With the Interregnum drawing to a close shortly, I regretfully admit that forces beyond my control have prevented me from fully enacting my Grand Scheme -- but for your entertainment I will present the account of my initial "test run".

I wanted a design that was somewhat simple, but effective -- inspired by the style of the SF0 logo. The image of Sutro Tower that I used is totally stolen from a set of architectural plans I uncovered on the web.
My origial scheme was to print up a bunch of these, and leave them in nearby geocaches.

Now, I've never actually gone geocaching, but it's always sounded like fun, and I had just gotten a shiny new GPS unit for my car for Christmas.




All out of cardstock, I settled for printing my prototype card on plain white paper. I strengthened the back with sturdy ribbed packaging tape, and "laminated" the front with rows of scotch tape. (The final printing will be on heavy cardstock, sealed with wide packing tape on both sides to keep out moisture.)


I entered the coordinates (or so I thought...) of a nearby cache into my GPS unit, and set off blindly into the wilderness.


Things started to get a bit damp...


But it was very pretty.


Then stumbled upon a creepy abandoned well shaft. (Fortunately I was watching where I put my feet, and hadn't watched The Ring in quite some time.)


Clambering further up the bramble-covered hill, I came upon The House!
*cue creepy music*


Okay, okay... there's some Photoshop involved here, I admit. ;)


But it was still fairly spooky, especially since the sun was starting to go down behind the ridge to the west.

This is where I started to run into trouble.
Turns out that car-nav GPS units are calibrated differently, and don't update position very accurately when you're on foot. I also began to suspect that I had entered the coordinates incorrectly, as after several hours of thrashing through blackberry brambles and wild roses, I was unable to locate the cache. With the sun setting, and my battery failing -- I decided that discretion was the the better part of valor and vowed to return on another day. (Or pick a cache in a public park, not in the middle of a swamp!)

All told, it was quite an exciting afternoon! Even though I was unable to leave the card as I had intended -- I was pleased with how crisply my design printed, and how well the tape backing held up to the abuse of hiking around all day.