Chipmunk in Chains

Friday was an awesome day full of unexpected fun!

I started the day out by working on the Batmobile for a pint-sized Dark Knight.

God bless that precious veteran and
the gift of song he gave to
us that day!

Then I met a couple of fellow cachers, Susan and Paula, for lunch at a tiny hometown café where everyone ended up misty-eyed by an impromptu serenade from the sweetest little 80-something year old veteran with a voice that would have made the angels themselves weep. 

There was hardly a dry eye in the place, and certainly not the eyes of the sweet little lady he was sitting across from and to whom his song was directed.


I wanted to take a photo or a video, but I did not feel that this was my moment to capture, this was his and should be simply savored in the moment.

All of this was followed, though, by something else sweet that gives you chills....ice cream in the local coffee shop! 

I do not tend to frequent this area, so I had no idea that this place was there and after consulting with the employee behind the counter, I was beyond delighted to find that they would be more than happy to host my next Geocaching event! It is the perfect place for an evening of board games.  It is always exciting when good things just fall into your lap while you weren't even looking!

The NinjaChipmunk on coffee? God help us all!!

Well, how do you wrap up such a bright and exciting sort of day? 

In handcuffs in the back of a police car, of course!! All for a good cause with lots of laughs all around, I assure you!  Special thanks to the sweet officer who did not blink an eye when I walked in and asked to be put into the back of a squad car just to have my picture taken with a little yellow bracelet for a contest...the handcuffs were his idea, nice touch! What a sport! I tell you!!  I would say his name, but promised him nothing would implicate...I mean identify..him in this public display of insanity.

 I felt I had to respectfully decline when my cohort in crime, Susan, suggested a good tasering might make for an even better photo and certainly a more memorable moment and it was when my gentleman officer, smiling widely began reaching for his gun while not seeming to be disagreeing with the bright idea, that I decided fun time might be over now!.

If nothing else, I had a Tall Tale that I could walk away with for the next geo meet up!!  And that sweet muggle officer had a tale of insane cachers to tell as well!  Not to mention the dozen hugs and kisses we planted on his cheeks for being so sweet and open minded! He must have been terrified by this point, but he never once stopped laughing.

 I send him my biggest thanks of all...though I promised not to use his name or number in case he would get in trouble.  Thank You All the Same, My New Friend!!

Thank you to Susan for inviting me out for the day and encouraging me to skip my usual schedule of day sleeping and to instead get out and embrace life on a beautiful day!!   I could not have imagined a better way to spend my Friday!

Caching the Historic Cowpens Geotrail...Part 1

Though I had entertained high hopes of attending the festivities at Geowoodstock this year, at the last minute these plans fell through and I found myself with unexpected time on my hands. 

I figured this was an excellent chance to cache the Historical Cowpens Geotrail that was recently released in South Carolina. 

If you do not already know about this trail, it is a reward trail in a lovely area of Spartanburg County.  Just like most reward trails, you print out your passport, find a certain number of caches, fill in the code words inside those caches, then turn in or mail your filled out passport to the predetermined officials. 

As there were only 16, with just 12 being required to receive your reward should you be super pressed for time, I figured it would be rather easy to finish in the course of one day.  But what fun is doing a trail by yourself, so I invited along three more fellow cachers and off we went!




The four intrepid cachers off on an adventure

The trail is set up to honor the Battle of Cowpens, widely regarded  as one of the most brilliant tactical operations ever fought on American soil. In other words, we kicked butt!

Due to the restraints of adhering to business hours, we decided to begin our adventure at the local library.  Thanks to a previous find on a local trail, I knew exactly what we were looking for and how to find it.  The mini-cachers decided to take this time to stage their own battle with a friendly game of chess. 

As both sides were familiar with the game and tactical strategies, this was not quite the landslide sort of win that this area was used to seeing, but both kids had fun.


After signing the log, Jody picked up a new travel companion in the form of a cute purple monkey, and we made our way to the downtown area. 

I must tell you that the from the first moment you step foot onto the sidewalk, you are met with a constant stream of Southern charm and small town quaintness, the likes of which are rarely seen any more.  You will be in wonder as you wander around the small shops and local flavors while feeling like you have stepped back into a simpler time and place. 

Truly, Cowpens is one of those rare places that puts a huge smile on your face, the kind that you don't even realize is there until your cheeks start to hurt.  

That feeling alone is worth the drive there and the time it takes to discover this hidden jewel of a town.

Though the trail itself only took us around 3 hours to complete, we ended up spending almost the entire day here just enjoying the sites and smells and tastes, while enjoying the good fortune of meeting several very charming and endearing locals who only served to enhance our good memories of a day well spent. 

I look forward to writing more about our trip in a future post.  As inspired by the town itself, I feel no need to rush through, but rather to spend some time and enjoy the moment. 

Happy Memorial Day

I just wanted to take a moment and say "Thank You" to all who have served in our military and also to remember those who gave all in the name of defending our nation's freedom.

We are grateful to you for your sacrifices and we honor you for your courage.

From the bottom of my heart, I say thank you.

Generation Next

Recently, I had the chance to assist with doing the one thing that brings me the most pleasure in Geocaching...teaching children how to play the game.  I will not include the name of the school or teacher or any of the children for the sake of privacy and protection of the kids.

I was overjoyed when I discovered that, at least in this area, Geocaching has become a normal part of the yearly curriculum when learning about satellites and the solar system.

Gary, the local technology educator, hid 15 geocaches around the school (though, sadly, there were quiz questions inside rather than SWAG) and turned all 20 kids loose with a pre-loaded Garmen eTrex 10 and a prayer.

The kids then spent the next hour and half (almost all successfully) in finding those 15 caches and answering the questions inside. 

All of the containers were typical 8 oz lock and locks, so it was not all to difficult most of the time.  It was more about the fun of introducing the game to a new generation (who, to be honest, are already technology driven) and broadening their minds to fun and creative ways to spend more time outside.

Combining exercise with a child's natural curiosity to hunt is a no-brainer.  Throw in the fact that they get to use some cool electronic gear all by themselves, and it went over just as awesomely as you might have expected!

I have lost count of how many groups and kids I have taught how to play the game, but that is a moot point.  Seeing that moment when the light bulb comes on and it falls together for them is the most incredible moment ever and is one of the driving forces behind why I continue to love this game so much. 

A big thank you to the teacher for allowing me to be a part of the festivities and believe me when I tell that I definitely got more back than I could have given. This was Awesome!!

Not Hungry

I just drive past the Henry River Mill Village where they filmed The Hunger Games, and when I saw candles and strobe lights and cameras in the same house that they used for Katniss', I just had to stop in and see what was up.

Turns out they were filming another movie (Nope, not the next Hunger Games movie) and my nephew and I spent some time talking to the cast and the director on set. They even invited him to be an extra in the next scene, which should be a great experience!

I won't give away any spoilers at the moment, but stay tuned for more tidbits soon.

Happy 15th Birthday Geocaching! Part Two...

medals and various other prizes
just waiting to be won

After several successful hours of geocaching in the woods, it was finally time for the main event- a picnic and geotrivia!

As previously stated, this Event cache was to celebrate the 15th birthday of the greatest game ever played: Geocaching!


On May 2, 2000, President Bill Clinton had Selective Availability lifted and geeks around the world rejoiced.

But what to do with this new found freedom of accuracy from billion dollar satellites? Light bulb! Let's hide Tupperware in the woods and challenge others to find it. It's what happens when you tell nerds to "go outside and play".

Dave Ulmer ultimately started the GeoCaching phenomenon. He hid a bunch of trinkets out in the woods of Portland, Oregon. He then went to the USENET group sci.geo.satellite-nav and stated “If you take something, leave something”.

One of the items Ulmer hid in the first "stash" was a can of beans.  So to honor this first cache, and just because it was a really cool idea, debaere chose the logbook for our event to be a giant can of beans.

 this is what "Catholic school girl"
handwriting looks like

When asked which of us should write the event name on the can, it was decided that Linda should be the one, as she had (and I quote) " Catholic school girl handwriting".

GroundsKeeperWillie signing a log
and capturing the smilie

There were many memorable questions during the quiz, one of which went something like this:
15 years ago, which celebrity who often appeared on Star Trek became a charter member of Geocaching and goes be the  geo-handle of "GroundsKeeperWillie"?

Have you guessed the correct answer yet?

If you guessed William Shatner....sorry, you get no points.

If you guessed Wil Wheaton...Congrats! You know your geotrivia!




Congrats to Team "55" and Happy Birthday
to WimseyGuy

 Our team, consisting of ncbiscuit, debaere, The Alethiometers (Ken and Jen) and myself, won the prize for Most Creative Team Name with "I Would Do Anything For Trivia, But I Won't Do That". Or just "Meatloaf" for short. And for the record, I still have yet to figure out what "that" is, but apparently it was unanimous that we would not do it.  


As the afternoon progressed, Team Meatloaf walked away with many wins and many delightful prizes! Though we did not end up winning, we did at least come in second place to team "I Can't Drive 55" who were there celebrating the birthday of fellow team member Matt who was turning 55. Congrats on the win!




If you have never attended one of the "It's All Just Trivial" events, then you truly do not know what you are missing out on. Hoosiersunshine and FailedApparatus put in unimaginable hours and effort into these contests to make sure everyone has an amazing time and the results are an hour and a half of nail-biting, breath-holding fun. All the questions are geocaching themed and there are prizes for winning each round and lots of prizes thrown in between rounds for random reasons as well.  You can walk away with a free unactivated geocoin or an entire ready-to-hide cache just for showing up! 

A huge "Thank You" to hoosiersunshine and FailedApp for all the effort they put in to organizing the trivia part of our Event cache. These two have single handedly (well, technically double handed I guess, but you get it) been responsible for educating and entertaining fellow cachers all over the Eastern side of the USA for over a year and I really feel they are the epitome of what passion for this game is all about. You guys rock!

Just a note that they are up for Geocacher of the Month and if you agree with how much they have both contributed to the geocaching community then it would be awesome if you would follow this link and vote for them simply by adding their names to the comment section of the article! http://www.geocaching.com/blog/2015/04/nominate-the-april-2015-geocacher-of-the-month/?utm_source=facebookhq&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=Social
(Alright... shameless, yet well deserved, plug done now)

Happy 15th Birthday Geocaching! Part One...

This Sunday, I spent an exhausting, but fun-filled, day celebrating the 15th birthday of the amazing hobby of Geocaching!

Dottie was so happy to help us
hunt for the caches

Team Awesomesauce - consisting of Debaere, ncbiscuit, FailedApparatus, HoosierSunshine, and myself- hosted the celebration with a picnic and an edge-of-your-seat game of "It's All Just Trivial" Geocaching Trivia.

The event was held in Burlington at Cedarock Park, an educational site where visitors can learn about farm life in 19th-century North Carolina.  The park has 6 miles of hiking and horseback riding trails, including some that are handicap accessible, which I found very applaudable!  

 There is a lovely farm house that once belonged to the Garrett family and log cabin and an old post office to enjoy, as well as some very entertaining sheep who seem to like to follow you around when you are close by.



We were not the only ones walking along the Bridle Trail

At one point, a stranger approached ncbiscuit and asked her where the Bridle Trail was located.  Linda then asked her if she meant the Equine trail and the woman looked at her strangely and said that was not what she was looking for.  After seeing both engagement photos and pictures of a bride in her wedding dress being taken later, I cannot help but wonder if she thought she was asking for the Bridal Trail.  Considering the horses had stirred up sinking, sucking mud deep enough to cover your ankles, I would love to have been privy to her face when she discovered the value of good research before booking a shoot!



Found it!!

Probably not the Bridal gift
they were expecting

There are several caches through out the park and debaere, ncbiscuit, our 4 legged honorary team member Dottie (the geo-dog) and I met early to tackle as many of these as we had time for.  Considering we were averaging about one per hour in the beginning, this number was not as high as I had originally hoped. Sometimes the force is really just not with you at all!




Can you spot the elusive Canadian Bear in this photo?

As all but one of the caches were of the typical kind, I feel comfortable saying that it is not the actual caches themselves that would draw one to this park, but rather the beauty of the woods that surrounds you while you hunt. this includes a flowing stream, several quaint bridges and more trees than you can shake a stick at (though there was lots of stick shaking going on while we searched under the leaves!)  


Pausing a moment to absorb all of the beautiful
scenery around me.
Though it took us about a mile of walking to
find this bridge that was a few hundred feet away.

We got turned around several times and followed the geocacher's way to the cache, rather than the shortest route (you guys know what I am talking about!) but that simply left plenty of time for sharing tales of travel adventures and caches found both far and near. 

Our final count ended up less than 10 for the day, but the memories made were worth more than a thousand park and grabs! We even ended up actually being on time for our own event, so I would strike this one up as a good day!






Along the JFK50 Geotrail: The House on Neely Street

Neely Street house where LHO and family rented
the upstairs apartment upon return from Russia.

While you are still in the Oak Cliff area, another stop along your JFK geocaching tour will take you to a big yellow house on Neely Street. 

What makes this house of interest, besides the geocache located nearby of course, is the now infamous photo of house resident Lee Harvey Oswald posing in the back garden with the gun that would allegedly be used to shoot JFK and a communist newspaper.



While there, I was able to take a look in the backyard where the photo was taken and posed in the same spot against the fence while holding a copy of the very recognizable photo. 

Another surreal Dallas moment for me as nothing has really changed since the time the original was taken and if you imagined really hard you could see Oswald standing there with gun and paper in hand and his wife Marina snapping the camera.


It was here in this rented upstairs apartment that Oswald and his wife, Marina, had lived with their small child after they returned from Russia.

Oswald apparently was quite proud of that photograph, for he would later send a copy of it to his political confidante, a Polish instigator and expat named George de Mohrenschildt.

On the back of the photograph, Oswald has inscribed it to his friend and added the line in Russian, “Hunter of Fascists. Ha. Ha. Ha.” When de Mohrenschildt discovered the photograph in his papers years later, he would call it Oswald’s gift from the grave.

Although Marina acknowledged taking the photos, conspiracy theorists have long suggested they were faked in order to frame Oswald.

LHO and Marina with their daughter

Fake or no, it was still an interesting bit of history to relive!


 

Along The JFK50 Geotrail: Oswald's Rooming House

 

In 1963, on a Fall afternoon, two young brothers were doing what brothers do and fighting in the yard in front of their Grandmother's boarding house in Oak Cliff.

One of the roomers, who enjoyed sitting on the front poarch and watching the boys play, covered the short distance from his chair to the scuffle and physically pulled the two boys apart and walked them to the stairs for a talk.

“Boys,” He began, “I want to tell you something really important and I want you to listen.” He continued on, “You're brothers. You have to look out for each other.”

Then, in what would be considered, in later years by those who did not know the man, to be a very out of character for a person considered to be so cold and violent, the man ended with “ Don't ever do anything to harm another human being.”

These words, hear by then 11 year old Patricia Hall, were uttered by the man who just weeks later would arrested for the assassination of the beloved President John F Kennedy, which he would follow by gunning down Dallas Police officer Tippet.

The Living Room

This is the story related to me by the owner of the boarding house where Lee Harvey Oswald spent the last few weeks of his life paying $8 a week for a small, yet cozy, boarding room. A room to which he would eventually return after allegedly shooting the President to retrieve his pistol which he would then use to gun down Officer J.D. Tippit just a short distance from the rooming house.

 

Owner Patricia Hall, a very friendly and cheerful sort, tells her memories of a very different man than is portrayed in history books and if you stop by for a tour of the rooming house located at N. Beckley Street in Oak Cliff, she will be more than happy to share her memories and home with you during the tour. There is even a book to purchase on site if you wish to delve even deeper into the history of what occurred during Oswald's stay.

The very bedroom which Oswald rented,
as it would have looked on that
fateful day.

I will tell you right now, it was a crazy surreal feeling to be conversing with someone who knew Oswald in a real way and I are up every moment of being blessed with listening to stories and facts about this infamous character that were not merely spewed forth from biased history books.

Am I going to say that history has been wrong about this man and that we have been looking in the wrong direction all of these decades. No, I will not be saying that. Nor will I be saying that there are so many holes in the current theories that the possiblitly that a killer did not have a soft and human side. All I will stand by is that the story I was related really painted an interesting perspective on a very old mystery and most certainly made for guided tour I would be willing to take again.

Though the home has changed in some ways since 1963, stepping inside still feels like you are stepping back into the pages of history and having just spent a month reading the Stephen King novel 11/22/63, I admit I felt exhilaration and a definite case of the chills during my tour.

I can confidently say that the home's owner Patricia, who can be found on Facebook she informed me, is amazing at bringing the history and ambiance of the era to life and I enjoyed her tour more than many I have been on lately. Definitely worth the stop if you are in the area and worth the support us many history buffs to keep it open!

Oh Yes! And what else might make it worth your time and attention if you are a geocacher??

That could be JFK50GT #9: Boarding House, the multi-stage geocache hiding on the property as part of the reward trail, just waiting for you to come and find it!

 

 Sorry... no spoilers here! ;)

Along the JFK50 Geotrail: Beginning

Downtown Dallas

If you should find yourself in the Dallas area, I would like to recommend a can't miss geotrail for you to find. It is a 14 cache (a mix of traditional, multi, and even a Wherigo!) that will reward you at the end with a coin to commemorate the 50 anniversary of that black day in history when President John F Kennedy was shot and killed during his presidential tour.

Though I was not able to yet visit all of the sites, I can tell you that this is one of the more thought out and well executed geotrails I have enjoyed, whose primary focus is to educate the general population of cachers on the events of the darkest day in Dallas history.

In the next couple of posts, I will be highlighting some of the areas that the trail allowed me to explore and some of the things I personally found interesting.

You will need to visit the official site for the trail at www.jfk50geotrail.com so that you can download a paper copy of the passport for the trail. This will be absolutely necessary if you wish to obtain the commemorate coin, as each cache will have either a code word or a stamp or such for you to apply to your paper.  Here is a list of all of the 14 caches you will be searching for:

 

JFK50GT #1: Love Field	JFK50GT #6: Dealey Plaza #1	JFK50GT #11: Texas Theater
JFK50GT #2: Love Field	JFK50GT #7: Dealey Plaza #2	JFK50GT #12: Officer Tippit Murder
JFK50GT #3: Craddock Park	JFK50GT #8: The Municipal Building	JFK50GT #13: Officer Tippit Gravesite
JFK50GT #4: Parkland	JFK50GT #9: Boarding House	JFK50GT #14: Campisi's
JFK50GT #5: Trade Mart	JFK50GT #10: Neely House

 

 

If you are only interested in reading the history and finding the cache, you can simply log as usual. But honestly, why go through the trouble without gaining the fun? :D

Each cache takes you deeper into the story of the events of the day as they unfold and I guarantee that no matter how much a student of history you would like to call yourself, you will absolutely learn something new if you take the time to read through and absorb all of the information made available to you. Remember, while you are on the trail...keep an open mind, an open heart, and of course, an open eye!!

Though I was unable to find the time on a short day to complete all 14 caches, I am really looking forward and eager to finish the run and complete my passport!

The amount of research and care that has gone into planning out and executing this trail absolutely humbled me, and it was an honor to be able to “witness” to this small taste of true American history.

I offer my thanks and my appreciation for the work that these volunteers have put into making this possible and the added stress and time it takes to keep it alive and going! You guys are awesome!!