Colorado 2012-Day 1

My alarm went off at 5 a.m. I didn't get to go to bed until about midnight the night before. I haven't been on a plane since I flew to Missoula, MT to bring Fitzy home. I was very excited to have the opportunity again. Grandma got there about 6:30 and we didn't leave until about 7. We piled in her van and off to SeaTac we went. It didn't take us long and we got there with time to spare. We checked our bags and went through security and down to our departure gate, B12. We sat there for a few min watching the news about the deadly tornadoes that ripped through Southern Illinois and the surrounding states. Then it started snowing outside the terminal. I used the bathroom one more time before we got on the plane so I wouldn't have to get up during the flight. We boarded and because everyone wanted a window seat and it was general admission, we all sat at a window. Mom and dad sat two rows ahead of me. The take off is the best part. I sat next to a lady who kept very quiet and to herself the entire flight. I did offer her a piece of gum and she kindly accepted. I stared out the window when there wasn't cloud cover and read my book I brought with me. We started to descend into Denver.



I had no idea the airport was out in the middle of nowhere, 10 miles from anything. When I was here back in 2006 with my fastpitch team, I didn't really pay attention to my surroundings. People take forever to get off the plane. We got off the plane and made our way to the retrieve our luggage. We had to take a underground train system to the terminal. It was pretty cool. Erika met us at the entrance of the arrivals, said hi, people went potty and off to the luggage we go. It was very quick. Our bags were one of the first on the carousel. Then we had to hike to her car. It was a beautiful day in Denver. A sunny, cloudless sky of a high around 55. We were all hungry so we decided chicken was the best bet. I haven't been to a Chick-Fil-A since I was in West Virginia, so it was very exciting to go again. Erika wanted to go to the mall to pet puppies so we did that for a while. Then just walked around the mall. We went to Walmart to get some groceries and then went to her apartment. It was almost time to head down to the Leap Day event in Greenwood Village, Co, and mom decided to go with me. The GPS avoided the rush hour traffic on I-25. We arrived just on time to the restaurant the event was hosted at. We met a bunch of local geocachers, discovered and swapped coins and TB's and I even added one more coin to my collection. I got my first geocache in Colorado!



We found five more after the event on the way back to Erika's. We brought them KFC to munch on, we all got ready for bed. Tomorrow: Colorado Springs.

Aberdeen Meet and Greet and Puzzle Caches

The Grays Harbor Meet and Greet (GC3BTC1) popped up on the map and we had to go.  There were several puzzles in the area that we had worked on prior to the event and now we had to go find them before they got archived.  Bob and Bev had most of the traditional caches in the area anyway so we got the ones in the area they didn't have yet.

We all piled into Bob and Bev's car and off to Aberdeen we went.  We got into town and had time for one cache, Table Top Cache (GC1DCXC).  We didn't realize it was going to be up by the hospital on the hill.  We found a place to park and made our way to the coords.  Bev pulled it out of its hiding spot.  It was a magnetic cache stuck to a gray electrical box.  We wrote our names on it as fast as we could...mostly because it was freezing!

We wanted to get to the event a little early so we could find a table and order our food before everyone got there.  We walked in and saw Idajo was already there setting up her welcome table.  We found our own table and Bob went and ordered pepperoni pizza for our group plus each of us a Pepsi.  While we waited for our food we saw a bunch of cachers file in.  I talked to Chris (Mc3cats) for a while.  We ate our pizza and listened in on the raffle for our number.  We all got to take something home this time.  We took a group photo and told everyone thank you and that we would see them again.

After the event we went and got all the puzzles we solved starting with The Passion of the Cache (GCHX35).  It was a multi cache on iTooth's church property.  We started at the given coords and worked our way through the first and second waypoint and then the final.

This rock's coords took us to the second waypoint which was near the base of a tree.  We found it quickly and moved onto the final, which was not that far away.  It rained, snowed, rain and then the sun came out.  The weather in Aberdeen was being schizo.

The final was an ammo can connected to a tree and you had to use a pulley/dumbwaiter to get it down.

We were the last group of cachers to find this cache.  iTooth archived it about a week later because he couldn't keep the cache from getting ruined.  It was fixed quite a few times in its cache container glory.  We moved on to the next one on our list.

Bev worked on the Sword Drill (GC228KE) becasue she knew more about Bible versus than Derek or I did.  She did pretty well solving it mostly because she "doesn't do puzzles."  She had one minor hiccup but had help from the cache owner.  We got to the coords and despite the sticker bushes we made the find.  It was attached to a tree.

iTooth also had a Don't Know Much About...series.  We knew we were going to Aberdeen for the event so we spent the few days before solving these puzzles.  We each took one and worked on it until the coord checker told us it was right.  We parked at the coords and knew we had a small hike ahead of us.  The five caches were along a dirt road...we figured they were going to be in order with the final being last.  Inside each cache were codes for the final cache.  We had to do some gathering on our mini journey.

We started at Don't Know Much About History (GC1725X).  It was a PVC pipe attached to the back of the tree.  We signed our names and got the necessary code we needed for the final.

Up the hill we went.  There were great views and would have been better if it would have been a sunny and clear day.   It definitely got chilly on our way up.

We got to the second cache, Don't Know Much About Geography (GC174GQ) and it was a similar hide to the first one, a PVC pipe on the back of a tree, hidden from view.

We gathered our information and made our way up to the third cache, Don't Know Much About Biology (GC176DZ).  Again, a PVC pipe on the back of a tree.  This time we had to do a little bit of climbing, so I went up the hill to the tree it was attached to.  You could tell it was raining.  Whoever took the picture got rain on the lens.  We got the code out of it and walked up to the last of the series before the final.

Don't Know Much About Algebra (GC1716Z) was the only cache besides the final hidden in an ammo can.  Bob and Derek got the code out of it and gave it to our secretary Bev.

And now onto the final, What A Wonderful World (GC176EM).  We put together all of our codes and put the corresponding numbers in where they were suppose to go.  I guess the final was tricky because the coords jumped around.  So we read some of the logs and the hint that was given.  Between the four of us, we found the cache pretty quickly.

We signed our name and put it back for the next cacher and made our way back down the hill.  We had one more to get before we made our way back home, Smiles (GC2BX8G).  It was inside a park in a housing community.  We parked the car and all of us walked to the cache.  The cache that smiles back.

After finding that cache, we drove home through Elma and got onto Hwy 12 through Oakville.  Once we got to Rochester, Bev wanted to stop at the casino for dinner since she had a coupon.  I had never been to the casino before so it was quite the experience.  Bob sorta taught me how to play Keno.  When we were done, we went home, took a shower and got warm.  It was a fun time.

Next Adventure:  Colorado Trip

Skating at Skateland 2.17.12

Our new friend Shaundra invited us to go skating with her at Skateland in Olympia. I haven't been there in at least two decades. The place reeks of 70's and a remodel. I can't believe how run down the place is. We arrived at 6:30 and there was a private party going on and we headed on inside so we weren't standing in the cold for a half hour. The guy was nice and didn't ask. I used the bathroom and we waited til 7. Shaundra arrived about 10-15 minutes later so we had to go outside at that point. We stood in the line. While standing, we found out there were two birthday parties starting at 7 during the free skate time. Lots of kids between 8-17 were waiting to get in. I was so glad I brought my rollerblades.



We paid, got our hand stamped and we were on our way. Shaundra used to skate a lot growing up and she was a bit rusty.



Derek on the other hand, hadn't skated all that much and he told us not to laugh at him.



None of us did too bad except when Shaundra slipped in an area where the roof had leaked from all the rain. She had someone promptly clean it up. We skated most of the 2 hours we were there. We did the hokey pokey, speed skate, laughed at some of the crazy kids and people watched. It was fun, relatively cheap and was a good way to spend a rainy night. I'd do it again.

Finding Bigfoot?

This happens to be one of those times when you're in the right place at the right time.

Bob, Bev and I set out towards Elma for some geocaching.  I've only done maybe a handful here during my trips back and forth to the ocean.  We started near the fairgrounds and worked our way around.  They already had most of them so we stopped for the ones they didn't have.  Since they were nice and we drove by some they already had, Bob stopped and let me grab them.  I hit my 2100th milestone while we were there.  We headed up towards one of the hills, a dirt road off of Bushnell, near the ball fields.  There were four up the road so we went for them.  It was muddy and cold outside.  Since the storm, people have been up this road because it was easy to navigate.  There weren't too many downed trees in the area.  We saw a guy in a truck drive past us and thought maybe he was geocaching too.  We got to the last one called War Zone (GC3AV4V).  It was called war zone because it was all chewed up from quadding, mudding and shooting.  We saw a truck and a guy looking down at either a phone or a GPS.  We asked if he was a geocacher, he said no, but he's heard of it because his friends do it back in Portland.  He introduced himself as Cliff.  He was actually here looking for Big Foot.  He had visited a lady who lived in town because she had a cast of an unknown foot print that was cast back in 1980.  She had a few casts and let him have one for his collection.  He showed it to us and let us hold it as we talked.  It was pretty cool to meet some one who worked for the Animal Planet and actually had a TV show!  Who would have thought we would meet him in Elma of all places?  He had to go south near the power-lines where they found the footprint back in 1980 to see if there was anymore evidence.  It was great meeting him.  He gave us his business card and he was on his way.  We looked for the cache and found it a few minutes later.  We went home grabbing more caches as we headed southeast.  Ironically, when I got home, that very show Finding Bigfoot was on TV.  I'm not kidding!

I grabbed 17 caches in Elma and had a FTF later that evening in Roy.

The TV show on Discovery Channel:

http://animal.discovery.com/tv/finding-bigfoot/bigfoot-team/cliff-barackman.html

Cliff's Website:

http://cliffbarackman.com/