Captains log: Cache Date 7.252011.1343.00

Having completed the contractual period of our cell provider, it was decided to reach for the stars and authorize the acquisition of smartphones. New Android™ OS smartphones.

After the initial ‘shakedown cruise’ period, a swipe of the market icon on the touchscreen and the universe of ‘There’s an app for that’ blossomed onto the screen, broken down into several planets of Apps, communications, medical, tools, social, and widgets plus many more app land masses waiting to be explored. Sitting in my command chair, I zoomed in towards the Tools and quickly found many of the apps a good (self appointed) Star Captain would require, moon phases, Google sky and the tricorder. I also began an intensive course of adaptive missile training using a variety of incensed fowl to batter the defensive structures of martial swine. Never know when you’ll need those skills nowadays.

Browsing through Star Command Communications Grid (GC forums) I find references to an Android app called ‘Whereyougo’ which is a Wherigo player. It was free, so a quick download and I could boldly go where my old Legend gps could not take me, on a location based interactive adventure.

Running a query to establish parameters for my maiden voyage, one, only one, Wherigo cache was retrieved within a hundred mile radius. It was located in the Bellevue sector, an area Sioneva has been known to frequent. Calling up her command credentials on the vid screen, I find she is also lacking a Wherigo certification. Suggesting a joint mission for icon qualification, a date was set for the near future.

Meanwhile, self instruction was initiated at the Wherigo website where my ‘droid downloaded several ‘play anywhere’ cartridges. Success was first achieved on a cartridge where noodles were cooked for 4 minutes using only a 3 minute and a five minute hourglass timers. That was followed by repeated failure to gently land a rocket using short pulses of fuel to fire up the retro rockets and slow down the speed. Don’t tell Cache Fleet Command that I ruined the Wherigo rocket, they’ll pull my license. Dammit, I’m a captain not a fuel injector!

Battleship!! Now there was a game a captain could sink his ships into, except …every attempt at engagement would cause an exception and a force close of the player. The next mission was a return visit to the U.S.S. Hazard, a WWII minesweeper, landlocked in a city park of a nearby quadrant. The location is a Navy museum with the minesweeper, a trainer submarine, 2 jets and a Coast Guard helicopter, with a sprinkling of other vehicles and equipment.

JETSchmidt had initiated cartridge development to establish a used car lot with a friendly, helpful, salesman trying to match potential commanders with the perfect vessel or vehicle. Good salesman too, as he sold the Greek troop carrier that was docked the last time I had been in port. I listened to his sales pitch but the ‘droid reminded me I was short on credits. A sleek, gently used fighter jet was not in my immediate future.

Since I had previously located the associated cache container, listed as a multi, I remain without the coveted Wherigo icon.

The next weekend, Junior Cadet Josh and I, initiated the Wherigo player’s tutorial cartridge. We ventured outside our ship to search for a replacement fuel source as we faced being stranded in a barren landscape. Encountering an alien life form, we carefully considered options on how to best approach. Offering it a snack that was in our inventory, we were given fuel in return, which we placed into a container and safely carried back to our ship. Congratulations, end of cartridge, here’s your completion code. I was now self-certified as a capable CacheFleet Command Captain commissioned to continue exploring location based interactive adventures and Josh was now a full Space Cadet.

(I just got his graduation proof’s. I can never decide… which one do you like best?)

I'm so proud of him!

D day, H hour, I directed my shuttlecraft to the Bellevue sector and docked, awaiting Sioneva’s descent to the land cruiser level. Taking the controls, she quickly delivered us to the Wherigo insertion point. We would be extravehicular from this point on. After a thorough check of the away team’s gear, we began working toward the next zone, following the guidance of the Android.

We were in an alien place habited by wheeled beings with oddly shaped heads that would cry out “You’re left!” as they streaked past us from behind. Hearing this several times, Sioneva and I made a pact, that despite these threats; neither of us would be ‘left’ behind. Working toward the next zone, we saw more unusual creatures, a bipedal female rolling a cocoon in front of her and some fur covered entities dragging bipeds behind them. When the furbearers tried to engage us in communication, our Android Google translator could find no record of their guttural, repetitive language, however by observing body language, we determined they were moderately aggressive and steered clear of close contact.

Continuing on, we entered the final zone and were rewarded with a coordinate readout. After waiting out a single, lanky, biped that loped by without even looking our way, we opened the encapsulation device located at those coordinates and left our marks for posterity. Returning to the cruiser, we did a head count and thankfully, neither of us had been left. Mission accomplished. TFTWC

Captains log addendum: Cache Date 7.252011.1359.00

CacheFleet Command has accepted our logs and we have been awarded the Wherigo Icon for our journey of exploration.

I’ll leave you with the following QR star charts that can hyperjump you to the start of your own location based interactive adventures.

By catsnfish

A couple of empty-nesters who caught the caching bug not realizing it was incurable. So if we’re found in the woods waltzing with Garmins, lifting lampskirts while tying our shoe or looking for “gum” underneath benches, be sure to stay away... it’s contagious and the only temporary relief can be found in finding bison’s, ammo’s, nano’s, or passing coins and spreading travel bugs!

Publisher's Note: Catsnfish write the periodic column The Adventures of Catsnfish. Subscribe (free) to The Online Geocacher to get an email alert when a new article is published.