POPEYE’S SLAGA FRIENDS - Summer Picnic 2024

  • Print
  • Email
Details
Written by Terri Nealon
Published: July 16 2024
Last Updated: July 16 2024
Hits: 1045

 Summer picnic 24 Chester sign Summer picnic 24 statues collage

AHOY MATEYS!  On Saturday, July 13, 2024, more than 35 of Popeye's new SLAGA friends converged on the town of Chester, IL for the summer picnic, hosted by deancmeredith. Chester, situated on the bluff above the Mississippi River, is the hometown of Elzie C. Seger, the creator of Popeye. To date, there are more than 20 statues of Popeye's friends spread throughout the city, and geocache COs have utilized all of them for one multi cache or another and for the Adventure Labs in town. 

Summer picnic 24. CO Dean  

Picnic day was a hot one!  Temperatures were in the low 90s but the high humidity made it feel hotter. The picnic attendees were very thankful that Dean graciously provided 2 fans (one a mister) and some freshly cut watermelon. They enjoyed the shade of a large shelter in the beautiful Cole Memorial Park, along with the lovely scenery, convenient parking, bathrooms and of course nearby geocaches.  Folks socialized, talked all things geocaching, discovered or grabbed trackables, ate their lunches, and hunted down caches in the park as well as around town. 

Summer picnic 24 Groups collage

Read more: POPEYE’S SLAGA FRIENDS - Summer Picnic 2024

The Gateway to Summer Brings a new Winner!

  • Print
  • Email
Details
Written by Terri Nealon
Published: July 12 2024
Last Updated: July 12 2024
Hits: 1137

June, when days are brighter and smiles are bigger, was the month to chase dreams and bask in the glow of new found adventures!  And that's just what Uga_Mom, Cindy Smith, did during her participation in the SLAGA Adventure Awaits Challenge.  She utilized longer days to chase caches, earn smileys, submit her geocaches for the monthly challenge, and then WIN June's challenge Gift Card prize and sticker.  Congratulations Cindy!

Adv Awaits June 24 Uga MomCindy's qualifying caches for the two different states finds plus an event requirement, chosen simply from her recently learned search technique for recent caches that fit the challenge parameter, were the following.

GC9CYCQ Go With The Flow, IL

GC5E3PR THE CACHE CAN/CACHE ME IF YOU CAN, IL

GC77A9R Crooked arrow, MO

GC8KX6N Where is the lady dolphin of the park?, MO 

GCAQFJ0 Happy solstice- Penguin Event, MO

When asked why she participates in Adventure Awaits, Cindy commented that "after learning about the Adventure Awaits monthly challenge, from another cacher (cootie_man), I thought I would give it a try.  I was able to qualify several months ago, but then missed a month.  This last month I tried again and SURPRISE I won the fabulous prize!  I’m very excited."

Read more: The Gateway to Summer Brings a new Winner!

Trash à la CARTe - SLAGA CITO

  • Print
  • Email
Details
Written by Terri Nealon
Published: July 04 2024
Last Updated: July 04 2024
Hits: 1175

 CITO MHH 624 sign 

CITO_MHH_624_-_Cart_full.jpg

Since SLAGA no longer has a MODot clean-up site, due to the program being dropped, the SLAGA CITO at Minnie Ha Ha event in Sunset Hills, hosted by Candyce54 on June 30, 2024, became the group's quarterly clean-up project. Of course for those there, it was fondly known as Trash à la CARTe, thanks to TheLegoPharoah and bobclassic's find and GeoWench78's witty input! 

CITO MHH 624 CO and dog  

CITO MHH 624 cedar trail  CITO MHH 624 trash  CITO.MHH_624_-_cacher_Cart.jpg

Read more: Trash à la CARTe - SLAGA CITO

2024 Community Volunteers have Fun DisObeying

  • Print
  • Email
Details
Written by Terri Nealon
Published: June 28 2024
Last Updated: June 28 2024
Hits: 1202

 

{This article was written by Laurie and John Elfrank and submitted here on their behalf with some minor additions and  editing.}

Geocaching is a community driven game, and it relies on the support of more than 400 community volunteers. The volunteers are a diverse and dedicated group from over 35 countries who give their time to translate content, moderate forums and review cache pages on behalf of the global geocaching community.  Community volunteers are required to adhere to Geocaching HQ’s guidelines and are said to “Obey the Frog” (Signal the FROG is the geocaching.com’s mascot).

In the early 2000s, Groundspeak hosted a reviewer event, and it was called Obey, as in "Obey the Frog."  But as the number of volunteers grew, HQ stopped hosting the event, and instead let the volunteers take over hosting in different cities. In North America, they changed the name to (Dis)Obey.  

In June 2024, around 30 community volunteers descended upon St. Louis for their annual multi-day gathering in North America, hosted by Missouri reviewer MrHarmonica. Attendees included community volunteers from all over the U.S. and Canada, one from Germany, their families, and a Lackey WatermanHQ (a Geocaching HQ employee from Seattle). They started arriving on June 19, and spent the next four days enjoying activities that appealed to the volunteers and families.  MrHarmonica’s schedule included a guided tour of Bellefontaine Cemetery, mini golf at Swing-A-Round Fun Town, a hike at West Tyson County Park, an evening at Breakout Games escape rooms, a tour of  St. Louis craft breweries, and time sampling the local cuisine.

DisObey 2024 group

Read more: 2024 Community Volunteers have Fun DisObeying

2024 SLAGA Travel Bug Race June Update

  • Print
  • Email
Details
Written by Robert Klemme
Published: June 25 2024
Last Updated: August 06 2024
Hits: 999

The travel bug race is underway! We're only one month in and we're seeing some good movement so far! It's very early in the race though so it's still anyone's game! Here's how things currently stand:

image

May's Awaited Winner

  • Print
  • Email
Details
Written by Terri Nealon
Published: June 09 2024
Last Updated: July 04 2024
Hits: 1050

Adventure Awaits

Congratulations to MrsSpongy, Carolyn Halladay. She won the May SLAGA Adventure Awaits Monthly Challenge, which includes a $10 Gift Card for finding and submitting five geocaches each in a different county, one being an event cache.  When asked why she chose to participate in Adventure Awaits, Carolyn replied, "It's a challenge I can look forward to achieving each month."  She chose her May 2024 challenge geocaches because they were the nearest 5 caches in 5 counties to her home, and she had already planned a caching day with her friend, TerriBikes+, to complete it in one day, including two Illinois counties.  Carolyn's entries were:
 
 GCAGG20  BYOL?  (St. Louis City, MO)
GCABBGZ  Clues then a Smiley  (Monroe County, IL)
GCA743K  HAPPY LITTLE BIRDS IX  (St. Clair County, IL)
GCAJP10  CREEPY CRAWLER #18  (Jefferson County, MO)
*GCAQ1JR  SW STL Happy Hour - Untitled Editon  (St. Louis County, MO)
  
Carolyn started caching with her late husband, Harry, in October 2009, while on a trip to Texas visiting their son, when he introduced them to the game.  Upon return to St. Louis, they "could not believe all the caches in the area and what [they] had been missing!"  They were then known as Spongy163 and joined the local caching organization, SLAGA.  They went to many events, met and befriended dozens of cachers and started accruing hundreds of smilies.  They accomplished huge challenge caches together with groups of new friends such as 'The Architect' and 'Mysterious Treasure,' and participated in Cachemas year after year with an FTF on Day 6, 2017. They set a goal to get their chairs for 10,000 finds and amazingly accomplished that task in spring 2017. 
 
May Adv Awaits MrsS and Harry 10000 chairs 
 
Sadly in November of 2018, Harry lost his battle with cancer.  But Carolyn found and continues to find comfort from the SLAGA community and says, "My geocaching 'family' has been a big support group for me, and I now cache as MrsSpongy.  Geocaching is my therapy!!"  She now has 16,750 geocache finds.  Her latest achievement was during her GeoWoodstock adventure with her friend Nan to and from Flagstaff, AZ.  She added 3 new states to now total 30, found the oldest cache as well as an FTF in New Mexico, and finally found the oldest existing physical cache, MINGO, in KS!  Many more adventures await Carolyn, as she continues to enjoy events, local caching and geotrips with friends.   
 
May Adv Awaits MrsS MINGO 
  1. Reflections of a Lake CITO
  2. APRIL SHOWERED IN AN ADVENTURE AWAITS WINNER
  3. SPRING PICNIC DOWN ON THE FARM
  4. MARCHed to a WIN (Adventure Awaits)
  5. LET THE RACE BEGIN!
  6. SLAGA WANTS A MASCOT!
  7. Leapin' into an Adventure Awaits Win
  8. LEAP DAY ‘24 Across SLAGAland
  9. Adventure Awaits - Wintry Winner
  10. Winter Potluck & Cabin Fever - 2024

Page 8 of 30

  • 3
  • 4
  • ...
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • ...
  • 11
  • 12