Our New Travelling Companion (Temporary)

As most of you know we are in to geocaching.  We like it becasue it takes us to some new places and it frequently adds to the pleasure of the hiking we are doing, especially in the spectacular West!  Geocaching is a world wide activity with millions of people involved finding millions of caches!  At geocaching.com  you can read more about it (or e-mail me).  One of the parts of this world wide treasure hunt is travel bugs, aka TBs.  A TB is a uniquely numbered device that a person places in a cache and others take it on a journey to other caches.  The orginator of the TB may set a specific goal for the TB or may just have a generic goal.  It might be to see Niagara Falls or more generically "to visit all 50 States". 

Buzzy

The actual TB is usually attached to something to add character to the issue.  For instance we picked up "Buzzy" in WI.  He was a plastic Buz Lightyear character from the movies.  His goal was to travel.  He had been MIA when I found him in a cache because somebody had not properly logged his travels on geocaching.com.  I got him back in the system and dropped him near Davis-Monthan AFB where I thought he might hitch an airplane ride toward the Space Coast in FL, a suitable goal for him.  However, he was subsequently picked up and is now in Colorado Springs.  Maybe he will join the USAF Space Command in Cheyenne Mountain.


Well, we recently picked up another TB the other day! Once he found out we traveled full time he would not leave us alone! We were hiking the White Tank Mountain Regional Park, a small mountain range nearby, and doing some geocaching too when we came upon this TB.  Even though he was in a well stocked cache with plenty of friends and beautiful view he wanted to patrol the roads and he knew we could help.  As I was trying to get away he jumped into my pocket and would not let go. BJ and I deceided to give him a ride, so now there are 3 of us, at least for awhile.  He really lights up when we start talking up our Alaska trip. 

The geocache residents!

The view from the geocache!

Our new traveling companion, Pa-Troll

So we are looking forward to seeing the USA with our new buddy.  He may know my brother, as they both have a pretty extensive background in police work!

Always at home, no matter where we are!!

Erosion in the Badlands

As mentioned in previous post, erosion is an important factor in creating the Badlands.  The various soil densities and slopes and the wind along with the water form the land into the magnificent landscape we see.  One of the geocahes we did will there gave some idea of what the forces were.
The cache was the Dillon Pass Erosion or GC1FKPJ.

The ground was level with the top of the benchmark over 50 years ago.

It was based on the erosion around a benchmark placed over 50 years ago on top of a natural mound.  These benchmarks are implanted level with the ground in a hole filled with concrete.  The benchmark is bronze and attached to a medal pipe which is embedded in the concrete.   So for this earthcache I was to measure how far above grade the top of the benchmark was now and then use that figure to determine the average erosion over the time the benchmark has been there.  In this case it was about two-tenths of an inch a year.  That does not sound like much, but in 150,000 years (a drop in the bucket of geological time) that would be over 800 ft.  They claim that in 250,000 years this will be a level plain instead of this gorgeous landscape so in that context two-tenths of an inch in a year as some significance.

An early geologist after visiting the area put it another way.  He said the Badlands are slowly migrating to the Missouri River which is less then a 100 miles away.  So if you don't want to miss some beautiful scenery you better plan on visiting the Badlands soon,

Always at home, no matter where we are!!

Doomsday is Today

Today we will be back on the Mainland again after four months in the Keys.  We got off to a cold start as December was the coldest month in recorded history.  However, the other months turned out to be very pleasant. 

We got in a lot of kayaking and explored some new territory.  We tried some new restaurants in the Keys and discovered some good food.  BJ fell in with a group of quilters and learned a lot about the craft she has always been interested in.  I got some diving in with some new dive buddies on some interesting reefs around Key West.  We enjoyed the camaraderie and activities in the RV park with new friends.

We started off at Long Key State Park until mid-December when we moved to NAS Key West and stayed there until early March when we moved up to John Pennykamp State Park as we prepared to start our summer travels.  We got in a good day of kayaking the Upper Keys and enjoyed the warm sunny days. 

We did visit the 2^nd oldest marine park in the US, Theater of the Sea in Islamorada.  The oldest was Marine Land south of St Augustine and no longer open to the public.   And, Theater of the Sea needs to do the same.  It is long in the tooth with old facilities, weak programs and the water is ugh!  And, they have an interactive program where you can swim in the water!!  Of course the gift shop is fully stocked with high price gadgets.  If they spent as much time on keeping the facility up as they do the gift shop it might be a better place.  Not recommended by us!

We did some geocaching  and enjoyed that and are really looking forward to doing that with Reagan, especially!  It is a world wide treasure hunt where people place “treasure” and then post the GPS coordinates on line for others to discover.  The treasurer is small boxes with little trinkets inside and we can see Reagan just having a great time figuring out what she is going to trade for.  If you take something, you have to leave something of equal or greater value.  Learn more at this website!  The picture to the right shows the view from one geocaching location I went to.  The cache is on the bench where I had it to sign the log.  I returned it to its hiding place after taking the picture!!

To the left here is a pic of another cache.  Look at all the treasures inside the box.  Reagan would have a ball!

I finished off our stay with a fabulous dive weekend.  On Friday afternoon did the Duane, a Coast Guard cutter sunk as artificial reef some 20+ years ago.  It is a great dive and it was followed by a dive on Pickles Reef and Snapper Ledge, two places loaded with reef fish.  Saturday AM we did a double dip (two dives) on the Speigel Grove, I large (510 ft) former Navy ship sunk as artificial reef  in 2002.  Then Sunday AM a dive on the Eagle, another Coast Guard cutter sank has an artificial reef in the 80’s.  However, about 6 years ago it was torn in half by a hurricane.  So it makes an interesting dive, the two parts are about 20 feet apart and the interior is wide open.  The weather for all 3 days/7dives was beautiful and viz was great and there was no current on any dive.  Conch Republic Dive Shop was up to its normal great standard.  Could not have had a better dive weekend!! 
So Monday we hit the mainland and head for our first stop – Melbourne for 3 weeks or so, then on to Jax to see Garrett and my brother, before we head to Carolinas for family wedding end of Apr.  After that we will spend some time on the road visiting DC and other points of interest arriving in Newport RI where Reagan and Addison and their handlers are.  After  a month there we will head West for a few years!! 
Keep in touch!!

Our Migration NORTH!!

As the sun sets on our season in the Keys, we look back on a wonderful three plus months enjoying many different activities and new friends as well as some old ones from previous visits. The weather got off to a bad start in December which turned out to be the coldest Dec on record.  It was rainy and windy and cold all at once!

However, Jan and Feb turned out to be beautiful weather interspersed with a few cool and/or windy days that gave us a break from kayaking and fishing!   We kayaked to some new Keys and revisited some we had visited on previous trips.  We, also worked on a new activity we have become involved in geocaching and are looking forward to that treasure hunting fun with our granddaughters.

This year we will visit our granddaughters and their handlers in RI before heading west to see Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Canyon as well as many other sites out west.  We plan on overwintering in warm weather,probably in SW Arizona at least part of the winter.  There is a huge RV gathering there in Jan and we will be there for that.

In Summer of 2012 we plan on doing Alaska in the RV and after that start working our way back to FL and hope to spend winter of 2012-2013 back in the Keys!

About mid-March we will start our northward migration but will do it slowly to mitigate any shock from the cooler weather.  We will move to the Upper Keys for about a week to start the acclimation process for colder weather.  About a week later we will move to South Fl and the Everglades National Park to help us get our land legs back after being on the keys which are very "fluid"!   After that we will return to Melbourne to visit family and do some routine appointments for about 3 weeks.  Hopefully we will survive the chilly Apr temps there and toughen up for the next jump north.  We will go to Jax to visit our son and my brother and after that go to NC to visit BJ's family and attend a niece's wedding at end of April.  We will then move on toward RI and arrive there about end of May for a months stay before heading west!

Stay tuned for more of our story!