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Winter Potluck 24 group

On Saturday, January 27th, more than 75 SLAGA members attended the Winter Potluck & Cabin Fever- 2024 Event (GCAG153) at the historic Jefferson Barracks Park along the Mississippi River in St. Louis County.  The event was held in the main gymnasium and front room inside the large and comfortable Pavilion at Lemay facility, which was cost-free for SLAGA thanks to the generosity of the St. Louis County Parks.  Event hosts, LFrank and Denmother, did a fantastic job, but they couldn't do it alone. They received a lot of volunteer assistance from start to finish. 

Winter potluck 24 L Frank

To kick it off, the set-up crew consisting of spiritwolf922, vorlon40, and SWAseeker with the help of Cootieman, organized the event space nicely.  Since this fun event was a potluck, there was plently of great food available which was provided by each attendee's family.  The food line was set up by volunteers MrsSpongy, jray131, and StormRider22, and included tasty entries such as chillis, BBQ and other meat dishes, various 'sliders,' fruit and veggie trays, a wide variety of salads and yummy deserts.  The lunch spread as always was a feast for the eyes and tummies.

Winter potluck 24 table 2  Winter potluck 24 table 3  Winter potluck 24 table 4  

Besides all the eating, attendees played Geo Bingo, which was run smoothly by your registrars 3nina and 6dancer, and many also entered the 50/50 drawing, because who could resist Ibew ret's selling prowess. Over $150 was collected this year.   As always, there was a raffle table with some great items, which was successfully run by Uga_Mom, and a trackable exchange table too attended well by Kevinusmarshall. 

Winter potluck 24 Geo bingo   Winter_potluck_24_Uga__mom.jpg

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Here are the final standings of the SLAGA Travel Bug Race! Congrats to Hobit Taz, bluedaisy, & MrsSpongy! Thank you to all who participated!

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AA Dec Winner Geokid12

Santa Cachemas got a Christmas gift too! SLAGA's very own VP, Geokid12 (Robert Klemme), is the winner of the December 2023 Adventure Awaits challenge!  The officers had to laugh, during their monthly meeting, when the random number generator happened to draw Robert's number. Obviously the task of qualifying was easy enough for him given his 12 Days of Cachemas duties, since nine of the caches were hidden by elves, so he was able to find them along with other geocachers this past month. 

As a SLAGA officer, Robert feels that it's good to set an example by participating in the monthly challenge, and as one of the brains behind Adventure Awaits, he also believes it's a great way to drive community engagement within SLAGA. Besides Cachemas caches, Robert chose the SLAGA Christmas party event as an entry because he felt it thematically tied into the December qualifications. His entries were:  

GCADHZ6 Day 6 - 2023 Cachemas in STL

GCAE56C Day 7 - 2023 Cachemas in STL

GCAEBQV Day 8 - 2023 Cachemas in STL

*GCAFWP9 SLAGA-land Christmas Bash. Event*

If you've ever wondered how a geocacher chooses their caching name, here's Geokid12's back story. In 2007, when Robert was just 12 years old, he was introduced to geocaching on a Boy Scout troop outing at Whitecliff Park. He was enthralled by entering coordinates into a Garmen eTrex Legend, then being able to hunt and find a cache container at ground zero.  So he bought his own eTrex, decided he'd register with GC.com and chose the username Geokid12, since he was a 12 year old kid who was now a 'Geo'cacher too. 

Young Robert didn't start off as an avid cacher though, due to his schooling, scouting, non-driving lifestyle, followed by intense college studies. But once he graduated all that changed. His 575-day caching hiatus (Aug 2014 - Feb 2016) and only 400 total finds would soon be a thing of the past.

Starting in 2017, as a driving, employed young man, Robert got back into geocaching and became involved socially in SLAGA, which was a huge geocaching motivator. Since then he hasn't stopped. To date, he has over 10,800 finds and is working on conquering that 575 no-find streak of his with an even greater find streak. Adventure definitely awaits Robert on his geocaching quest!  

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Best of SLAGA, Favorite Caches Placed in 2023

Of the 390 new caches published in the 100 mile radius SLAGA territory in 2023, these are the top caches, as determined by % of favorite points awarded.

By cache type
 Traditional   The Dial of Destiny - MtO Gadget #2   knowles5150   GCACMQB
 Multicache   Floating the Meramec with a Park Ranger   StormRider22 & jray131   GCA9HWH
 Letterbox Hybrid   Letters to Signal   Forest-Ghost   GCAE5PR
 Puzzle   The extreme puzzle hike   paulgracie   GCA4JE3
 AL Bonus   Exploration Garden Adventure Lab Bonus Cache   NEgirl55   GC9W6J5
 Earthcache   Daily Dose of Happiness US # 14 Chert in Missouri   Iamgrateful   GCAAPX1
 Wherigo   Reverse Wherigo - High Ridge   Mike Fitz   GCA4A52

 

By overall % of favorite points awarded
 92   The Dial of Destiny - MtO Gadget #2   knowles5150   GCACMQB  Traditional
 75   Mount Olive Fire Station 1 - MtO Gadget #4   knowles5150   GCADM3D  Traditional
 70   Floating the Meramec with a Park Ranger   StormRider22 & jray131   GCA9HWH  Multicache
 68   Appletree/Bridgeway Park   cootie_man   GCA7Q0C  Traditional
 67   Gadget Golf   L Frank and Denmother   GCA8018  Traditional
 67   BYOL?   JoeBum   GCAGG20  Traditional
 64   Letters to Signal   Forest-Ghost   GCAE5PR  Letterbox Hybrid 
 62   Woodie   tiname55   GCABJR3  Traditional 
 60   Stars & Stripes at 314   nan-d1955   GCAG5FB  Traditional
 60   The Pullet Surprise Returns!   stevendede   GCAF8DG  Traditional

 

Congrats and thanks to the Cache Owners and everyone else who continues to create and support quality caches in the St. Louis area!

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FTF Magz

The bi-monthly publication of the FTF Geocachers Magazine is enjoyed by thousands of geocahers as it is a forum to share their stories, photos, advice, milestones, and more.  Our SLAGA VP, vorlon40 (John Layman), was surprised when he received his copy, which was a special 'Golden Seal' trackable edition!  John was honored  because he was one of the few drawing winners of the past edition's "Were You Puzzled?" contest called, 'Catsup or Mustard."  "It was cool that it was close to home and one I had visited," said John.     

 FTF John Layman2 FTF Puzzle

In addition to John's accolade, both PaulGracie (Paul Williams) and TerriBikes+ (Terri Nealon), the SLAGA reporter/article writer, were also thrilled to see their names in print.  Terri's August 11,2023 article, which has been viewed nearly 800 times, entitled, "Bike 'Across America' - PaulGracie's Adventure," was chosen as a Feature Story in the same FTF Geocachers Magazine as vorlon40's win!  "It's exciting to see that Paul's adventure could now reach geocachers worldwide, and I'm psyched to be a 'published' feature story writer in the magazine," commented Terri.  When Paul was asked how he feels about his article in the FTF Geocachers Magazine, he exclaimed, "It's cool...I'm famous now!"

FTF Article FTF TERRI

If you subscribe to the magazine, you'll notice your local cachers being honored in the edition.  Kudos to all three SLAGA members!   

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...AND THE WINNER IS...STEVENDEDE
 
Win Nov 23 Stevendede
 
Congratulations to Steve Jacobs on his November SLAGA Adventure Awaits Monthly Challenge win and $10 Gift Card prize for finding and submitting five different types of geocaches and one event cache.  His November 2023 geocaching entries, listed below, were chosen because they were each favorites of the month for him.  When asked why Steve decided to take part in the November challenge, he said it was "because cootie-man pestered me" to participate, "but I think it's great that SLAGA is trying something new."
 

GCA1FPG. Rapunzel Traditional

GC6FXDF  Lewis and Clark Expedition. Letterbox

GC7KT9P  1150 AD. - Tour Through Time. Wherigo

GCACYW6  Pop-A-Squat Port-A-Pot Challenge. Mystery

*GCAEF3M  Geocaching International Film Festival SLAGA Style. Event *

Steve started geocaching in 2011 with his 12 year old daughter, who cached with him for several years. His wife DeDe is a muggle, but has always let him grab a geocache or two during their travels together, so Steve has cached fairly steadily over these past 12 years. As a matter of fact, there were only 21 days between his first and second geocaches, and amazingly that is still the longest slump in his geocaching history.  Steve retired this past April, so he definitely has more time to dedicate to geocaching and his other hobbies now, including collecting and repairing vintage pocket watches and travel.
 
It's a good thing travel is a hobby of Steve's, because his favorite caching experiences involve traveliing and letting geocaches bring him to places that he wouldn't have experienced otherwise.  In September of 2023, Steve and DeDe traveled through Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany.  Some of the best sights they visited  were ones where Steve targeted a geocache.  During their trip, Steve actually enjoyed a day in Wachtendonk, Germany with another geocacher from Frankfort, whom he had met at an event in Creve Coeur, MO.  The caching duo accomplished two multis that took 4 hours each.  Steve commented that he never could have done those without a native German-speaking cacher.  Now that's an example of international geocaching fun and friends. 
 
Steve is most proud of having geocached in every county on the Isle of Great Britain, with the exception of Cornwall.  According to Project-GC (quite a fun fact), Steve has cached in more counties in the UK than any other American geocacher.  Steve has hidden 30 geocaches to enhance this fun game and has found an astonishing 16,056 caches as of this posting.  He has now won the November SLAGA Adventure Awaits challenge.  Only Steve knows what is next on his geocaching bucket list.  The Adventure Awaits! 
 
  1. A Most Wonderful Time
  2. Caching in the Cold 🥶
  3. OCTOBER ADVENTURE AWAITS WINNER!
  4. SLAGA 2023 Travel Bug Race November Update
  5. SLAGA Fall Picnic 2023
  6. SLAGA 2023 Travel Bug Race October Update
  7. ADVENTURE AWAITS - October Challenge LIVE!
  8. ADVENTURE AWAITS - A New Monthly Challenge
  9. SLAGA 2023 Travel Bug Race September Update
  10. Bike ‘Across America’ - PaulGracie’s Adventure