These Dreams

Kerry and I did some great caching in Cleveland over the weekend. Maybe Columbus is just bad luck for me? Do I need to move? I got in to Cleveland around 2pm on Saturday, and the weather was pretty crappy. But we ventured out anyway. Our idea was to do an indoor cache called "Sponge Worthy" by someone named SerenityNow - it's in a contraceptive museum on the Case Western campus. We plugged in the coordinates, parked, started walking, found it - and the museum was closed. It is only open weekdays during business hours. Probably the OPPOSITE of the times contraceptives are actually used. Undaunted, we went to the next cache that was only a few blocks away in Little Italy. We first had to gather clues from a mural on Murray Hill Road, which goes right through Little Italy. Part of the clue wanted us to count the quarter and eighth notes on one section of the mural - I have forgotten every single music lesson I ever had, as did Kerry, so I had to use a lifeline - I called my cousin Chris. With his help we were able to determine the coordinates for the actual cache, and started walking. Then it started to rain. So making the best of the situation, we stopped in a little Italian restaurant for a glass of Pinot Grigio to wait it out. Eventually we plodded on and found the cache, after which we were soaking wet and muddy. For the record - it was ME that dug around in the trees, vines, and underbrush while Kerry sat it out and deciphered the clue! (sorry, Kerry - but I had to point that out.)
The weather was fab on Sunday (though we got a late start because I slept so long). We did a cache called "Dreamland", which was in Lakeview Cemetery - the cemetery with the big Garfield memorial, and where Rockefeller is buried. It is an unbelievably vast cemetery - beautiful. It has the largest monuments I have ever seen. Kerry reported that it takes 20 minutes to walk from one side of the cemetery to the other, among huge trees and gigantic natural-looking rocks that had been made in to tombstones. This cache required us to tromp around a large portion of the cemetery, getting clues from various headstones. In case you haven't noticed, some of the very best caches lead you to the dead. Our last clue was a big monument with a poem on it. I've posted the poem below. We found the cache easily enough. This was the perfect cache. Known as a "multi-cache", it has you decipher clues and leads you from point to point. The cache was well-placed and not hard to find. However - while we were behind the mausoleum checking out the contents of the cache, some guy came wondering around the side. He was sort of surprised to find someone back there, much less two women sorting through trinkets and signing a log book. I think I had a Star Trek trading card in my hand (it had a picture of Wesley Crusher - which we might start using as our calling card). Kerry and I plan on going back to Lakeview in the fall - it really is a very interesting place.
As a side note: I was doing a spellcheck on this post, and it did not recognize "SerenityNow" and wanted me to replace it with "cremations". Weird.

Decor at Augustus - a ship's wheel. 

The poem at Augustus. 

I found the Dreamland cache behind these cool stone chairs. 

The Dreamland cache was located behind this mausoleum. 

Looks like people leave change on Rockefeller's grave for luck. The actual memorial looked like the Washinton Monument. 

The mural. 

While I'm relaxing, Gordie is still trying to show the way. 

Shelter from the rain at Tutto Giorno. 

Entering Little Italy 

Dreamland Poem

People that know me know I'm not the religious sort. But this is the poem Kerry and I found in Lakeview Cemetery as the final clue to the Dreamland cache. The decor on this memorial was nautical in nature, and this reminded me of my dad. He loved to sail, and we used a nautical poem at his funeral. So - this post is for my dad.

Dreamland

What if this life should prove a dream,

a slumber journey to a fancied sphere:

Would the return to consciousness redeem

The loss, eternal, of the dreamland here?

What if the scenes and friendships that seem real

Were but the vision of a reverie:

Would the awakening again reveal

The picture of the dreamland mystery?

Or would the thoughts, reflected in review

Of the dream incidents, recalled again,

Forever pass away, as most dreams do,

And naught of dreamland's memories remain?

What, if a choice were offered from above,

To live on earth, or dwell with the Supreme,

Forgetting all the ties, endearments, love,

In this strange life, if it should prove a dream.

What, if the future life, too, were denied

Returning glimpses of the dreamland shore -

What could the God of all above provide

In lieu of the lost dream - to dream no more.

-Albert Anthony Augustus

Cleveland, September 10th, 1925

Where the Wild Things Are(n't)

Kerry and I did some caching today, and we didn't exactly set the geocaching world on fire. I must be on a REAL losing streak lately! Kerry was in town with some of our other OU friends, and we took off this afternoon for some caching. The first one was a two-parter called Wild Thing, and we found the first cache easily enough - it was a camouflaged Altoids tin hidden in a tree. It contained little slips of laminated paper giving us the coordinates for the second part of the cache. We followed Gordie's directions and ended up in a cul-de-sac. Realizing it probably wasn't really the way we were supposed to go, we got out of the car and basically walked through someone's back yard to get down in to the woods. It was a ravine with a creek at the bottom - a pretty wide, deep creek. And Gordie was telling us the only way to go the 400 feet to the cache was to cross the stream. Our only two options were to either leave the area, get back in the car, and find another way around, or simply take off our hiking boots and socks, roll up our pants, and cross. We chose to cross. We considered just taking off our pants too, knowing it was deep enough that we would get them wet even if we rolled them up to our knees, but we were within sight of someone's deck so we wisely chose not to do that - good thing, because when I tell you about the next cache I'm going to tell you about a little 'brush with the law', and we really didn't need cops called on us at that point for - I don't know - being in our underwear in a backyard? Anyway, we took off our shoes and socks, and trudged through the muck in the stream to the other side. Then further down we had to walk across a fallen tree to get BACK to the other side. Oops. Anyway, the cache was supposed to be hidden on the side of this very steep hill that leads down to the creek, but we never found it. We spent about an hour or so searching, then called it quits. I HATE that. We emerged from the ravine in to the same backyard we came from, with wet clothes covered in mud. Luckily, we didn't see anyone.
The second cache of the day was relatively easy to find - it was in Blendon Woods park in Westerville. The cache was located just off a trail, but right next to the road, so we pulled off to the side, parked the car, and got out. Apparently the park police frown on parking this way, and as we're standing in a ditch off to the side of the road a police truck pulled up with lights flashing. Kerry was sitting on the ground trying to decipher one of the encrypted clues to help us find the cache - my gps was off because of heavy tree cover. I was standing in front of her holding the gps, and when the officer walked up to us I'm staring up at him with that deer in the headlights look, and he says "What's going on this afternoon?" To which I reply: "Nothing." Uh, yeah. So realizing that wasn't going to quite explain anything, I said "Geocaching". Luckily I didn't have to define that - he knew exactly what it was, and said it was fine, we just couldn't park on the side of the road. He even must have known exactly where the cache was, because he gave us a tip - we were very close, and park policy says it had to be no more than 3 feet from the trail. Information that would have been useful to start with. What a day. We got in the car and parked legally, then followed the trail back around and found the cache right away.

I almost lost my sunglasses to the mighty stream. 

Wading (with pants). That isn't the deep part - it was thigh-high close to the other bank. 

Lunchtime Caching

After the horror of the Adams Amazing Race loss, I needed to get back to caching. I found several caches close to my office, so I took off at lunchtime today for one that's hidden in Whetstone Park. I go to the Park of Roses all the time at lunch to read, but I've never wandered on any of the paths in that area. This cache, called the Nerdy Smurf (why, I'm not sure) was hidden in a giant tree down by the river. Some people pulled up next to me in the parking lot as I was changing in to my hiking boots, and they watched me get out of the car with my gps and a camera. I then walked over to the edge of the woods behind the baseball diamond, and disappeared over the edge there down toward the river. I wonder what they thought I was doing? Muggles - they just don't get it. Anyway, the cache was only about 400 feet from that point, and I found it easily. There wasn't anyone in that immediate area, so I didn't have to be sneaky about it. Lunchtime caching is the COOLEST. Though I did come back to the office with dirt on my jeans and a leaf in my hair - do you think that looked suspicious?

This looks like something from Lord of the Rings. Can't you just hear Frodo shouting "Get off the road!"? 

Race

I REALLY wish I hadn't made that comment about posting from the winner's circle after the race yesterday. Because team Booty Fett lost. And lost BIG. We were doomed from the beginning - we got confused about an altered clue that was supposed to be applied later in the race, and tried to apply it to the first clue. So we lost almost 3 hours to that. Then we got hung up in the parks in Westerville - we couldn't really figure out which one we were supposed to go to to find the next clue. But, in the end, we had fun and I found myself on the top of Hoover Dam, which I've never been to before. We also ended up in Inniswood Park in Westerville - it is has themed, well-sculpted gardens with various paths, ponds, and waterfalls. In one part of the park I felt a little bit like Alice In Wonderland. It's a beautiful place and I would recommend going there.
For everything we had to aid us in our search, we just weren't prepared for what we had to do. We did, however, have a bar stool in the trunk - just in case we needed it. After the race Ruth and Bill threw a great party, and fun was had by all - even the losers. We look forward to next year - I think they are considering giving a prize for the most improved team - and there's just no way we could miss that one. For now I'll stick to geocaching.

The Booty Fett

I am about to embark on a great journey. It's isn't a geocache, but I believe there will be ample opportunity to use the gps. My friends Bill and Ruth are hosting a scavenger hunt today, called The Adams Amazing Race. It consists of teams of up to four people racing around Franklin County solving puzzles and gathering clues. Race times are noon until 6pm, during which time you find as many of these clues as possible. The only tool we are required to have is a digital camera, but Bill gave permission for whatever other electronic devices might aid us in our search, such as gps units, wireless laptops, etc. My team consists of myself, my cousin Chris Murnieks, David Land, and Chris Hannon. Our team name? Yep - The Booty Fett. If ever there were a day to wear my Bounty Hunter shirt this is it. (Aside from the opening day of Revenge of the Sith, which is why I purchased the shirt - what a nerd.) Bill had indicated that were I to include my cousin on this team, we have a very good chance of winning. That would indicate that it is highly detail-oriented and geeky to the extreme. So wish us luck. Maybe I'll report back from the winner's circle.

Cool Caches

I feel the need to state more about how cool geocaching is. Here's the deal. You go to the geocaching website. You type in your zip code, and it pulls up a list of caches in your area. You can find them anywhere, worldwide. Pull up the page for the cache, dowload the coordinates, and away you go. It isn't as easy as it sounds. If you're lucky you might get parking coordinates along with coordinates of the actual cache, but if not you might have to figure out where to park in order to get to the cache. Which again is more challenging than it sounds, especially if you are completely unfamiliar with the area. Kerry and I visited our friend Sona in Pittsburgh, and took off to do some geocaching while we were there. She declined to come with us. It could be that she thought it was stupid, or it could be because she's a new mom and prefered to stay home with Griffin - the cutest kid EVER. Anyway, Kerry and I had no point of reference for any of the cache sites - only the caches I had printed out and downloaded in to my gps before I arrived in Pittsburgh. So Gordie was our only guide. The one at Peters Lake was great. Took us around the bog end of the lake on a small deer trail, and wound around to a specific pine tree. There was even a sci-fi book in that particular cache. The Boyce Wetlands provided us with a favorite picture. A No Parking sign in the middle of a wetland. Duh. Maybe it was put there specifically for cachers? Permission has to be obtained for anyone to place a cache on State Park property, and you'd be suprised at the amount and the location of caches - there could be one in your own neighborhood, and you don't even know it. Secret Society. James Bond.

I'm no photographer, so look closely - there was a loon standing on a little island in the water. And I mean a bird, not Kerry.

Hey, idiot? This is a protected wetland. No Parking. 

Kerry locating and pulling the cache from under a pine tree 

The bog end of Peters Lake (it included a kamakazi turtle, not pictured)

Skullduggery

Probaby the coolest cache we found so far was in Knox County about 20 minutes outside of Mt. Vernon. We followed Gordie's directions out of town, and the roads grew progessively smaller until we were driving down single-lane dirt roads. (Gordie is the name of my gps unit - given that the team name is Wheaton's Wanderers, I'll let you figure that one out.) We knew we were looking for a cemetery, but passed it up once. The cemetery is located about a half-mile from the road, out of view, up a tree-shaded grassy lane. I steered the Cruising Vessel (that's my Passat) up the lane, and we weren't sure where we were headed - we were afraid we were going to end up in someone's yard. But suddenly we found ourselves in a clearing surrounded by old and crumbling tombstones. We explored a bit, and the most recent date on a headstone I read was 1905 - most of them were much older. Some groundhogs had dug holes next to three of the graves in the corner - it looked like the residents had escaped. While this place was serene and quite relaxing in the middle of the afternoon - we found ourselves wishing we had a picnic and a book to read - it would be exceedingly creepy at night. I thought maybe the Zombie Survival Guide would have been a good read here. Our thoughts are to return on a crisp October night with nothing but the full moon to light the way.

The actual cache was stashed behind a tree along the edge of the clearing, and was stored in a plastic skull. Boo!

Escape from Skullduggery 

Skull Cache 

Skullduggery 

Getting started

When you tell people that you're going geocaching, one of two things happens. They either know what geocaching is or, more often than not, they stare at you with a blank expression that becomes more of a confused, lost look when you attempt to explain it. For anyone that doesn't know what it is, hopefully this will help you get an idea, and possibly inspire you to try it out. For those of you that think it's kinda silly.. maybe this will change your mind.

"Wheaton's Wanderer's" is my geocaching team name. Usually that team consists of myself and my friend Kerry, but as I am the one with the gps it could be me and whoever I happened to rope in to going on an adventure. I used this name as sort of a tribute - I discovered geocaching while reading Wil Wheaton's blog. Why was I reading Wil Wheaton's blog? That's an entirely different subject.

Anway, I've had so much fun doing it and so many people ask me about it and seem intrigued by it, I figured it was worthy of a blog.