2019-03-03: A Packed Geocaching Road Trip from Texas to Minnesota and Back! Busy Day #2 in OK, KS, and MO.

"OK campers, rise and shine, and don't forget your booties because it's COOOLD out there!" (a little Groundhog Day humor there) Are you ready for day two of our road trip? The temperature is a whopping 1 DEGREE outside this morning with fresh snow on the ground! CLFM and I were up and out at sunrise ready hit the road. Well he more than I since I'm still dealing with a pinched nerve in my lower back and not much sleep because of it.

In case you missed Day One of our roadtrip, you can catch up here. We begin today still in Oklahoma. In the town of Perry to be exact. First geocache on the agenda is another one of those puzzle caches that I'm clueless about. But CLFM solved it and we make the find for "Wrestling Park" (GC73VWX). I think we were the first ones downtown this early Sunday morning and I felt kinda bad putting the first set of tire tracks through the fresh snow cover.

Now back to I-35 northbound only to exit back off a few miles up the road for a virtual cache drive-by. "Keep a Truckin" (GC4B0F) is a very unique roadside attraction and billboard for a trucking supply company. What I didn't realize until now was that I had seen this truck several times before passing through while I was a trucker myself from 2007-2010. I started geocaching back in 2006 and don't know why I never logged this virtual geocache as a find before.

Well we finally made it to Kansas! And after a stop at Walgreens to pickup some Aleve, my back is starting to feel a little better. Not much, but a little bit.

First on the list in Kansas is another quick drive-by virtual geocache at the Mulvane Historical Museum (GC66E3). We found the caboose with the required answer (which I have blocked out), snap a photo, and on to the next one.

Now one of the great things about geocaching and driving the back roads is that you never know what you might run across. This next one was NOT on our planned to-do list. We were driving down this back country road outside of Derby, Kansas on the way to grab another virtual. I spotted this metal sculpture, yard art of a bull mounted on 4-wheels, sitting atop a fence. It gave us a chuckle and I just had to make a u-turn for a photo. And wouldn't you know there was also a geocache there too (GC2RQM2). Sorry for the bad photo. This was taken through the window while CLFM was getting the cache.

So that virtual geocache we were headed to turned out to be some more yard art metal sculptures. "Jurassic Art" (GCB0CA) was probably the largest collection and best displayed yard art I've seen. Not pictured was a life size knight in shining armor with sword drawn fighting an even bigger winged dragon. But my favorite was the parade of ghost riders on Harley's!

Our next stop getting closer to Wichita, Kansas was an Earthcache at the Butler Artesian Well, a natural spring water well (GC1RY3Z). Although with the single digit temperatures and all the snow on the ground, there wasn't much to see.

Next up is a string of virtual geocaches in and around Wichita. "Hold the Anchovies" (GC85C9) is the beginning of one of the largest pizza chains in the country. This little brick building on the campus of Wichita State University is the very first Pizza Hut location.

And then there was this unique statue (GC7B63). There's no plaque or historical marker placed there to tell the story. But it goes along with what the soda counter represent. You can read the entire story at the geocaching page. In summary, on July 19, 1958 at the Dockum Drug Store sit-in was one of the first organized lunch counter sit-ins to protest segregation.

The Chisolm Trail was a trail used after the Civil War to drive cattle from Texas up to the Kansas rail yards heading east. The next virtual geocache is for a monument (GC9F39) that reminds us of the history of Wichita and those dangerous cattle drives.

And last but not least was the Lonely Steer (GCB06A). A statue of a Texas longhorn bull, just one of two original bull statues built in the 1970's. They were separated a few years back because of some construction and this one ended up out front of the high school as its mascot.

Back on the Interstate 35 northbound, we stopped at a rest area for some gas, coffee, and a cache for Chase County (GC5QCMP). Then a quick stop for a cache in Lyon County (GC28NF4).

In Topeka, this next one was another virtual geocache (GCB30E). Can't show you the photos because they give the answers. But I will describe it from the CO's perspective. He's an Iraq War Veteran. "The aircraft in question has quite the history. It does not list the accomplishments it has endured but it holds 14 world records in various areas such as longest endurance flight and highest altitude. I am a member of one of the units that used to fly one of these very dependable and durable aircraft. We now use a more advanced aircraft that has more room and greater speeds as well as being more mission capable. If you stay long enough, you may see us up flying around."

Also in Topeka was the "Gone But Not Forgotten" virtual geocache (GCG3ZN). This memorial was dedicated to those who served and gave their lives during the Vietnam War.

Our last two geocaches in Kansas were in Atchison, both virtuals, and both in the same neighborhood! One at the birthplace of Amelia Earhart (GCBA15). She was a pioneer in aviation and the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She went missing trying to cross the Pacific and was never seen again.

The other house in the 'hood was the "Sallie House" (GC7B8Z7). The most haunted house in Kansas's most haunted town is none other that The Sallie House. The home earned its nickname after a 6-year-old died in the home during a failed appendicitis surgery in the early 1900's. Then it gained notoriety in the 1990's, when a couple renting the home reported harmless pranks being played on them, which eventually turned malicious and violent. After consulting a psychic, it was discovered that Sallie wasn't the only ghost haunting the home, but a middle-aged woman as well.

One more geocache today at the "Loess Is More" Earthcache (GC64KXZ) in Rock Port, Missouri. It was a long day, a long drive, freezing cold, and my back was still hurting. But we did find 18 caches for the day and saw a lot of history. We ended in Omaha, Nebraska for the night. And we start right there first thing in the morning. See you then.

2019-03-02: A Packed Geocaching Road Trip from Texas to Minnesota and Back! Busy Day #1 TX & OK

Hey Everybody! Welcome back to another of my adventures. This road trip adventure is brought to you by the company I work for. You ever have to take a business trip to corporate headquarters for a training meeting or something. The company wants to fly you in, pays for the hotel, and fly you back home. A long way to go, but you don't get to see anything.

Since I was between projects and had the free time, I asked if I could drive up and get reimbursed for the gas and hotels instead of them paying for airfare. And the answer was YES! Sounds like a road trip to me! So I start planning a route and looking up geocaches from Killeen, Texas to Minneapolis, Minnesota.

I also thought it would be fun to go along with another geocacher. So I inquired of another former Floridian cacher who's now living in Austin called "CuteLittleFuzzyMonkey", or CLFM for short. We've tried caching together before but just could never get our schedules to line up. He got back to me in a couple of days and said the timing works out perfect so it was a go!

Today was the day to hit the road and CLFM drove up to Killeen from Austin to meet me at my house. We both have GeoJeeps, but I prefer to drive so we took mine. Since he's got all the caches picked out and navigating, it only makes since for him to be in the passenger seat anyway right! Plus he's officially still on the clock and has to answer work related texts and emails too. So... AwayWeGo...

Our first stop was a puzzle cache up in Dallas. Puzzle geocaches are usually not at the posted coordinates. I hate puzzles because I'm not good at solving them. Fortunately CLFM is a puzzle master and has hidden many of them himself. Plus this one was called "Infinite Monkey Theorem" (GC3BT76) so we just had to find this one! I took one look at the puzzle and had no clue. But he solved it and we found the cache.

Next up was a virtual cache. A virtual geocache has no physical container. There are requirements like answering questions or taking a selfie at the given location. This is the original Pegasus (GC7B9NE) that once rotated 450 feet high above Dallas atop the Renaissance Revival Magnolia Building. The 40' tall flying red horse rotated on the 50' tall oil derrick above the 29 story building for the offices of the Magnolia Oil Company, which later was acquired by the Mobil Oil Company, from 1934 through 1999. This original sign was packed away in storage and replaced with a new sign. Found in 2012 and restored, it was moved to it's new location and lit up once again in 2015 at this Omni Dallas Hotel location.

Our last stop in downtown Dallas was another virtual geocache at this 30' eyeball (GC7B77Z). Created by artist Tony Tasset in 2007 for a temporary display in Chicago. After time in storage and a stop in St Louis, the Joule Hotel in Dallas purchased it in 2013 to anchor its sculpture garden. It certainly is an eye catcher! (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

Continuing on our way north, our next stop was at the Oakland Cemetery for two geocaches in Marshall County, Oklahoma (GC57HYM, GC5NHBK).

Then over to Johnston County for another virtual geocache at a veterans memorial park (GCGDCQ). The park is dedicated to the residents of Tishomingo who gave their lives in the various wars. One of the displays included this Blue Angels fighter jet.

A quick stop at the McAlister Cemetery gave us a cache in Carter County (GC2B84E). Sadly though, it also gave me a pain in my back! OUCH!! I've picked up heavy objects, bend the knees, don't bend the knees, no problem. This is the second time I've reached for a micro cache and just send a huge pain shooting through my lower back. The first one was leaning over a guard rail and reaching in for the cache. This time I see the cache, just reach into the bush, and almost drop to my knees in pain. Not the way I want to start this road trip.

Continuing north on I-35, we stop at a rest area to use the facilities and grab a cache for Murray County, Oklahoma (GC6TRPJ). Ugh... getting in and out of the Jeep is painful. It's not bad while I'm sitting. The heated seats help.

Now it's time for another virtual geocache. You know the best thing about geocaching is that you find some of the strangest things. In Cleveland County, we found some Bug Art (GCF12E). Someone actually took this full sized VW Beetle and added some legs to make it look like a bug for a great roadside attraction.

Some quick roadside caches (GC7ZGMJ, GC1VN87) and another puzzle cache (GC5EX03). And then there's this virtual cache for the Oklahoma City Air Force Memorial (GCF69C).

And this virtual cache at the Oklahoma City Memorial (GC4772). I wish we had time to look around further but we have a long road ahead and a lot of geocaches to find. Plus my back was killing me still.

After seven more geocaches, we ended the night in Perry, Oklahoma. I thought it would finally be good to lay down and stretch my back out. Wishful thinking. My back was so  tight I could barely move. I crawled into bed but I couldn't even take my shoes off. I couldn't take my jacket off. I couldn't move at all. Eventually I did manage to get some sleep but not much. Maybe an hour or so. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

2019-02-06: Finally Completing the Texas Counties After 13 Years!

YAY!! It only took me 13 YEARS to complete!! Being a Florida resident, we were traveling around in an RV and when we got to Fort Davis I remembered my sister telling me about this Geo treasure hunting game. Well our DataStorm satellite gave me coordinates wherever we were parked. So without a GPS, my son an I made 3 attempts hiking the trail before finding the cache on April 18, 2006. You can read all about that in a blog post here: http://awaywego.us/adventure_archives/04-19-06.html

Continuing West to California, north to Alaska, east to Maine, and then back to Florida, I would not see another Texas cache until July 2007 when I became a truck driver. Picking up some caches here and there as long as I can find Big Rig friendly caches, my last Texas cache as a truck driver came in April 2010. That started a dry spell as I would not step foot in Texas again until November 2015. (That's all in my original blog linked above.)

When I first arrived back in Texas this time, my wife and I were in Jasper (East Texas) for 6 weeks until her company transferred her to Lubbock. We were there for 3 months and then transferred again to Crane for 18 months. From there she went to Killeen. My new job had me working in West Texas, then down to the Rio Grande Valley. So I pretty much covered the state! (You can read all about that in this blog.)

I had the final 3 Texas counties: Hood, Dallam and Sherman. Hood was SW of Fort Worth and just a few hours away. But Dallam and Sherman Counties were WAYYY up in the top west corner of the panhandle. We just did not have time for them on that caching run while we were in Lubbock. I knew they would be haunting me and I almost had to leave them behind.

I finished surveying the wind farm project in the Rio Grand Valley (yeah my work involves a GPS also!) on January 25th and they wanted me to start in Missouri last Monday on the 28th. YIKES! No way I can grab those unless I took the REALLY long way around. Well as luck would have it, the last minute they told me to hold off on going to Missouri. So I decided I'd better run up there quick while I have the chance before they assign me my next project location.

A couple days ago I hit the road. Going north up I-35, I stopped for gas in Alvarado, Texas. Nearby was a large cemetery with two geocaches. I found them both (GC5ZMG5, GC5QRGJ). I mean you can't pass up a cemetery cache when you're that close right!

Then I finally arrived in Hood County and Acton Cemetery. Acton had four caches, one of which was for a famous resident; Elizabeth Crockett (GC6XKHC). Acton Cemetery is also the location of Acton Historical Site which is the smallest Texas State Park. The park basically consists of the grave of Elizabeth P. Crockett (1788-1860), widow of Alamo Hero David Crockett, and two of his children. In 1911, a statue and monument were erected to her memory and made a state park.

Acton (formerly called Comanche Peak) was named in 1855 by C. P. Hollis, the first merchant in town. In spite of the early name, Acton had few Comanche raids. After erecting a building for church and school, early pioneers selected this plot for a cemetery. The first person buried here was Mrs Wash Hutcheson in 1855.

A few more quick caches along the roadside before arriving up in Dalhart, Texas for the night and checking into the hotel.

Yesterday morning I'm up and out just before dawn. Dalhart has some creative caches in town and I wanted to get to them before the local muggles would hinder my search. The geocaches were called "The Valve of Life" (GC4YDEY), the "Denver and Rock Island Switch" (GC55P4B), and the "Dalhart Volunteer Fire Department" (GC58BMN). Combined they have well over 1000 visits and over 600 favorite points! And they get me one of my last two remaining counties!

Now the road to get to the tri-state corner, which I'll get to in a moment, goes into New Mexico before back into Texas. I already had that county for New Mexico, but I didn't want to pass up this cemetery. Clayton Cemetery contains the grave of "Black Jack" Ketchum (GC1KD22). Thomas Edward Ketchum (October 31, 1863 – April 26, 1901), was an ordinary cowboy and cattle driver who later turned to a life of crime. Black Jack Ketchum became one of the most famous outlaws in the region. He was captured when he single-handedly attempted to rob the same train again at the same place and in the same way that he, his brother Sam and others from the gang had robbed it just a few weeks earlier.

The train conductor, Mr. Frank Harrington, saw Tom approaching the moving train. He recognized him, grabbed a shotgun, and shot Tom in the arm, knocking him off his horse. The train continued, and the next day a posse came out and found Tom beside the tracks, badly wounded. He was transported to medical facilities at Trinidad, Colorado and his right arm had to be amputated. He was nursed back to health and then sent to Clayton, New Mexico Territory, for trial. In 1901, Black Jack was sentenced to death and hanged at Union County Court House for all his crimes and his last attempted train robbery. Black Jack's last words were: "I'll be in hell before you start breakfast, boys! Let her rip!"

Next up is a physical cache at the NW corner of Texas bordering New Mexico only (GC2VPKZ). You don't really notice it on most maps because it's just a slight overhang of about a mile where New Mexico goes over top of Texas before bumping into Oklahoma. So you have that marker and then about a mile to the east is the tri-state marker connecting Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. And that is a virtual geocache pictured below (GC9374). I just had to wear the black hat for that one!

So now I'm kinda zig-zagging between Texas and Oklahoma picking off the Oklahoma border counties as well. A quick roadside cache (GC4J62V) and a cemetery cache (GC146NC) for Cimarron County. Then I dive down into Sherman County, Texas for my final of the 254 Texas counties (GC4JYTD)! WOHOO!! My second completed state and it ONLY took 13 years to do so! LOL

Picking up seven more cemeteries and two quick roadside caches in Oklahoma before I get to the Shattuck Windmill Museum virtual geocache (GCGBM4). There are windmills of all kinds dating back to the 1800's. A whole lot smaller than the 300' turbines of today!

A few more quick caches yesterday after that and I found the nearest hotel just as it was getting dark to stretch out and relax.

This morning I grabbed a cache (GCMHHX) here in Altus, Oklahoma for Jackson County before crossing the border into Texas. Continuing southbound on US-281 towards Killeen, TX, I spotted this world's largest rocking chair and a virtual cache (GCGYEB).

One more geocache to show you on my drive back home today. This simple bird house looking geocache was easy to find (GC6Q8PT). The tricky park was getting it open to sign the log. After a few minutes I figured it out this gadget cache and had my hands on the prize.

So I completed my Texas Counties on February 5th, 2019! YAY!! That brings my total counties to 1024 with Texas and Florida completed. Hopefully by years end my job transfers me to a solar project in Virginia where I can work on another state. Stay tuned for what's coming next...

2017-03-19: A Long Weekend Roadtrip from West Texas 1301 Miles to MINGO!

Well it looked a lot closer on the map. Hello again and welcome back to the Away We Go's Geocaching Adventures Blog.

After working six days a week since December, work finally gave me a 4-day weekend off. YAY! The other half of the "We" still had to work on Thursday and a few hours Friday morning. Trying to figure out where to go on this long weekend, Plan A was San Antonio and the Riverwalk. Plan B was Big Spring and the historic Settles Hotel. Both of those are close enough that you don't really need the "extra" day. Then I remembered something that's been on the radar for many years! MINGO!

Plan C was only a 9 hour drive away! Easy right? MINGO is the oldest still active Geocache in the world! With the code GC30, it was hidden on May 11, 2000 and located in NW Kansas. As of this writing, it has been found 5,721 times and over 2100 favorite points. It ranks up there on every Geocachers bucket list along with visiting Geocaching HQ or attending a GeoWoodstock.

So back to Friday. After working a few hours in the morning, Candy returned home and we loaded up the car. Heading east on I-20 into Odessa, stopping for lunch at our favorite Greek restaurant Pop & Pita's and then a quick drive through at Starbucks. From there we headed north. The plans were to stay overnight in Amarillo, Texas. Normally on our road trips, we're spontaneous and don't make reservations anywhere. But this time I did.

We arrived at the hotel around 5:00 pm Friday evening. Probably would have driven further if we didn't already have the hotel booked. But on the positive side we found this great Italian restaurant called Macaroni Joe's and had a wonderfully delicious dinner. Candy had a Mahi Tuna Salad and I ordered what was called the Confetti Spaghetti. It was so good that I had to order the tiramisu for dessert even though I was already stuffed! And that was the BEST tiramisu I've ever eaten.

There were several items on the menu I wanted to try, including the turtle cheesecake. I almost ordered another dessert to go, but figured we'll run up to Kansas and back to Amarillo in time for dinner Saturday night. But as you'll read in a few minutes, that wasn't going to happen.

So back to the hotel to relax in the Jacuzzi for the evening. The only Geocache we found on Friday was right next to the hotel when I took GeoDog Max for a walk by the pond (GC48KA2).

Saturday was a long day and a long drive. Mingo looked so much closer on the map! I had spent several hours looking up caches to find going up and a different route coming back. Looking up historical spots, cool caches, and picking up needed counties in North Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. I had 89 caches on the "to find" list!

Hitting the road Saturday morning, we headed for our first stop at a roadside picnic area and a quick cache for a new county (GC15NN0). About 30 minutes later in another new county, I stop for a cemetery cache (GC5P1T5). Spending too long and about 10 minutes looking, I had to walk away with a DNF. By this time it was about 10:30 and I realize that we still had almost 5 hours of driving to get to NW Kansas! Time to skip all the counties and get to goal! MINGO!

Taking some county roads to get back to US-83 northbound and now we're making up some time. For a little while anyway. Until we hit the Oklahoma State Line! Speed limits drop from 75 MPH in Texas to 65 MPH in Oklahoma and Kansas. We're out in the middle of farm land for hours and stuck behind this oversized flatbed 18-wheeler doing 63-65 MPH! And this highway is busier than I ever thought and passing was nearly impossible. There was one spot in Oklahoma that was slightly hilly and made for a passing zone. Finally I was able to get around it!

But several miles later I spotted a ranch with cattle and one large bison standing out front. Visually it made for a great photo and Candy had never seen a real bison before. I pulled over and made a u-turn to get a picture. It turned out to be a very realistic looking statue of a bison! AND to make matters worse the oversized 18-wheeler passed us back and was out in front again! And again we're stuck doing 63-65 MPH for miles on end. And the landscape is flat and no more passing zones. We even made a quick fuel and bathroom stop and caught back up to it in no time. After another hour we decided to stop for a late lunch and be done with it.

FINALLY after caching for almost 11 years, we make it up to NW Kansas to find Geocache # GC30! Funny thing is that it is right off the exit of I-70. As a truck driver I probably drove by here several times. Anyway we find MINGO and three other caches right there at that exit. (GC598PW, GC4K4QN, GC559M6) There where some others in the area on my list, but it was late afternoon and we still had a long drive back to Amarillo!

By the time we made it back to our hotel in Amarillo, TX, it was 9:30 PM. A long day, a long drive, a goal accomplished, and one item checked off the bucket list! YAY!

After a good nights sleep and a much shorter drive ahead of us this morning, we make time to find some highlighted caches on our list around Amarillo. The first Geocache (GC2MNMV) was in the downtown area at the old AT&T building. On the wall by the entry door is something you don't see anymore: an old phone with a cord attached to the handset. The phone is no longer used as the door has been modernized with an electric ID swipe for the employees to unlock the door.

Next on the list was the old Summit Elementary School building GC1EQHM). Originally built in 1928, with a west addition added in the 1950's, the school closed it's doors in 1972. There had been rumors and urban legends of the old school being haunted. The most common story was that a janitor murdered at least 6 students and put them into the boiler. Their spirits still roam the halls at night. Numerous people over the years have been caught breaking in and trespassing. Recently purchased by the Summit Baptist Church and slowly been updated and restored. They claim they have not seen any signs of paranormal activity.

Driving further west along the historic Route 66, we arrive at the Helium Monument (GCG4YR) for a virtual cache. This monument was erected in 1968 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the discovery of helium on the sun. There were also 4 time capsules buried underneath. This first was opened in 1998 and the last to be opened in the year 2968! I can't tell you the years the other two would be opened because then you'd have one of the answers for the virtual.

Furthering the history of Helium in the area and that brings us to our next two caches GC1KJXX and GC13P2Y. In 1928 a 50,000-acre underground helium-bearing natural gas structure known as the Cliffside Field was discovered near Amarillo. In 1934, the United States Bureau of Mines completed negotiations for the Cliffside Helium Field and opened the Amarillo Helium Plant. For a number of years the plant at Amarillo was the sole producer of commercial helium in the world. Natural gas containing helium was piped from Cliffside Field to the Amarillo Helium Plant where the extraction of the helium from the natural gas took place.

After WWII, the need for helium declined and the Amarillo plant ceased producing helium and was only used for research during the cold war era. Scientific research led to breakthroughs in the use of helium in laser technology, satellites, and telecommunications. The abandoned plant was declared a historical site in 1966 and sold to a private owner in 2007.

Our last Geocache before heading south towards home was the Hub Cap Post (GCYBZX). Just a unique sign on the edge of someones property pointing towards different cities and a collection of stray hub caps.

That was it for this long weekend. A long drive of 1301 miles later and signing the log of the oldest cache! What a drive...