Ever since I first began geocaching, I became interested in geocoins.

These trackable items come in all shapes and sizes with me having a fair amount (still small by the standards of some) in my personal collection that I have either purchased or been given along the way.

I was honored last night when two dear friends … AltGofur & stefmaus … gave me a few new coins for my collection.

They include one honoring the first moon landing, another the space shuttle, the colors of geocaching and “Geo-Jack.”

To my friends … thank you!

“Got a picture of this coin with Benchmark #Q460 – HV2971 in King George, VA, along highway 301. Will pass it on by hand tomorrow at an event cache.” — by Suesmith2 on May 15, 2009.

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Of all the coins I have released, this is most likely the most detailed in addition to being the largest.

It also is the one that has traveled the furthest.

I would love to visit both England and Europe at some point in my life and now I have found out that my “GEOCAC Benchmark for Virginia” geocoin has made it across the ocean, becoming my first trackable item to do so.

Aloha! & Wahine Eye Spy placed it in egent’s Park: A Very Secret-Spot in London, England, on June 19, 2009.

Here is what they had to say:

“……………….. London, England! You gotta love London! Didn’t find any benchmarks for say but did find a fantastic secret part of a park that I visit everytime I’m here — Regent’s Park. Gorgeous! Would be there daily if I could. Anyway, the cache was well hidden and looked safe. Hopefully you’ll be seeing it with English benchmarks soon! Aloha! & Good luck!”

There are many milestones I will mark and have (hopefully) over the next several years related to Geocaching, but this one is among my proudest and most hopeful as a piece of me has returned to the land of my ancestors.

To celebrate its arrival in another land, I continue to have it keep the original mission of …

Virginia needs its own GEOCAC Benchmark placed somewhere in the state!

• Primary Mission: Show your support and help transport this coin from cache to cache, spreading the message. We want this coin to meet and be discovered by as many Geocachers as possible along the way!!!
• Secondary Mission: To be photographed with as many real benchmarks as possible.

… and have added an extra mission …

• Extra Mission: Because the coins owner has always wanted to visit England and Europe, Please photograph this coin at historic locations while touring England and Europe. Visiting Stonehenge would be a dream come true!

May this coin continue to go far and who knows … maybe one day Kevin in Germany will find it waiting for him in his neck of the woods!

Kevin … Aren’t you glad it isn’t the turtle???

“Never Give Up”

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Train Set Geocoin – Pullman Car

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Happy Go Lucky (Geocoin Copy)

Moo the Cow in sunset at LittleBridgeLost

On our Ludwigshafen Multi tours we planned to find LittleBridgeLost last weekend, but we didn’t manage to get there. Today Steffi picked me up at the train station and we headed out to this cache. It is a little out of Ludwigshafen.

After a short drive we enjoyed a wonderful evening walk in the sunset to the location. We were accompanied by seven geese, some cuckoos, horses and several muggles (bikers, walkers, kids) along the road.

When we arrived we picked up the travelbug Moo the Cow. We were glad that she was still there, because we know someone going to Ireland soon. As this is her mission we hope that we can hand her over so she can find her destination soon.

The coin itself is a Templar geocoin with the following mission:

“To travel the world and encourage those who discover and help to move it to perform random acts of kindness and generosity.

You will note this coin is attached to a small logbook that travels with it.

Take the time to write down your name (and where you are from) as well as the good deed you performed that honors the mission of this coin.”

Read what follows and understand one of the joys I get by sending geocoins and traveling items out into the world.

What follows is the message left by gelfling6 :

Perhaps destiny called on this one.. At many renaissance faires, I usually appear in full chain armor which I had crafted myself from originally coat hangers, then galvanized electric fense whire, then recently (because the last Galvanized/Copper suit was killing me with the weight.) Aluminum electric fence wire.

Today, long before I even knew this coin existed, I had already performed 2 random acts.. I work at a school bus yard, and when the lunch wagon came in, I knew one of my co-workers was trying to save-up for a replacement car. (I had just recently bought a replacement for my own, so I knew well how hard it can be. ) He initially asked the lady if he could buy on credit, but I offered to pay for his whole lunch.. He offered to pay it back when he could, but I said it was my pleasure.. and giving the reasoning of knowing how hard it was saving up.. My second act, when I had brought the afternoon kindergarten class to the school, one of the children told me that there was a girl sitting in the back of the group, crying, and wanting her mother & father. The teacher hadn’t come out yet, so I secured the bus, and went back to see what the problem was.. she was sad no-one would sit with her on the way to school.. So, I asked if it was Okay for me to sit with her while we waited for the teacher. Soon, we were playing Rock-Paper-Scissors, telling eachother jokes, and very soon she had forgotten why she was sad.. When she left the bus to go into the school, she gave me a hug (I regret I couldn’t give one back, because of legal reasons.) But she left much happier.

In many ways, my ren faire persona, of Sir Stephen Greiss, mimmicks my every day life.. Doing what I can for others, and making their lives happier. I shall guard this coin with honor, and place it very soon for someone else.

Also, A close friend & their mother were recently killed by CO poisoning.. When I FTF’ed the cache the coin was placed in, I dedicated the find to their memory & friendship. In some ways, it felt like the friend had a hand in guiding to the cache which was placed on the day of his passing.

This afternoon after returning home with my littlest daughter, I ventured down to the mailbox, reached in and pulled out the mail.

Among the bills and the newspaper was a small package from overseas.

Although I am expecting a geocoin previously ordered, I found this delivery a surprise as I could not remember ordering any geocoins from Geocoinshop.de.

When I openned it up, I slipped the coin free and turned it over with a moments confusion … at least until I got a really good look at it.

Kevin (aka. AltGofur) and Steffi from Germany had sent me one of the new “Certificate of Achievement” geocoins in honor of my having found my 100th geocache last month.

It comes engraved with my name, 100, and the date of the actual find.

To my dear friends, I offer a hearty thank you with a great deal of gratitude.

You have no idea how much I needed the emotional boost!

This evening before settling in to watch the Superbowl, I took time and finished the last bits of preparation work required before being able to send “A Knight’s Errand in Germany” out into the world.

“A Knight’s Errand in Germany” is actually a Teutonic Knights geocoin I purchased from Geocoinshop.de.

Going into today, I had already placed the coin within a coin bezel ring, turning it more into a keychain to which I attached a “geocoin buddy” tag.

Today, I had a stainless steal dog tag engraved with mission destination as well as a second copy of the tracking number already on the coin (making the number easier to read).

New tag added with the first and our “knight” is ready to be placed in a cache to begin his quest.

Straight away, I ventured out to Bells Lane on the outskirts of Staunton, Virginia, where I placed the little guy in the “I-81 Exit 225 TB & Geocoin Way Station” cache.

With the coin now released into the wild, what is left for me is to pray that he will one day complete his mission and find his way to Mannheim, Germany, where fell geo-investigator Kevin Richter, aka. AltGofur, can retrieve it on his end.

Will it go the distance and complete this quest? … Will it beat my other geocoin, “Mr. T” the Official Bamboo Cup Racing Turtle, which also is heading to Germany and left a couple of months ago?

Only time will tell!!!

While traveling back from a vacation in South Carolina, I found the “”Shout Out to Jerry Flaming 8-ball Geocoin” in a cache at the Virginia welcome center off Interstate 77.

Not wanting to return home without helping at least one traveling item make a journey further north, I liberated the item from the cache and brought it home with plans to set it back in the wild here in the Shenandoah Valley sometime in the next few days.

The owner of the coin sent it out into the world to celebrate their friend Jerry’s success in the American Poolplayers Association National Tournament in Las Vegas.

Further, they ask that as we move the coin along so we can all give Jerry a shout out!

So… Here’s to you Jerry! … Congrats on your success in the American Poolplayers Association National Tournament in Las Vegas!!!

When I returned home from vacation, a magnificant gift awaited me and was hidden among the bills and other bits of mail that had accumulated during our absense.

It was the Mariner’s Astrolabe Geocoin I had preordered through CoinsandPins.com earlier in December.

Used up until the 1700s, the true mariner’s astrolabes were developed originally as replacements for the planispheric astrolabes.

Keep in mind that I have always been a fan of old style sailing ships and river boats as well as the means by which their crews navigated.

For me, this new coin as well as the others in the series represent much more than a coin trackable on Geocaching.com.

They are a means by which I can learn a little bit about how they use to navigate centuries ago … something I hope to share with my children.

Currently, “By the Light of a Star” — a Mariner’s Astrolabe Geocoin has found a home within “Ansolon’s Hideaway” — a geocacher’s pack where it travels with its owner and is available for discovery.

This past week, “Star Trek Squirrel” appeared in a cache a maintain on Bell’s Lane just outside of Staunton, Virginia, called “I-81 Exit 225 TB & Geocoin Way Station.”

Being a big Star Trek fan and also being someone about to leave on a vacation, how could I not retrieve the little guy and bring him along as a special guest who will be with us on a up-coming geocaching adventures that will take us from Virginia to eastern North Carolina to South Carolina and back again???

Did I mention that my wife graduated from Mary Baldwin College where the mascot is the “fighting squirrel?”

Already, the little fella has been shown around the house, even taking time to admire a poster print of the U.S.S. Sam Houston … the setting of a former interactive-fiction writing group from the Star Trek: Frontiers universe.

Tomorrow we set out on our journey.

Tomorrow he will be riding shotgun with us and will join in our adventures with us saying goodbye only when its time for us to return home.

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