My World In Pictures

2012-02-16T18:14:00.000-08:00

31 January 2012 Flying to Mexico Twice

It's about one hour and fifteen minutes from Houston to Monterrey. We were in the air for about an hour when the pilot began to turn the jet around. He spoke over the intercom and informed us all there was an alarm indicator in the cockpit. We were returning to Houston for repairs. The return flight was thankfully uneventful. We sat on the tarmac for a while so repairs could be made to the jet. We were soon back in the air for a return flight to Monterrey. The whole trip took over three hours, but we arrived safely.

I've never seen rain in Houston before.

Monterrey Airport was fairly quiet when we arrived after nine.

My room in Mexico was really comfortable.

2012-02-12T08:17:00.000-08:00

29 January 2012 2 Hours 7 Minutes

We had the afternoon planned out. We were going to take a nice walk at Berlin with the dogs and hunt a few new caches, followed by a few cemetery finds, and a final stop at Lake Milton or West Branch to finish the day. Berlin was fun with a few finds and a nice walk on a grey day. We dnf'd a cemetery find at our next stop. Actually our dnf was a did not retrieve. I spotted the cache and tried to retrieve, but it was in a cavity and slid back to a point where we could not get it out. We did get to spot a Revolutionary War Veteran's grave marker in the cemetery. We were both cold and the afternoon was winding down so we decided to stop at Lake Milton to finish the day. The cache there was a find of one Ali couldn't retrieve about a month earlier when she was caching alone. On the way back to parking, the weather got extremely windy. Our drive home was interesting.

2:37 along the shore at Berlin...

3:40 Revolutionary War Veteran Ezekial Mott...

3:44 nice red headed woodpecker spotted in the cemetery...

4:21 leaving Lake Milton...

4:22 the snow quickens...

4:28 this is going to be a long drive home...

4:34 snow's over...

2012-02-11T08:28:00.000-08:00

28 January 2012 Walking Geauga

2012-02-10T02:35:00.000-08:00

22 January 2012 Searching for Johnny's Caches in the Gamelands

2012-02-07T19:16:00.000-08:00

21 January 2012 We Had Snow!

The day had arrived for the Winterfest Event and we had snow! There wasn't a lot, but there was enough for everyone attending the event to have a good time. We also relocated the event to a yurt this year so we had more room for people to visit and enjoy the day.

The late snow came too late to save the sled dog events. There was an open activity for showing your dog teams. The dog teams in attendance were much quieter than the hard driving competition teams, but they were fun to watch.

We had time during the quieter moments of the event to take a walk and say hi to friends on the trails.

The sled hills were busy with kids and adults enjoying the snow and the mild temperatures.

Despite the warnings for people to stay clear of the water and the unsafe ice, someone managed to fall through and give the local water rescue teams a chance to show their abilities. The ice hole can be seen in the middle of the image.

There was no sleigh this year, but the weather was perfect for a horse-drawn ride.

Mini-doughnuts have become an annual treat for us and many other visitors to the event. The cinnamon sugar ones are a perfect treat for a cold afternoon filled with lots of activities.

The ducks enjoyed the day too.

After the event and after everyone had gone home, we packed up and headed to the North Country Trail for a small hike. It was a perfect evening for a quiet walk together in the woods.

2012-02-05T21:03:00.000-08:00

20 January 2012 Visiting Time Square

While in Cortland, my faithful Subaru, Ariel had developed a weird problem with the driver-side windshield wiper. Since it was January, I was a little concerned about driving in snow, rain, or darkness in the southern tier. My stops on the way home were short and frequent to clean the windshield.

Normally, I would have cached more on the way home, but this trip was driven by a desire to get back without needing my wipers. I had passed through Dryden on my way to Cortland a few evenings prior. The town was still decorated and lit for the holidays and looked quite inviting at night. While in Cortland, I noticed a Geocaching Challenge for the small town park in Dryden. There's not as much excitement in New York's Time Square as there is in New York's Times Square, but the Challenge was a fun stop on my way home.

2012-02-05T04:58:00.001-08:00

18 January 2012 Boardroom

2012-02-05T04:52:00.000-08:00

17 January 2012 Buried Micros

When I'm in a small town with early sunsets a few urban micros can be a great way to pass my evenings until I get to go home. This one won't be found for a while.

2012-02-05T04:34:00.000-08:00

16 January 2012 Southern Tier

The western end of I-86 can be a really quiet place to travel in mid-Winter. I've been through here during snow storms where the highway was one lane with deep snow on either side. Fortunately, the weather was perfect this afternoon for a drive east. This rest stop was a good place to stretch and grab a cache. In normal winters, the container would have been buried below at least a foot of snow. Today it was a quick find in very cold winds. It must be lonely to work here during the winter.

2012-02-03T22:04:00.000-08:00

15 January 2012 Helen Hazen Park and the Grand River

2012-02-01T19:52:00.001-08:00

14 January 2012 Winter Scenes in Brecksville

2012-02-01T19:19:00.000-08:00

8 January 2012 2 Hours and 8 Cache Hides

We were hosting the Winterfest Event at Chapman State Park this year. After visiting with our neighbor we made a late arrival at the park and had two hours before sunset to locate eight event caches. It was a little strange to be in the trails at Chapman in January with virtually no snow on the ground. We got the caches placed and had a very nice walk with the Geodogs.

2012-01-31T21:42:00.000-08:00

7 January 2012 Caching Erie

Bright, blue skies and a few caches at a baseball complex started a fun afternoon of caching for us.

Gwen likes eating snow.

Union City seems to have some sort of tie to caching. Now we know where the Smiley Building is. Maybe we'll have fewer dnf's.

The Corry beaver looks like one, tough mascot.

It's probably not the best cache container, but the Wonder Cache brought a laugh from both of us.

2012-01-30T21:43:00.001-08:00

3 January 2012 Homemade Gyozas

2012-01-30T21:19:00.000-08:00

2 January 2012 The Next Day

The day's snow made me glad we made a late night drive to Ohio the night before.

2012-01-30T20:55:00.000-08:00

1 January 2012 Weather Blues

It was a strange start to the new year. We wanted to walk with the dogs and debated whether to head for the North Country Trail or make our way to Titusville and the Hydetown Rail Trail. Hydetown won out. This was one of those days where we both planned to hike a lot, get tired with the dogs, and settle in for a sleepy, quiet evening in front of the fire.

It rained most of the way to Hydetown. We grabbed a couple caches on the way and were both a little wet by the time we reached the trail. It had stopped raining and was just grey when we found the first cache of the series. As we returned to the trail, Bussard444 came down the trail and joined us for the rest of the hunt. There were some nice hides and Terry was good company. We had a super walk out finding the caches and enjoyed the visit on the way back. By the time we were about half-way back, the day's grey skies were bright blue.

We said good day to Bussard and made our way to the other side of the road to the rest of the trail and still more caches. We got about two caches out on the other part of the trail when the rains started again. We thought one more and maybe the skies would clear. We were wrong. It was a serious downpour. By the time we reached Subie, we were soaked.

We stopped for two more finds at a cemetery near Titusville. It was at that cemetery that I spotted the marker below. It certainly ranks as one of the oddest I have seen. It was in great shape and got us talking about what it was meant to be. I kept thinking billiard rack.

The weather report was really ominous. Rain and wind made a tough drive back to the Warren area. With predictions of even worse weather the following day, we decided to pack it in and head for Ohio. So much for the quiet night by the fire.

2012-01-29T16:07:00.000-08:00

31 December 2011 If it isn't moving... decorate it.

2012-01-29T15:52:00.000-08:00

28 December 2011 Happy Early Birthday Bill

I hadn't seen my family in a long time. January brings a milestone birthday for my brother and his family wanted to celebrate. He's surrounded below by his granddaughters.

2012-01-29T15:41:00.000-08:00

27 Decmeber 2011 Simple Pleasures

Ali makes the best gingerbread cookie ever! I'm always spoiled during the season.

2012-01-28T19:31:00.001-08:00

26 December 2011 The Bridges of Crawford

2012-01-28T18:53:00.000-08:00

25 December 2011 Caching Christmas

Eva's a gentle girl and was a good sport with a bow on her head. So far, all the news for her cancer has been good. Here's hoping she has many fun trails left to explore.

We spent Christmas afternoon in the Cleveland Metroparks hunting the last two caches of the year. Our first find was a fun walk in Strongsville in a section of the park we hadn't visited before. Our last cache of the day was in Hinckley Reservation. The cache was off a bridle trial. The wet days and horse traffic left the trail a mud pit. This was the first CMP cache I actually wanted to end. We were muddy, and the dogs were a mess. We spent our Christmas evening bathing the dogs.

2012-01-27T20:32:00.000-08:00

24 December 2011 At the Zoo

It looks like the toys in the gorilla area are getting complicated ;-)

The new Fulton Bridge is in place. I drove over the old one many times when I lived in the area.

After our visit to the zoo we stopped by the tree on Fairmont.

2012-01-24T18:44:00.000-08:00

19 December 2011 Cookie Contest

We had a cookie contest today at the facility. I baked cookies and managed to win "Most Like Christmas Cookies". It was fun and helps build the team, but making the cookies was most interesting. For the first time, I made a recipe my mom had always made. For as long as I can remember, the cookies were just called Mrs. Zieg's Cookies. They were named after a neighbor of my grandparents who had given the recipe to my mom. Every year these cookies were a favorite at the house and enjoyed by all. It's been at least eleven years since I last tasted the cookies. Long before she left the earth, my mom had lost her ability to manage recipes and bake these gems.

It was a strange trip backwards for me. Years ago, two copies of the recipe were one of the few things I kept (along with the family photos and a handful of Christmas ornaments) that tie me to the world where I grew up. One of the recipes is the tattered and faded old typewritten index card that I remember my mom dragging out of a cookbook every holiday season. The other is a hand-written copy she wrote for me after I left home to live on my own. She didn't realize I never had a reason to bake those cookies as long as I could go home and visit them.

As a kid I had a great time shaking colored sugars and sprinkles on the cookies as my mom rolled and cut them. It's funny how our tastes change over time. Then I always enjoyed the trees topped with a chocolate chip. Now I enjoy the tree cookies with cinnamon-sprinkled bases. For all of us, there comes that time when you can't go home. At least the cookies let me look back.

2012-01-24T18:17:00.001-08:00

18 December 2011 Garfield and Brecksville

2012-01-21T00:19:00.000-08:00

15 December 2011 There's No Place Like Home For The Holidays

I was finally ready to pack it in for the year and go home. I traveled twenty percent more this year for business than in 2010, and 2012 was looming like just as busy and more. I spent over ten percent of the year in a western state.

There's not much to see in Spokane in the middle of December. Usually my trips here are filled with great pictures of the area. I've never been here in December before. The sun was gone by 3:50 and it was dark a few minutes after 4. My evenings were spent visiting the nearby mall, visiting the local REI (the week couldn't be all work - I really wish there was one of these where I traveled back east), and eating at a mongolian bbg (yum).

On the way to the airport, I had time for one detour and decided to make a stop in Spokane to see the River and the Falls. The falls are really nice. They are not Niagara Falls, but the river was fast moving and there was access across the river on a really nice suspension bridge.

The best feeling on a trip home is seeing the jet for your last flight home sitting at the gate in nice weather.

For some reason the walkway wouldn't engage with the jet so we had to sit at the gate while the ground crew tried to resolve the problem. It was weird being the only incoming flight sitting in a defective gate while all these empty gates surrounded us. The crew eventually got the equipment to work, but it was past midnight and time for a walk through a deserted Hopkins.

Happiness! The flight was so late Ali had already grabbed my bag.

2012-01-19T03:40:00.000-08:00

11 December 2011 One More Trip West

My last trip of the year was a visit to Spokane. My choices were to fly really early and get to Spokane in time for some caching and some open restaurants or leave later and spend a little time with Ali. The choice was easy. I was rewarded for my later departure with mostly quiet airports at all three stops.

It will take a while to get used to seeing Continental tails on planes marked United.

My gates in Denver were near to each other so I got to do a little walking while waiting for my next flight. There are a number of Waymarks in the airport. I was able to visit a couple and add one more at this neon art called Beaded Circle Crossing.

2012-01-16T19:44:00.000-08:00

10 December 2011 Metroparks Caching

With one day in town before I was travelling for work again, we decided to head west and hunt a few caches in the Cleveland Metroparks. The highlight of the afternoon was a cache placed by a friend near the site of an old mill. The cache started near the entrance to an old tunnel that used to feed water to the mill. I've spent a lot of time in Rocky River Reservation, but never saw this old tunnel entrance. The tunnel has long since collapsed, but the history told by the cache made it the find of the day.

Sand Ripples

Mill Sluice

The Foundation of the Old Mill

2012-01-14T06:25:00.000-08:00

9 December 2011 Caching in December

It just didn't seem like December. The weather was wonderful. I started wandering toward home and saw these caches with the unremarkable name of KACCE1-12. For a while I was wondering if something had loaded strangely in my gps. I finally looked at the cache page and realized these were twelve caches hidden in the Hidden Valley Scout Reservation in Loysville, PA. Twelve ammo can caches in the woods were too much of a good thing to pass by. With a short hunt, I was able to locate the required parking area, and as I was parking the ranger arrived and gave me permission. It was a very pleasant way to grab a bonus sunny hike in December.

I got greedy after the Scout caches and stopped for one last ammo can in a quiet park with a nice stream running along the back of the park. The sunset as I headed toward the Juniata was the last highlight of my day. About two hours of driving in snow conditions awaited me near the Ohio border.

2012-01-14T04:45:00.000-08:00

7 December 2011 A Rainy Night in Carlisle

2012-01-12T20:13:00.000-08:00

5 December 2011 Greetings from America's Superhighway

2012-01-09T18:12:00.000-08:00

3 December 2011 Chagrin Falls

2012-01-08T20:54:00.001-08:00

2 December 2011 Ice Crystals

2012-01-07T17:36:00.001-08:00

30 November 2011 First Snow

2012-01-07T17:33:00.000-08:00

29 November 2011 Surprise :-(

Some surprises are not wanted. Eva had a small growth on her hip and went for a biopsy just before the holiday. On Monday, Ali called to let me know the word from the vet was cancer. The vet was able to take her for surgery the next morning. They weren't sure if she could come home the same evening, but finally released her to me about 8pm. She was still sleepy from the meds, but I was glad to have her home. Now it was time to wait to see if the margins were good for the surgery and the tumor removal. Eva was not very happy to wear here e-collar but she had staples for about a 4" incision.

2012-01-07T15:11:00.000-08:00

26 November 2011 Caching Chapman

2012-01-06T20:16:00.000-08:00

25 November 2011 To 666

2012-01-06T19:54:00.000-08:00

24 November 2011 Thanksgiving

We spent the holiday driving to Warren and doing a little caching. Since it was school break, we stopped at Edinboro to complete the Fighting Scot Challenge and grab a few caches.

Our second stop was a return visit to SGL192. It was a fun walk with stream crossings and nice caches, including one of the most nicely done letterbox caches we've found. It also had a nicely done letterbox stamp. Since it was a pleasant day, getting a little wet in the streams wasn't a big deal. We topped our Thanksgiving with the traditional meal (for us ;-) ) of lasagna.

Nice Glacial Erratic

2012-01-04T18:43:00.000-08:00

20 November 2011 Gully Brook

On our first visit here, we needed mosquito nets to make it out alive. This afternoon cold, grey weather meant no mosquitoes and a quiet walk through the park on our way to a couple finds.

2012-01-03T16:18:00.000-08:00

19 November 2011 Staying Local

It was clean-up and winterize day at the lawn bowling club so our morning was spent with yard work. This year's shut-down was much later than other years. I was concerned the weather would be awful, but it was a perfect day for working outdoors.

After chores were done and visiting was over, we headed off for a little caching. We avenged a really old dnf at the Cultural Gardens. The plants had all died back, but the gardens are still fun and interesting to visit.

Our second stop was the West Side Market. There actually was a cache which started with information gathering in the market and a Geocaching Challenge at the market, but the real reason for the visit was food. The market was packed with Thanksgiving shoppers and lots of out-of-state plates. We were lucky with a parking space and lots of great food. Our indoor visit included a stop at the market stall of one of our favorite bakeries Michael's. We loaded up on tons of veggies and found some nice raspberries. I got my first navel oranges of the season.

On our way back to the geomobile, we noticed there were still people tending the Ohio City Farm. At six acres, this is a huge urban farm bordering the West Side Market. It was good to be back in Northeast Ohio for a quiet day.

2012-01-02T05:17:00.000-08:00

18 November 2011 Going Home

2012-01-02T05:06:00.000-08:00

17 November 2011 Mount Robidoux

My conference ended in the early afternoon so we had a little time to visit a bike trail in Riverside and climb to the top of Mount Robidoux. The view towards the mountains was decreasing as the afternoon wore on, but was still really nice from the top. We went one for three with caches on the top, but had a great time.

2012-01-01T06:46:00.000-08:00

16 November 2011 Night Caching the Pacific Electric Trail

Some nights are better not cached. Thankfully this one turned out well. When we arrived at our hotel the evening before, my e-mail had a copy of a supplier agreement from one of our bigger customers. There's a small team of us who work through these when they enter the system. I needed to start this one and have it out of my hands before the end of the week so I stayed up after Ali went to bed and worked a good part of the night. I spent my day in a conference discussing workplace fatalities and specific ways to help prevent them so it had been a full 24 hours.

Ali had been to the Pacific Electric Trail earlier in the day and knew one of the access areas with nearby parking. I was surprised at how many people were out in the dark using the trail. We found everything we attempted except one. I was falling asleep during dinner and had another very long contract night ahead, but it was great to relax for a couple of hours.

This is one seriously ugly and big bug.

2012-01-01T06:00:00.000-08:00

15 November 2011 Crystal Cove

We missed a chance to visit Crystal Cove on the previous Saturday. The trails were closed due to the rains. Today was perfect and the trails were open. It was an amazing hike. We had a great time and found a lot of caches.

The trail rises quickly from the nature center.

A hide here could hurt.

These melons were a surprise. The cucurbita are known as both stink melons and coyote melons. One person made the observation the crushed leaves of a stink melon smell worse than the worst b.o. the person had ever smelled. I didn't try to confirm either half of that observation.

There are many tafoni here. We were able to explore a couple and there was a cache in a group of them. As I expected, they are also friendly habitat for rattlesnakes. I had been checking for rattlers before getting too close to any of these and was about 25 feet above Ali when she asked me if I had been checking. "Yes," I said. "Why?" Because there is a really big rattlesnake below you. Oops... It wasn't quite below, but it was huge. We have luckily not seen many rattlesnakes, but this was certainly the biggest. I really wanted to get closer for a better picture, but self-preservation won.

After a good hike, we made a return trip to Ruby's for another shake and malt. We enjoyed the sunset and were treated to a late show by a handful of dolphins along the shore. It was time to move on and time to return to work the next day.

2011-12-31T22:57:00.000-08:00

14 November 2011 Le Brea and Santa Monica

We both had great memories of visiting La Brea so we were excited at the chance to return. It was a lot of fun walking through the museum a second time. I noticed a lot more on this visit than the last. After the museum visit, we spent more time on the grounds visiting the many remaining open tar pits. The methane gas bubbles and the tar bubbles are quite a sight.

Buffalo

Those are really strangely shaped teeth.

Too bad there was no work taking place in the lab today.

Mommy.....

Methane bubbles from the surface.

Unlike the vigorous gas bubbling from the methane, the tar bubbles are a much slower proces. They rise up like a viscous balloon, then plop and look like collapsed dough.

Neither of us seemed too worried about the short faced bear behind us.

We both spotted the food trucks across the street from the museum and park and wanted to try the fare. Food trucks may be the rage in many other places, but they have been rare creatures on the landscape of northeast Ohio. There is certainly nowhere else in our normal travels where this level of food variety was waiting. We saw lots of trucks setting up in Portland during the spring, but were too early for food. Today was just right.

Yum

A completely unexpected surprise was an art exhibit in display near where we ate. The piece was a ten-panel section of the Berlin Wall including four panels with the original cold-war graffiti from when the wall was torn down. It's a bit strange to think that soon the Berlin Wall will be a few paragraphs in history as those of us who remember depart. As a youth, I remember the evening news stories of some poor soul being shot to death as he tried to cross the wall and reach freedom. It was important for me to touch this symbol of people who cared so much they were willing to die.

Are they following me? I tried to talk Ali into stopping by the booth and getting interviewed for the archives. She said no. I'm not so sure I want to hear what she had to say. I know what I would say. I just have no idea how I would say it (or any idea of how to fix this html).

This is a nice piece of outdoor work at the museum. It has the twelve Chinese Zodial sculptures arranged in a circle. Ali is posing by the Rat which is the year for both of us. It's a bit interesting. Ali mirrors the positive traits of someone born in a rat year while I unfortunately am a near perfect match for the negatives. Hmmmm....

Our walk around Santa Monica was amazing. We were here soon enough to see the sunset and take a long walk before meeting Ali's aunt and cousin for dinner. It was great to see Ali's family again, and the dinner was super and probably the best of the trip.

2011-12-31T05:08:00.000-08:00

13 November 2011 Caching a Busy Day

For non-cachers, a busy day is a caching day where multiple cache types are found. We've never really tried for a busy day since we have so many finds in areas where we usually cache. Today was different. We have only a few finds in California. Ali was able to set a course for us to potentially grab as many as eight cache types (traditional, multi, puzzle, letterbox, whereigo, webcam, virtual, and an earthcache). We got seven. The webcam was at a ferry along the water. The wonderful weekend weather had brought a ton of tourists to the narrow streets and alleys. We got into the traffic mess and realized there was no way to accomplish our mission. Too bad, the place looked a great area to spend some time and explore.

Our journey was hectic and ended late. The whereigo, like so many whereigo's seemed and endless process of walking constantly in circles hoping the cartridge would engage. If whereigo's worked well, the cache owner's idea would have been a lot of fun, but it turned out to be tedious and too much of an afternoon. We ended with seven. Not bad for a busy day. I think I'll pass on any chances to repeat, but it's one more challenge completed.

This nice tree was the perfect place to hide a micro. Ali finally spotted the container.

This was one of many spotted on the trail today. Later, we were in a location where I had left the camera behind because of the terrain. On that trail we spotted a lizard living in a piece of cloth stuck about four feet up in a bush. That lizard was completely unfazed by us and would have been an nice model. Oh well...

Flames? On an Audi?

At least we had a great view of the mountains as we walked back and forth like a bunch of chickens completing the whereigo.

2011-12-30T18:33:00.000-08:00

12 November 2012 It Never Rains In...

Southern California. The song was wrong. It really does. We were up today hoping the rain would hold off and we could hike the back country trail in Crystal Cove. We had breakfast and drove over hoping the weather would stay at a light drizzle. Our plans didn't work as we pulled into the drive and immediately saw the sign saying the trails were closed. We drove across the highway and made a stop at Ruby's (yum) for an early shake and to re-group.

Wildlife watching while enjoying a chocolate malt.

After a shake and a malt, we re-grouped and headed to the San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary. Ali made a great call here since weather at this wet place would not be a problem. It was a super day for birds. The rain was just a mist for most of the afternoon as we enjoyed the trails. We later made our way to the San Diego Creek bike trail for a bit to grab a few last caches. The rain really started to pick up so we finally called it a day. Our last find was a fun sudoku with the final cache at an asian mall. We had a great time at the mall and were only disappointed that we had no means to cook to enjoy all the tempting goodies.

I'm glad there was no cache here...

2011-12-28T20:18:00.000-08:00

11 November 2011 CLE - ORD - SNA

We were on our way to California! I had a few days to attend a conference and we had a few vacation days to burn. We tried to set up a challenge for Cleveland Hopkins Airport using the Ramones guitar, but couldn't get a signal. Our one stop was in Chicago where we were able to nab a virtual and complete a challenge. Later while Ali took care of the paperwork for our rental car, I snapped a picture of the Duke. We had a lunch at a local restaurant and spent the afternoon caching in a park and along a bike trail not from the hotel.

2011-12-26T21:51:00.001-08:00

8 November 2011 Gwen

2011-12-26T21:50:00.000-08:00

7 November 2011 Last Stop Before the Highway

2011-12-26T21:42:00.000-08:00

6 November 2011 SGL-277

2011-12-26T21:06:00.000-08:00

5 November 2011 #8600 in Forest County

We spent the day caching again in Forest County. #8600 was a nice cache at an overlook. It was a good climb up and the dogs seemed happy. We always make a futile attempt to get a photo with us and the dogs at these milestone cache finds. This morning, they were actually both looking forward. While we were in Forest, we decided to do our Geocaching Lighthouse Challenge at Sherman's Lighthouse in Tionesta. Sherman's Lighthouse is a bit odd since it is a 75-foot lighthouse on the Allegheny River. It is quite an unexpected event to come up this. We finished the day at a group of caches near the Allegheny River. Our last few finds were in an area where a number of cachers had spotted eagles before. No luck for us on the eagles, but it was a beautiful day to be out.

2011-12-25T08:51:00.000-08:00

4 November 2011 Caching Erie

I wanted to walk in the woods a bit on the way back home and hoped for a cache or two on my journey. I was glad to see I could cover both at Marion Fricano Memorial Park in North Collins. As soon as I realized the unfound caches were in this park a smile came to my face. I had been to this park before and remembered a quiet stream with a nice waterfall. I was pleased to return for not one, but four hides.

When I opened the second cache, I was truly surprised to see another signature on the page with the same date. Marion Fricano Park is very easy to pass by on the busy road unless it is a destination. I thought someone must have signed the wrong date as I have been known to do. I signed the log and moved onto the next cache, a four terrain hide. As I approached the next cache, I was surprised to see a backpack on the trail. A gps a few feet away confirmed the log signature truly had been for the correct day. The owner of the signature was over the side in the ravine retrieving the cache as I approached. We said hello; had a nice meeting; and I moved on to the last my last unfound hide in this super park.

2011-12-25T07:56:00.000-08:00

31 October 2011 Along the NCT

This was supposed to be a vacation day in southern California, but I had three days of meetings with a customer in New York so I returned home. We decided to spend a vacation day near the house with the dogs on the North Country Trail. It was one of those late October days where the only remaining leaves on the trees are all the same color. The leaves on the ground created an orange glow. Earlier in the month the sun would have been high enough off the horizon to make the woods glow brightly. Today, the best the woods could do was a dull orange glow for the afternoon. We enjoyed this section of the NCT which we have never visited before.

2011-12-25T05:50:00.000-08:00

30 October 2011 Forest County

I needed to be in New York the following week for a customer audit so I arrived in Ohio late Friday, did laundry, packed and we were off to Pennsylvania the next day. With no hunting Sunday, we decided to head out for a long walk with the dogs in Forest County. The light dusting of snow on the trail was our first of the season.

We found this tree in the woods. It appeared to be some sort of ritual with arrows, antlers, beads, and a feather.

Ali spotted the fruits from this large chestnut on the way out. On the way back we stopped and looked for the chestnut. It was yet another of the few large chestnut trees we've spotted this year on the trail.

2011-12-25T05:01:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T16:53:00.000-08:00

28 October 2011 Going Home

On my walk to a nearby marina to get breakfast, I saw this cruise ship pulling into port and stopped for a few images. After breakfast and back with e-mails in my room, the sea gull visited one last time before I left for the airport and home.

2011-12-24T16:39:00.000-08:00

27 October 2011 Quiet Day

It was a strange day. In all my travels for work, I've always been able make it home for our anniversary until this year. We tried to arrange for Ali to fly in today and spend the weekend over, but those plans didn't work. I started the day giving my third talk this week. I ended the day with a quiet meal alone at the hotel bar. Home tomorrow.

2011-12-23T19:15:00.000-08:00

26 October 2011 Free Afternoon

I gave my second talk of the meeting in the morning and had a free afternoon. I started about noon and walked and cached as far as I could go until about four. After I left the bay area, I made my way through a park that includes a cancer survivor plaza. I liked the pavillion with the mosaic roof and the themed mosaic benches, but I didn't like the survivors' sculpture. It portrayed people walking into four joined squares that are supposed to be the cancer journey. It seemed Orwellian to me.

Hope, Health, and Love

This bird nabbed multiple fish while I was watching. It seemed a lot more successful than the other nearby birds.

The USS Recruit was a fun and unexpected find. The US Navy built three 2/3 scale ships to use for land-based training stations. The other two are gone, but the Recruit remains on display in San Diego. The ship is not available for tours, but there are apparently efforts to raise money to turn this piece of history into a museum. Too bad, it would have been a great location to take a tour.

After a great walk on a sunny afternoon, I enjoyed a quiet sunset before joining two colleagues for a quiet business dinner.

2011-12-23T17:11:00.000-08:00

25 October 2011 Meetings all Day

One good thing for me while traveling on the western side of the country is that I can wake at my usual four to five in the morning and take advantage of the three-hour time change to cover any issues at our eastern locations. The room was really comfortable with a great balcony view to spend those first few hours working at the computer. The gull had a strange attraction for humans. Whenever I was working during the morning, it showed up at the balcony rail. Someone must have fed that gull a lot to train it. I hope it wasn't too disappointed when I offered no food handouts.

No real chance to enjoy daylight today, but sunset was great and my evening walk was warm.

I didn't pick the restaurant for our evening's meal, but I had to chuckle when I realized the lighthouse at the restaurant was also a benchmark. The food was very good. It wasn't my usual fare, but quite enjoyable.

The restaurant gave a nice view of downtown San Diego. The skyline seems close, but without a vehicle, it was a long way away.

For benchmark hunters, this is actually one of the nearly impossible types to find. Airport beacons used to be quite common, but they have no real purpose any longer in air navigation. Most are gone with this one surviving only because it is on military land. Despite many images, this blurry image was the best. It was quite a sight to see it arc around and light the water.

2011-12-23T16:40:00.000-08:00

24 October 2011 In San Diego

I had to be in San Diego for a week for work. I took a really early flight from Cleveland and was graced with super connections. I arrived around lunch and had a free afternoon before a business dinner. I was given a very comfortable room with a relaxing marina view for the week.

Hmmm... what to do with a free afternoon... should I geocache? :-) We had no finds in California so this was a perfect chance to find a geocache, a benchmark, visit a waymark, and hopefully find a waymark to post... The day was grey and overcast but it was warm, wonderfully warm. I had a fun time and walked about eight miles (and found a cache or two).

The diver ducks were a new duck and fun to watch.

I stopped at a nearby marina and had lunch on their deck.

2011-12-22T19:14:00.001-08:00

23 October 2011 Big Creek

2011-12-22T17:43:00.000-08:00

22 October 2011 Peaseley Hollow

Old Peaseley Road must have been quite a scenic and adventurous ride when the bridge was still open.

Ali skipping stones...

The female question mark is fairly common, but is a beautiful butterfly.

2011-12-21T19:11:00.000-08:00

16 October 2011 Peaks of Otter and Home

This is the Buchanan Swinging Bridge. It has an interesting place in history. The large stone pilings from the bridge date back to the early 1850's and were built to support a covered toll bridge over the James River. During the Civil War the covered bridge was burned by by a Confederate General in an attempt to stop the advances of Union General David Hunter. Besides burning the wooden bridge, many of the buildings in the town of Buchanan were also burned as flames spread from the fire.

After the Civil War had ended, the bridge was rebuilt and lost again to a flood. A railroad built yet a third bridge across the James using these same pilings. That covered bridge eventually gave way to a steel bridge which eventually was taken down and replaced in 1938 with this really outstanding pedestrian suspension bridge. This is a big bridge with a long span and some major bounce. It rates a 10 on the fun scale.

I hoped we had a chance to return to Peaks of Otter for another climb to the top. Our first visit here was in February of 1997. It was incredibly cold when we were here that year, but the area was beautiful and we had the Blue Ridge to ourselves. It was a lot more crowded today on a perfect fall afternoon.

This was a really nice, old Dodge Power Wagon. I think it is a '46 or '47. It was sitting in the parking lot at a gas station convenience store when we stopped for refreshments. This is one supremely large and intimidating vehicle.

The Way-Back Machine travels back to February 1997 for the images below of us at the Sharp Top Peak. I can't begin to think of how high my fever must have been on this hike. I just remember how cold (in the '20's) and windy it was with a great view after wheezing all the way to the peak. A couple days later I was feeling better, and we were in Richmond with some wonderful 70 degree weather. The view this year was just as super, but the weather was a wee bit nicer.

2011-12-19T19:35:00.000-08:00

15 October 2011 Rock Castle Gorge and the Blue Ridge

2011-12-17T06:15:00.000-08:00

14 October 2011 Along the Blue Ridge

We visited the Blue Ridge Parkway once before in February. It was a great trip, but really cold. I hoped we could return at a different time of year to enjoy the area again. A vacation day on my return from Salisbury gave us another chance to enjoy this beautiful area.

Dusk Over Rock Castle Gorge

2011-12-17T05:47:00.000-08:00

14 October 2011 Pilot Mountain

Each trip to Salisbury I drive by Pilot Mountain and think it would be a great place to stop. I usually don't make a lot of stops on the way other than grabbing a few caches. Today, I had the pleasure of stopping with Ali. It was a super place to visit and worth the wait. If you are here for a visit, we have listed a photo challenge for the location.

2011-12-16T17:19:00.000-08:00

12 October 2011 Dinner and a Challenge

We spent the middle part of our vacation with me working a few days at our Salisbury facility. Ali spent the days exploring and caching while I was at the office. After work we were able to grab only a cache or two before the short days shut us down. This evening Ali had spotted a Thai restaurant during the day in Kannapolis and wanted to drive back for dinner.

When we parked the geomobile, I noticed there was a challenge nearby at the Dale Earnhart statue. I know next to nothing about Nascar, but was game to do the challenge. I was supposed to intimidate the statue. I'm not sure I intimidate anything or anyone any more, but the challenge was fun.

After the challenge, we stopped at the nearby restaurant Sunshine's Asian Cuisine for dinner. I was wondering a bit as we walked to the restaurant. Kannapolis is really empty at night, but the restaurant was open. The couple who own the restaurant were really super and the food was wonderful. To me, it was the best meal of our trip. I will definitely stop back on my next business trip to the area.

2011-12-15T22:59:00.000-08:00

10 October 2011 Return to Stone Mountain
Subtitle: You Can't Always Get What You Want...

I wasn't sure what to expect of Stone Mountain. It's a real tourist trap and lives on dragging in visitors. We are not the typical tourist. We were here on a bright, sunny, warm day a couple days prior, and I really liked the place. The trails were outstanding, and there was some really nice caching. I also really wanted to climb Stone Mountain, and I really wanted to ride the incline to the top.

I whined enough that this became a return destination for us. So far great... except for the nasty grey skies, the driving rain, and the monster wind. It was a brutal day to be caching. At one point, we stopped at a picnic shelter and I refused to continue caching until the worst of the miserable rain had let up. We toughed it out and grabbed a few multis. Despite my hoping for great luck and a change in the weather, it wasn't going to happen and I wasn't riding the incline. :-(

Still, we could at least hike to the top of the mountain. I now know that climbing a granite face in really hard rain with a big time wind is a great adventure, but not a lot of fun. The granite is super slippery so you need to be aware every second so you don't fall. A slip could be a disaster. We are experienced enough to know that a strong wind at the base will be unbearable at the top. The conditions at the peak were even worse than I expected. I expected them to be bad, but the rain was so intense it felt like hail. Between the reduced traction in the water and the wind, it was hard to stay upright at the top.

I know it would have been better to pass and be positive there would be a chance to return, but it has reached a point where the reality is every visit somewhere has to be considered a last chance. Any returns are a bonus. Too bad for the incline. It will go on the list of weird things I would like to try some day if there's a return visit. So many places... so few days. I'll never think this day wasn't an adventure.

In a rare moment of no rain, Ali gives a micro a big w for Weak.

There's a wealth of old, interesting carvings here.

Eva has some explaining to do.

It was really amazing that we weren't the only crazy people climbing this. We actually passed people going up near sunset. I thought I was goofy...

We had to be just as careful on the way down as the way up.

2011-12-12T21:19:00.000-08:00

9 October 2011 An Afternoon At Callaway Gardens

2011-12-12T00:36:00.000-08:00

8 October 2011 Georgia and Alabama

Everyone at the hotel restaurant looked even older than me so we opted for a stop in Pine Mountain for breakfast and a few caches. We were hunting for a cache on the caboose pictured below when a local cacher spotted us and stopped to say hi. She had her geodog with her. He was a big baby and wanted rubs. He also really seemed to like the attention of getting his picture taken. The caboose hide was one of the best micros I have seen... ever.

We were going to go to Columbus, Georgia and hunt a few caches before crossing into Alabama for a few finds in the state. On the way to Columbus we stopped for a find outside a really interesting cemetery with a number of homemade markers. A number of markers and grave sites have been damaged over the years, but the care spent in making these memorials was visible.

Columbus was a nice looking town, but filled with a number of dnf's for us. We did get to complete a challenge at The Pemberton House. Dr. John Styth Pemberton was the man who developed the formula for Coke.

The Springer Opera House was built in 1871 and is still open for performing arts today. It's an great looking old building.

There's some old buildings in Columbus. Columbus was one of the South's two major industrial centers during the Civil War. News of the surrender had not reached Union or Confederate troops resulting in the Battle of Columbus which was the last land battle of the Civil War. Large portions of the city's industrial area were burned, but many of the old homes were spared.

Phenix City, Alabama was just disappointing. The town is really down on its luck. The only site while we were there was a guy riding a horse down the middle of the street. The guy looked like he had no idea of how to ride a horse and the horse appeared to want nothing to do with being ridden.

2011-12-06T23:05:00.000-08:00

7 October 2011 Lake Lanier

Hmmmmm... I found a mermaid ;-) and we haven't left dock yet!

Note the condition of the front of all the jet ski rentals.

Overtake that boat captain!

Are you tired of blue water and blue sky yet?

View from the top deck of our "Party Barge"

This is living!

I could not pass by the opportunity to log a benchmark no matter how much the boat cost if we went past our rental time.

At the end of the day we had qualified for Jasmer caches with a cache find in every month when one was placed. We had picked up two or three more Fizzy squares for the d/t challenges. In the end though this was just all-out fun. It had been years since I was on a boat. Being with our friends really made the day special.

2011-12-06T21:38:00.000-08:00

6 October 2011 Finding Yellow River Stash (Nov 2000) and Tour of Stone Mountain (Jun 2000)

2011-12-04T17:01:00.000-08:00

5 October 2011 Rock Town

We had two missions today, find the October 2000 Rock Town cache and get to Gainesville where we would begin meeting friends. The day for me mirrored a good part of this trip, I felt lousy. Still, there's nothing to be gained by hanging around and waiting for the meds to stop making me nauseous and vacation time was wasting.

We started our journey by heading for a virtual at a Civil War Veterans cemetery near Chattanooga. As usual I missed the turn and went by where we were supposed to go. Two turns later, I pulled into a drive and headed to the back hoping it would link back to the cemetery. Not exactly. Instead, we were in the parking lot for a place called McKay's. This was the most interesting retail find since friends showed us Powell's in Oregon. We stopped in and were in awe of two stories of books and music. After checking for some reading material and looking to see if by any chance there were American Guide Series to be spotted, I took off for the upper floor which was a loft area that ringed the lower floor. The entire second floor was filled with music. Try to remember the things you want to look for when faced with a few thousand titles. I managed to located a Cherish The Ladies cd which joined the music selections.

We did finally leave the store and find the virtual as well as locating a couple of new waymarks to post for a new state.

Nice view on the way to Rock Town

The area where Rock Town is located is super. We enjoyed the hike out and back besides our visit to the rocks. At the very start of our hike out, one of us spotted a new (for us) soapwort gentian. It was a nice find and a elegent wildflower. We also spotted a couple of lobelias which are not like varieties we are used to seeing. I expected we would be about the only people in the area. I was wrong. The woods were packed with visitors. It was a super cache and a month cache hide which we had not found before October 2000.

We were both surprised when we checked into our room in Gainesville. The room had an edgy color scheme (actually a lot like my office), but it was the best room I have stayed in a long while. The hotel did everything right. I was very happy to have multiple days here to relax and sad to leave and move on when the time came.

2011-12-03T22:32:00.000-08:00

4 October 2011 Kentucky

We started our day finding a cache near and visiting a waymark at Maplegrove Cemetery near our hotel. Maplegrove is an older black cemetery. It is the final resting place for a small number of black soldiers who were Civil War veterans and has many older homemade stones.

We also made a stop in Georgetown, Kentucky and had a nice walk around this historic town. Georgetown is the birthplace of bourbon, which was my alcohol of choice when I was still permitted to drink. The town has some interesting old buildings and was a fun walk around. Georgetown also has Royal Spring which is the first cave spring I have seen. It was actually an interesting earthcache. :-0

Georgetown architecture

Interesting old City Hall

Maybe it's just me, but the welcome sign and the quilt square look really out of place at what appears to be an old jail. It looks scary...

We had a nice walk at a park/horse farm. There were a few caches along a nice stream in the park. Since it was October, the site of late lobelia was welcome. At the last cache along this stream there were many, many butterflies enjoying the last wildflowers of the season. I was only able to get an image of one. As I look back at he photos, I realize my image selection and quality was really off through the trip. There are a number of things I wish I had captured and many images which I shouldn't have gone after. Oh well...

We both really liked this simple hide along the side of the road. I blew by it the first time, and we almost passed it by rather than turn around. I liked the super cave here while Ali really enjoyed the geology. I was glad we went back.

Ali climbed for the cache

We managed a couple of Tennessee finds before reaching our destination for the evening. It was close enough to sunset to prevent any pictures. This was only my second visit to Tennessee and left me wishing for more time to explore the eastern half of the state.

2011-12-03T21:33:00.000-08:00

3 October 2011 Oxford to Kentucky

Ali had solved a number of puzzles around Miami University's campus so we planned to spend the morning caching there. The campus really attractive so the walks were pleasant. I was worried about parking, bu that was easy. Negotiating muggles was not fun, and I was feeling sick from my meds for a good part of the walk. Still, it's always nice to tack on the actual find after Ali has worked out the solution to a puzzle cache.

Our main target and reason for going to Georgia via Cincinnati was to find the true oldest cache in Ohio, Shawnee Lookout Cache. This cache doesn't get the credit for being the oldest remaining cache as a result of a cache page date change, but it is. It has a lot of favorite votes and sounded like a great reason to walk in the woods.

We knew we would have to pay to enter Hamilton Parks. What we didn't know was finding someone to pay was harder than finding caches in the woods. The entrance gate was unmanned. The two ranger vehicles were unoccupied. The ranger station was empty. We finally called the non-emergency number posted on the door of the ranger station and were told the ranger would be by. He was... 30 minutes later. He was a nice guy and $3 is nothing for an entrance fee, but hell will be significantly colder before I set foot in another Hamilton County Park. Seriously, we were paying gas for our vehicle, hotel costs for a room, meal costs, and burning vacation time so we could stand around and waste what vacation time I have to give $3 to a ranger. You have to be kidding. I wonder if anyone in Hamilton Parks ever heard of honor pay or a machine to dispense the tickets?

I really don't mind paying, and the ranger was just doing his job. This is why northern climates struggle to succeed in tourism. Half the year the weather stinks and the other they spend torturing visitors who actually do show up. The $3 fee is a joke. I am sure some fiscal conservative earned wonderful votes by adding the fee and maybe they make a few dollars on a busy day. In reality, the poor ranger who has a job to do keeping the public safe and secure probably cost $15-20 in mileage costs and his salary to drive over and accept our $3.

In the end, we enjoyed the park. The Shawnee Lookout Cache was a super walk and earned a favorite vote for us. We were able to grab a few other caches in the park before making our way south to Kentucky.

2011-12-01T19:34:00.000-08:00

2 October 2011

It was the first day of vacation for us. We were headed to Georgia to spend a weekend with friends. Ali wanted the oldest cache in Ohio so we went to Georgia via Cincinnati. We had a few cache finds on the way today at Ceasar Creek and Collett Woods before staying the evening in Oxford, Ohio. It was a wonderful day to be out in October.

That's big fungus

Collett Woods is like a paw paw forest.

2011-11-29T20:30:00.000-08:00

1 October 2011 Grey Day at the Arboretum

Lots of paw paw fruit on the trees.

2011-11-28T22:23:00.001-08:00

30 September 2011 Fall Says Hello

2011-11-28T22:19:00.001-08:00

27 September 2011 Chautauqua

2011-11-28T21:31:00.000-08:00

24 September 2011 North Country Trail GeoTrail

106 geocaches covering 100 miles of the NCT is a big chance for us to hike and geocache. We have been enjoying the series in 5-8 mile chunks. Since we do out-and-back for all, the 100 miles will be at least 200 miles by the time we are complete.

Gwen surprised us at Chapman State Park by walking across a suspension bridge which caused her dread in the past. We had no idea this suspension bridge was on today's stretch of the NCT. Gwen once again conquered her fears and walked the bridge.

Ali looking for frogs...

found one.

2011-11-28T20:52:00.000-08:00

22 September 2011 At the Rookery

Ali does volunteer work for the Western Reserve Land Conservancy. This evening she was invited to a reception to visit at the Rookery and to visit one of the new easement properties. I was going to meet her at the Rookery so we could have a walk. We missed connections, and I ended up walking the trail alone. After I returned to the parking lot, we met up and had a sunset stroll on the trail.

2011-11-27T20:02:00.000-08:00

21 September 2011 Hanging On

2011-11-27T19:59:00.000-08:00

20 September 2011 Meeting Friends

We met a couple good friends at Bedford Falls Cafe. We had dinner and decided to enjoy a wonderful fall evening in the park when we were threatened with an outbreak of karaoke (does anyone really enjoy karaoke if they are sober?). It was great to be with friends.

A train passes by the park and the old depot.

Sidewalk chalk art

The town square at night

It looks like a movie set

2011-11-27T19:38:00.000-08:00

18 September 2011 Riding the Ashtabula Greenway Trail

We've been to this Greenway a number of times before, but today was the first day we've been here with bikes. It is an interesting trail moving from wide open paths to heavy tree cover. In the spring there are large patches of bloodroot along sections of the trail. It also has an area that was once a New York Central yard area. The yards are long gone, but there are many traces of the rails that were here. If I ever had time and patience to sort and view the slides left by my father and his friend Elmer, there are probably photos of the yard in operation.

Need a headlight.

Not all magnetic key case micros are created equally. This one was not as hard or scary as it looked, but the container was still in a place where one slip would have hurt really badly. Cachers need one of these every once in a while to get the pulse up. :-)

2011-11-26T19:26:00.000-08:00

16 September 2011 Albion Fair

With the face below, do you have reason to doubt the note above?

This was the friendliest goat I have ever seen. It was a good will ambassador for all goats.

This was a Ford Model T tractor conversion. I had never seen one before.

There are some days I wish I could look beyond my health and medication issues and just eat things like carny food without risking real serious issues. This fry truck was not something to tempt me. In the end, we had buffalo burgers from a local restaurant set up at the fair.

Somehow Ali's horse (or zebra) always wins when we ride the carousel. ;-) This was our last stop before our ride home.

2011-11-26T18:40:00.000-08:00

16 September 2011 Edinboro

We were surprised to see so many closed gentians in Edinboro. I had taken a vacation day. We spent the first half here including a visit to Dairy Supreme for the last ice cream of the year.

2011-11-26T18:20:00.000-08:00

10 September 2011 Visiting Chapman State Park

Friends had placed some new caches at Chapman. We had chores to do and a limited time to go out and play. Chapman made a perfect choice for some exercise. We left a few puzzle caches for a future walk.

Like Murray before her, Gwen has always been afraid of suspension bridges. On the best days I could coax her across. On the worst, I crossed in the water with her. This afternoon she stepped on the bridge and walked across herself. Chapman's suspension bridge isn't very long, but it sways a lot.

2011-11-25T20:16:00.000-08:00

5 September 2011 Holden

2011-11-25T18:28:00.000-08:00

4 September 2011 Behind The Brain Plaza

We spent a wet afternoon caching in Kent. We finally took the time to find Mysterious Monolith and a group of caches at Kent. We were working through one of the multis and decided the Library Plaza behind The Brain sculpture would make a fun challenge.

2011-11-25T17:53:00.000-08:00

3 September 2011 County Hunting

We were out searching for caches for the Ohio Great 880. The rock barn was hard to miss. The three visible walls were covered in images of pop, rock, and soul stars from the 60's and 70's. It made quite a sight. Later, we grabbed a cache at the nice covered bridge below.

2011-11-25T17:23:00.000-08:00

2 September 2011 Geauga County Fair

We had a great bench seat to watch the hounds race across the pond. They were a no-show this afternoon. :-(

There were two pulls scheduled for the evening. The light-weight class was the Ohio State Championship with a heavy-weight pull to follow. The night was a little strange. About half-way through the light-weight pulls, half the fairgrounds lost power including the barns and the horse pull arena. They continued to pull into the sunset and early darkness, but watching became tough. I have no idea how the teams were being hitched in the dark. We finally gave up at the end of the light-weight pull.

Does a guy parachuting into the main arena make a wrestling match more legitimate?

I'm a sucker for old tractors. I would never have made a good farmer, but I would have enjoyed trying.

While a big part of the fairgrounds was in darkness the generators continued to power the lights and rides of the midway.

Everyone's a winner...

2011-11-24T22:02:00.000-08:00

1 September 2011 An Evening Walk At Sunnybrook

2011-11-24T21:55:00.000-08:00

30 August 2011 Gully Brook Park

We stopped this evening for a walk at the newest Lake Metropark location. Gully Brook Park is near our homes and would make a nice addition to our rotation of walks. We were both eager to visit. There is a nice, shorter loop trail that winds through newer woods. For our visit this evening we were attacked by hordes of blood-thirsty mosquitoes. I think our return visit will be after the mosquitoes have died back.

After our park walk, we walked down the road to check out the gate at the Louis Penfield House. The home was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It is one of only three FLW homes that are available for rental. The rates are a little steep for our budget so the gate is as much as we see in person. It is an interesting gate and a very nice home from the available photos. It still has much of the original furniture which was designed by FLW.

2011-11-23T22:55:00.000-08:00

29 August 2011 Sunset?

We stopped by a nearby park in Willowick to complete one of the new Gecaching Challenges with a sunset photo at the park. By the time we got here, the clouds had claimed the sunset so we'll have to return another evening. I did get to log a visit on a nearby historical marker in the park.

2011-11-23T22:30:00.000-08:00

28 August 2011 Windy Day in Western New York

The contrast between yesterday and today was dramatic. The pleasant weather of yesterday became cooler temperatures, high winds and big waves.

Even the gulls were staying on shore.

They look like planes lined up on an aircraft carrier.

It was a tough day for Oak Orchard Lighthouse visitors. Ali looks a bit wind blown. We were doing a multi that required walking to the end of the breakwall.

This is a really small lighthouse and diificult to navigate inside.

The view from the lighthouse is probably much nicer on a sunny day.

The weather stayed grey and windy as we made our way home. We had time for a few quick stops in the Lockport/Niagara Falls area before we made the last bit of the drive home.

2011-11-23T21:13:00.000-08:00

27 August 2011 Chimney Bluffs

This was our big day around Rochester to find caches in the center section of the Great Lakes Seaway Geotrail. Since this is a long drive from home for us and the geocoins for the trail can only be picked up by visiting the local center, we started off thinking we might be done with the coin requirement and back at the redemption center by the time it closed at 2. We got an early (for us) start, but soon realized the 2p.m. finish wasn't going to happen. We also planned to finish soon enough to be able to spend the evening in my favorite work stop, Lockport (which didn't happen).

Geotrails are a strange mix of pleasure and frustration for me. We started the day at what seemed to be a wonderful park filled with caches about ten minutes from our hotel. This should have been a great mix of trails and caches, except if you wanted the coin you couldn't visit much of the park. So the compromise is to find the geotrail cache and one or two other caches and race off to the next geotrail cache. It's fun and you get to see pieces of the area, but it's like believing you have read a great book because you read the review. I have to work, so spending days in an area isn't an option. In the end, I let Ali be the trail guide and let her pick stuff for us to see. I often whine about the places we miss, but I understand she's picking a great compromise of unique places to visit with what time we have available.

Our second stop after leaving the park was supposed to be at a quarry except the park hadn't opened yet. We passed time by stopping at a local historic village area where we found an old virtual cache. After that we stopped by a farm market which sold bakery and had the breakfast we passed by earlier. The little farm market was a super place to stop. It was nice to push aside caching for a few minutes to just relax at an outside bench and enjoy the day. Surprisingly, I left my camera in the geomobile and never grabbed an image.

The quarry was fun. Old quarries which have been turned into parks are usually fun places to cache. The terrain can be more challenging than the local area and the wildlife sightings are often good.

After the quarry, we traveled mostly along the lake. The weather was perfect for a late summer ride and caching along Lake Ontario. There were plenty of ducks and frogs to be seen on the journey. We stopped for a visit at the lighthouse at Sodus. It's not the most scenic lighthouse, but it is at a pleasant location. It's one of twenty along the great lakes in New York.

Our big stop for the day was at Chimney Bluffs State Park. Ali planned for us to spend a long time at this park. She planned well. This was the fourth super New York State Park on our trip. The bluff formations were amazing. We had a great time and grabbed some old caches. We also had a lot of fun with frogs along the trails and the lower levels. As we walked the mowed paths for a few finds, there were dozens of frogs out in the grass. Every couple of steps one would jump from the mowed area to the tall growth.

Our day ended late, and we still hadn't finished the ten. We grabbed a room in the Rochester area and planned our continued adventures for tomorrow...

2011-11-20T18:32:00.000-08:00

26 August 2011 Fillmore Glen and Beyond

We planned to stop at Fillmore Glen to find a 2002 cache. We were once again pleased by the beauty of a New York state park and decided to spend more time exploring the park.

After the park our plans were to find some of the Great Lakes Seaway Geotrail. We hoped to complete the five sections of the trail in the spring, but could not arrange the trip. Today we were visiting caches in the central section of the five sections. Our Seaway Geotrail stops included the location of the boyhood home of Millard Fillmore. It's a nice spot for a cache, but is just a parking lot with an American flag overlooking a field. There's not much of the history of a president here.

One of the caches was placed along a closed road at this old iron bridge.

Our last stops for the evening were along a stream at a canoe launch. The barn in the background gave a nice backdrop for the end of the day.

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25 August 2011 Chicago Bog

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24 August 2011 Cedar Waxwing at the Office

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23 August 2011 Cortland

After my meeting was done for the day, Ali and I had time for a nice walk at Lime Hollow Nature Preserve.

I was tired and wanted a quick meal so we went for the first time to A&W. I didn't really understand why customers had to use phones to order food. It was a bit weird.