yet scheduled: MiGO SE Chapter Adopt-A-Highway CITO events- A 3.2 mile stretch I-75 between I-475/I-75 junction to US-23/I-75 junction – a commitment requiring at least 3 pick-ups a year, one of which is usually held on CITO day. Looking forward to seeing you all! SEWdaugh

Operation: Cacher Surprise!

Many of you know of the troubles we've seen lately, the last misfortune being KAboom getting sick and needing a hospital visit on Christmas eve (he's fine now, Strp was the problem). Well, little did the TR&T w/KAboom family know what was in store for them!! As some had seen, a new cacher was getting a GPS unit for Christmas and posted wanting someone to "lend a hand" in learning caching and GPS usage...on Christmas? Well, some of you responded (GOTTA LOVE THAT...very nice to take time out from your holiday to help a newb)...as did I. Not having anything going for Christmas (we were supposed to celebrate ours on the eve, but KAboom put the kibash to that), I was more than happy to lend a hand and wouldn't be missing anything....but just didn't know since KAboom WAS sick!! Well, one by one, those cachers dropped out (save BeenHere, he was duped like I), so I, having found that KAboom would be fine, volunteered! Christmas day...nothing heard, I nearly forgot about the newb (Jackson_Cacher be the culprit) and was settling in for some other activities (boring boring boring...oh, maybe a bit of Guitar Hero too), when the phone rings. Nurse Nanna was checking on us and wishig us a MERRY CHRISTMAS. THEN, the phone rang again, this one being the newb!! OK, guess I'll go caching instead! Meet up with the newb at Hayes State Park and decide to head out for Soft Hardwood (one of our hides at Hayes). All the way, I'm giving newb advice and showing the newb little tricks and such. The newb is much prepared (odd for a newb), but seems a bit bumbly...that's the newb action I expected!! We get to GZ and the newb is circling all while attentively staring at the GPS..."hey, when you get within X distance from a hide, you need to look for an obvious hiding spot" I told JC. The cache was exposed and easy to spot, but it took a sec for the newb to find!! Newb now bumbles in his full backpack (wow, sure is well equipped, makes me look like the newb here since I had nothing more than my brother's GPS unit...which was minus some hunting waypoints...he'll love me for that one) and starts writing his log while I tell him about needing writing utensils on occasion when caching. I walk about checking out the tracks and telling the newb about the wildlife in the park, then the newb hands me the log and asks if his writings is appropriate...what I read stuns me and nearly brings tears to my eyes, I'm speechless! I can't recall exactly what was written, but it was something like "Rod is about to find out who I really am" and is signed by MALDAR!! Now, for those who don't know, Maldar has been very generously selling coins and such to raise money to help us through our tough times, so when I saw this, I knew I had been duped...and was just amazed!! Maldar then pulls a gift bag from his full backpack and hands it to me! Inside is the very GPS unit Maldar had used to find the cache...a Garmin Legend (blue...gotta love that!!!), some goodies and a little package with coins inside!! OMG.... After much hugging and handshaking...and my searching for words, we decide to head back to the vehicles and finish the covert ops!! Back at the car, Maldar pulls out two more gifts...one for KAboom and another for my non-caching oldest son!! WOW...above and beyond!! Maldar had seen and heard of our financial troubles and even brought the youngsters some GREAT gifts....what a WONDERFUL person this man is!! Pictures were taken and gifts were packed into my Jeep, then off we went to talk and find a few more caches...gotta learn the use of this new unit!! 3 more caches found, some great teachings from the "newb" on how to use my new unit and MUCH talking and hugging later, we head back to the vehicles, take a few more pics and part ways with the promise we'll get back out to cache soon!! The Christmas I was worried wouldn't happen for the kids this year happened alright...and turns out to be THE most memorable and awesome Christmas ever! But wait...that's not the end of the story...Maldar had help. From my investigations following this, I learned that Nurse Nanna and LadyBee4T were also involved as were other MiGO members...the conspiracy reaches the very TOP of our organization!! There was also much help provided by a very special operative in Mousekakat...a friend I met on the GC foums (she's from Sweden), and a generous donation of coins from KayakerinMe (Silver set #S119 KayakerinMe 5 coin "puzzle" series which, when put together make a great "mural"). MANY THANKS go out to EVERYONE involved in this operation, you all played your parts perfectly...but Maldar....WOW, you should be an actor my friend!! More on this can be read in the S.E. forums which also has a link to the topic in the GC forums as well!! This was the very BEST Christmas ever!!! All because some very special people care!! THIS is what our HUGE caching family is all about!! Well done! Rockin Roddy and KAboom

Mark your calendars! Cache In Trash Out Weekend is April 19-20, 2008

Mark your calendars! Cache In Trash Out Weekend is April 19-20, 2008 The date is set. Its up to us to make a difference. The 2008 CITO weekend is set for mid-April. Lets all chip in and help organize and participate in events across all of southeast Michigan!

Bad times/Good times, you know WE'VE had our share...

Bad times have been haunting the TR&T w/KAboom family....brought to a boil when our caching equipment (GPS units, swag and around 170 coins) were stolen from our Jeep cachemobile recently! We really hit a low there, no money, no GPS, no coins and no fun! Well, things are slowly turning around for us through the kindness and generosity of some VERY caring souls!! The coins: Yep, lost one binder full of my activated keepers, an ammo box full of my traders and other unactivated keepers and even almost ALL of our personals and event coins (Cachestalkers coin and LHD event coin...plus my Frog/Prince coins...OUCH)! Through some VERY caring and generous people, we've had our coin collection grow almost INSTANTLY! Packages would come in from ME...to ME?? Others would be from friends on the GC forums with wishes of well-being, or brought to us by friends (at our Fall Gathering, I started the day with a handful of coins and left with a bag full...WOW...and some were VERY special coins...well, ALL were special just coming from our friends)! With the help from all our GREAT friends, our collection is right back up there!! THANKS everyone!! Our GPS units: We used to have a pr of Magellans which we were more than happy with (one was set up for topo while the other was just set up), one being a Christmas gift from last year, the other a gift from me to me. Through some VERY caring people near and far, a yellow Garmin was sent to us a week or so back. This gave us the freedom to get back out, unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate AT ALL, so we've yet to get out and play...soon though! ALSO, there has been some VERY generous working affot by one of our own. Maldar placed a bunch of coins on ebay in an effort to raise funds for the replacement of our units....GREAT!! THANKS sooo much for this Maldar....you are tops in my book, big guy!! Will report back shortly when I find out what this guy's been "up to"!! Our swag and equipment: Although our PDA wasn't in the theft (we actually got it about a day AFTER the theft...THANKFULLY), through some very nice dealings on the forums, a package arrived recently...with a PDA!! Now, it would be easy to just say THANKS and sell this PDA, but we're not like that here! That PDA is goinfg to head out to a deserving and needy cacher soon (we're watching closely for our candidate). Other stolen stuff included all our swag, which wasn't much and probably more of a let down than a joy for our heavy-fingered friends, our really powerful Element flashlights and some trivial items as well. All this is easily replaced, so no harm, no foul!! Some VERY caring souls have been watching out for us, it's just AMAZING the outpouring of kindness we've seen!! MiGO members, GC members, friends, soon to be friends...WOW!! THANK-YOU all very much...you know who you are! Also, some help has come our way from some MYSTERY COINERS...some VERY special coins were sent our way, all VERY hard to even get to see, let alone own! One such coinwill soon be put on ebay to help raise funds to recover with, keep an eye out for the MICKEY DIVER coin to be listed on ebay soon by LadyBee4T...this is a special coin which any coiner would cherish (and yes, we were also given one to keep)! People, this is what our community is all about! If you happen to know of someone in need, PLEASE do what you can to help...even if that help is to bring it to the attention of others who can help! One thing I've learned from all this: WE ARE NOT ALONE HERE!! Nor is anyone else!! Our MiGO FAMILY really jumped to our aid, our GC forums FAMILY showed their very best!! Anyone wishing to read of any of the MIRACLES we've been blessed with can read the "What's in your mailbox" thread at the GC.com forums...that has a few of the wonderful surprises bestowed upon us!! The yellow Garmin is now heading off to a very needy and deserving couple in Ohio who lost their unit (newbs probably laid it down and forgot about it until it was too late....hate to see them not be able to cache just when they got started)!! We've should have a little money coming after Christmas, we can always cache then!! Remember everyone....it could be YOU in need next!!

Girls Scouts get caching lessons from TR&T w/KAboom

Saturday (Nov 3 2007) is going to be a GREAT day for the Girl Scouts here in Brooklyn MI, that's the day we'll (TR&T w/KAboom) be teaching the girls proper (or somewhat proper) use of a GPS unit and Geocaching in general. We'll be giving presentations and taking the youngsters out looking for a few caches (temps hidden at their camp) from 10am-3pm Saturday, we always look forward to introducing potential newb cachers to our obsession!! We were given special honors to check out their camp Tuesday, we set up the temps and even took a tour of the beautiful clubhouse. Joyce is a wonderful lady, we are looking forward to working with her and her crews!! Who knows, we might just be invited back for another presentation or two!! For those who don't know about the camp, it's located off the north side of Wampler's Lake near Hayes State Park. The camp can hold up to 240+ (if memory serves me) camping girls during the summer and a bit less (almost half I think) during winter. New construction of cabins was obvious as we entered the camp, they look to be making great improvements to an already nice camp!! I have contact info for anyone interested, roddyville65@comcast.net.

New SE Chapter leaders have stepped up for you!

Recent elections were held for all of MiGO, and your votes counted! Rod Holbrook, aka Rockin Roddy has stepped up to be elected as the Regional Vice President of the Southeast Chapter of MiGO. We all welcome Rod's enthusiasm for geocaching and our chapter - which he has in vast abundance. Rod's goal is to make this chapter of MiGO the best chapter bar-none.