A White Man can no longer represnt America.

BB's take: Using the oft-stated premise that a “White” man can’t represent all the people of this country is like saying a black male, or a woman of any color, or a gay person can’t represent this country and the citizens. Color or sex has nothing to do whether a person is both qualified and prepared to be President.

We citizens need to quit listening to the news and look around. Every grocery store, restaurant, business, and entertainment venue is packed with people spending the money they are making RIGHT now.

Forget the polls, forget the partisan politics. Of course there are exceptions, especially if your company is affected by tariff changes that will balance eventually or be replaced with something else. Examine your own life and then make a decision if living in the USA is for you or not, cause I'm prospering.

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The 5 stages of a geocacher

The 5 stages of a geocacher
 A geocaching primer by BaytownBert (Bert Marshall)

I love geocaching. I love planning my next string of unique geocaches and usually start compiling my list the day before – or earlier. I read the page for clues and seeing I am rapidly becoming a fossil, I use GSAK and load a pocket query into my Garmin Oregon 750. I didn’t start out that way and I also use my Android. Let me explain the 5 stages a geocacher goes through if they play the game any length of time. I’m thinking 5-10 years, but you may be a quick learner. Me? Not so quick on the upload, if you know what I mean. Murphy’s Law is my middle name.

(1) In the initial stage of geocaching, the newbie is so overwhelmed with the possibilities (and swag!) that they go to the dollar store and buy $23 worth of precious loot to spread all across the geocaching universe! Never mind that they only find Micros and nanos and are soon disillusioned and wonder if they messed up... but if they survive, they move into the next wonderful stage.

(2) It’s all about the numbers in this 2nd stage. It doesn’t matter what the D/T rating is as long as they get a bunch of them. Trackables? Are you kidding? AR0213  They bought $200 worth off of Ebay the 1st month (Note: A Jedi-geocacher may move up and down in the 5 rules over the years).  Cacher is in true form and sets person record by logging 144 LPC’s in 7 hours. Cacher calls in sick the next day.

(3)  Now we come into the Navy SEALS of geocaching and we all know who they are. These amazing folks have more hormones than Arnold and only tackle the highest D/T grid caches and are known to swoop into an unfamiliar area and wipe out the resistance. Kudos to those who can do this, but I am not that gifted.

(4)  The next stage is also an elitist bunch that have entirely specific needs, desire, wants, and aspirations in this game. They take geocaching to a level akin to a NASA moon launch. They are the puzzle makers/solvers and to be honest, I wouldn’t trust them to look in my cellphone. I love them, but know I will never join them. My brain would either melt or explode.

(5)  Finally, we are at what I like to call the black banana geocaching community. We are seasoned geocaching veterans, right? We have scars, bruises, and tales...tails? However, on any given day, we may act like a newbie and arise only to find that we can possibly zip in and literally steal FTF rights from one of our geocaching peeps! Never mind that we had to pee before we left! Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead!

Or, we may team up with 4 other cachers and hit a power trail, regretting it as the miles wear us down. You get the picture that being a well-rounded cacher is more than a stat – it’s a life style.
This has been an attempt at humor, but let’s talk grown-up geocaching and it ain’t all fun and games. The game has changed and to me, it is not entirely a good thing. I think Groundspeak in their attempt to boost the already bloated game, thought that Adventure Labs would be a great addition... In my opinion it is nothing more than inflationary fluff that detracts from the original nature of the game.

Let me backtrack for a little personal history. I helped my city set up a Geotour and it is everything it is supposed to be and I have no qualms with that particular area of this game or my city. The Geotour has boosted tourism. Now that I’ve established this fact, the Geotour and cachers need to get the coin and swag severely dampened how many of my caches people looked for. I noted this in an earlier article. In other words, cachers only look for the Geotour and leave the area.

This spring I was invited to start a 5 cache Adventure Lab and I was a bit hesitant, but wanting to see the inner workings of it, I accepted. I wish I wouldn’t have.

Forget that the 7 pages of instructions were tedious and getting everything working was difficult. I consulted the grand designers a bit and possibly this has improved since I did mine in the spring. The problem is the AL info goes straight to Groundspeak and I get an excel file if I take the time to find out who played it. There is no communication between me and the players.

Last and this is a big one. Between the city Geotour (30+ caches) and the 2 Adventure Lab’s (15 caches total), no one looks for anything else in this town. Folks zip in and walk right past large caches with TB’s inside and do not bother to look for them. Take this into account when you invite this Adventure Lab/Trojan horse into your town.

In my opinion, Groundspeak would improve the game by restricting new geocache hides for newbies until they found 50 caches.

Ordered into the war, 1972

 

Sgt. Bert Marshall, Takhli RTFB, Thailand 1973

Journal entry, April 1972: Danang, Vietnam orders cancelled at the last moment and about 3 weeks later, I was at Takhli RTAFB working my hind end off. It happened so fast. I out-processed immediately, went on leave. I was 19 years old and visiting my family in Houston with no idea I was about to experience 651 days living a National Geographic wartime documentary that would mold my future.

 A call from the Air Force cut my leave short and there I was. Flying via orders to Travis AFB, California, I took a flight to Alaska. Boarding a long low and crowded Flying Tigers turbo-prop, we flew across the ocean to Yakota AFB, Japan. Being a lowly E-3 Airman 1^st class, I believe I had the lowest rank of the many troops on the plane. The reason I say this is I got the only seat on the full plane that did not recline and for over 20 hours, our plane traveled across the ocean.

We left Japan and headed for the now long-gone Clark AFB, in the Philippines.  It was full-blown monsoon and the area was under about 2 feet of water. We had an 11 hour layover and we told to not leave the base under orders. I met a black Airman at the layover in Japan and he told me he had connections at Clark, so off the base we rode... in a 1957 Chevy sedan! The water was above the floorboard as we cruised down into the red-light district. However, I was warned that I would be dealing with pros and I kept to myself, enjoying the adventure.

Back at Clark AFB with time to spare, I realized I was the lone human cargo to fly across Vietnam into Central Thailand to a primitive base just reopening called Takhli. It had closed when the F-105’s Thunderchiefs left and was going to take on the F-4’s leaving Danang, Vietnam... and that is why me, a supply clerk was sent ahead. I was assigned to the Avionics warehouse inside the Supply compound.

Wow, the smell when the door opened on the C-130.
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