Hide In Plain Sight

Our friends Victoria and David invited us to spend the day boating on Saguaro Lake. Part of the reservoir system that provides water to the Phoenix area, the lake weaves its way through cactus studded cliffs with amazing views all around. I managed to find one cache before the heat and lack of decent shoes made any other attempts to find another few less than appealing. Now I have another reason to go back out and, with the proper footwear, grab the three that I left behind today. There is also one hide that is 30 feet below the surface. I don’t think I’ll be going after that one.

We had some family members visiting from Chicago and took them hunting yesterday. Beth and Carl had never been geocaching and while we only looked for a few as we drove to do some other things, they appeared to be getting into it, and I suspect they may take up the adventure when they return home.

Finally got up to 900. It’s been six weeks since I’ve posted anything or did any geocaching. Since my last post my oldest daughter Gillian got married, I changed my shift at work to a M-F daytime, Sharon and Nikki are well, and Fergie is still a great hound. I fully anticipate that I’ll reach 1000 caches this year, and go past that milestone.

Caching has been light over the last few weeks. The weather is warming up and soon it will be seriously hot. Time for a road trip up north – Sedona, Flagstaff.

It’s about time. We’ve had a very wet winter which considering we live in the desert, is a good thing. Now, it’s nice that the glorious weather has arrived. The Mexican poppies and the lupine are in full bloom and they’re beautiful.

Sharon, Fergie and I drove along the Apache Trail today, picking up several caches and one travel bug-a serial coded trinket that is intended to be moved to other locations. This one, the Dalmatian Travel Bug was from the students of Room 202 at Coastal Ridge Elementary School in York, Maine. They want it moved to Hollywood, Alaska, Another Country, Spain, Texas, Florida, Japan, Universal Studios Orlando, or some where fun! I’ll try for the last place. Today was a gorgeous day, around 80 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. The views out here are spectacular and it’s amazingly close to our house. Fergie was a trooper. She’s not a car dog, and snuggled with Sharon most of the drive.

There is an area in the desert about 2 miles northwest of my house that has been open to the public, including using motorized vehicles. There have been numerous caches placed in the area. Sometime in the last week or so the City of Scottsdale posted signs indicating that motorized vehicles are now prohibited, and anything prohibited carries a penalty. Another indicator of encroaching tyranny – small steps, like throwing a frog in cold water and slowly increasing the heat.

It’s always fun to grab a First To Find. Found one yesterday about 2.5 miles from the house. This makes 22 FTFs. Combined with the other caches I found over the last couple of days, while it was a slow caching period, it was nice just to be out a grab a few.

There is a particular kind of geocache known as a “Multi”. It involves at least two stages where after you find the first part, you’re given coordinates to find the next stage, and so on. Today I went after two multis and found both of them – one a 3 stage and the other a 4 stage. The latter required the seeker to solve simple puzzles to get the numbers of the coordinates to find the next stages. It was a fun walk in the desert a few miles from my house.

When our eldest daughter Gillian was around 4, we took a vacation in South Florida with my sister Liz, brother-in-law Bill, and their daughter Genna who was around 2 and a half. One day I was taking a nap and had a pillow over my head to block noise and sunlight. Bill and the girls looked into the room and he said “Hey Mole Man! Time to get up.” Gillian thought he said “Molaman”, and thus I got a new nickname. In return, I dubbed him “Boodie” since saying “Billy” was also difficult for Jill, and the two young girls from that time forward referred to us as Boodie and Molaman.

Anyhow, Bill was in town for a 4 day mountain bike adventure, and having already gone geocaching with my sister and their son Phil, it was Bill’s turn to take a stab at it before I took him to the airport. Couldn’t find one, but found that 2nd one we attempted. It was great having him here. I wish he and my sister lived closer than NY.