Geocaching in Atlanta, Georgia

We went to Atlanta for Memorial Day weekend with our friend Fred and packed a surprising amount into a few days. We did escape rooms, a food and cocktail tour, a spray paint and sip, some history, and plenty of eating and drinking.

We had a little spare time before one of the escape rooms, so Fred and I decided to take a walk and find a geocache.

Allons-y, Alonso! was a nice little excuse to get outside and explore for a bit. We walked over, made the find, and then headed back for our escape room.

Not a major geocaching adventure, but a fun way to fill some extra time while exploring Atlanta with Fred.

Caching at night in Dallas for Christmas

We started this habit of going geocaching at night on Christmas. This has resulted in some very interesting times (like these when I swear that last night cache was going to make one of us pee our pants).

This year, Fred requested a night cache, so I searched for one that I hadn't found and came across White Rock Night Cache, which I have to admit was a huge let down. It was short and easy and just...a let down.

So, we decided to try for a nearby cache and see what else we could do. This one has a fun name (Ice, Ice Baby) and it was a little harder to find once at the spot, but it was really a PNG in disguise.

So, we called this a night and played Rockband instead.

The Orange Show in Houston, TX

Evan wanted to get out of town and visit his parents, and Fred came along with us. We went to the San Jacinto monument, visit various other spots in town, saw Evan's family, and went out to karaoke. A busy weekend, and on the way out of town, we stopped by the Orange Show. Like Quigley's Castle when we were in Arkansas, it was an experience...one I might now repeat.

Dementia Concretia

Caching in Arkansas

Decided to stop quickly for a cache while visiting the area, since I haven't been to Arkansas much recently due to so much work travel and going to new places instead. On this day, we explored the area and grabbed a cache full of fun things.

Gardens Travel Bug Hotel

We also stopped at Quigley's Castle...it was an experience. I'd always wanted to see it, and now that I have, at least I've satisfied that curiosity.

Killing Time Again with Fred and Evan

Just out and about with Fred and Evan for the afternoon and decided to find a few caches. The one below was interesting because there were two caches hidden...one with a choose your own adventure that looks vaguely familiar...

NTB Cache

Caching with Evan, Fred, and Zinny in Oak Point Park

A while back, Evan, James, Lisa and I spent most of an afternoon walking through this park and finding most of the caches on one side of the park. There are few others dispersed in other areas that I've been wanting to get back and find, so we set out (Evan, Fred, Zinny, and I) to find a few of those today.

The first we got fairly close to, but then determined we'd have to cross the creek to find. Since we had the dog and clumsy me, we decided to wait on that one, and found two others that weren't too far from parking (light fading fast at this point). The second of these had great hiding ability:







Red Wood
The Perfect Cut

Caching in Breckenridge Park with Fred and Zinny

Fred is back in town (yeah!), so we went out caching for the afternoon with a short walk. Since we have the puppy, I made a nice little path in the park and we had a nice and relaxed afternoon. All of these caches were quick finds once we approached from the correct side, and it was a nice day to be out.







Caches for today that we liked:
See Dar Dropoff?
If you gotta go in the woods

Finally found annoying DNF!

While looking for something to do Tuesday night, Fred asked us to take him to the hardest cache we weren't able to find. So, we did - and we found it. I've been out there at three other times, in the daylight, with no luck. On a cold night without a good flashlight, found in less than five minutes. I think the main reason is that I had knowledge that my caching buddies (James and Lisa) had found it, so I felt more forceful about finding it. Anyways, goodbye DNF and I hope to never drive by this spot ever again.

Cascading Stone Tube

Visting Stanley

Stopped by Monday to introduce Fred to Stanley. He also grabbed the nearby cache while he was there.

Christmas caches

After a long (kid-free) day with my family, we headed out after dark for some caches on Christmas with Fred. Thankfully, we dressed very warmly, because this turned out to be a very cold night with a large amount of time spent outside of the car!

Started off with a quick PNG, then did some walking for our next cache, Zippity Do Do Dah (GC11BDJ). This one was pretty neat, especially since it was not anything like what we expected to find.

Headed to a nearby area that I must drive by at least two or three times a week. I've seen people parked there for lunch, but never really thought much of it. A neat place to explore and imagine what different parts of the area might have been for - isn't often that I see an outdoor tiled floor with no covering. Check out the cache description for more if you are curious: Dreams Turned Nightmare? (GCKJFP).

Next for our first driving night cache - Knight Rider Night Cache #3 (GC31368). Neat concept, definitely recommend a couple of folks so that one can drive and the other direct. Might be a little tricky otherwise. Also (SPOILER), be tall - I say this because I'm 5' 4" and had to be lifted by two people to get this and even then it took several tries and arrangements to get it. Was quite interesting and felt accomplished (and freezing, because at this point it was not only cold, but also drizzling).

Decided to try for the normal walking night caches after this, although the first was disappointing because someone added a lot of barbed wire and it didn't sound like a good idea to climb through it. So, on to the next one, which was actually in a neighborhood - N8 like the stars (GC1APAT). I grew up in that area, so it was neat to go to one of the newer places that has been built up since I moved away. Also, hard to stay quiet since we didn't want to wake anyone.

Then, our last cache for the night, Howler II: Night Cache. WOW. We arrived to the spot around 11:30PM and right away saw the first set of dots. Walked on paths for what seemed like forever before finally hitting the spot to walk into the woods - and then quite a bit more of walking in high grass and broken tree branches. But, find it we did. And get out, clearly, we also did. When we got back to the main road, it was 12:45AM...so this really did take quite a while. But, perhaps my second favorite night cache I've done so far (and that because I still think my first will always be my favorite).

Caches for this outing:
Zippity Do Do Dah
Dreams Turned Nightmare?
Knight Rider Night Cache #3
N8 likes the stars (NIGHT cache!)
Howler II: Night Cache

Caching with Fred

A coworker and friend, Federico, is in town from Argentina, so we headed out caching since it was something he had heard we did and was interested in it. A quite cold and wet night, but quite successful. We found five caches in all, all different types.

My favorites from the night:
Clearance Clarance
The Fish Pond