Geocaching 3/15/13

I'm still miserable with sinus stuff... UGH.  We did manage to load up the car with recycling and dogs this morning and head into the BigTown. Recyclables got dropped off and then we took the dogs to "their" park. BIG DAY for Peanut - she actually got in the little pond!  A "yoot" who's often there with his mom and dogs is always happy to throw the ball for Peanut, and today he tricked her into the pond by - yes, tossing her ball into it! Why didn't we ever think of that?!  For the rest of the time we were there Peanut was willing to put her paws in and take a few little drinks, and she went after the ball in the middle of the (tiny) pond a second time.  We're pretty happy about this development, as the warm (hot!) months are arriving and it will be much better for Peanut if she's willing to get in the cool water at the park.

Most of the day was spent doing laundry, reorganizing some stuff in our bedroom closet, and completing other random tasks.  Niece was here for a good part of the day, and when we took her home around 6:30 p.m. we decided to check out some nearby caches.  There is a fishing pond between our neighborhood and that of the Igors', so we stalked around there a bit - lots of "muggles," so we decided to return another time (and besides, I was only wearing purple Crocs on my feet and wasn't up for any real tromping around).

Mr. Mamie located another possibility near the intersection with the highway, so we went the extra tenth of a mile to check it out.  It turned out to be close to this sign, which is slightly nostalgic for me because before Wombat and GolfDad officially moved here, they parked their 42 foot "house car" (as Nephew used to call it) here on a couple of occasions while visiting.  We had some fun times at the picnic table when Niece was barely a year old and Nephew was a kindergartener!  Anyway, here's the sign:

Isn't the sky pretty?

The cache, called Locate, was a quick and easy find.  From the cache site I turned to the northeast and got this photo:

I love the light at this time of day!

Only two more days left of Spring Break.... :(

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Geocaching 3/12/13

Yesterday wasn't very exciting. Mr. Mamie spent most of the day at the office, and I had a big assignment to work on for one of my classes.  We didn't head out for any fun until 4:00 p.m.

After doing a couple of work errands for Mr. Mamie, we decided to just try one "virtual" cache before taking the GeoPups to the dog park.  The Washington City History Lesson  is close to Mr. Mamie's offfice, so we checked it out - very interesting! I've driven by it hundreds of times but never stopped to look at the statues and read the information.

 Getting a history lesson while geocaching.

I saw this video on the Geocaching.com blog the other day and thought it was really cool.

That about sums up the day... here's what the doggies did while Dad was gone and Mom was glued to the computer:

And now it's time for me to get back to work on my assignments, otherwise there will be NO MORE FUN during this break!

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Geocaching 3/11/13

It's Spring Break, so we are able to fit in a little weekday geocaching! We are hoping to hit up some local sites every day this week.  We started yesterday by heading into the desert less than a mile from our house to find Somewhere - Even Here. Mr. Mamie's brother Insamity was with us, enjoying a few last hours of sunshine and family time before heading back to Texas. We put the iPhone in Insamity's hands, hoping he'd get "hooked" on the fun and then get his wife and daughters into the game too. 

The cache site was in open desert, and the terrain was FULL of stickers - we ended up having to carry the GeoPups most of the way! Peanut didn't mind, as she is a tender baby, but I think Copper felt a little like his manhood was being insulted. Better than paws full of stickers, though.

Insamity did a great job locating the cache, and we signed the log and left our card. We then followed a conveniently located dirt road back to the RAV, sparing the doggies' paws (and self-esteem).

Geocaching brothers and pups.

We headed to the dog park then (after a stop at Maverik for sustenance, of course) and once again tried to locate a cache that is hidden there, to no avail. Somehow we're just missing it! Part of the challenge is that there are so many two- and four-legged "muggles" around, and we don't want to be too conspicuous as we poke around in bushes and under sprinkler valve covers. Perhaps another time....

After some doggie playtime and a quick trip to Mr. Mamie's office, we dropped the dogs off at home and picked up Insamity's luggage. Then it was time for the drive to Las Vegas, which for me meant making a nest in the back seat consisting of snacks (almonds and Smarties, weird combo I know), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on my iPod, my awesome camping/travel pillow, and the iPhone so I wouldn't miss a single Twitter/Facebook/Instagram update during the two hour drive. Insamity was delivered to his flight back to Dallas in a timely manner, and we proceeded on in search of geocaches and food.

After locating a convenient Roberto's, we ordered dinner and plotted some caches. We first tried a microcache close to the restaurant called HorzonAZ, but could not find it. Our previous luck with urban microcaches has not been good (The Wheels on the Bus and Sportsman's Paradise being prime examples), so we accepted defeat and moved on.

A picture of my delicious rolled taco dinner!

Next we tried the nearby Sun in the City and had success without much trouble. No photo because there was no way to do it without revealing the cache location.  

 

At this point it was 6:00 p.m. Mountain Time (though only 5:00 in Vegas), so we decided that we had better start heading north.   Along the way we used the Geocaching app on the iPhone to see what was around us, and it is AMAZING how many caches are located along the I-15 corridor in the middle of NOWHERE! At Moapa we drove into the desert on Piute Nation land to see if it would be possible to make a grab, but it was getting too dark.  We continued on home and saved several future possibilities on the app as we drove through the Virgin River Gorge - there are a ton of caches around Cedar Pocket, and that's an area neither of us has ever explored, so we're pretty excited.

Even with only two actual finds, it was a fun day of geocaching and adventuring!

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Geocaching 3/10/13

Being out of town for three days (Mr. Mamie's stepdad's funeral and a tech conference) combined with the time change did not make for a very early get-up-and-go today.  We finally hit the dog park around 1:00 p.m., and played fetch with Peanut for over an hour while Copper patrolled the perimeter and splashed in the pond.

Please throw the ball for me, pleasepleaseplease!

After the park we headed to the south side of The Big Town, and hunted a cache called Happy Birthday Jeffrey.

We found it!

This turned out to be not a very difficult find, and it happened to be right next to the Pilot truck stop, where we randomly ran into...

Mr. Igor!  On his way to work in his Great Big Rig.

We then headed down a very rough dirt road in search of a couple of caches way out in the sagebrush. These turned out to be the puzzle-type caches, and required more brain power than we possessed at the time. We hiked around and let the dogs run through the desert off-leash, and then got back in the car.

It was getting to be late afternoon, and Mr. Mamie's mom, brother (Insamity), and nephew were headed down from Tiny Town. Dinner was already in the crockpot but we still needed to put together salad and dessert, so we pointed the RAV toward home. On the way we found both Earthbender and Pine Valley Pipes .

Mr. Mamie and the GeoPups

Once we got home, SOMEBODY was vewy, vewy tired....

Copper says "I had a busy day!"

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Geocaching 3/3/13

We spent a fun morning searching for some local geocaches! We started out by heading into BLM land on the edge of Zion to find Canyon Overlook.

This was the view to the west as we drive up a very steep, rocky dirt road.

We went in one direction, only to discover that the GPS on the iPhone was confused, and the cache was most likely on the OTHER side of that canyon behind me. Oooops.

Got going in the right direction and passed some dinosaur toes along the way.

At the cache - Mr. Mamie and the doggies are facing it, so the hide location isn't revealed.

Put the pack down on a rock along with the cache container in order to write in the log, and...

...a couple of GeoPups thought it was time to nose around for snacks!

After visiting with a pair of mountain bikers and sharing some cookies with their nice doggie, we headed back down the rocky road.

The sky was so blue and beautiful today!

Back on the highway, we turned east toward the main entrance of Zion NP to look for Tunnel or Shuttle. This was a micro cache; not our favorite kind but it ended up being a pretty easy find.

Mr. Mamie and the GeoPups headed back up the hill after finding Tunnel or Shuttle.

We turned toward home after that and stopped to look for Tomy's Cache, which was a no-find for us. According to the Geocaching App, no logs had been recorded for it since October 2012. It looks like there was quite a lot of road work in the area during the winter, so the cache may have been moved or destroyed.

Continuing on, we stopped and found PODUMP and Wal-nut 1 before calling it a day and heading home for all the mundane chores that were waiting.

All in all, a successful start to the spring season of geocaching!

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)