FTF!

While having dinner at No Frills Grill with Roogles! in attendance, he mentioned that his newest puzzle had just published and there was a nod to Volbeat in it! I basically ignored the Buzztime Trivia and most of my fellow dinner companions to solve the puzzle! Since I was first to solve the puzzle, which doesn't happen very often to me at all, I decided to try to be first to find also. Dark Star and I had to head the opposite way from home, but we were successful!

Covered!!!

Concert and a Cache or a Song and a Smilie!

Dark Star and I went to see Govt. Mule in Dallas at the Majestic Theater. We had some time and decided to see if we could find at least one cache in the area before the doors opened. There were a couple of nearby caches, and this one looked like it would be a good one to try on a Saturday night. As we were walking to ground zero, we even passed by the bass player talking on his cell phone! 
There was a couple with their dogs sniffing around very near to gz as we walked up. As they continued their walk, we began our search. This was a bison tube stuck in the bottom of a rock and there were a great number of rocks to look at. Lucky for us, no one was around, and only a couple of people walked by. We decided to look at the photos for a hint, and one photo showed that we were several feet away from the spot. The hint didn't help with this one because it's no longer near the sign. That's okay. We found it, signed it, took a selfie, and headed out for some good tunes!

GC5GN88 Downtown Fun #4

G.O.S.-Group Caching

Two weekends in a row I've gone group geocaching. This week I joined the GOS to find puzzle caches. Many years ago, a group of 6 ladies decided to go geocaching on weekdays during summer and called themselves the Girls of Summer. They decided to start hosting events so that more females that had the day off during the week could join them. There are always some "girly men" that are welcome to join the fun. I have always enjoyed these events and have even hosted a couple in the past.

Drives provided a magnet for the side of the van!

There is a series in the Anna area of over 100 puzzles. The unsolved coordinates spell out the name Terren, named for the cacher who created them. When I heard that was our goal, I started solving puzzles. By the event I had 64 of them solved. Drives supplied the group with a list of 80 caches for us to find before lunch. He even rented a 13 person van so that most of us could go together. That was so much fun! Zekes Uncle created stickers that said GOS and 8/14/17 for us to place on the logs.

Having fun on the van!

With Drives driving (appropo) and KLCE navigating, we were able to find 54 caches from 9:30-1:00! We had no DNFs, and didn't have too much trouble finding any of the containers. 

 We found a few different cache container types. I've seen pill bottles before; however, I think these were from a vet. 

Gilliansage and TX Diva

  I was sitting on the front bench behind the driver and navigator between Gilliansage and my mom, inolaok. Besides being able to see out the front (I get motion sickness) I was able to visit with Gilliansage throughout the event! It made it easy to jump out and get a lot of the caches.  

 It sometimes takes several sets of eyes to come up with the cache.

 This girlyman, J27Smith, was a valuable member of the finding team today! 

Most of the roads on our route looked like this. We were on a few busier roads, but our driver was awesome at finding the perfect places to pull over. 

sandbassqueen on the hunt

 Drives gave me this coin for helping out by solving many of the puzzles. What an awesome gesture! 

 Having lunch after a morning of caching has always been a very enjoyable part of the group caching experience. This day we ate at Crow's Country Cafe in Anna. Cute place with some really good food! A few people had the buttermilk pie; however, I was stuffed with my lunch! 

 We even had some cachers that met us just for lunch, or that cached in their own vehicles today. 

 Where in the world did that come from? My lips are sealed.

 Another gift from fellow geocachers. Cachers that raise chickens brought 6 dozen eggs to share, and I ended up with a carton! I love how most geocachers are very giving people! Thank you , BigCarbonFootprint and Dreamcacher V!

It wouldn't be a GOS event without a group photo. We are missing one cacher (DCV)  who had to leave early.

Wynnwood Park Walking Series

My friend Kevin, aka KD Solo, posted on Facebook that he'd like to do the 19 caches in the Wynnwood Park Walking Trail series today. My mom, sister and I joined 11 other cachers at the trailhead to do some caching and walking. I really enjoy caching with groups sometimes. Walking and talking can make the time and distance really seem much less than what it is.

 HOWEVER! WOW! It was so stinking hot! I had one bottle of water with me and I really needed 2 by the time I was finished with the 3 mile hike! Hydrate people!  I can't stress that enough.

The path and area are really nice, so if you want to do this series, here's a link to the first cache:

Wynnwood Park Walking Trail #1

 Here is most of the group before heading out.

 The trail was wide and flat the whole way. Hikers have to share the trail with golf carts for awhile.

 Water hazard for the golfers: nice view for us

 One side was the golf course and one side was this

 I didn't see much wildlife today. The animals were smart enough to stay out of the intense heat.

 We spied a huge tire in the field. We were too hot and tired to go investigate.

 Cool vegetation

 I love these garden spiders. 

 It was so hot by the time we got to the 1.5 mile that I was ready to just dive on in!

 Here we are at the farthest point. We are ready to find the final 4 caches in the series and get out of the heat!

It wouldn't be a blog without a nice nature photo!

Oklahoma Road Trip!

I am married to a HUGE Iron Maiden fan, so he goes to see them whenever they are in the area. This year they had Oklahoma City on their schedule, so I decided I wanted to go there in addition to Dallas. The boys are heading to San Antonio and Houston also, but I'm hanging with the dogs! ANYWAY, several weeks ago someone posted on our SWAG Facebook page about a great cache in OKC. Well, of course, we now have to do that before the concert.  This cache is definitely worth the hype. It has a horror movie feel to it, which is another thing we have in common.

Usually, I post lots of photos; however, due to the nature of this cache, I'm posting very few of the photos because you just need to experience it yourself!

No big deal at first. We parked in the available lot that is just on the other side of the trees. It's a very short walk down the dirt road until you get to this gate! I knew this was the place because it had a 4 number lock on it. I knew the 4 numbers to use, and Red Snake put in the numbers and it opened right up!  Red Snake has been Dark Star's friend since elementary and mine since junior high. Then we all went to high school together. He is the one that got us into geocaching in the first place! We headed in and went down a few dark hallways. A dog was on one side of the wall and was barking and I heard him sniffing around the bottom of the wall looking for a way in!  That added to the charm of the cache! We were looking around for clues and thinking about how to get to the log when a very nice lady opened up one of the walls and brought us damp cloths and a mister fan.  That was very much appreciated and reminded us that we were on camera! We were in there for around 45 minutes, and I must admit I did a PAF to get a hint! The hint made me realize that Red Snake was on the right track, and very soon we had the cache in hand! Cool cache log even! I know that most of the details are missing in this blog. I'm telling you...you just need to go experience it yourself!

Infernal Device

We headed to the nearby McDonald's for lunch because that's a long drive from Arlington and we realized that we were hungry. I discovered that another cache by the same cache owners that was also on my radar was now between the McDonald's and the venue where the concert would be! This one talks about having rattlers, and duh, Red Snake loves snakes. He was all about doing this one also.

We pull up to a parking lot and GZ is behind this gate. Another number lock that I quickly find the number for and we are inside a very snakey looking place! We see a structure with the snake enclosure inside. The guys were very brave; however, you see that I'm hanging back until they deal with the rattlers! Another well-done cache that we enjoyed!

 "A Series of Unfortunate Caches" #2

Urban Caching on the Fly!

This year I haven't cache as much, as I've blogged earlier this year. I still enjoy using my phone app to see if there is something nearby while I'm out and about. Today we were at a Lowe's and I discovered that there was a cache behind the store.  It was early on Memorial Day, so we knew it would be fairly muggle-free.

You never know what you'll find while caching. We got to GZ to discover that the boulder that had hidden the cache had been recently hit by a vehicle and moved several feet away from its initial resting place. Fortunately, we found the cache intact still hanging out at GZ. It was just fully exposed. We weren't looking for the cache at that time, since we were trying to decide where the boulder had been before being hit. The cache container was upside down though, which made it way easier to find among the rocks!

The big boulder on the right is supposed to be in the middle of the rocks on the left. There are tire tracks in the rocks from the left to the right. We found the cache just to the left of the photo edge. 

Close up of the scrapes on the lightpost and on the concrete.

We signed the log and as we were looking for a temporary place to hide the cache for the owner, I discovered an egg in the nearby bushes. Because of its size and proximity to a pond, I think it's a duck egg.  I hesitantly touched it and rolled it gently with a finger and could tell that it was pretty dense. I'm hoping a baby duck safely emerges!

 Egg I found in the nearby bushes.            Dark Star put the cache under this boulder for now.

Bastrop Road Trip

Dark Star and I love horror movies. One of our favorites is  Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Several years ago, we made a road trip to visit several filming sites from the movie. One site was the gas station that is in Bastrop. That location is now owned by someone that also loves horror movies. It is now a gift shop that sells BBQ and he rents out 4 cabins out back. Since DS was sick over Spring Break and Texas Challenge weekend, we didn't get to make a trip to Tyler. I decided that since we were both off on Good Friday we should spend the night there.

As I mentioned in my last blog, we haven't been able to cache much this year because someone has been sick all year. (Me, Him, Family Members) We had 12 caches total Friday morning as we headed off for Bastrop. Now we have 30 caches in 2017! We had fun and visited some cool cemeteries as we headed for our destination.

 There was one cache that we hadn't found at the Buc-ee's in Temple. That was our first cache of the day. We got to witness a beautiful sunrise on that Good Friday.

 Our 2nd cache of the day was a challenge cache. To claim it, one of your cache finds has to be hidden on your geocaching birthday. GC4EB62  I had already qualified, and Dark Star qualified under the "Old Geo-Fart Exemption."  There were a dozen other caches hidden around this area, so we stayed and found most of them before heading on to Bastrop. 

 This cute guy was crowded, so I traded for him. He's my Facebook profile pic. for awhile.

 This cute guy that I purchased at Buc-ee's was perfect for a photo op outside of a Petco!

 This was a fabulous, out-of-the-way cemetery. There were no gates or signs. It was just off the highway on the backside of a country road. Some graves were old and some were a little newer. Some were totally overgrown and some are being taken care of. If you are a premium member, you'll be able to view the cache page here:  Garfield Cemetery

 I love photographing wild flowers as much as I love cemeteries.

The lilac color on this flower is simply gorgeous! I also love what is happening in the center. 

On Saturday morning, we decided to drive to Clariette Cemetery to visit the grave of Paul Partain. He played the role of Franklin in the TCM movie. He was so good at that role! I was not surprised to find that there are 2 caches at the location. We found them both while there. A bird's nest with one egg is nestled in front of Paul's gravestone that he shares with his wife. That was a beautifully fitting end to our Texas Chain saw Massacre road trip.