Vintage Neon Signs...and Why We Should Save Them

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Geocaching neon tours

This page list neon sign tours that are accessed through the hobby of geocaching, using the Wherigo player.

Learn more about geocaching here. 

Geocaching is a outdoor game where you find hidden treasure by using a GPS to find the latitude and longitude address of a container or a special location. There are geocaches hidden on every continent. There is even one on the international space station, and at the south pole.  The Wherigo tours are posted on the geocaching website and on their own independent website, as WIGs are a subset in the hobby of geocaching.

Learn more about Wherigos (WIGs) here.

Wherigo (WIG) is a platform that allows you to  experience tours outdoors in the real world rather than on your computer screen.  The WIG cartridge guides you to physically move from one location to the next to advance on the interactive  tour. Here are some neon sign tours that are guided by the WIG application.

Try these neon sign Wherigo tours:

Neon Americana East Main Street Night Wherigo -GC5NQNX (Mesa, AZ)

Historic Neon Signs Van Buren – GC5KFCZ (Phoenix, AZ)

Neon Americana, East Colfax – GC6V7BE (Denver, CO)

Neon Pueblo Night Wherigo – GC5GMG6 (Tucson, AZ)

Neon Signs and Such Walking Tour GC5XE80 (Tucson, AZ)

Signs in the City – GC5GR3Q (Tucson, AZ )

Tucson’s Historic Neon Signs – GC5GMER  (Tucson, AZ)

Vintage Neon East Colfax – GC6V66J (Denver, CO)

Vintage Neon East Grant Road – GC5N3EM (Tucson, AZ)

Vintage Neon East Main St Mesa –  GC5PVQ5  (Mesa, AZ)

Vintage Neon in Benson – GC6VKJ0

Vintage Neon Night Wherigo – GC6DQ0X (Bozeman, MT)

Vintage Neon- Van Buren – GC5KFCZ  (Phoenix, AZ)

Vintage Neon West Colfax – GC6V9P7 (Denver, CO)

West Main Street Historic Neon Signs – GC5PVQ5  (Mesa, AZ)

HOW TO PARTICIPATE IN A GEO-TOUR:

The tours listed above are from the geocaching.com website. To participate in these electronic guided mini-tours, follow the steps below.

Geocaching is a hobby that involves finding a container (or treasure box) or a special spot anywhere on the globe, using a GPS to locate the latitude and longitude address (called coordinates) of the geocache. Basically, geocaching is a world-wide treasure hunt, using a GPS to find fun stuff and places.

To learn more about geocaching, go to the geocaching website: https://www.geocaching.com/  Click on the link at the top of the home page: LEARN. This will lead you to links and videos that explain more of what the geocaching hobby is all about.

The neon sign tours listed below are a special type of geocache, called a WHERIGO cache. Once you have done the steps to prepare, you go to the start point coordinates  of the tour, which is given on the Wherigo cache’s home page. From there, the tour leads you from one step to another. At each “stop” or “location” there is a special sight to see. At the end, there is a container hidden. You open the container and sign your name to the log inside.

To get ready for the Wherigo tour:

  • All the tours require the use of a GPS, which is installed on your phone as part of the Wherigo app. On the iPhone, search your app store for Wherigo. On the Samsung, search for WhereYouGo. Download the Wherigo app to your smartphone. 

  • Download the geocaching.com app from your app store to your smartphone. The trial membership for 30 days is free.

  • Choose the tour you would like to try. Open the geocaching.com app on your phone.  Every geocache, including the Wherigo geocaches, has a unique GC code assigned to it. In the search box at the top, type in the GC CODE noted next to the tour name. On the web page for the Wherigo there will be instructions about Wherigo geocaches. If this is your first tour, read the instructions on the cache page carefully.

  • To get closer to the start point, type the coordinates listed at the top of the page into your car GPS or Google Maps on your smartphone. Type them exactly as you see them, including the N and E , which indicate the north and east coordinates. Drive to the start point.

  • Click START on the cartridge. The first stop will appear, including information  and history about the neon sign at the start point.  Often there will be an easy question to answer. The compass will appear and show you the distance you need to navigate to the next stop. Repeat this process until the end of the tour.

  • At the end of the tour, you will be given a confirmation code. Save a screen shot of his code, or write it down. You can log that you completed the tour on the Wherigo.com website. Using this code, you can make a comment about the tour and give it a 1-5 start rating.

  • The last stop of the tour is a geocache container. Go to the coordinates and look for the hidden container. It may be a magnetic container inside a guardrail, or a pill bottle hanging from the inside of a bush from a wire, or a container under a pile of rocks near a tree. Open the container and sign the log. Replace the container as you found it.

  • You may also log that you found the Wherigo cache on the geocaching.com website. Click on the link below, or search using the GC CODE as noted above to get to the webpage for your Wherigo. In the upper right hand corner of the page, click on LOG YOUR VISIT. Choose FOUND IT as the log type. Type a few notes about your experience. This log will be published on the cache’s web page, and a copy will be sent to the cache owner.