9 September 2015 5 a.m.

The Moon and Venus made an interesting image at 5 a.m.

7 September 2015 End of the Holiday Weekend

The holiday weekend seemed very short. It was time to head back to Ohio. I was happy to once again see my gamble on planting gentians at the edge of the patio had paid off. They survived a tough winter with heavy snowfall and ice. I hope they are now a fixture of our summer flowers.

We made a few stops for caches on the way home. Our first stop was a nearby bike trail in Youngsville where we finally took a walk to find a nearby cache. We had struggled for a while trying to find a parking location to reach the trail. Today it was almost easy. Brokenstraw Creek looked ready for a kayak.

We also avenged a cold-weather did not find at SGL109. This cache was a letterbox hidden at a far edge of the gamelands away from the entrance where geocachers from all over the US and other countries stop to find the very old 2000 cache. The find today was easy. We joined that hide with a few others to make a long walk through the gameslands and along the dirt road leading to the parking.

6 September 2015 On the Trail in Elk and McKean

5 September 2015 Geauga Fair

It was a weird fair for me. It was the first time we came back-to-back days. Usually we are off to Pennsylvania early Saturday. This year I was exhausted from traveling and wanted to see more of the fair so Ali humored me, and we returned for a second day. I was expecting ridiculous crowds, but maybe our early hour gave us time before the holiday weekend attendees really kicked in. Ali was able to spot some friendly goats looking for human attention.

Mules were a big feature for the morning. The mule jumping competition was much more spirited than I expected. The handlers seemed much more enthused than the mules.

Is this where the phrase kicking up your heels originated?

Cleared by the barest of inches

Mule fail

Next up was "Dress a Mule". I thought Sherlock in the London Cab was really creative,

but she lost out to Flinstones in western boots....

and Thing 1 and Thing 2

In our pre-reviewing (and younger days) we used to be able to get an early start for a day a the Columbiana Fair. Those fair days often started by watching the harness races and ended with the the entrance of the demo derby cars with a bit of bluegrass and other fair stuff in between. Eventually we became busy and the Columbiana County Fair lost things we liked including the relaxing time near the bluegrass stage. Today we had a chance to watch the harness racing at the Geauga Fair. We each picked our favorite horses in the races. I think we split the wins and had some laughs.

They don't make Caddy's like this anymore.

2 September 2015 Wells County Indiana

We've been more active hunting caches in new counties this year. The days were getting shorter so I took advantage of a trip to Indiana to make the journey to Wells County and Quabache State Park. Most Indiana State Parks appear to be off-limits to caches now, but for some reason Quabache seems to have avoided the list for archives. The park's caches include a number of older caches including a 2001 and 2004 I was able to find this evening.

No visit to an Indiana State Park is complete without attacks from swarms of mosquitoes. I actually made my way to the first cache and signed the log before getting attacked on the way back. From that moment on they were with me for the rest of the evening. Maybe they can smell fear. ;) This evening's trip had the added adventure of a buzzing insect that was clearly disturbed by one of my cache hunts. It followed me persistently along the trail with an angry buzz. I was surprised it didn't just sting me. I eventually found safety in the geomobile.

Even through all the mosquitoes and one crazy potentially sting insect there was beauty in the park's wildflowers. I was here too late to see any spikes, but it was interesting to see multiple orchids in the woods.

It took me a long time to locate the small herd of buffalo at the park. I had almost given up when I spotted the enclosure. It was interesting seeing on of these massive animals rolling in the dirt.

I was disappointed to see the fire tower was closed to visitors while repairs were being completed. I was hoping for a chance to climb this big tower and enjoy the views. Bluffton's a relatively long after-work drive from Fort Wayne, but the thought of returning to climb the tower is tempting.

1 September 2015 Campbell State Nature Preserve

Geocaching always seems to lead to interesting places which could have passed by if not for a cache hidden there. I was on my way to Fort Wayne and left the highway to avoid the endless construction delays. I happened to look at my gps at a light and noticed a regualar-sized multi nearby. The multi was in the nature preserve. The multi included a hike of a little over two miles through the preserve. It was just what I need to get some exercise and break my drive.

I don't remember ever spotting purple gerardia on the trail before. It was an unexpected find.

30 August 2015 Late Summer Blooms

We stopped at Irvine Flats for a last view of the season's wildflowers before heading to SGL291 for some hiking and caching. The trails still offered some nice wildflowers.

29 August 2015 The NCT in Clarion

We finished the Clarion North Country Trail Geo Trail today. We've spent parts of three years visiting the county and hiking the NCT and finding the twenty cache series. Today we completed the last three caches of the series and enjoyed some of the nicer hiking the North Country Trail has to offer.

We celebrated 200K+ miles with Subie with today's journey.