Good morning everyone. This week's fun fact is all about the souvenirs. Top collector of souvenirs in Manitoba is dani_carriere with 198 as of this writing. k5cents is the top Canadian with 286. Top North Dakotan is gnies with 143 and top American is RetiredGuy with 277.
The past four months saw Geocaching HQ roll out another souvenir promotion. You Might Be A... Once again, the friend league wasn't used for this promo, other than to draw comparison to the people on your friend list. Honestly, I hardly check my friend list. I'd sooner see the friend league put to use and everyone try to achieve a common goal like the Mary Hyde challenge in 2017.
September was You might be an Adrenaline Junkie if... I wasn't even sure what the scoring system was. Hakliva tried to explain it on an outing when this one started. As I started to log my finds when I got home, I got the pop up saying I got the latest souvenir. That was after logging the third cache found that day. I still had seven more to log yet. That one was way too easy. Basically, I needed to earn 50 points to get this souvenir. According to the scoring system, that would be ten caches found at five points each. Others were worth more but that's the basic minimum you'll get for each find. Maybe the other souvenirs will be more challenging.
October was You might be a Caching Connoisseur if.... I had seen the scoring for this one. Once again, not much of a challenge. I needed to earn 60 points (ten more than last month or twelve caches found) by finding caches with higher favorite points. I did have to find an extra cache or two but I got this one in one day as a group of us set out to get some of the more difficult caches in the South part of Winnipeg. So far, this promotion is a bit of a let down.
November was You might be a Social Butterfly if.... There was certainly enough events in Winnipeg during this promotion to earn enough points just by attending events alone. All you needed was 70 points (we're up to fourteen caches found for the month at the minimum five points each). I believe the events were worth 15 each. That was the whole point behind this one. Get out and attend as many events as possible. Just like the other two months, this one was only slightly harder by a couple of caches. I had to be different and get this souvenir by NOT attending a single event. I was the anti-social butterfly in November. Another souvenir earned. **Yawn**
December was You might be a Trackable Lover if.... The theme for this one was to drop a trackable or activate a new trackable to earn more points. The only trackables I have in my possession are my own and they're not being released. Once again, I'm earning this one by finding caches. All I needed was 80 points, ten more points than the previous month, or sixteen caches found at the minimum five points per find. I didn't have any special caches picked. I just went out and found a bunch. In this case, I did another small section of the Winnipeg River Power Trail. I had done some of the South section of this trail two years ago and left off somewhere between Pinawa and Lac du Bonnet. That's where I picked up from and continued to Lac du Bonnet. Another souvenir. Another **Yawn**
It's not my intention to sound negative about this latest souvenir promotion but there was no real challenge to it. All it did was add to my souvenir collection. I prefer souvenirs that show you found a cache in a new province or state or country. Those ones are special as they remind you of that trip you made and found your very first cache in that location. These are some of the souvenirs I have earned and I am proud of.
(and the newest souvenir)
The past four months saw Geocaching HQ roll out another souvenir promotion. You Might Be A... Once again, the friend league wasn't used for this promo, other than to draw comparison to the people on your friend list. Honestly, I hardly check my friend list. I'd sooner see the friend league put to use and everyone try to achieve a common goal like the Mary Hyde challenge in 2017.
September was You might be an Adrenaline Junkie if... I wasn't even sure what the scoring system was. Hakliva tried to explain it on an outing when this one started. As I started to log my finds when I got home, I got the pop up saying I got the latest souvenir. That was after logging the third cache found that day. I still had seven more to log yet. That one was way too easy. Basically, I needed to earn 50 points to get this souvenir. According to the scoring system, that would be ten caches found at five points each. Others were worth more but that's the basic minimum you'll get for each find. Maybe the other souvenirs will be more challenging.
October was You might be a Caching Connoisseur if.... I had seen the scoring for this one. Once again, not much of a challenge. I needed to earn 60 points (ten more than last month or twelve caches found) by finding caches with higher favorite points. I did have to find an extra cache or two but I got this one in one day as a group of us set out to get some of the more difficult caches in the South part of Winnipeg. So far, this promotion is a bit of a let down.
November was You might be a Social Butterfly if.... There was certainly enough events in Winnipeg during this promotion to earn enough points just by attending events alone. All you needed was 70 points (we're up to fourteen caches found for the month at the minimum five points each). I believe the events were worth 15 each. That was the whole point behind this one. Get out and attend as many events as possible. Just like the other two months, this one was only slightly harder by a couple of caches. I had to be different and get this souvenir by NOT attending a single event. I was the anti-social butterfly in November. Another souvenir earned. **Yawn**
December was You might be a Trackable Lover if.... The theme for this one was to drop a trackable or activate a new trackable to earn more points. The only trackables I have in my possession are my own and they're not being released. Once again, I'm earning this one by finding caches. All I needed was 80 points, ten more points than the previous month, or sixteen caches found at the minimum five points per find. I didn't have any special caches picked. I just went out and found a bunch. In this case, I did another small section of the Winnipeg River Power Trail. I had done some of the South section of this trail two years ago and left off somewhere between Pinawa and Lac du Bonnet. That's where I picked up from and continued to Lac du Bonnet. Another souvenir. Another **Yawn**
It's not my intention to sound negative about this latest souvenir promotion but there was no real challenge to it. All it did was add to my souvenir collection. I prefer souvenirs that show you found a cache in a new province or state or country. Those ones are special as they remind you of that trip you made and found your very first cache in that location. These are some of the souvenirs I have earned and I am proud of.
(I earned this one in 2015 when I went to Alberta with my boys. I also got Saskatchewan on the same trip. Another souvenir from the same year is Minnesota)
(I got this one in February, 2017 when I went to Las Vegas with sm66 and her muggle sister and brother-in-law)
(My first trip to North Dakota was in 2014. I've made several trips to this state since. I also got Ontario in 2014)
(I live here so naturally I have this one. LOL)
I use to be excited about getting another souvenir for my collection, but the abundance of souvenirs this past year has killed that enthusiasm. So far I've earned 34 souvenirs this year out of the 102 that I have in total and I know I missed a few because I couldn't attend. My message to Geocaching HQ: enough with the meaningless souvenirs. I know there are geocachers out there that don't care for these souvenirs. You can add me to that group. I do like the concept of a game within the game, but I also like a little challenge as well. Also, having lived outside of the city, I had all the caches that could be found within a radius of where I lived. I owned more than what was available for me to find in the area. Talking with others that live in smaller centers, they have the same issue. It's an hour drive or more in any direction just to find a cache that they haven't found yet. Like myself, they own over half of the caches in their area. Earning souvenirs for them isn't worth all that driving. This is where the friend league would benefit them and help them. I'm sure everyone has a geocacher on their friend that is in this sort of situation. Why not help them? Isn't that what teamwork is all about? We probably have geocachers on our friend list that hasn't found any caches in a long time. Basically no longer active and not playing. Yes, they would also benefit from the friend league as well, even though they don't really deserve it. No plan or idea is perfect, but then again, maybe these inactive geocachers might get back into the game with these freebee rewards. I like the friend league concept, just not for use to compare. We all geocache at our own pace. To compare what I do to someone else isn't really fair. I play my game, go where I want and find as many caches as I want. Basically I go at my own pace. I'm not in a race with anyone else. Again, I apologize for sounding negative. I have my fingers crossed that the next souvenir promotion will be more fun and challenging. Maybe it will make use of the friend league. That would be nice.
That's it for this week. Until next time, be safe, have fun, and enjoy.
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