Caching in Michigan and Indiana

We woke up too early for a Saturday on vacation, so we decided to make use of the extra time to find caches in two nearby states. We drove to Michigan and then stopped in Indiana on the way back. In Michigan, we went to New Buffalo, a neat little town that would actually make a peaceful vacation all on its own.



The first cache was near a local shopping establishment (which we strongly considered shopping in but decided against since we were driving) - Toddy Stop. We decided here that we really dug this town, so we decided to lookup some information at 411.

If you haven't figured it out by now, no caching trip is really complete for me without visiting a cemetery. And New Buffalo has a really nice, well maintained with. With the nice weather, breeze, and sun, I liked exploring the Pine Grove cemetery here. They also had two caches, which we were able to find without issue.



We decided to do a little gift shopping here (very neat toy store), and when we were leaving, Evan spotted something we had to get a closer look at.



After exploring a little more, we decided to start heading back to Chicago and made a few stops in Indiana.



We stopped in two cemeteries and found one cache (for the other, we looked in that tree for like 30 minutes before getting tired of sticking our hands into holes :-)

Caching north of Chicago

Today, we just decided to go for a drive and explore the area to get familiar with things. We headed north a little and stopped off for a few caches on the way back. Funny enough, both were near coffee shops. Which I just figured out when writing this...and Angela, although home in Texas, was giving us pointers by text the whole time.

Anyways, while getting dinner, I looked up nearby caches and found one that intrigued me because of its name. So we headed over to C₈H₁₀N₄O₂ and grabbed a quick find. But I do really love the name of this one. We caught a pretty sunset on the way back south.



Continuing south, we stopped for another cache after getting gas, and I really wish this one had been open when we arrived. A very nice area with bells ringing, flowers, a park across the street. And the cache was a little tricky (more to get without stepping on things I shouldn't than to find), so that added to the fun of this one. Loved It's really that good.



Our final stop of the night had nothing to do with caching, but a little carnival on the side of the road. Evan knows I love rides, so he went on the Ferris wheel with me, and watched me ride the spinny swing ride. I've always wanted to randomly go to one of these, so I'm glad we stopped.

Hot day of DNFs

We wanted to get out and about again, and were very happy when Jared and Gabby wanted to come, too. What we weren't counting on was how hot it would be out. Combined with the humidity, it made the time spent caching much shorter than normal.

We started out with one that I really thought should have been fairly easy (McInnish Windmill), but we looked a while with no luck. We did, however, get covered in little burrs and stickers. This included the dog, who I was still finding them on later in the evening. She loved the wide open space to play it, at least.

Our next cache turned out to be another DNF (Pile of Rocks). It was just too hot in this location to search long, and there wasn't really an easy way to keep the dog, so we spent maybe 10 minutes there before taking a walk to another nearby cache.

We did finally find a cache (Bridge Over Nutria Waters). A lot of up and down on the bridge; I was the first daring enough to go under it (it really wasn't bad). A sneaky little bugger and that is all I'll say to keep the mystery for others who search. Let's just say we were relieved to finally get this one.

So, next time we will either do boring and easy caches if it is 100 out, wait until the evening, or perhaps our Labor Day trip will be someone up north with cooler weather...

Goal Progress

Just over halfway through the year, so checking in on goal progress. I don't think that I find this report at all favorable...but I'll leave that for others to decide I suppose.

Finding 150 caches...I'm only at 17%. This doesn't really surprise me with all that's happened this year, but I had even decreased the number and I'm still having problems reaching it. Guess I'll have to try that 31 days of caching in August that the geocaching.com folks are promoting and see if that helps any.

Find caches in 1 country...still at 0% and likely to stay that way this year. I don't see any international travel in the year, although I may figure out a way. Next year will see a lot of places, though.

Find caches in 5 states...at 80%. This one should be easy enough to make happen. I should go to Vegas in October, but even if not, I'll find a way to do something over Labor Day weekend.

Get to top 1500 geocachers in TX...actually went down the list to 1819. Kind of a bummer here, but seeing how I'm not really finding caches, also not really a shock.

So...I really need to start caching or no way will this happen by the end of the year.

Caching with Burrowfamily at Family Reunion

I needed to check on a nearby cache and the kids needed a walk, so we took a quick walk to the two caches closest to my house. With four adults, four kids, and a dog, I'm sure we were a sight. Good thing is that it was a very empty day, with everyone out celebrating the 4th. We opted for geocaching :-)