Natural Bridge 2010

[07-Mar-2010] Natural Bridge seemed quick and small this year. When I got there it was almost deserted. No cars on the side of the road. It filled in later but I still think attendance was down. The Reenactment also seemed smaller, no colors for the Union troops even. Checked on the cache in the park and did 2 others on the way back. Its nice to be able to take Plank road and not go through town and Woodville now. Caches Waterford Crystal? #2 Waterford Crystal? Natural Bridge

Delivery, Geocaches, Zoo, kids.

[04-Mar-2010] Took moms new laptop to her. Stopped and did some geocaches on the way. 2 that I couldnt find before and one new one. Im sure the Hill Top Drop one is not there now. Thursday went to the Jax Zoo so I was at the north end of Jax to have dinner with a 3 year old who was passing through. The zoo has changed a lot since the last time I was there in the 80s. They have a whole Florida wildlife section now, and everything has moved. Displays are no longer the old concrete pens but much better. The only thing still there is the train and the Carousel Did a couple of more geocaches afterwards before coming home. Caches Can You Hear Me Now Johnny Donut Seed Hill Top Drop It's a JUNGLE out here! Off Your Rocker, JIA

Jacksonville

[29-Jan-2010] Went to Jax to do some work for mom. Removed the old workbench from the garage, cleared the leaves off the roofs and screen room, replaced a light in the hall and an electrical socket. Tried several geocaches on the way there and back with mostly bad luck. 2 are very close to home and Ill try again really soon. Caches A dump of a park Take a dump Can You Hear Me Now Hill Top Drop Say hey to Ray Bridges of Madison County #5 service to the public Also a sun dog on the way back.

England Day 1-3

[28-Dec-2008] Darkness is a real problem here. Its starts at 4pm. Cant see much in a day. Went to Bury St. Edmunds the first day, saw the ruins of the Abbey. Day 2 was mostly driving to Newcastle with a stop at Durham Cathederal. Burial site of St. Cuthbert and the Venerable Bede. Several views from the tower and 2 Harry Potter related photos (a false wall and a courtyard used in the film). Day 3 was Hadrians wall, Housesteads Fort on the wall, a geocache nearby, and Vindolanda a fort further back with civilian buildings nearby. Caches GCXWB8 Housesteads

West Virginia

[26-Apr-2008] Went to Clarksburg for Nannys funeral. Left here Wed night, drive to jax. Flight at 6am. Funeral, flight back at 6am the next morning and then drove back to Tallahassee. Took a few photos of Nannys house, Suan Terrace, and the dogwoods in bloom around town. Had just enough time to do an easy cache at Simpsons Creek covered bridge under a mile from the hotel. Caches GCQNHM: Simpson Creek Covered Bridge

Brooklyn and Chinatown

[18-Aug-2007] Bought a new camera Thursday before trying to sleep. After working all Friday night (10:30pm to about noon), we ate at Grimaldis Coal oven pizzaria in Brooklyn. I decided to look a third time for the Bridge cache with no luck. Then walked across Brooklyn the long way for another cache in Ft. Greene Park, down the heights promenade, through the center past the borugh hall. Found it, and watched a stomp show in the park. Took a train back to this side of the river, go off on the Lower East side and walked back to the apt via Chinatown. Put up photos of the trip, and some of the apt and city in general Caches LESSER KNOWN HISTORICAL SITES III

The Brooklyn Bridge

[14-Aug-2007] Walked across the Broolyn Bridge after work. Its an amazing structure. It must have been pryamid like in size back when they built it. today you only get that feel once on it. There is a wide pedestrian walk way well above the car traffic with excellent views all the way across. Looked for two caches and only found one. Dark caught me. I ened up going across 3 times, once across, found the cache under the brdge, back to the east peir, then back to Brooklyn to look for the second. Didnt find it my numbers were off, I was trying to read the plaques in the dark. Brooklyn is nice, it has trees and plants, much better than Manhatten. Under the bridge on the Brooklyn side must e the best pizza considering the constant 40 person line, Grimaldis pizzaria. Got ice cream before coming back across the first time and rode the subway back after dark. Caches LESSER KNOWN HISTORICAL SITES IV Frank Farrington's view

NY again

[11-Aug-2007] Im in NY again. Cleaning up the network there. Its much better in summer time outside in this part of town than it was over the holidays, there are people out all night. We are getting an apartment here, a few blocks from the office so Ill be here regularly. There is a nice 24 hour diner just below the apartment. Managed to walk around a little tonight, did a geocache down near the water. There are a couple of tall ships there, too bad they are only open in the daylight. Had to buy a disposable camera, I still need to replace the digital one. The plane flight up here was a disaster. Left Tallahasse about 12:30, got to Atlanta. Flight was supposed to be 3:45. We didnt leave till around 8:30. The got us all on the plane, they annouced a ground stop in NY. Wait 20 min. Ok get off the plane it will be at least an hour. Then they decided to to maitenance on the plane. So after the stop was lifted we were still stuck. Instead of arrivng at 6:00 or so, it was almost midnight. Caches Water Water Everywhere!

Geocache replaced
[10-Jun-2007] I drove out to my geocache and replaced it today. It had been proscribed burned back in Feb. The box was still there, but just ashes and a new log someone left after the fire inside. Left a new box, a fireproof safe this time.

Mississippi Gulf Coast

[22-Mar-2007] Spent the weekend along the Mississippi Gulf coast, Bay St. Louis and Gulfport, driving down to Biloxi for work. The destruction is mainly confined to the beach and 3 blocks off it except at the Bay St. Louis end where there are snapped pine trees as far inland as the interstate. The beach are looks really nice. White sandy beaches on one side and a park like area where houses used to be that are now cleared except for the foundations on the other side. Interestingly the hundred year old oak trees that surrounded the houses all survived. Took a few photos . did 3 geocaches. Canal 31 was just outside the hotel. The Biloxi National cache took me down to the National Cemetary in Biloxi, a pretty place of oaks, azaleas and white headstones. The 3rd was right in Bay St. Louis on the water. Caches Canal 31 Biloxi National Cache Tercentenary

Lunch time caches

[14-Mar-2007] Went looking for a cache yesterday without a gps and didnt find it so today I returned with the gps, not that it helped much. It lead me to the same place I was looking. I did find the cache, evilly camoed on a light pole but I didnt have a pen to sign the log. Did another one during lunch too, there is a small pond near work and its in the woods around the pond. Caches Getsmart Here Fishy, fishy, fishy

Natrual Bridge 2007

[04-Mar-2007] Like an idiot I deleted all the photos from my camera before going out the next weekend. I blame a lack of sleep from Daylight Savings time work. Found the Natural Bridge cache (GC10FN6) on the way in. The Rangers were a bit stupid this year. Telling everyone not to stand at the rope, but halfway back across the road. Everyone moved back then back to the rope. Silly Ranger. There was a small turnout for the battle this year, and all the deaths were on the far side of the field. They did a better job with containing the reporters rather than having them in front of everyone. They also added some onsite parking. Not nearly enough but at least they are making an attempt. Caches GC10FN6 Natrual Bridge

Caches entered
[15-Jun-2006] I entered the caches from the last trip so they show up on the maps now.

Geocaches

[21-Feb-2006] I did seven geocaches after Olustee on the way to get my travel bug that I left in Oregon two years ago that had made its way to Gainesville. I used to have a great program to enter caches automatically, lookup the coordinates and plot them on the map. However since the last time I did cache, (last May?) they restricted the site so my script wont work. These arnt on the map yet. I need to fix it but not now. The caches were: Union County Line Cache NEFGA Does Union County Serial Finder 10 The Union Rails to Trails Trestle LaCrosse's Only Florida Champion Gator TB Hotel and Gift Shop I only linked the ones with photos.

A record number of caches and Ft. De Soto

[29-Apr-2005] The last part of the drive from Palm Harbor to Sanibel was mainly stopping at geocaches. I did 6 in one day which I think is my record. First one was Old Fort. Which has nothing to do with a real fort. Missed the ferry to Ft. Dade because of the first cache but did get to revisit Ft. Desoto. I thought I remembered there being more than one battery here and Im sure Ive never been to Ft. Dade so it may just be that it was too long ago. There were 3 caches within half a mile of the fort, and after some confusion because I duplicated the coordinates on one I found them all. Continued on to the do virtual cache in downtown Ft. Myers The Attack on Ft. Myers, couldnt do the museum since it was closing. Came onto Sanibel island, and apparently Drew and Heather saw me at the iontersection, then I went away from the hotel for the cache out at the lighthouse so they called. Did the cache and the one at the chapel before meeting them at the hotel. Caches Old Fort Fort De Soto Mullet Key Cache A Fisherman's Rescue The Attack on Fort Myers Seekin the Beakin Near The Chapel

Jesse and Emilys Party

[07-Mar-2005] Clayton and I got back from Orlando about 8:30 last night. It took us an hour longer to get back than to get there because we did 27/19 from Orlando to Ocala rather than I-75 but it was a better drive. The horse country just west of Ocala on 27/19 is really pretty, wide open fields fenced with wood and an occasional large oak tree. Thankfully I got less sunburn coming back than going down. We stopped to check on a the 7 by 7 cache that might have been missing but wasn't on the way down. Caches 7 To 7

A busy day

[16-Jan-2005] Failing to remember exaclty how long a drive it was last year I went to the Brooksville Raid again this year, getting there only about a half hour before the battle started. It had the same problem as last year, there is no good place to watch. The action takes place in the woods alot and swings around several times so its not clear what is going on. I was on the right flank of the Union this time, and they didn't have ropes up so we had to move several times as the action came too close. There were also a lot of guys on the field with cameras, big ones on tripods ruining alot of photos. The may have been hidden from the VIP section but they were clear to all of us, and made no attempt to hide, be in period costume (not that that would have mattered with the large cameras), or even stay still. Photos of the raid. On the way to the raid I stopped to do the cache 7 to 7 at a rest area near Perry. Maybe that is what caused the drive to take so much time? Having more time on the may back I stopped at Homosassa Springs. I expected only Manatees and was suprised to a small zoo. Including a hippo. Which I just screwed up and deleted the picture of. Near Cheifland I pulled over to see if Comet Macholtz was visible since it was finally clear, and I was somewhere dark. It is baerly naked eye. I took a bunch of photos with the digital camera. The will be posted later after I get a chance to process them. Got home about 9:30 12 hours after I left, all for a 1 hour reenactment. Caches 7 To 7

An aborted drive

[04-Dec-2004] I tried to go to Andersonville today but the jeep started having problems north of Thomasville, less than half way. Stopped by the Thomasville dealership and they couldn't find anything so I'm going to have to take it in Monday here and leave it. Did a quick cache on the way out and on the way back stopped at Pebble Hill a plantation just over the GA line. Caches Pyro Mycro 3 Added some photos I took over Thanksgiving a Rainbow, Camps Milton and Sanderson.

The longest drive

[29-Nov-2004] How long does it take to drive from Jax to Tallahassee? Well I made it in 7 and a half hours yesterday. Partly becasue I stopped to do a few geocaches on the way. Most I found, at least two I'm sure are missing. I'll go back fror them later. I also got to walk the Olustee battle trail since there was no reenactment going on like there usually is when I'm there. They have changed the signs a lot, it used to ust be markers with unit names on it, now it gives a brief chronology of the battle as you walk around. Caches It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Found. This is a small part in Mcclenny. It kind of flooded but the ducks seem to enjoy it. The cache was film canister hidden pretty well. Battlefield Micro Found. Not one of the utility poles like I thought it would be but the magnets do hold it on. Just a micro cache. Cache and Carrie Not Found. I tromped all over looking for this. I think it should be under the small boardwalk but its not. The person who looked for it before me couldn't find it either. Battle of the Ponds Micro Found. Sometimes things are really simple, and easily overlooked. This is one. Its right there not looking in the woods, nothing hard just a film canister at the sign. Monticello Opera House Not Found. I'm pretty sure this is gone. The clue is really obvious, and the cache isn't at the clue. Close enopugh to go back to though. Letchworth Found. Easy walked right to it. Showed a family about caching since they saw my GPS and asked about it before I even got to the cache. This place has improved, it has a sidewalk and boardwalk now. Before it just had bugs.