Caching In The Wild Wild West

Last September Mark and I took a camping trip out West. Anyone that knows me and hasn't talked to me in a long while will probably think.... camping? Yep! Mark has done a lot of camping in his time, so he has really turned me on to it. Now, don't get the idea that we were just pitching a tent in the woods somewhere and bathing in streams or anything. We do what my friend Adam calls 'glamping' (Glamour + Camping = glamping). We stay at KOA campgrounds, which are really awesome most of the time with modern bathrooms, showers, a general store - you get the picture. Somewhere I can plug in my hair dryer and say "Man, roughing it is really great!" We got ourselves a tent, sleeping bags, stove and all of the camping accessories one needs to brave the wilderness, and we head out on the road. We drove to Moab, UT for our first stop - Arches National Park. It's Mark's favorite park and now I know why. It is surreal and dramatic - like an alien landscape. That's cliche, I know, but it's true. We also visted Canyonlands while we were staying in Moab, where I realized that I am absolutely terrified of heights. I never noticed it before. But believe me, that's a place that will bring it out! I kept yelling at Mark to get away from the edge wherever we went - even though he was like 20 feet from it. After that, we headed to Bryce Canyon. Along the way we stopped at a lovely lookout in Dixie National Forest, and that is where Mark proposed! It was perfect - we had the spot to ourselves. It was so sweet - then I almost carried us both over the edge when I said "Yes!" and ran at him to hug him. We almost both went over the side. THAT is my new favorite place! :) We did make it to Bryce Canyon alive, and wow. What an awesome place! We stayed at the famous Ruby's campground there, and we loved it. We had a nice secluded spot under some pines. We intended to go to Zion after that, but we loved it at Bryce Canyon so much that we skipped Zion and stayed an extra day. We headed toward Monument Valley after that. It's on a Navajo reservation, and it was spectacular. We did not intent to stay there, just drive through, take a look, then head on toward our last stop, Mesa Verde in Colorado. However, our story takes a turn for the worse here. Stopped at a gas station, got gas, car didn't turn back on. To make a long story short, we were barely able to get a hotel room (had to beg) and we had to wait for a tow truck the following day. Then we had to be towed all the way to a dealership in Flagstaff, about 3.5 hours away. What a ride! We stayed the night there and they fixed the car, and we headed on home. That is a LONG way. We did get to stop at Meteor Crater in Arizona, though - that was pretty cool.
So, of course along the way we picked up a cache in every state, and I even got a couple of extra states - New Mexico and Texas, thanks to our detour!

The cache in Denver was hidden on the back of this sign. This is me trying to be incognito while putting it back, pretending to read. I have no idea what that sign was about.

Mark and the Moki cache. The Moki tribe used to live here.

Nothing for miles, yet someone turns in to this little parking lot.

They found it first! I really didn't mean to take a picture of this lady's butt.

Got one in Arizona!

View of the Glen Canyon Dam from the cache site in Arizona.

I think this one was in New Mexico. It was attached to a power thingy in a metal pill cannister of some sort - I've never seen one of those before. I had to sign it there in the bushes because this rest area was crowded!

Texas cache. It was at a rest area. I included a picture of the bathroom (and yes, I felt creepy taking a picture in the bathroom). Pretty nice, huh? They dont' joke around! The rest areas in Texas were great! That's about the only good thing I have to say about that state, though. Maybe it was the monotonous landscape, maybe I'd been in the car too long. But rest areas and windmills were the only cool things about Texas.

Last cache in Oklahoma - pulled a magnetized Altoids tin out of this pole. After pushing a gaurdian grasshopper out of the way.

Hawaiian Caching - Honeymoon Style!

Here I am, almost 2 years after my last post. My boyfriend from my last post is now my husband, and to celebrate that I decided to post a couple of pictures of our cache in Hawaii. I just looked back at my previous posts and realized I never actually said that Mark was my boyfriend, in case anyone at work read my blog. (and I know at least a few people did!) Well, they've all figured it out by now so there you go. And hopefully this post will get me started again, and I can once more captivate tens of people with my tales of caching in the name of Wheaton!
Anyway, as you can see - we went to Hawaii for our honeymoon, and these pictures were taken on the island of Kauai. We only found a couple of caches there - that's all we really had time for. We were married in Vegas (in the presence of 25 close friends and family - a truly wonderful experience!), and we never had time to pick up the cache that was right outside the Luxor, which is where we stayed and were married. I can't tell you how PISSED I am that I missed my chance at a Nevada cache. During a trip out west last year, I managed to get caches in 10 more states, and I was excited to add Nevada. But oh well - I got Hawaii!
I think I'm getting Spring Fever, because I've really got the caching bug lately. I'm hoping to do a lot more of it this spring and summer, and I'm finally going to branch out and plant my own. About time, huh? THEN we'll have some fun! You can see more Hawaii pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/CoachFlynn91/HawaiianHoneymoon

There's the cache - under half of a coconut shell. Not a hide you see around here!

Check out those coordinates!

The happy honeymooning cachers. Awww!

Down the Rabbit Hole

Oops. I didn't realize it has been a month since my last post. Again, my tens of readers must be so upset - I apologize. Honestly? I haven't been doing any caching. How sad is that? I COULD tell you I've been lazy, but that just isn't true. I've had many other things to do lately, and guess what? Since this isn't a blog about my personal life I ain't gonna tell you about them.
I did do some caching toward the end of May in Kentucky and Tennessee. Mark and I went to the NACS conference in Nashville for work, and had the opportunity to stay at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. WOW. What a place. I sort of thought if we had spare time outside of the conference we could drive around and do some caching, but truth be told - you'd be crazy to leave that hotel if you're only there for a couple of days.
On the way to Nashville we stopped at Mammoth Cave in KY. We took a pretty cool tour. You enter the caves through a door, and decend steep stairs down in to the cave. Sometimes the walls are so close you have to turn sideways. I took a lot of pictures in the cave, and no matter how I played with my settings, the pictures just didn't come out. Oh, well. I guess you'll have to see that for yourselves.
I've included pictures here of the hotel, along with a few caches we found (and didn't find) on the way home.

I'll start with the caches. This wasn't far from the hotel at all - right on the other side of the freeway. Its a Bob Evans - I hate these caches. There are way too many muggles. And these coordinates were off, besides.  

Finally. Signing the logbook that was inside the magnetic keyholder under the newspaper stand. (Hmm... sounds a little "Col. Mustard in the Dining Room with the Candlestick) 

Searching in vain for a cache that wasn't there. I checked later - it has been completely removed from the geocaching site, which is unusual - if something goes missing they post it that way. They don't just wipe it from existence. But at least I know it wasn't just us. 

What was this guy doing? I was convinced that he was waiting for us to leave the area so he could get the cache himself, but it turned out he was just eating his lunch. Or.. so it seemed. 

Back in the Mammoth Cave area of KY on the way home, we picked up this cache in a convenient cemetery right off the freeway. 

Mark found the cache under this tree. 

The Hercules Train cache. This train used to cart passengers to the entrance to the caves at the turn of the century (or something). We were supposed to get information in order to claim the cache, but it is under construction and all the signs had been taken down. Figures. 

Entering Mammoth Cave. 

And out of the cave. We were in there. And there was this big underground hole. I swear.  

Hotel hallway. Does it remind anyone else of The Shining? But.. somehow ALL hotels remind me of The Shining. 

Mark's got upgraded to an Atrium view room with a balcony. My room had a view of a pine tree and a parking lot. 

Fountains and pools right outside the balcony of Mark's room. 

Wasabi's - the cool sushi bar. We didn't eat right at the bar, but they had some damn fine sushi. We had it for lunch one day, but then it was also included in the breakfast buffet. Yeah, I had sushi for breakfast.  

Up close this waterfall seemed very Indiana Jones. 

Lovely orchids, growing everywhere. The restaurants even serve them on top of the food.  

Entrance in to the oldest part of the hotel - The Magnolia. This is where our conference was held.  

A random waterfall (one of many) in a section called The Conservatory. Walkways stretched above this area, but you could also walk on paths below that wind through the water and tropical fauna.