Record Breaking Adventure

We have been to Nevada many times and each time we see something a little different. The fall season has arrived and it brought with it the beautiful yellows--no reds, just yellows. The leaves of the few trees we passed were turning yellow as befitting the fall season, yet we found areas where the sage was in full bloom with yellow flowers as if it were spring. Of course the barren hills didn’t seem to change in color, but they have taken on a new look. The dark clouds that hovered on the first day cast shadows that made some of the hills appear to be darkened by fire and others to change shapes and degrees of brown. The desert, however, was still the desert.

For this trip, we (L3-Geo and Geo-Jeeper) were headed to Tonopah, to attend a geocaching weekend event. The route took us by areas that have been abandoned to time and/or changing importance. We drove through an Indian Reservation with boarded up buildings in various states of disrepair. We drove past abandoned mines and old buildings erected by those who dreamed of making their fortune in gold or silver. We drove through the town of Babbitt that was once a thriving military town supporting a nearby munitions depot. It is now a town of weed covered streets that lead nowhere and slabs of concrete that once held houses and a shopping mall. We drove passed monument after monument erected to memorialize those who fought in the various wars. We drove passed old munitions bunkers outside the town of Hawthorne, NV. And, when we finally arrived in Tonopah, we found a town determined to honor the war heroes, the mining industry, and the gamblers with a mixture of monuments, abandoned mining equipment displayed proudly, and the “required” Nevada casinos sprinkled throughout the town.

Our primary goal as we passed all of these sights was to find the geocaches safely hidden nearby. On our trip to Tonopah we found 30 caches. Once in Tonopah we were told that new caches had been released and instead of the few we were expecting to find, we now had over 60 to seek. Our excursion to find these caches took us on some very interesting back roads. I was recovering from a recent surgery. If my doctor (and I) had known where we would really be going, he might not have released me to go on the trip as willingly as he did. But not to worry; through most of the trip, I remained in the car or stood at the bottom of the rocky mountain watching while Larry, Cynthia & Mike reached the top and found the cache. I was the official photographer but I only managed to take a very few pictures.

We ended up with 58 caches that second day. That was a record breaker for us and for Geo-Jeeper. 22 of those 58 were FTFs (First To Finds). We covered a lot of territory around Tonopah. By late morning, the winds were incredibly strong and it was much colder than we really wanted it to be, but that didn’t stop us. At one point, Mike climbed the side of an old rickety windmill to reach a cache while several geocachers watched. Later in the day, Larry and Mike had to crawl their way down a rocky hill to avoid being blown away. What can I say! We are obsessed geocachers and nothing (almost) keeps us from obtaining our objective.

The event was fun. At dinner that night, we met geocachers from all around Nevada--a great many from the Las Vegas area. The organizers did an excellent job and we would love to put them in charge of the next GBES Rally. From our standpoint, the rally would be so much more fun if the emphasis was on families and geocaching rather than on navigating along narrow jeep trails on steep hillsides!

The event ended after a pancake breakfast cooked by the boy scouts and we headed home. Of course, we had 6 final caches to find as we headed out of Tonopah and a few more to grab along our route. We had to bounce our way on some rough roads for a couple of them, but I held my arms across my stomach and kept a smile on my face the whole way! We even managed to avoid getting stuck in the sand but it was close. I continued to leave the rock climbing to Larry, Mike, & Cynthia. By the time we returned to Reno, we had found 100 caches for the weekend! Wow! That really was a record breaking adventure!

DNA Anyone?

Today we decided to tackle the back roads again, but this time we concentrated on the east side of Hwy 65. We had a great time, but we did leave a lot of blood along the trail. Normally, we leave a little here and there, but today we left a lot almost from the beginning. Poor Larry (L1), he really suffered in our quest to reach 4700.

We started the day at 7:30 AM. Our first stop was just outside the Gladding, McBean Company in Lincoln, CA. The company started in 1875 with the making of clay sewer pipes and progressed into clay roofing tiles, terra cotta, floor tiles, garden pottery, and chimney tops. They have an excellent worldwide reputation. You can check out their history at the Gladding Mcbean website . They hold a pottery fair once a year that draws people from all over. There is also an Earthcache (GC14YWC--Feats of Clay) that will give you the story and an opportunity to log another cache. The cache we found was a quick and easy one located near a power tower on the back side of Gladding Mcbean.

Our second cache of the day (GC14MFF--“This Could be a Wash-Out) really was a wash-out and we had to record a DNF. We had hardly started looking before Larry, trying to hoist himself higher up a tree to peer in a hole, slipped and slid his arm down the bark . Instant blood. A little bit later he turned his head into a branch and again started with the blood. We had already looked high and low and far and wide and tangled with more than enough berry bushes. By this time, we had had enough! Time to call it quits! Maybe we will return, but maybe not. The location is not the safest place for someone who seems to be injury prone! We went through a lot of Kleenex and sani-wipes on this one.

The rest of the caches were easy in comparison. We did encounter more berry bushes and a few slippery slopes, but we were able to extract the caches with only a little blood letting. Along the way we passed through vineyards as well as fields with a few antique tractors that looked very similar to the tractors tipped by Mater and Lightening McQueen in the Cars movie. We also traveled along the Camp Far West Reservoir and couldn’t believe our eyes. The water level was so low we almost didn’t recognize it.

One of the most enjoyable caches was the one hidden under the willow tree. I love willow trees, but I also know the damage they can cause if they are too close to a water source (pipes, sewers, swimming pools, etc). This one was far away from anything it could harm and it was a beautiful tree. Once we were inside the branches, we were in our own little world. It was cool and peaceful and we could easily have stayed a while. We were on a mission, though, so we prodded the leaves on the ground with our walking stick and eventually heard the correct thump as the stick struck the metal container. We signed the log and reluctantly headed back to the sun and the heat of the day.

We found several of ”luc pockets’“ caches and, like yesterday, jotted down new coordinates for some of them to include in our log. She seems to have a problem identifying the correct coordinates when she places the cache. One of the caches was hung in a tree near a pasture. At one point, after searching a while, Larry suggested we ask the bull on the other side of the fence. I glanced over and here was a huge bull sitting on the ground staring at us with his big brown eyes. He hadn’t made a sound and I had not known he was even there. I’m afraid he wasn’t much help but I enjoyed staring at him. We eventually found the cache and noted the correct coordinates before heading on to the next cache.

The Labor Day weekend is the perfect time for geocaching. We decided that all the rest of the people were out of town, picnicking in the park, boating on the river, or keeping cool by visiting the various malls. We pretty much had the roads to ourselves and didn’t have to worry about being stealthy at most of the cache sites. Unfortunately, we were out in the heat and we were in full geocaching regalia so that part was not perfect. And, we were the ones watching for rattlesnakes as we approached rocks and tree hollows. I guess you win some and you lose some. We were happy with our choice.

We were home by 12:30 PM and had 22 caches under our belt. We made it to 4700 and beyond. Will we make it to 5000 before 2008? Of course we will---with a little determination and luck!

Backroads

Today we followed the back roads from our house to Wheatland. The logical route would have been up HWY 65 but we chose to take the longer route via the back roads which took us through parts of Placer, Sutter, and Yuba counties. We passed some interesting spots as we traveled roads we had not been on before. We passed open fields, creeks, canals, rivers, and lots and lots of walnut orchards. It was so cool and inviting in the shade under the walnut trees, I almost wished we had packed a blanket and a picnic lunch. I’m not sure what the owner of the orchard would have thought about it, but we would have enjoyed our lunch.

Most of the caches along the way were quick and easy caches. We found a lot of “luc pocket’s” caches. Fortunately, enough people had found them that she had corrected the coordinates, if necessary, before we even thought about doing the caches. A significant number of her caches have incorrect coordinates when they are first published and we have stopped rushing out to find them. We did have trouble with one, but a quick call for help gave us the needed information and we found it within minutes and then headed on down the road.

We were looking for something different about now and decided to look for one of the “RetiredProf’s” caches--“kool cop (GC15BRX)”. He is big on puzzles and this particular cache happened to be a puzzle cache. I solved the easy puzzle last night and we figured we had the Prof all figured out so we should find this one quickly. HUH! The coordinates zeroed out on the street but we could see a possible geo-trail and it was in a spot that could be considered typical of an RP cache location. HUH! Larry headed in to the mass of oleander bushes! Within seconds he was covered with ants! They were everywhere! He rushed out and we brushed off all the ants--we hoped. Back he went, using a little more caution. Within seconds he was covered with ants again! The ants were on the ground and on every branch and leaf of the plants. There was no escaping them. Fortunately, I had remained on the perimeter to give directions and I escaped the ant attack! We brushed him off again and circled the likely spot. There was no way in without crossing the lines established by the ant army and they were ready for a full out assault if one of us attempted to enter their territory! We looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders, called it quits, and headed off to the next cache.

We changed our route a couple of times and we were glad we did. Had we followed our original plan, we would have missed a couple of caches. The Topo map shows roads that no longer exist or are private roads! Fortunately, enough of the roads were still there and we managed to find the most efficient way to each of the caches. The trip was fun and we did get to see some different locations.

By lunchtime, we had 19 caches and we were in the town of Wheatland. We decided to try out one of the local eateries. Actually, it was the only one we could find open on a Sunday afternoon. We later discovered a Mexican restaurant that was open, but for the moment we had to settle for TJ’s Deli & Java. We placed our order for 2 BLTs and sat down at a nearby table. When we heard the counter person ask the other counter person what goes on a BLT, we started to get a little concerned. Neither one seemed to know. We provided the necessary information and they started making our sandwiches. Then we heard the counter person ask the other counter person if this was mayonnaise! At least the other person knew what mayonnaise looked like and she responded with a yes! Soon we could smell the pre-cooked bacon being heated in the microwave. Maybe we would get a sandwich sometime soon. The whole process was taking an awfully long time and we were the only ones in the place! Finally, we got our BLTs. They weren’t bad but it was the first time I have had the bacon all crumbled on the sandwich. Every time I took a bite, I lost half the pieces on the plate! I’m not sure this will be our lunch place of choice the next time we are in Wheatland. There is a new strip mall down the road and a Subway is scheduled to open soon. There is just a shell there now so it may be a while. Maybe it will be open the next time we are in town.

We found a few more caches on the “city” streets in and around Wheatland and finally headed for home. The home trip still involved the back roads but these were familiar back roads and we had found all the caches along the way, so it was a quick drive. We were home by 2:15 and had found 23 caches. We had three on the list that escaped us this time, but we will be back to try again. Maybe next time we will pick a cooler day so we can take a little more time to search! And maybe the ants will have found a new frontier to inhabit when we go back for the “kool cop” cache.

The Elk Grove Experience

It's been a while since I posted any geocaching adventures. Unfortunately, I still don't have any exciting adventures but I can tell you about our day spent geocaching in Elk Grove. Ann (Imawahl) and another caching friend, Don (Dstoye), went with us.

We left early this AM and returned home around 6:30 PM. We were a little shy of a 12 hour day, but we managed to find 44 caches. We covered the area of Elk Grove between the two major highways, I-5 and 99. We had moments of peace and quiet and moments of lots of activity. We enjoyed the peace and quiet in the parks we had all to ourselves. The rest of the world was staying indoors and out of the heat. We, on the other hand, were braving the heat and wandering around in the empty parks. The lots of activity occurred when we were finding caches in the shopping centers. We were almost run over by the people rushing from their cars to get into the air conditioned buildings. We were the ones sitting on the benches in the heat waiting for the mad rush of people to disappear into the buildings so we could quickly grab the cache that was hidden under the bench.

The four of us did enjoy a little time out of the heat. We managed to stake out a table at the BJ Brewery in Elk Grove and shared lunch and a pitcher of beer. We needed an afternoon nap after lunch, but we had to forgo the experience as we had lots more caches to find.

We finished in Elk Grove and started for home. But wait! There were two more caches in the Franklin-Hood area. We couldn't go home before finding them. OK, so they were 4 miles south (the wrong direction), but what's 4 miles when you are geocaching! Off we went, picked up the two caches and finally headed for home.

We were almost there when Don suggested we go get the new cache about 1 mile from our house. There was no way we could refuse! We signed the log and headed for home. The day was over, but we still had to post all our finds, take a shower, relax, and prepare for the next day. Who knows where we will be tomorrow but we will be geocaching!

Blitz that Fizzled!

We (Geo-Jeeper and L2--Larry is still in Utah) started the day intending to go for the numbers. We were sure we could get 50! Afterall, with all the end of the road caches, it should be an easy day.

It didn’t quite turn out that way. We started in Woodbridge to grab a couple we had missed on previous trips. We knew we would have a short walk, but it turned out to be longer than that because we missed the correct path the first time and had to back track a little. Fortunately, it was a nice trail through a pretty park so we didn’t mind too much.

Then we picked up all the miscellaneous caches in Lodi proper. We even managed to get a couple we had not found before. So we were feeling good and still had high hopes for the day.

Our route led us out into the country next. There was a little more distance between caches and we had a few more side trips off the main road. We made it all the way to Clements. We chose not to look for one of the caches in this area because it appeared to be in the middle of a field full of baled hay. That reeked of private property and we were not willing to risk “prosecution”. Fortunately, we found another one faster because a local resident gave us quick directions to a “future” development, the site for the cache. We think this may have been a future development in the past. Presently, it looked like a area of neglected streets and end of road signs.

We continued to make our way through the back roads. We were unable to located a couple of older caches--we are sure they are missing, but we managed to find 16 before heading back across town and beyond to the Panera Bread we had passed earlier in the day. The place was crowded, but we found a table and enjoyed our lunch. Too bad they didn’t list coordinates for the restrooms and the drink dispensing machines. We would have found them faster if they had.

After lunch, we elected to head south and pick up some old and new caches. We ended up in Oak Grove Park. It is a beautiful little park with a lake and paddle boat rides for the kids. Too bad we were there for other reasons. The shade, in particular, looked inviting.

We followed several of the trails and found several caches. Three of the caches contained clues that led to the final cache. We found the first two easily and headed for the third. The third was a problem. It was somewhere in the pile of logs. We actually found the correct spot almost immediately, but nothing was there. We were not about to give up so we kept looking in case the owner had outsmarted us. After searching for quite a while, a bike rider came up to us and said we didn’t have to look that hard--we were starting to lift up heavy logs. He turned out to be the owner. We pointed out where we thought it should be and declared it was missing. He agreed! It was supposed to be there and after he searched extensively himself, he agreed it was missing. We asked if he could give us the clue we needed to find the final and we asked if we could log this cache. He agreed we could log this cache, but he couldn’t give us the clue because he didn’t have his notes with him. In fact, he didn’t even have his GPS receiver so he couldn’t give us the final coordinates either. He did give us directions of a sort and we headed out. Fortunately, it was in the same park. He stayed behind to continue looking for his container. We were about halfway to the possible final when he came up from behind on his bike. There had been a fire through here on Wednesday and the area didn’t look the same to him. Then he told us that he had given us the wrong directions. He redeemed himself by riding ahead of us until he found something familiar and then he directed us to the tree--behind it was the cache! We thanked him for his help, signed the log and made the trek back to the car. Good thing he was so helpful. Who knows when we would have been back in this area again!

By the time we finished this cache, it was late. Cynthia and I decided we would head home and Mike was grateful. But wait, there are two other caches on the other side of the freeway. It won’t take long to get to them and they should be easy! Mike agreed and we drove practically right to them. But wait, there are two more just a little south of us on this same road. Again, Mike agreed to drive just a little further. One of these caches was out a bike path so we had to walk just a little bit. The other one was in a park and right where some group was having a large gathering. We had to pass on that one.

Now, we really were done for the day and we headed up I-5 toward home. The day wasn’t as productive has we had planned, but we were glad to find several caches that had been on our list for a while. And......we got in our 10,000 steps! See, even if you don’t meet your expectations, there is always something good about a day of geocaching.

Up Up and Away

Geocaching has given us many moments of new and exciting adventures. Yesterday was no exception.

Larry is out of town, but I didn’t let that stop me. I teamed up with Geo-Jeeper (Cynthia & Mike), dstoye (Don) and imawahl (Ann) and headed for the Oroville area. The weather was nice, the traffic was pretty light, and the whole day was loads of fun.

We started caching just a little ways north of Marysville. We wanted to pick up some of the caches in the outlying area that we had missed on previous trips! We found the caches and made good time the rest of the way. To our surprise, this was the first time Ann had ever been to Oroville. We introduced her to a lot of it! We were in town and out of town. We were crossing water ways and climbing rocks. We even climbed a slope to get a cache and then slid our way back down. It is always easier climbing up than down!

We saw some beautiful sights and I did take some pictures. The pictures were mostly of the rest of the group. At one point, I turned the camera on myself and got a self portrait! It wasn’t great, but at least I can prove I was there.

Lunch was particularly interesting. We arrived at the Thermalito South Forebay and discovered two helicopters and a whole slew of men in all the appropriate garb for making water rescues. Two men would stand on the “feet” on the outside of the helicopter and it would head out over the water. In the meantime, a boat was dropping off another man in the water--he was the “victim”. The chopper would fly in low and one of the men on the outside would drop off into the water near the “victim”. The man still on the chopper was there for backup. The chopper lowered a harness and the man in the water put it around the victim. The chopper would then haul the two men in the water to the shore. They did this several times while we ate our lunch and watched. We talked to them briefly and got the skinny on this annual rescue practice session. The things you get to experience while geocaching--amazing.

The afternoon was uneventful, but we ended the day with lots of caches. It was a blitz sort of day and we accomplished our mission.

Poor Baby!

Our Golden Retriever is sick! She has been sick for over a month. In fact, she has been sick since a couple of days after we returned from a trip that included a bumpy ride along the route of the 2007 GBES Rally (see story below) and a journey to Utah and Wyoming! She has been bed ridden in the garage since we discovered transmission fluid all over the garage floor!

Today was the first day she was able to venture out. Unfortunately, she needed help and we had to call on AAA to get her to the doctor! The doctor has not been available until now because of an important jeep jamboree during the month of July. I guess it is a good thing we didn't want to participate in this jamboree!

















We called AAA at 6:30 this morning. The tow truck arrived about 6:45. Wow--that was fast! We were impressed! I hopped behind the wheel of the Golden Retriever, turned the key ( not far enough to start), released the brake and put her in neutral.

Larry and the tow truck driver pushed her out of the garage while I steered her backwards onto the street. Then they moved to the rear and we guided her to the edge of the tow truck platform. The driver attached the tow chain and slowly inched her up on to the truck! It was a heart wrenching moment!

By now we had attracted a couple of the neighbors and we had to withstand the usual ribbing. It was a rough moment!

Larry signed all the "admission forms" and made arrangements to meet the driver and our Golden Retriever at Extreme Gear. We jumped in our Sequoia and followed our jeep down the road. We were sad, but we finally experienced something we had never experienced before. Instead of following GeoJeep down the road, we were following our very own Golden Retriever. Talk about a change of scenery!

We arrived at the jeep hospital and Larry backed GR down the ramp and into a parking space--sort of. He misjudged the arc of the curve at the end of the ramp and ended up a little "cattywompused" in the parking space. Oh well, that is the way she was going to have to stay!

She is still at the doctors. We aren't sure how long she will remain there. Hopefully, not too long! We may lose a few arms and legs to get her out, but she is worth it as she has taken us on many fine adventures! In the meantime, we will continue to do some urban caching and save the more adventuresome caches for sometime in the future!

I wish we had pictures!

Ann(imawahl), Larry, and I went geocaching on Sunday. It was quite a day, but we didn't get any pictures!

We started the day on our bikes. We met up with Ann's bike group (including 2 brand new geocachers) and rode to Woodcreek Oaks Golf Course for breakfast. The bike ride was over 12 miles and Ann and the other new cachers found a couple of caches both coming and going! We were pretty worn out by the time we got home!

But, the day did not end there. A new geocache had been released that morning and the owner just happened to be DStoye (a friend of ours). Naturally, we had to make the effort!

The cache (Don's Revenge) was described as an evil cache. Trust me, the word evil does not describe this cache! There were a total of 5 stages but we must have found several decoys along the way! Each stage was more devious than the last! At one point, we were prepared to give-up, but we chose to call Don for a hint. It turned out that the coordinates we had found at one of the stages were incorrect! He provided us with the correct information (and fixed the problem for other cachers) and we were off to the next stage.

I will avoid any specific hints on the different stages, but consider the various activities we performed to get to the final stage and the all important cache! We waded through a creek (Ann did this one), climbed a wall, walked through stickers, made a couple of round trips, crawled under bridges (felt like the military drill where you climb under things on your stomach and then switch to your back), reached in questionable places, battled spiderwebs, solved puzzles, tried to use x-ray vision (didn't work), wished we had more water to drink, out maneuvered some other geocachers, and touched who knows what! Of course, not all of this was necessary, but most of it was!!!

Just in case you were wondering, it took over 4 hours for us to find all the stages of Don's Revenge! We were pretty exhausted when we finished. We were anxious to head home for showers, but first we had to go to Starbucks to celebrate. We were the first people to find it and the prize was a Starbucks gift card! I'm not sure the people at Starbucks were excited to see us--we were pretty dirty--but we didn't care! Our frappuccinos were mighty tasty!

Some people would think we were weird! Some people would think we had actually lost our minds! Some people would just shake their heads and pretend they didn't know us. But if we get a nod and a smile from you, then we know.... We know you are as obsessed as we are and will be going for this cache sometime soon!

We had quite an adventure during those 4+ hours and we really loved it. I just wish we had pictures!

We Made It To Wyoming!

But wait! Wasn’t our destination Tremonton, Utah? It certainly was, and we got there but we just couldn't resist the temptation. We arrived in Tremonton on Monday after a lengthy drive (including geocaching) from Reno. We spent a good part of our visit chatting with family. We did take a break occasionally to run to the store and pick up a few geocaches along the way. We justify the geocaching by claiming it is our exercise for the day.





Now it was the 4th of July and we thought we would see some of our country Larry and I had never seen before. We left everyone else behind and headed out across Northern Utah. We had a destination in mind, but we didn’t know if we would get there or not. We did! We made it all the way to Wyoming and found a total of three caches. One at the border but on the Utah side and two in Wyoming within 12 miles of the border.

To get there we followed The Behive State Hiway 30 from Tremonton, through Logan, through the Cache National Forest (interesting but we didn’t find a cache here), along Bear Lake, passed the town of Pickelville, passed the Redevous State Recreation area, through the Old Laketown Canyon, to the border and a little beyond! It was an interesting trip. We were obviously not in a pretty part of Wyoming (by our definition) when we got there but we saw signs directing us to follow this road to Jackson, WY and on to Yellowstone. We were tempted but given the distance and the fact that we were not prepared to extend our trip, we were able to ignore the temptation.

We had accomplished our goal for the day so we headed back to Tremonton. We debated taking the longer road leading back to Salt Lake, UT to make a bigger circle, but we figured we had abandoned the family long enough. It was time to get back in case we wanted to see the 4th of July parade in nearby Riverside.

Breaker! Breaker! We've Got Ourselves a Convoy!

We just spent the last weekend (June 30 & July 1, 2007) running the 2007 GBES Rally Route. We covered a lot of territory and all I can remember was that is was “way rocky”! Actually, the first day was the rockiest and we spent so much time bouncing around, I couldn’t do a thing with the computer except hold on to it! So, check out Geojeepers blog to get the more exciting version! The second day was a little easier but it was much hotter and there was less shade than the first day so we spent a fair amount of time in the sun finding caches.

We started the first day at the parking lot at Albertsons in Carson City. We were joined by Geo-Jeeper (Cynthia & Mike), our illustrious leaders, and Geospyder (Jim & Marja), they had the middle spot, We brought up the rear. After filling up the cars with gas and ourselves with the traditional Starbucks, we headed out. It was 7:38 AM. It wasn’t too long before we picked up our first rally cache. Now we knew what we would be looking for at each stop for the remainder of the day. It was a piece of pvc pipe with caps at both ends with a piece of paper (log) inside. Sort of sounds like a pipe bomb. It sort of looked like a pipe bomb as well! Good thing we knew what it was! According to my pedometer, we took over 13000 steps during the day to find these caches. In reality, I think it was over 13000 bounces along the rocky roads.

During the day we saw some incredible views, drove down some pretty rocky and steep roads, enjoyed the company of our fellow travelers and hit 4300 caches. Geo-Jeeper hit a milestone of 4000 caches and Geospyder hit 1800 caches (he is the baby geocacher in the crowd). We were wishing for a champagne toast, but we settled for a beer at the restaurant at the end of the day. By the time we got home, we were all so tired we posted our finds for the day and were all in bed and asleep by 9:00PM. Guess we aren’t party animals any more!




For our second day, we again met in the Albertson’s parking lot. This time, Nevada Wolf (Teri) joined us. We had done most of the day rally caches yesterday and some of the night rally caches. Today we did the majority of the night rally and finished up with a couple of the day rally caches in Virginia City. It was fun for us because we had a change of scenery. Instead of GeoJeeps rear we saw the rears of two jeeps and a Toyota 4-Runner. We could tell exactly where the road would turn by watching the position of the three vehicles in front of us. Again, for the real story, check out Geojeepers blog. Mike said it so much better than I could at this point.

We ended the second day at Jim & Marja’s house for beer and pizza. We were all pretty exhausted so we enjoyed the rest before heading back to Cynthia & Mike’s house for a good nights sleep!

One of the things we like about geocaching is the people involved in this great “sport”. It is such fun to share your experiences with others and this was a great group--both days. It is also reassuring to know that if you get in trouble, others are there. We were on some very interesting roads and experienced some “hold your breath and pray” moments! We were glad the others were there!