6 August 2009 Cobblestones and the Canal









A funny thing happened on my way to cache along Lake Ontario. I never ran the query. I knew there was an earthcache from a friend at Wilson and a group of caches in Olcott. Imagine my surprise when I realized that they weren't in our software. With a big oops, I decided to explore a bit of Newfane and make my way back to Lockport. There are a number of buildings in this area that were built with cobblestones. There are a few really large churches. The one on this page is the First Baptist Church in Newfane. On the way back I stopped at the Lockport Nature Preserve to hunt the latest cache. It was a big mistake. I'm not a fan of micros. I intensely dislike micros in the woods. Hunting micros in the woods while being eaten alive by mosquitos isn't fun. The webelos bird box, complete with instructions, was a fun find on the walk. My last stop was a walk along the canal and a few shots near sunset.

5 August 2009 Niagara County Fair









I was in town, and it was time for the fair. It's been years since I was last in town for this fair. I grabbed some fair food for dinner and strolled the grounds. This fair layout is a little unusual. At most fairs the barns are arranged by different animals with cows and steers in a barn, sheep and maybe goats together in another and so on. Here, the animals are mixed together. One barn had cows, pigs, and chickens. Another had goats and cows. I enjoyed watching the livestock. I also managed to find the old tractor display. This fair had a few different offerings including and old Porsche tractor and a Graham Bradley. It was a fun, quiet evening.

4 August 2009 Luensman Overlook Park







On a clear day, you can see Canada from this park. On this overcast evening, there wasn't much to see. The fungus in the woods made for interesting shapes. Low light and really wet ground didn't make for great pictures. As I was getting ready to leave, the sun made a valiant effort over the trees to the west.

2 August 2009 Sugar Bay and Chestnut Ridge









We were out with the dogs for an afternoon of hiking on Chestnut Ridge. On the way, we stopped by Sugar Bay for a few pictures. There were ospreys in the nest today. The day started grey and stayed that way throughout our hike. All the recent rain had left the trail overgrown and a lush green. Ali spotted a nice grouping of rattlesnake plantain along an edge of the swamp. This was the first we had seen this summer with a number of spikes. She also spotted a reference mark for a benchmark on the return walk. We were able to locate the actual benchmark, but not the second reference mark. It was an unplanned find.

1 August 2009 Biking Along the Allegheny



Emerald ash borer traps come to the Eddy.







In 1866, 65,000 passengers of the Warren & Franklin Railway road over this bridge.

31 July 2009 Orchard Hills

28 July 2009 From Our Yard

27 July 2009 Walking at Sunnybrook

26 July 2009 Going Home

25 July 2009 Midwest GeoBash


A rainy start to the day

Turned sunny and pleasant




Now you see the fair.



Now you don't.



Scenes Along the North Country Trail





A funny thing happened at MWGB. We didn't really attend it. Oh sure we were there, but it was much different than last year. When we arrived on Saturday, we were sent to the wrong end of the Fairgrounds by a volunteer. We had hoped to watch the reviewer panel, but got sent to a commercial building where the auction would be held. We made our way back across the fairgrounds and watched the remainer of the panel. Afterwards we ran into Liz and Wes. They both wanted to try the metal detecting activity, but were told it was already sold out. We visited with a few friends and made our way back to the commercial building. Last year, there was food and a commercial section for most of the day. This year the only vendor with food appeared to be a BBQ place on the fairgrounds for the rabbit show. The commercial vendors were only available Friday evening and Saturday evening. Maybe it was me, but it sure appeared that MWGB was only concerned with the camping (and drinking) contingency. I guess the rest of us were there to help them keep the MEGA icon. :-(

Despite the disappointment at the MWGB, we had a great time. We had breakfast with friends while rain poured down outside. By the time we were done with breakfast, the sun was working on winning the day. We took a quick walk around Wauseon and the set-up for their town fair. Once we left MWGB, we headed back to Wauseon to find food. We got lemonade from a local group. I stopped by a local church group for lunch while Ali bought a taco from the high school group. It was interesting to see the masses of geocachers that had left MWGB and come to town for food. It was also interesting to watch the trains come through town. The train tracks bisect the town. The fair was on either side of the tracks. The Fire Company manned the tracks and ran out to block pedestrians each time a train came through. It was a good thing since they moved quickly.

We left Wauseon and made our way to Michigan for some caching. We noticed a couple caches on the North Country Trail and decided to stop for those. They were very well done with a nice bit of hilly terrain. Ali's choice of a Michigan visit was a good one. After caching we headed back to Wauseon for dinner with Liz and Wes.

24 Juy 2009 On the Way to MWGB


It was a quiet vacation day as we headed to Midwest Geobash. We found caches in three new counties on our journey. The flat farmlands of Western Ohio are always a sharp contrast to the rolling hills where we live in Northeastern Ohio.