N 39° 16.675'
W 100° 56.673'
MINGO, KANSAS, USA
May 3, 2015
15 YEARS

(GCQRXE) MINGO.

#Geocaching15 #projectmingo

Greetings from Kansas. Grüße aus Kansas. Salutations de Kansas. Saludos de Kansas. Groeten uit Kansas. Beannachtaí ó Kansas. Pozdrowienia z Kansas. Privet iz Kanzasa. Привет из Канзаса.

SOUVENIR: Celebrate 15 Years of Geocaching by attending this geocaching event. You’ll earn a new digital souvenir for your geocaching profile.

Unlock details of your 2015 geocaching mission by reading the souvenir’s description. Join the conversation with your fellow geocachers on social media by double-tagging #Geocaching15 #projectmingo in your posts.

VOLUNTEERISM: Everything that will happen will be from the hearts of volunteers, from the spirit of peace, love and good happiness stuff.

If you would like to volunteer your presence and labor toward this event, we shall enjoy trying to accommodate you and your ideas.

ACTIVITIES: We will be cramming the day with lots of crazy activities. If you have ever considered making the journey across lands near and far (and maybe oceans too) to visit the oldest active geocache in the world, this would be the time to do it. Come see Mingo (GC30) with your own eyes. Hold it in your own hands. Sign the Mingo logbook. Sign the event logbooks. (There will be a few different kinds of logbooks for various purposes.) This day, May 3, 2015, is the best day for you to do that, on the 15th Anniversary of the Creation of Geocaching. When you come, we will all be there with you.

If you have a musical instrument, bring it along. You might be able to participate in a spontaneous musical jam.

2:00PM CDT - Group photo, and possibly a video shot from overhead by a UAS (unmanned aircraft system, drone)

4:00PM CDT - CITO, not as a separate event but as part of cleaning up the one event. Line up for the LINE SWEEP, side-by-side and at outstretched arms width apart. The line sweep will move down the roads in a quick and efficient community effort, scanning and picking up any matter that is out of place. Any matter found during the line sweep will be alerted with a raised hand and a call-out. Others not in the line will rush in to collect the matter and put it in a garbage bag. Bags of debris will be hauled away after the event and disposed of properly.

BALLOON RELEASE: Throughout the day, we'll do a repeat of a balloon release that was a huge hit at a Ten Year event (GC257JH).

The following enviro-faqs were taken from BalloonRelease.com.

• What are balloons made of?

  There are basically two types of balloons, foil balloons and latex balloons. The foil balloons (often referred to as Mylar), are a bladder made of nylon that is covered with a layer of aluminum that is 0.0015 of an inch thick. Mylar is a synthetic, metallized plastic/nylon material which is recyclable, but not biodegradable. Consequently, Mylar balloons should never be used in a release and will not be used as a part of this event.

  Latex balloons are made from the sap of rubber trees - a completely natural substance. Latex is not a plastic. It's organic, collected through an absolutely harmless tapping process very similar to that used for collecting the maple sap used for making syrup.

  This event will use only latex balloons. No plastic clips will be attached; each and every balloon will be hand tied.

• Are latex balloons biodegradable?

  Yes! Latex balloons are totally biodegradable. Latex is the product of rubber tree sap; it breaks down when exposed to the elements of nature.

• How long does it take for a balloon to biodegrade?

  Oxidation is the first step in the breakdown of a latex balloon and it begins within approximately one hour of inflation. Oxidation is visible in some types of balloons as a cloudy appearance. This is most evident when the balloon is exposed to direct sunlight, heat or normal outdoor conditions.

  Research was carried out in July 1989 with a variety of balloons under various conditions to accurately gauge the time needed for the latex to degrade. Results from this study indicate that the decomposition rate for latex balloons is equal to or faster than an oak leaf (6 months) under similar conditions.

POWER: No On-Site Electricity. If you want power you’ll have to generate it yourself. This place is "in the middle of nowhere," deep in the heart of the American prairie desert.

There is no electricity available at the Mingo geocache. Be thankful if electricity is somehow available, but expect the event to be without electricity, off-the-grid, unplugged. Electricity may end up being from your own car, or a nearby cacher's vehicle.

PETRO: Nearby, across the street to the north (N 39°16.714', W 100°56.755') is an unmanned fueling center. Petro can be purchased with a credit card. It has been mentioned that the fuel center may run a little more expensive per gallon than if you were to get fuel from the nearby towns of Oakley and Colby. So if you are needing to fill up, be sure to fuel up in Oakley or Colby, but the unmanned fuel center will be available. The owner of the unmanned fuel center has been contacted and warned of the hoard of our coming.

RR:
There is no convenience store building, so there is also no restroom. Bring your own t.p. for emergencies - remember, middle of nowhere.

NOTICE: There are no restroom facilities at Ground Zero.

The small TINY town of Mingo is to the west with next to NO accommodations. The nearest city-slicker towns are Colby to the northwest and Oakley to the southeast. Picture this event happening in a Great American Prairie Desert, except GZ is surrounded with a dirt road, an asphalt road and an interstate highway...in the Great American Prairie Desert. Colby and Oakley are great places for pit-stops before coming to GZ.

WEATHER: Kansas is famous for its weather. Kansas can have all four seasons in one day. Bring an umbrella and you will be prepared for almost anything.

There are many words for precipitation that falls from the sky. In the event of fog, we'll bunch together for the group photo. In the event of mist, spit, sprinkles or rain, we're going to get wet. In the event of a thunderstorm with gale force winds, lightning and thunder, we might all stay in our vehicles and wave at each other. The gravel road may swallow tires if saturated with water. In the event of tornadoes (We don't mean to scare you. This is highly unlikely as a threat.), there really isn't anywhere safe...but Kansans have learned how to use highway overpasses for tornado shelters and there happens to be a highway overpass nearby. So basically, being in the middle of nowhere, this is going to be an all-weather event.

CITO: Cache In Trash Out is an environmental activity intimately tied to geocaching. Be conscious of your surroundings. Earth Day is everyday. There is no trash dumping at this event. No trash receptacles will be provided. Leave with all the stuff you brought (aka Pack It In, Pack It Out). You must take your trash home with you. Do not toss your trash into a trash can for a neighboring area, nor along the side of the road. Take-It-Home. Our community respects the environment. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather. We clean up after ourselves and endeavor, whenever possible, to leave such places in a better state than when we found them.

Additionally, while out there looking for nearby caches, look around and collect litter along the trails and properly dispose of it. Practice policies of Leave No Trace (LNT.org), the center for outdoor ethics.

JUST FOR FUN:

FYI: The day after this event will be "May the Fourth (be with you)."

Let's analyze something that's going on here. The GC Code for this event is GCQRXE. The GC part is for geocaching dot com. The rest of it, QRXE, is the unique identifier code for this event. Q is usually paired up with U, but without the U, a Q will make a K sound, or hard C sound like in CRAZY. Then the R makes the usual R sound, as in CRAZY. That X however is a complex one. The X in xylophone will make a Z sound like in CRAZY. Lastly is the E. The E will make an EE sound, or IE sound, which is sometimes spelled with a Y as in the last sound of the word CRAZY. Then QRXE = CRAZY. So, CRAZY will be the official code word of the day.

SHARE THIS EVENT CACHE PAGE

START AN ONLINE LOG

Once upon a time, there was a gringo jingo named Ringo who came from Santo Domingo on a melting pingo. He couldn't decide if he wanted an Australian dingo or a Costa Rican olingo but ended up with a pink flamingo. He played some zingo and some bingo, and drank up the vingo with a mug of stingo. This lingo reminds me of that geo thingo.

HISTORY:

1. May 3. GCF-The Original Stash. Dave Ulmer created the Great American GPS Stash Hunt and placed a black bucket in the woods near Beaver Creek, Oregon, near Portland, loaded with a log book, pencil, some books, videos, software and a slingshot. He posted coordinates of N 45° 17.460’ W122° 24.800’ on the Internet at sci.geo.satellite-nav.

2. May 7. GC4-Mike's First

3. May 7. GC5-Secret Lava Bed

4. May 8. GC10-Divine stash

5. May 9. GC6-Rivertracks

6. May 9. GC1C-LAX

7. May 11. GC30-Mingo

8. May 12. GC12-Brightwood, OR

9. May 12. GC45-Rotorua, New Zealand

10. May 13. GC28-Beverly

Sept. 2, 2000 - The Geocaching Dot Com website went live with the collection of the first 75 geocaches.

Here is a bookmark list of the first 100 geocaches.

REMEMBER: Make the fair trade. Log your visit. Leave the site better than you found it. Protect the environment — always. Educate those around you. Find another cache! Good luck, and may all your cache dreams come true. —Geocachers of Planet Earth

For Evie.