Geocaching Dry Spell

I thought we'd get out this weekend, being somewhat warm and all, but the stars didn't line up, so no geocaching for the Geocats. (Insert emoticon with frowny face.) But those things are silly, so I didn't.

I did want to share this picture though. Imagine being at a party in someone's home - a home in which you've never visited before. You're feeling a bit tipsy after your forth or fifth drink, and you head to the restroom. Finding this on the floor, would you be just a bit freaked out? (Scroll down, and click on picture to enlarge.)

No Geocaching This Week

Work took me to the land of The Rake this week - Peachtree City, Georgia. The schedule was brutal. Up to 14 hours per day, in classroom training.

No time for geocaching!

When I left the Atlanta airport yesterday at 4:00pm, it was 53 degrees F. We were walking around outside in short sleeves. When I landed in Minneapolis at 6:00pm, it was minus 8 degrees. As I am typing this, it's still 8 below.

Dress in layers? I don't own that many layers!

What's in a Name

A recent inquiry into the meaning of my moniker, tonka_boy, prompts this post. No, I don't play with toy trucks - at least, I haven't for a long time. And I'm not a boy. Haven't been for a long time, The name comes from our location near the Twin Cities. That's in Minnesota!


Lake Minnetonka is just west of town. You know, the lake that was mentioned in the Prince film Purple Rain? A scene is featured in which Prince's love interest attempts to "purify" herself in the lake. Prince conveniently told her it was the wrong lake after she stripped naked and jump in.

Anyone from around these parts knew it wasn't Lake Minnetonka anyway.

But I've digressed!

You've probably heard of the Minnesota Vikings sex cruise on lake Minnetonka? Yes. Now you remember. That's the same Lake Minnetonka.

You see, in the native Dakota language, Minne means water. Tonka means big.

Big-Water? Lake Minnetonka? Get it.

There's a lot of things named that way up here in Minnesota (Many Waters). Like Minneapolis. (City of Water) Minnehaha Falls, (Laughing Water) The city of Minnetrista.(Twisted Waters) Also, there's lots of things named Tonka. One of the most famous would be Tonka Toys.
The factory that originally made the popular trucks was located on the banks of Lake Minnetonka in Mound, Minnesota.

So let's see. Where was I? Oh yes, tonka_boy. Not much to tell at this point.

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Haunted America Travel Bug

Wayfarer launched her Haunted America Travel Bug. (TB1RD7J) yesterday. It's goal is to visit as many haunted (and allegedly haunted) places as possible. The inspiration for this travel bug comes from our own paranormal experience or as we call, the "curious incidents" that have happened in our home. Since moving here, we've experienced objects moving on their own, the TV turning off, voices, bangs, and feelings of being touched. While the activity has settled down lately, we expect a resurgence once we start remodeling this spring.

Here he is.

Wayfarer's favorite TV shows are those that deal with hauntings, like...

• Ghostly Encounters
• Ghosthunters
• Most Haunted
• Paranormal State
  

So this travel bug is right up her ally.

The bug drop.

The Sweet Smell of Success

We went back to that park today to get that nasty cache that eluded us yesterday. In anticipation of a difficult & cerebral search, I polished up the GPSr and neatly stacked all my mental blocks. We hit the park on the run, followed yesterday's footprints in the snow, and closed in on GZ. Wayfarer was in the lead by 20 feet or so, while I concentrated on the GPSr. It looked like we still had 60 feet or so to go, when she hands me the cache container.

What the Hay?

How she came up with that, I'll never know. But there it was. Big as life. I didn't even see her pick the thing up. Swallowing my male pride, I took full credit for half the find.

Post your comments.
Where do you think the cache is?

The Balmy Days of Winter

Balmy - 33 degrees today. But it was a dry heat.
So we went geocaching at a nearby city park. While just over 100 square acres, the park has ball diamonds, a great fishing lake, hiking trails, and six geocaches. We got 4 out of the 5 that we attempted. And we were too tired to try for the sixth. Trudging through the deep snow, following snowshoe trails (we weren't quite clever enough to have snowshoes ourselves) we were all in, and we couldn't find this one.

So Here's Your Sign!

But after reading the logs when we got home, I want to go back tomorrow and get this one. There were several DNFs before us, but the hider checked the cache just before Christmas, and assured everyone that it's alive & well.
The log had comments like. . .

• Had me stumped for a while until I started thinking outside the box!!!
• Great hide. You have to pay attention to detail here.
• ...this one has got to be the amongst the best of it's kind...wicked cammo...
• Extremely clever hide.
• The other logs indicate that it takes two to find this one, and that was the case with us.
• Wow! Nice job on the hide. Took a little while but I finally found it.

It goes on and on like that. So you see, we have to go back.

Edit Note: The cache owner responded to my DNF post and assured me that it's out there - and winter friendly!

200 Finds for the Geocats

New Year's Day 2008. . .
And man was it c-c-c-cold out there! A high of 8 degrees today and it was 6 degrees when we were caching. Our 200th find was right on the shores of Lake Minnetonka, and the north wind coming across that frozen lake cut right through us. Luckily, wayfarer had her Spidey sense working and made it a quick find. Yeah, it's the smiley right there on the northwest shore - fully exposed to the wind! The only problem with this picture is it shows the water as blue. Wrong! The water was white. Ice cold white.

We had just gotten two other winter accessible caches nearby. Winter accessible my cold fanny! One of them required digging a foot of snow out from under a fallen tree trunk.

New rule... If the cache container is sitting on the ground under a foot of snow, it is not winter accessible. But it was a find, and we were glad to have it.

Now, I just have to thaw my snowballs out.