It Just Isn't A Real Vacation Until You Go To The Local Wal-Mart!

I may be looking like a train wreck after the flight and layover ordeals from yesterday, but I am still pretty sure I will blend in at the Wal-Mart.

 

If I am not out in 3 hours, send reinforcements!

 

 

A Carnival of Laughs

 

 

 

I had the distinct pleasure recently to celebrate the birthday of good friend and fellow geocacher FailedApparatus, and there is no better way to do so than with good food, potent drinks and absolutely hilarious trivia!

 

The party was held at a local Charlotte bar called Kickstand which boasts a cyclist themed atmosphere.  At one point a fellow partygoer ordered a sandwich which, once delivered, seemed to measure over 6" in height and we were certain would require mad python skills with the dis-hinging of his jaw just to take the first bite. Sadly, such a sight would not be added to the night's entertainment. Fortunately, there was so much to entertain and amuse that it did not even matter, there was not lack of laughter and fun!



The birthday boy and his lovely lady

The legendary high stacked sandwich in question, The Fender Bender

 

The entire evening was filled with plenty of laughs, provided in large by our trivia host Tiny and then in part by a very inebriated lady who just could not believe her luck at seeing a real live "Birthday Boy" in person. (At least 4 times I heard her scream "there he is, that's the birthday boy" to her friends when the door to the private room was open, that was just a little before she and her equally inebriated friends accosted said birthday boy.  I am pretty sure they were considering the idea of birthday spanking him, but unfortunately for the rest of us she decided against it.)

 

After several rounds of the most fun pub style trivia ever and a very educational birthday song regarding what to stare at the cheer ones self up, we entered the final round and team "Happy Birthday Randal", consisting of Chris (HoosierSunshine), Rich (goingpostnet), and myself (NinjaChipmunk), pulled ahead and took home the gold! In this particular case, the gold was in the form of a black gift card for $20 each, which I considered a very generous prize!

 

After several hours, the party might have ended, but the laughs sure did not as a the card game "Cards Against Humanity" was whipped out and some of the greatest jewels of wisdom created were dropped onto the table. This was my first time every playing the game and I certainly hope not my last! The closest I could come to describing this game was an adult version of mad libs.

All in all, it was one of the best nights I have had out in a long time and I am so glad to have been considered enough of a friend to have been invited to join in the shenanigan and tom foolery.  Many thanks again to Tiny (we were promised a birthday strip tease, why was there no strip tease??) for hosting the trivia and another big happy birthday again to Randal, with much thanks for growing another year older and having the most epic birthday party of the year and giving us an excuse to have that kind of fun!  Best night ever!!!

Snowmagedon 2015

Now that Snowmagedon 2015 has come to a close and we are beginning to rebuild our lives here in North Carolina, I thought I would share some photos of the epic snowfall that completely shut down our entire state. Please...do not cry for us, we are strong and we will survive!

 

Thank goodness we all had the sense to get to the stores and buy every bit of bread and milk available before this catastrophe hit. Just judging by the desolate shelves of the store, there must be nothing as comforting to a Southerner during times of trouble than milk sandwiches. 

 

Here are the photos of the aftermath of the storm (WARNING: May contain scenes too graphic in nature for some.)

Oh! The humanity!!  There has to be at least an entire inch and a half of snow!! Send help!

 

 

Desperate times=desperate measure.  Here is Alex being forced by his mom to remove the snow from the walk by hand.
Strangely, the only way he felt able to relocate the snow was by tossing it at mommy's back.

Note the massive snowman on the left?  We almost ran out of snow trying to build him.



hhmm, this method of snow removal does not seem quite efficient enough to me, but it lots of fun.  Alex might be on to something!

In closing, thank you for all of your prayers and well wishes.  I don't know how we could have gotten through this State of Emergency without them! And I will leave you with one parting meme (not my own original, but very fitting):

...and all that Jazz, a geocaching meet up

Saturday was just an all around amazing day, and what is the best way to end an awesome day?  With a Western North Carolina Geocachers group event, of course!  A big thank you to AtlassYMM and ScouterMom for setting up what turned out to be one of the best events our little group has had in a while!

Western NC Geocachers group photo

With 26 people in attendance, and a delicious cake to mark the 4,000 cache milestone of our fellow member debaere, there was no excuse for anyone not have had a great time! It was also a pleasure to have geocachers drive all the way from Durham - over a 3 hour drive away- just to spend this special time with us!


The fun was only amplified by random conversations to be heard at a certain table filled with trouble makers (you know who you are!) such as: threatening a minor with forced castration, getting your hair caught in your arm pits while you are trying to sleep, the improvement of any and all foods by adding layers of cake, and a very hearty shout by one member of "ooops, that wasn't a leg!"



There were also some very generous door prize donations from various members, though the drawing was of course rigged by the 4 children all of whom, without exception, seemed to have pulled out their own numbers at one point. But when you are as cute as that, you can get away with just about anything, so no one really felt the need to call Shenanigans. 

Dave preparing to massacre..I mean cut,
 his celebratory cake
 

All in all, it seems that the laughs and smiles were as free flowing as the sweet tea and no one went home sad or hungry as far as I could tell.  I am definitely looking forward to our group's next gathering, which should be to celebrate Valentine's Day with a delicious pizza pie party on February 14!!  Can't wait to see what these maniacs pull out of their hats for that day!

Thank You to you too, Mayor Harris

I just wanted to send out a big "Thank You" to Mayor Harris of the town of Pacolet, SC for the extra touch of sending a kind, personal handwritten note to me, along with my new geocoin for completing the Pacolet Geo Trail.  It is those added touches that make you want to revisit certain areas, and I do not think this will have been my last trip to their sweet little town. 

What a nice surprise to find in your mail!

Caching the Pacolet Trail

 

Earlier this month, I had the immense joy of joining one of my geo-buddies, Debaere, and completing the Pacolet, SC geocaching trail.  Upon completion, you are rewarded with a lovely trackable geocoin to commemorate your adventure. I am a huge fan of coins, and an even bigger fan of free ones, so when Dave suggested the outing, my only response was "What time do we leave"!

This trail is a series of caches set up through out the quaint and quiet town of Pacolet and the entire series can be completed in around 4 hours or so.  It is very well set up and the caches range from the typical to the entertaining! If you have never completed a Whereigo cache, the one associated with this trail is a terrific one to start with, and easy to complete.  I very much recommend it...in fact, I very much recommend you go down to SC and do the entire trail, you will have a marvelous time!!

In order to receive your reward coin, you must first print your passport (look at the cache page and you can download one there) and complete a drawing at each of the caches (Da Vince level skills not required) and then mail/turn in your completed passport.  That's it, it is that easy!!

Here are a few photos of our adventures that day.

I love finding "Stairs to Nowhere"!



Dave fetching the water to nab the cache

Humans are not the only ones to autograph the concrete!



The photo cannot do justice to exactly how tiny and cute this church actually was!

Dave bringing the word of caching to the world

Merry Christmas Geocachers!!

Merry Christmas everyone!  I hope you had a safe and peaceful day...and were able to sneak in a cache or two!

Here is the gift that Jedi of the Woods got for me, and it is perfect! A geocaching charm bracelet, can you guess what all of the charms are?

Wile E Coyote School of Art

I have always found it sad how Wile E Coyote was remembered for his violence rather than his brilliantly realistic tunnel paintings.

So it was a delight to have found someone who was an obvious graduate of his class, Tunnel Painting 101.  This person has painted a strikingly realistic tunnel into a 3 story building, though as far as I can tell, there were no Road Runners in the immediate vicinity.

It was still impressive none the less. Thank you to the CO for placing a cache at this site, or else we might have missed this incredible piece of art!

Also in the same parking lot was a toilet specially designed for Clifford the Big Red Dog.

Clearly, this is a very cartoon-friendly neighborhood.

Sally the Stalker-mander

Do you believe that Santa Claus is watching you?  Well, if you are in the Columbia area, he isn't the only one!  There is a very small and very cute amphibian named Sally who is hiding out in several spots all through SC's capitol city. But don't be afraid, like most Southern Belles, she is quite friendly and happy to help you along your way.

 

Though not placed specifically for this multi cache, you will enjoy following the clues to find Sally at some of the most interesting sites in and around town.  We began our geo tour after taking pictures for the virtual across the street and were soon able to find the first clue that Sally had left for us. 

 

We did not see our amphibian tour guide at every clue, so I can only assume she was practicing her ninja skills (a past time that I, as a NinjaChipmunk, am also familiar with!) and we felt very honored whenever she did make an appearance. 

 

After much walking and many unique sites, we were able to find the cache and the coordinates to the final stage, for which we found would require a short drive.  It took quite a bit of stealth to obtain the first cache, as this is a VERY busy time of year and any appearances of creepiness in this spot would draw more attention than most places.  This is where having a team comes in handy, you can pose in front of a completely confusing sculpture and pretend to have your picture taken while providing cover for your operative to retrieve the target.  On a side note...anyone else notice the strange theme of women and goats in this particular square of town?

 

Local beauty...Rita the Meter Maid

Many thanks to the CO for setting up this grand tour and giving us a chance to discover so many cool and unexpected surprises and teaching us all a little more about your area! A lot of work was put into this and it showed!

 

And thank you to Sally for being so awesome and welcoming us with a smile!

 

Can I Get Your Number?

One of my favorite types of caches, and increasingly one of the hardest to find, would be the Letterbox cache!  Thanks to fellow cachers HoosierSunshine and SCGEONINJA we had the delight, nay the privilege, of finding two of these brilliant caches on Saturday!!

  As I have already posted about the first one of the day, designed by our own friendly Hoosier, this is an account of the extreme joy of finding our second one in the same day! 

And, as the instructions were written in true letterbox fashion, it did not disappoint. I believe that every member of our troupe was excited to find take off into the woods to find this one before the trivia event.

 

The letterbox itself was hidden in a very cool container which was filled with all kinds of happy swag for both the young and the young-at-heart geocacher. However, the essence of the cache was the opportunity to stamp your favorite number onto the log and to enjoy looking back at previous finders' favorites as well.



 

 

 

Here are the favorite numbers of Team Awesomesauce:

 

 

Don't Panic if you do not get this one, just have a towel handy

 

My own personal fave

Favorite shared by 2 team members,
you will now see it everywhere


 



If you get this one, you had an awesome childhood

I am not sure why, but I just love the novelty using stamp and ink for a cache. Thanks to the CO for making this one a fun and easy find.