17 April, 2011
A few weeks ago Woodhick803 and I were out in the cold and snow searching for Lake Stephens #2 Cache. A DNF (did not find) bothers WH a whole lot more than it bothers me, so when the cache owner posted that this cache had indeed disappeared and was now replaced, WH was practically knocking down my door to get back out there and search. And search we did. WisconGranny (sister-in-law Joyce) made the trip with us this time (yay!) and we looked for quite some time, even going so far as stepping on the board that sheltered the cache. Finally the eyes found a suspicious shade of green, close to nature's, but a shade off and - ta da! - there was the prize!
You know how easily I get distracted on these geocaching trips, but Woodhick was to blame for this one. He was the one to spot these frog eggs. If you look closely, you may even be able to see some tadpoles. This made me think back to elementary school when someone always brought in frog eggs for the class to watch.
Another distraction of the day was this scene of a recent coal train derailment just at the entrance of Lake Stephens. I couldn't help but imagine the noise the wreck made, let alone the fright of those driving on nearby route 3 as the coal cars came within inches of the roadway.
Last trip I posted that sometimes the cache isn't the only reward that you get when searching. Remember the labyrinth at Caldwell's mini-park? This excursion, however, the cache was indeed the reward. Here you see WisconGranny and I posing in front of an electrical transformer (I guess) behind Fayetteville's Walmart. I'm doing the "Vanna" thing and showing you the cache. Yes - the numbers! We searched everywhere, cursing our GPS units for returning us to the transformer. The clue said the cache was at eye level; we saw nothing at eye level (or above or below) that even remotely resembled a cache, even to the point of wiggling screws, locks, and hinges to see if one of them was a fake one. Finally, in desperation, I wiggled the numbers and - ta da! - there it was! The numbers were the cache! Magnetic numbers, made to look like a serial number. How clever is that!
Every good caching trip includes a hearty lunch or, in this case, dinner. We relived the day and its highlights over ribs and onion rings at Dirty Ernie's Rib Pit in Fayetteville, WV. Love me some good ribs!
To read about the day from Woodhick's perspective, check out his blog
http://cachingin--geocachingme.blogspot.com/
Thanks for a great day, WisconGranny and Woodhick.
Until next time - get outside and play!
