Fun, Fun, Fun!

Another day out caching! Managed to get out of the house by 8:30 a.m. I had one scary moment. I got lost! my GPSr died while I was out in a local park, on the edge of town. It was so dumb of me now to check the power level before I left the house. I had left the trail, in search of a cache in a wide-swath of blackberry vines, poison oak, and rocks, so I wasn't paying attention to the directions I was walking. I ended up going in big circles and then realized how screwed I was!

A few years ago, there was this story in our local paper about this woman who'd gotten "lost" in a local green belt park, right on the edge of town! She ended up getting stuck in brambles and hovered down for 2 nights, hiding from animals she heard in the dark! She was dehydrated and disoriented when she was found a few days later. I kept thinking, "WHAT A DORK! Who gets lost in a city park?" Well, now I know. ANYONE gets lost in a city park! Here's a photo of my legs, as I drove myself through a mile of blackberries:

It only got worse! Here's the view of the area I had to hike through, which was about 2 feet deep with thorns and poison oak!

After awhile, I used my cell phone to call my husband, asking him if he'd drive out this way and honk his horn from the roadway off in the distance, so I could at least get closer to the parking spot I'd left my car at. Har-dee-har-har. Finally made it out and headed over to Carnivorous Hippy's house, where we planned the rest of the day's caching!

We did "Blame Game," a cache not too far from my home. It involved scrambling down a sand bank to the Willamette River's Edge and swim-wading across the water to a large dead tree submerged in the water! We did it! It was awesome! Ended up each going home afterwards to change into dry clothes in order to prepare for the next phase of the day.

This phase involved LADDERS! I left my Accord at home, opting to use the Town and Country minivan instead, so I could fit 2 ladders inside. Off we went! We hit "Welcome to Adair," which required climbing 25 feet up into a pine tree to retrieve the cache. I am afraid of heights, so CH ended up making the snag! Then, we hit "Tree Time Shenanigans," which required another change in altitude...but only about 10 feet up. I was able to get this one. Woo-hoo!

From there, we hit a bunch more caches out in the North Albany area and called it a day around 3:10, as I had to be at an appointment. It was great fun and great weather! A nice, cool 72 degrees!

Ape Cave? Ring of Fire? WTF?

Last night a bunch of cool gecachers came over to our home for an event. For those of you who are virgins to caching, an "event" is a special kind of geocache. Folks show up, participate, and then log the event as a "find" on geocaching.com, upping their numbers and giving them a chance to congregate with folks who are just as geeky as themselves! This event was titled, "SWAG Pilgrimage Planning Party. It was designed to bring together members of SWAG, the Santiam-Willamette Area Geocachers. Yeah, that's right, we're an organized bunch...
Anyway, we're planning a Pilgrimage to the very first geocache site, right here in Oregon. We'll also be caravanning up to Seattle to visit Groundspeak Headquarters, the mecca for geocaching.com followers. We're going to hit other significant caches as we wind our way back to our homeland. Pablo Mac has made it clear, however, that we're not going to be stopping for all of the roadside caches nor urban caches so many tend to fall back on. No-sir-ree! He's going all hardcore on us! He's an ex-Marine, who's cell phone actually has a real machine gun firing as its ringtone. It was great to hear the phone ring last night...I jokingly told him it sounded like a fart. He didn't smile. I'll straighten up.
Now, let me be up-front and honest; I am NOT a geek. I just like hanging out with geeks. I'm more of a prankster, who dabbles in obnoxious and teasing behaviors. I get along well with geeks.

Back to the blog title: Ape Cave and Ring of Fire. You truly have to read the following links...truly...so that you can appreciate how much fun it is to be a geocacher! Imagine ropes, cliffs, tunnels, GPS technology, and geeks all in one bundle. That's what the fun is all about!

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=0212324b-9f53-47dd-92d9-4e35e1a46b1d

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=58b10964-488d-4d2b-a407-26acbf5d649a

I'm getting older, but I'm happy to say that there are many older-than-me folks going on this pilrimage! I might get to be one of the "whipper-snappers" of the group! Woo-hoo! We'll leave on Friday, September 26. We'll camp in Seattle at the Holiday Inn Express. It should be rough, being that they serve SaraLee Danish Pastries for the continental breakfast, but we're geocachers and we'll survive, dammit!

Caching in Yamhill County

This is the "Say Cheese" webcam cache we managed to snag at Linfield College! Thanks to our buddy, Shawn, for being willing to log onto the site and snag the photo for us!

Took some time off from messing with this disaster zone of a home (ugh...updating and "remodeling" are truly a pain!) to hit some geocaches in McMinnville! Got my guts up to contact a fellow cacher that I don't know very well, along with my good best geo-buddy (and, well, my truly most wonderful friend!) and set up a date!

It was hot up north. I am at an age where I don't like hot days anymore. I've outgrown the novelty of sweating while out and about. I don't mind sweating while biking or working in the gardens, but don't like the misery of trying to search for a piece of plastic with a piece of paper inside, nestled in a rock pile in the direct sunlight on the edge of a Lowe's parking lot, But, we did it anyway.

Anway, realized something about myself that I've sort of known could be an OCD issue, but am now completely aware that it's really true! I HATE when folks misspell words and use horrid grammar...and completely ignore punctuation when they list a geocache online! I went to high school in McMinnville, so I realize that it's not exactly a hot-bed of highly educated writers, but, for gawd's sake, what in the WORLD are some folks thinking? When I read someone's ongoing blabbering about crap (i.e. "i was out driving around town today in my car with nothing to do so i thought i'd put out a geocache for people to find in a plac that lots and lots and lots of other peopl come to so better watch out and stay away from 'em cause there muggles who want to tak the caches i put out and that is verrrrrrry bad and when you find it dont forget to put the time youfoudn it cause i like to no when it gets finded so make sure you put that in when you are on the site or else.") UGH!!!!!
Anyway, the day was fun and I met a new friend. Plus, got to spend time with Carnivorous Hippy, which hasn't happened, really, in awhile, as she's been down-and-out with one of the worst cases of FPO I've ever seen! She is recovering now, but her arm reminds me of a burn victim I once knew.
I got home, ate dinner with my kids, watered potted plants, fed the dogs, picked 2 gallons of blueberries, logged my finds, and am now ready to watch some TV.
Yea for Oregon!

Geocaching Fun at DaVinci Days in Corvallis!

For the 2nd year, I put in some time working at the Geocaching Arena at DaVinci Days! What fun! Set up on Friday was simple, as there were many helpers and the weather was cool. We set up tables, put on the table cloths, and proceeded to chat about our caching experiences. There are some SUPER funny people who are involved with this sport!

Today was also great, as it was competition day! Folks raced to find as many special event caches as possible within 2 hours. In the end, there were winners and no losers! Great prizes and great laughter.

Next year, I will organize the geocaching event, with the help of many fine cachers in the area! We are going to have a great time introducing others to the sport and swapping stories and adventures!

On my way home from DaVinci Days, decided to set out a new geocache for others to find. It's called "Dome View." Hot and sweaty on my return home.

Thanks to Leonardo daVinci for giving us all reason to celebrate the arts and technology!

Geocaching Continues to Haunt Me...

Today, after dropping off Dood (see earlier post) for his surgery appointment at Alpine Animal Hospital, Jim Dandy and I went geocaching in the Adair Village area! Long ago, I lived in Adair. My son, who is now 16, was born while we lived there. I have haunted memories of that place. It was while living there that I first decided I wanted a divorce. Then, I was suddenly pregnant, so, being an idiot, thought, "Must be devine intervention." So, I dropped the file. 2 babies needed 2 parents, right?

Needless to say, a few years later, when my son was 2 and daughter was 4, the divorce was inevitable, so I proceeded with the action. It was horrible, to say the least. It was so bad that, had I not had children, I may have offed someone---possibly myself! However, those days are gone and the ex and I have managed to work quite well together for the past 14 years as "shared-parents." We're mature enough to know that conflict gets us nowhere...not to say there hasn't been conflict, but we never, ever let-on to the kids. They have done very well. However, there have been days that I honestly believe it would have been better for them to have just lived with ME full-time. I'm not on an ego-trip, I just know that I'm a really good mom. Dad has a tendency to not pay good attention to the details as a parent, which can easily be traced to many of the biggest troubles our kids have gotten into...

Back to the geocaching side of things...

I hunted and hiked for about 2.5 hours. It was a beautiful morning! Sunny. Cool breeze. Only about 75 degrees. Jim Dandy had a blast chasing rabbits and grasshoppers while I hunted. However, there was so much FPO (remember...poison oak...and what the "f" stands for? See earlier post) I couldn't get to 2 caches! I thought about it, really, really hard, knowing that I have 2 bottles of Tecnu in the car, so I can clean off FPO oils, but I just coudn't bring myself to do it! I haveFPO on my legs right now and I makes me absolutely INSANE! So, rather than be stupid enough to risk it, I decided these caches are better off being found in the Winter, when the FPO is dead.

I did manage to find some good caches, though. Fun, fun, fun...

An Anniversary Trip is Just an Excuse to...

Well, you can fill in the blank. We definitely enjoyed (wink, wink) getting away. Of course, we did a lot of hiking, geocaching, and sight-seeing, as well as eating, drinking, and relaxing.

One of the most interesting geocaches I've ever hunted for! This was located at Dungeoness State Park in Washington. The following photos will bring about understanding!

We found it online, while sitting in a pizza parlor in Port Townsend, taking advantage of the free Wi-Fi with my little laptop...We decided, hey, it's a good jaunt! Let's go get it! We drove miles and miles and miles until we came to the first hint...What an awesome name for a road! Being that the name of the cache was related to cell phones, we just KNEW we were heading the correct direction!

Ah-ha! A decoy! We spent more than 15 minutes trying to take this damn phone apart, thinking the geocache log sheet must be inside. Then, I spotted it! There was a mini-micro, the smallest I'd EVER seen, stashed near the decoy! Those dirty rascals! 30 minutes later, we were able to sign the log sheet.
Hubby's new t-shirt said it all! It really IS all about networking!
Lavendar fields near Sequim. They are preparing for the annual lavendar festival in the area! Woo-hoo! We walked through the fields, absorbing the scents!

This photo is near the place we stayed. This is Ludlow Bay, a place FULL of yachts and sailboats. Definitely not a "poor man's" vacation spot.
While hiking one of the numerous trails in the area, we came across the most lovely wild digitalis (aka Foxglove). Don't eat it!
Here we are! We'd just scored an amazing geocache that was more than 50 feet from where it should have been! Someone had ransacked the cache and left it in a very odd spot. We cleaned it up a bit and returned it to the location described on the website. Grrr...stupid muggles!

I loved every minute of getting away with my Handsome Husband! We're in the midst of a transition as a couple, now married 11 years. I've just recently said good-bye to my daughter, as she is off in Europe, traveling and visiting for 3.5 weeks. When she returns, she's off to college in Colorado. My son is now 16 and pretty independent, which is good and bad. I miss having good conversations with him. Hubby and I look forward to an upcoming "empty nest," but I get sad when I see babies sometimes. I'm sure others understand. It went by much too quickly...

The Olympic Penninsula in Northern Washington State is just about as beautiful a place as can possibly be!

We stayed at the Cottage on Ludlow Bay, a place I found on my favorite site, http://www.vrbo.com/

It was overpriced, but nice enough. It was quiet and hidden away in the midst of a hemlock forest, only about 75 yards from the bay front. The owners have a MANSION on the property that blocked our view, making it "The Cottage Behind the Trees Behind the Mansion" on Ludlow Bay.

We hiked on some beautiful trails, even coming across Ludlow Falls, where we also managed to scrape up another cache.

Then, we went to Port Townsend for a day. This is where we worked on the HARDEST geocache in the history of mankind. We worked on it for more than 2 hours, off and on. At one point, we left, doing some other caches and sight-seeing throughout Port Townsend. Then, we couldn't resist. We returned to the wharf and begin hunting again. It was the freakiest hide ever. Seriously! It was rated a difficulty of "4", but I believe it had to be a "5."
This is the view from the wharf where we found the cache called "Union Wharf." Below is the sign that was near the cache. I'm seriously wondering about the sick minds of some geocache hiders! Man! As our trip neared the end, we caught a ferry from Kingston over to Edmonds, WA. While waiting, cops were everywhere, along with their drug-sniffing K-9s. This dog was very good. He came up to my window and said, "Hey. How's it goin'?"

This is another ferry going the opposite direction from us. We're in the middle of the drink at this point. It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL weather and the trip was windy!

Our trip ended with an afternoon in Seattle. Hubb snapped this shot of Safeco Field as we drove downtown. We hit Pike's Market and ate little donuts at our favorite little donut place. If you've been there, you know what I'm talking about...

Ooo! What if it's in my eyes now?!

Poison Oak! P.O. I now call it FPO (YOU can figure out the "F" part!)

I spent a few bucks on Technu and can only hope it works!

I'm not kidding! We were in the midst of an FPO Ocean! I kept saying, "We'll be fine. The cache is only a few hundred feet away. We can make it. Just be careful. This shouldn't be a problem When people see poison oak (FPO) on our legs, they'll think it's cool, cause we can say we got it while out geocaching! Don't turn back, Carnivorous Hippy. We're almost there. Here, just push this big bush of oak (FPO) aside with your shoe. No problems. Oops. I just rubbed my eyes. Oh no! I saw you just pull up your sock! Shit!"

Arrgghh! A good day ended quickly. Ended up in the shower, stripping off everything and throwing it into the washer with DISHSOAP, hoping to salvage my favorite shorts. I scrubbed so hard on my arms and legs with Technu that I'm a little raw now. I just HOPE, HOPE, HOPE no blisters arise! I'm leaving on a trip with Handsome Husband tomorrow to the San Juan Islands! No FPO, please!

Geocaching is the Excuse...

Ah, being old and stupid is SO MUCH BETTER than being young and stupid. See, the way I look at it, youngsters and teenagers don't have fully developed frontal lobes, so every stupid thing they do is expected.

Old ladies, however, are supposed to have that fully-developed lobe set up and running. Therefore, when the OPT to do something stupid, it's completely unexcusable! They do it and if they get hurt, people listening to the tragic report on the evening news say, "Oh how stupid. I don't feel ONE BIT sorry for them!"

We started off at Central Park. We ditched our husbands and went right to 101, our favorite bar. We downed Willamette Brewing's Espresso Stout and headed out. It was already 10 p.m. We decided to capture "Ruffled Duck" first, the cache that had us fooled last week. Carnivorous Hippy pulled the Volvo right up to the curb, we stepped out, and had the cache-in-hand within 30 seconds. The reason this is significant it that last time we came here, it was full daylight and we turned over 2 newspaper stands, moved boulders, and crawled about on our hands and knees. This time, eh...

Then, we decided to capture "Reel Me In," the cache we'd also missed last week. However, it was veerrryyy dark and all we had was my little e-trex GPS (remember, I broke the Magellan) and my little crank flashlight. We saw lions and tigers, and bears! I mean it! However, remember, we are fully-brain-equipped at this age. So we continued down the path of dark and doom, searching for the cache more than 1/4 mile away. Man, are we dumb!

We found a shopping cart and decided to use it for some fun. We pushed it into the skate park. There was a homeless man sleeping nearby, but he didn't seem to hear a thing, as we whooped and hollered. At one point, I'm not sure how, but CH convinced me to climb into the contraption so she could "push me around" for awhile. Remember, fully-developed frontal lobe? Yeah, right.

She tried to kill me---or at least help me suffer a traumatic brain injury.

Bored with that, we then ventured deeper into trouble. We headed toward the cache, using the GPS, which indicated we'd have to head under the overpasses that help folks avoid Corvallis.

Under one bridge, we heard this weird, eerie, screeching sound. We kept going, however, even when CH spied reflective eyes. Eventually, it revealed itself to be an owl. Then, we got really scared, as we realized that this is probably the only place in Corvallis where people die at the hands of others, whose name should not be spoken. We turned around (frontal lobes kicked in) and headed back toward the geo-Volvo.

Then, being the idiots we are, we headed over to my place to watch the movie we'd just made. No joke. We're THAT stupid! I'm not going to post it, however, because my frontal lobe is functioning right now...

Ebay Geocacher

Wah, wah, wah...

turns to...

goodie for me!

I won the Magellan on ebay. It wasn't as cheap as I'd wished, but I have it on the way, via FedEx.

It wasn't cheap, but it's worth it to me, cause Carnivorous Hippy and I are summer playmates and we like to hunt for stupid treasures under rocks, logs, within poison ivy and poopy trails. I think we must think we think other people think it's cool to do something that really is, well, stupid.

Oh, yeah---my car is now a Travel Bug

Poison Oak is Inevitable While Caching!

Remember yesterday's blog about dirty feet?Well, the toes on my left foot drove me INSANE last night as I was trying to sleep.

I finally got up and discovered they are covered with poison oak blisters!

That is why one should not geocache in sandals in Oregon!

Geocaching is Baaaddd...

So, here's one of my latest hides. Check it out! http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=7a61c345-05cf-48fc-a318-3b1f23584b50

I had a long list of things to do today, including clearing off a table that has become a mountain near the entry to our home. But, dang it! I started messing around on geocaching.com and got all wrapped up in moving my newest cache, creating 2 new caches to place today, and uploading coordinates for some near-future adventures with Carnivorous Hippy.

I ended up loading up the 2 big dogs, Jim Dandy and Dood, and convincing Handsome Husband to meet me at Crystal Lake Park after work so we could go and find 2 caches I didn't find yesterday. The dogs LOVED the water and ran like wild pigs through the grassy fields. It was hot and it was fun. We logged 2 finds and headed back home.

As we were getting into our cars, I said, "Hey, how about it I head over to the grocery store and get some good salad veggies?" HH replied, "That'd be good. You haven't been to the store in awhile." ZING! That's when it hit me! I haven't gone shopping for food since Albin arrived from Sweden on June 6! That's a long-frickin'-time-ago! Of course, we've got a huge pantry, 2 fridges, and a big freezer, so we're always well-stocked with rations.

Geocaching is bad. I don't smoke. I don't drink often enough. I have accepted that my vice is heading out the door with a GPS, water bottle, pen, and notepad. The rest of life goes on hold.

Geocaching Addicts

Wow. I left my house at 10:20 a.m. and returned at 7:20 p.m. I'd been on my bike, hunting down caches, for a very long time. Of course, being with my buddy, Carnivorous Hippy, made the day just fly by! We're "hard core," but we also know when to stop and enjoy a bit of local faire, such as Dutch Bros. and American Dream. Oh, yeah, we started the day at Noah's, feasting on bagels and coffee for energy!It's a long, lonely trip...
This is a really good way to trash a really nice bike! Thunk-a-think-a-thunk-a...

Oooo, this threat really kept me from even THINKING of taking it! Quick rehydration made the day better!
End of a loooooooonnnngggg day! Headed over to American Dream for cold drinks and good pizza!

Ummm...it was good...
Our hubbies even joined us at this point, making the day even better! We love them a lot!

HAIRSPRAY!

Hubby surprised me tonight! He took me to the movies on a "real" date! We saw "Hairspray!" I laughed and cried at it! What a fantastic, outlandish, upbeat, entertaining flick! Afterwards, we ate a nice dinner at El Sol de Mexico. Yum! My favorite dish is their "spinach enchiladas."

After eating, we headed out in the dark to place my newest geocache: "Utmost Use of Compost" Cache! It will soon be listed on http://www.geocaching.com/!

If you're not a cacher, why not? It's fun! It's easy! It gets you off your butt! You get to see a few neat sites...and walk a few miles...well, not necessarily miles, but, well, if you wanted to, you could!

I'm leaving for Castle Crags State Park in Northern California to meet up with my BayArea Buddy, Wendy, on Tuesday! We'll camp, hike, geocache, and drink good wine! With no kids or husbands to worry about, the cooking will be minimal and the visiting will be maximal!