power trail on the horizon

since I haven't had much time for caching lately, a lot of new caches have started to accumulate around me.  There's enough in the area for two full days of caching, plus a bike trail with 50 or so caches that would add another day about 15 miles away.  Hopefully tomorrow will be a full day of caching, and next week finishing anything I missed.

In two weeks I'm heading to an event in Oshkosh after the EAA Fly-In.  Last time I was there was about 5 years ago, so it'll be cool to check it out again.  Because of my work schedule I don't get to many events anymore, so it's nice to see a weeknight event.  If you're going to be around for some caching before or after the event, let me know.

no new caching... but a new house!

haven't had much of a chance in the last month for caching... in fact i've only found one cache since May 13th.  we closed on the house May 25th, and have finally gotten everything nearly unpacked.  only a few random boxes left, and then I can start working on some of the fun stuff.  most of the garage is organized, just needs a few more toys.  a few updates will be needed, but it'll be a fun ongoing project.  we'll have pics up on facebook tomorrow most likely... just waiting for the weather to cooperate a bit more.  so far, i've only been able to mow the front half of the lawn.  the back will just have to wait until wednesday or thursday.

house time...

A week from today we finally close on our new house.  not sure how many days I'll be able to cache in the next month as we get everything moved over and done the way we want it.  First step will be the kitchen...  the wallpaper needs to go, and so does the paint on the cabinets.  after that we have a few small things to take care of, but it's basically move-in ready.

last week caching was quite the adventure...  Smashing Ground and I decided to do The Artful Dodger (GC585B) in Gov. Dodge State Park.  to put it lightly, it did not end well.  all total, it was 6.5 miles of up and down trails and a DNF.  decided to come back another day to figure it out and went for a few other earthcaches in the park instead. 



This week I took the bike to Milton for the Whimsical Tails series before a soccer match.  The trail was in really good shape, but nearly half of the caches were not.  It was disappointing to see how many of them had fallen into disrepair or had disappeared completely.


hopefully tomorrow the rain will hold off...  heading to Rockford, Il with Commander.  He's looking for a big day, so hopefully we can hit close to 50.

First big numbers run in a while...

last week Clayton (Smashing Ground) and I took our mountain bikes out to Waukesha for a trip along the bike trail.  We ended up getting a lot more than we originally planned...  the north trail netted us 70 caches.  We ended up clearing the trail long before our time limit expired.  Next week we'll attempt the south trail and finish the States series at the very least.

This week I finally got a chance to travel up to Mellen to do a bit of caching.  Not so many finds, but lots of caches placed.  Two are about to be published in Copper Falls State Park (GC277VP and GC277W3) as well as another FFR cache in the Chequamegon National Forest (GC279JC) and one in front of the DNR Service Center in Mellen (GC277VB).  I have a few more on the agenda for placement, but it'll be a while before I get back up there.

Soccer season is also kicking in to full gear...  a few games this week, and 4 games a week through May.  now I just need the weather to cooperate.

that four letter word...

starting with a "w" seems to be getting in the way of geocaching and everything else lately.  it's been tough to make the adjustment to 40 plus hours a week when my previous work days were kinda few and far between.  soccer season has started, so I've had a few games early on.  the next few weeks will really pick up with even more games. 

tomorrow will be the first day caching in a few weeks...  I'm heading out with Smashing Ground to do one of the bike trails near waukesha.  we'll probably be making 2-3 more trips in the next month or so with our bikes just to see how many we can get.

also getting ready to hide a few more caches up north...  they should be popping up in the next two weeks or so.  now i just need to find a few more ammo boxes...

a busy week...

it's official... I started a new job on Monday... I'm on the sales floor at American TV in the Home Theater department at West Madison. the past week was spent doing initial training, which was a breeze. tomorrow will be a bit more involved, but still not that difficult. it'll be nice to finally have something full time again, although I'm sure I'll miss school. I will still have 3-4 nights a week when I can officiate, and my days off will be during the week, so I'll still have lots of time for caching.


yesterday I went down to Janesville with Kailey, commanderUSN, and grammyb to the Robert O Cook Arboretum for a geocaching event. walked the trails after the pancake breakfast and got a handful of caches. then headed home the long way to grab a few more. this will probably be the last event for me for quite a while due to the aforementioned work schedule, but it will be easier to have entire days dedicated to caching.


today, Kailey and I went on our semi-annual antiquing trip to the south. we grabbed a few caches along the way too. first we started west and went to Dodgeville, Mineral Point, and Darlington before heading to Monroe and Brodhead. It was historical caches day. we visited a virtual in Barneveld where the tornado went through, then Gov. Dodge's childhood homestead, Fort Defiance, Fort Hamilton, and then a virtual at Horseshoe (Bloody) Lake somewhere outside of Argyle. all total, Kailey grabbed 8 caches (I had already visited the two virtuals).

it's Bristol, Baby!

last weekend we took our second trip to Bristol, TN for the NASCAR race. along with us for the trip was my brother Eric (etmckay) and my friend Tammy (tc121). we grabbed a few caches in Indiana and one in Kentucky where Kailey (bme22) got her 400th find, and finally arrived in Bristol around 8 am Friday after driving through the night. Once we set up camp, we got about 3 hours of sleep before it was time to head out for some caches and other fun. we stopped for a few caches before making our way to mini golf, followed by dinner at Fatz Cafe. We grabbed s'more supplies and firewood to get us ready for the night.

Saturday before the Nationwide race, we checked out all of the tents around the track filled with souvenirs, food, and freebies. got a few free hats and cinch bags, plus a few other items I can use to stock geocaches. the grandstands were only half full (180,000 max. cap.), but it was definitely a great race. immediately following, there was a legends race with 13 drivers from the 60's and 70's. last year they did a similar thing and it was pretty entertaining. this year, the drivers in the race were quite a bit older, so the race wasn't as exciting until about 4 laps left when one car hit the wall and started to slide down the track. the second driver couldn't slow down in time and T-boned the first car. one driver ended up with a broken arm, pelvis, and ankle, and both were taken to the hospital.

Sunday, we packed up before the race so that we could make a quick exit, then headed to the track. we stood behind the stage of RaceDay on SpeedTV and watched the show live. during commercial breaks, they would come back and throw hats and things to the crowd. we were in the perfect location, because each of us ended up with a hat, home depot hard hat, and various other things. after another great race, we caught the first shuttle we could back to the campsite and hit the road back to Wisconsin. we finally pulled in at 5am after another long night of driving. we would have stayed another day, but I had to get back in time for a new job.

I don't remember a caching day this bad...

took the back roads up to WI Dells to do some shopping and caching... stopped at 4 different caches on the way up with ZERO finds due to the snow. two of them are likely missing though... but it was still frustrating starting a day like that. took way too long shopping, so i didn't get as many attempts on the way home, but did manage to find two.
the one good caching thing today was my pathtags finally arrived. they'll start appearing in caches tomorrow in Stoughton when I head out with the commander, plus a few new caches up north.

the other good news is a new job starting in two weeks. it isn't in the teaching field, but it's full time, so I can't really complain. it'll still give me time to ref and cache, so it's worth it.

Event Season

The next month brings 3 events I'm attending. I'm finally going to an official WGA event on Saturday at the chili feed, then the Madison pizza meet and greet, and then a pancake feed outside of Janesville. what's going to be fun is that all 3 are going to be in different areas, so will have different geocachers at each of them. it's coming at a perfect time too, since basketball season is done at the end of this week. I have a few varsity games left and then get a month off before soccer gears up.

the countdown is also on for the second trip to Bristol for the spring NASCAR race. we'll probably cache on the way down, and planning a quick side trip over to North Carolina to add another state to the list... last year was an awesome experience, and now we're even better prepared for it, so should be a great time.

sadly, I didn't get the Board of Directors position in the WGA. wasn't really holding out too much hope though. not many people know me online since Madison cachers don't really frequent the website, and before my nomination I wasn't exactly a vocal member. Maybe in a few years with more appearances at the WGA events will help. oh well.

my first event

this past Saturday, I hosted the Lonely Cache Game Event in Wisconsin Dells. Due to the spotty weather, I wasn't sure what the turnout would be, but ended up with nearly 40 people attending. the only downside was the lack of LCG participants that actually attended. only one other team from the top 10 made it to the event. even so, everything went smoothly. besides the coins and other prizes I brought, Team Deejay donated 10 more, plus MrRRKing donated quite a few ready-to-hide containers. we ended up with 32 door prizes for 23 teams, so everyone went home happy. Deejay also had a chance to distribute a few coins to the monthly winners who hadn't received them yet, and I mailed the remaining coins to the rest of the top 5.

although I won't be playing nearly as much this year, I'm already looking forward to next year's event, although we'll see who steps up to host this time around.

#2000

this past week i finally surpassed 2000 finds while on our honeymoon in Belize. it took quite a bit of planning for it to happen down there... throughout december i slowed down my finds so that i didn't get to close before the trip, but as i neared the departure date, i realized i probably wouldn't have a chance to find as many in Belize as i originally thought, so had to go out an extra day and find 10 more. it ended up working perfectly. we found a cache in Guatemala and then 7 in Belize. for number 2000 we rented a golf cart to explore the island, and we ended up on the very south end getting 7 caches along the way. i doubt i'll ever have another milestone cache like this regardless of number...