Geocaching

Saturday Drive

Car Show 01

We “photobombed” the Aiken Horsepower Association’s big spring car show on the way out of town. I’m not sure if it will count towards the Moss Motoring Challenge though, because we weren’t actually entered in the show. But the legal team here at Life of Brian Inc thinks it should, based on their interpretation of this rule found in the official guidelines: To earn points at car shows, your photos must clearly show the Challenge Guide, your car and either 1) a banner with the car show name or 2) at least 6 additional cars in the show field. Clearly number two’s requirement is met here.

We were headed down to the old US301 multi-use trail near the Savannah River to check on our eight caches hidden there. We had a some logs about a couple of them that they might need some maintenance. One was fine and the second was missing entirely. Donna had made up a replacement in case, so it was a simple matter of piling some sticks on it and One Point Oh was ready to go again. The rest of the caches were just fine, including one we had placed on a bamboo stalk in the middle of a stand of the stuff. As we approached the hide, we both thought that it had to be missing as more than 75% of the stalks were bent over and broken from the ice storm of two months ago, but we had picked one of the lucky 25% of still standing stalks.

While on the road we snagged a couple more challenges, a laboratory sign on the Savannah River Site and the Georgia Welcome Center on US301. Nation’s oldest welcome center relic of bygone travel era

136,000 Calories

136,000 Calories

A little bit of Spring weather today sent Donna and I out into the world with the Miata to have a top down adventure. It was time to go take a few more Moss Motoring Challenge photos and some make up geocaching. We needed a Duck Crossing sign and knew right where to find one because we had stumbled on it while on an unsuccessful geocaching trip about a month ago. When we had gone to sign the log of our first find back then, we realized that neither of us had a pen, doh!

We started in Aiken with a photo of a horse track and then we drove to Augusta to get the Duck Crossing sign photo. I took our laminated Motoring Challenge poster and stuck it right below the crossing sign between the sign and the post while we snapped a couple shots. We then took a walk near Lake Olmstead and the Augusta Greenjacket’s stadium to take care of our cache signings. It wasn’t until we were getting back in the car that I realized that I had left the challenge poster hanging on the Duck Crossing sign. Almost forgot it.

Next we headed for a cupcake bakery. I remembered where one was on Washington Road and Donna remembered where another one was further out on the same road. The first one didn’t actually say cupcake in its name, so we continued out further on Washington Road into Evans where the above photo comes from, a place called “Small Cakes, a Cupcakery.” I made myself right at home at the table right outside to un-opened bakery with my poster propped up at the window.

Seeing as we were this far out on Washington Road we decided to keep on going north and then cross over the Strom Thurmond Dam back into South Carolina. Donna thought it might be cool to take a picture in front of the dam to use as one of our next Sneak Peek photos. Turns out there was a small playground right there, something we needed for the Challenge, so we took a photo of that with the dam in the background. When I opened the trunk to get the camera and the laminated Challenge poster I realized that I had the camera, but no poster. This time, unlike at Lake OLmstead, I did leave it behind.

I was all for just forgetting about it as we did have the back-up smaller version still and I could always make another one, but Donna thought that we should go back to Evans and get it. She reasoned that it was nearing lunch and there were plenty of places to chose from for eating back that way and then we could get a cupcake for desert.

The Emperor passed through the 136,000 mile mark as we crossed the dam back into Georgia. The sign was still there at the bakery, right on the table, where the girl who sold us the cupcake had put it when she opened the store. Originally we were going to share a cupcake, but they looked so good and had such a variety that we opted to get one each. They were moist and dense and the frosting was so superb that I’m betting they packed in about 136,000 calories each.

When we got home it was still too nice a day to stay inside, so I went out and washed both cars. The Emperor will be fine as he will be staying in the garage for the week, but the Purple Whale’s cleanliness will not last, tomorrow it is supposed to rain and with the warm weather, the pines surrounding the Valve Store’s(r) parking lot will be emitting yellow pollen dust soon.

Started down, went up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1297

There Was Something Fishy About The Butler

Fishy

Probably a Pieces working for scale…

We planned a geocaching trip today with two different possible destinations, one was near Lexington and one was nearer to Columbia. Attached to each destination was a selected lunch spot and a selected used book store. So where we went, we thought, depended solely on what we really felt like having for lunch after we started heading east.

As it turned out we changed it around somewhat by going caching in Saluda Shoals Park in Columbia, dining at Uno Chicago Grill in Lexington and visiting both bookstores.

We had gone to Saluda Shoals back in November of last year and cached one half of it. Today we did the other half and we were less lucky in the find department this time, 6 out of 10, but I’m chalking most of the DNFs up to the fact that we couldn’t really concentrate on searching for the swatting at the clouds of mosquitoes every time we stepped off the trail into the woods.

Today’s photo is of one of the many blue metal abstract fish hanging in one area of the park.

132,000 Spider Webs

Lake Greenwood

We did something this morning that we haven’t done in what seems like quite a while, got in the Miata and drove a ways for the express purpose of geocaching. It started out as a big overnight trip that included 3 South Carolina State parks, but settled in as a shorter, day trip that went to one State Park and back. Lake Greenwood State Recreation Area is about 50 miles from us and had 4 caches to find.

One cache was on a nature trail that started near Campground #1 and we got about 20 yards down the trail and the results of all our recent rains presented us with a water crossing that would have left us with wet feet, so we doubled back and found an alternate way to the trail. We made a good bit of progress on the loop before realizing we might have already passed the closest we would come to the hide, about 350 feet. During our bushwhack through the woods to the cache I must have ran into thousands of spider webs. I even kept walking into them after I started waving my walking stick in front of me like a machete to knock them down.

After finding the cache and signing the log we headed back to the trail and because we didn’t follow the exact same route, ran through a ton more spider webs. Upon reaching the trail we just headed back the way we came, never finishing the loop. It was hot, humid and muddy and we still had 2 more caches to find on the other side of the park. Did I mention there were a lot of spider webs? Even on the trail we had just walked 15 minutes ago?

The other trail was way less muddy and only slightly less spider webby. It followed along the shore of the lake and after finding both of the caches on it we headed over to the nearby road so as to enjoy the slight breeze available out of the woods and the lack of spider webs.

The last cache was actually not on the park grounds, but on the road to the park from the state road that passes by. Seeing as Donna had found the first 3 hides and it seemed like the only reason I was here was to part any spider web for her like Mosses parting the Red Sea for the Israelites, I was very happy to spot the final container before she did.

As we got in the car to come home the odometer in The Emperor stood at exactly 132,000 miles.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1233

Oh Deer

Oh Deer

Instead of going to the state park near Dublin this morning we opted instead to just take a walk around a trail in a city park. We found two caches. One of which we thought we might be the FTF on, but when we found the cache and opened the log book there was one entry with 2 names there dated a couple days after the cache was hidden. Whoever it was that signed the logbook never logged it on Geocaching,com.

We made it to Lexington around lunch and met with Sally and daughter Claire (bride to be), Mark (impending groom), Stuart (her son) and Christina (bride of son) at Nikkos Cafe. Afterwards we caught up with Sally’s adventures with the State Department in Saudi Arabia as the rain storms passed through the area. Just when it looked like we wouldn’t be able to do the 3-1/2 mile Sally Lewis Loop along Wood Creek Trail and back through VMI and Washington & Lee, the skies broke, and off we went. A couple hundred yards into our walk I noticed a rustling in the bushes and spotted this young buck. He eyeballed us warily as we moved along and never took off further.

32,000 Dandelions

32,000 Dandelions

Not too far out of town the Purple Whale glided through the 32,000 mile mark. We were on our way to Greenville for lunch at Joe’s Crab Shack. Back in April when we were in Myrtle Beach we ate at a Shack and bought a buy one steampot meal and a get a Classic Steampot for free certificate for a $10 donation to Autism Speaks. Today we would cash in on that deal.

We planned to do a little geocaching on the way up with stops at two parks near Greenville and that is exactly what we did, a little. Very little. At the first stop there were 3 caches and we DNF’d all three. At the second stop we found an ammo can right near the start of the trail and as we started to continue down the trail we were both being harassed by horse flies, so we decided to quit while we were ahead and go get lunch.

Twenty Four Days Later

Twenty Four Days Later

Twenty four days after the first upper cabinet was installed and then taken down, we finally had more put up. Hopefully for good this time. They got two walls of uppers and part of another in today. Tomorrow’s goal is to finish the 3rd wall, do the crown molding on those three and start work on the back/refrigerator wall.

The Miata has now been regulated to strictly a weekend car. We took the cover off on Friday night for Saturday’s MMC event and put the cover back on Sunday night. We were going to leave it off and drive it to work for the early part of the week, but then the forecast changed, so we decided to let it stay snuggled up for the supposedly wet week ahead.

There were a few new caches in the area that we went out and did yesterday. A couple were mystery/puzzle caches that involved something called a Jefferson Disk that at first glance appeared to be complex just for the sake of complexity, but in the end turned out to be the most fun we’ve had geocaching in a while.

Those caches involved a bit of bushwacking and I of course was in shorts, so I came out of the woods with a few thorn stabs dripping blood. A walk off the trail here may be mildly dangerous, but compared to Texas it is literally a walk in the park. Every plant in the west Texas dessert is out to kill you. Not just the cactus either, if you take a closer look at any plant out there or make the mistake of brushing up against one, you realize quickly that heavy denim pants are the only real option for attire bloodless geocaching.