Logs for cneumann98
04-Jul-20
***Family Vacation 2020, social-distancing style***
*After our original vacation plans had to be changed, we rented an RV, threw out some ideas, and came up with a 12-night plan for what we would like to see, visit, and accomplish. It's definitely been a unique trip, but this has been a UNIQUE year too!*
Day 10 - we awoke at a KOA south of Montpelier, VT, and ended our day at a truck stop in eastern Ohio. ***THIS CACHE*** was my non-negotiable site for the day. Once I explained to my family about where it falls on my Jasmer grid, they totally understood and were fully on board! And since it was hardly a 10 minute detour from our route, we set our sights on Erie and headed southwest.
Our only problem was an issue with ordering our dinners up in Buffalo. Through a series of missteps, we were running later than I would've liked. I was really getting afraid I'd be attempting this cache in the dark. My husband was insistent... if he had to carry a lantern for me, we'd get this cache! Well, the good news is that we got to the parking area a good 30 minutes before sunset. The walk along the ATV trail was wonderful; even my daughter came along just to enjoy the scenery (caching is most definitely not her thing!) I had read enough previous logs to be prepared for a couple of things: water and a better trail a bit later than expected. I wore my rubber boots (I figured if they over-topped, I could always change into dry clothes in the RV) and decided to be patient as the numbers got smaller and smaller. Sure enough, when they got to their smallest, there was standing water between me and GZ so I decided to continue down the path a bit further to see what I could find. I was rewarded with a geo-trail that never touched water! It was a tad muddy at the beginning, but that didn't even stay on my boots for long. I was very glad I had worn long sleeves as the thorns were grabbing at my arms at a few points in the last hundred feet or so. Gladly, the path opens up as you see the beacon and it was no struggle at all to find the container and gain entry. Another state's oldest in the books! And only two spots left in my Jasmer grid (8/2000 and 7/2020!) Took some pictures, sealed everything up, and headed back to the trail where my daughter waited (like I said, not a cacher!)
SL, TFTC!
*After our original vacation plans had to be changed, we rented an RV, threw out some ideas, and came up with a 12-night plan for what we would like to see, visit, and accomplish. It's definitely been a unique trip, but this has been a UNIQUE year too!*
Day 10 - we awoke at a KOA south of Montpelier, VT, and ended our day at a truck stop in eastern Ohio. ***THIS CACHE*** was my non-negotiable site for the day. Once I explained to my family about where it falls on my Jasmer grid, they totally understood and were fully on board! And since it was hardly a 10 minute detour from our route, we set our sights on Erie and headed southwest.
Our only problem was an issue with ordering our dinners up in Buffalo. Through a series of missteps, we were running later than I would've liked. I was really getting afraid I'd be attempting this cache in the dark. My husband was insistent... if he had to carry a lantern for me, we'd get this cache! Well, the good news is that we got to the parking area a good 30 minutes before sunset. The walk along the ATV trail was wonderful; even my daughter came along just to enjoy the scenery (caching is most definitely not her thing!) I had read enough previous logs to be prepared for a couple of things: water and a better trail a bit later than expected. I wore my rubber boots (I figured if they over-topped, I could always change into dry clothes in the RV) and decided to be patient as the numbers got smaller and smaller. Sure enough, when they got to their smallest, there was standing water between me and GZ so I decided to continue down the path a bit further to see what I could find. I was rewarded with a geo-trail that never touched water! It was a tad muddy at the beginning, but that didn't even stay on my boots for long. I was very glad I had worn long sleeves as the thorns were grabbing at my arms at a few points in the last hundred feet or so. Gladly, the path opens up as you see the beacon and it was no struggle at all to find the container and gain entry. Another state's oldest in the books! And only two spots left in my Jasmer grid (8/2000 and 7/2020!) Took some pictures, sealed everything up, and headed back to the trail where my daughter waited (like I said, not a cacher!)
SL, TFTC!
31-Jul-19
This... THIS... this was a huge part of my vacation plans and something I had been forewarning my family about for quite a long time. We packed head lamps and lanterns galore so that our family of four would be prepared for the traditional hike to GZ, you know, the dark route. I got everyone on board, even my slightly claustrophobic daughter (who ended up being a fabulous hiking buddy!) Many times, I reminded them that this one would be a long walk, not just a PnG; amazingly, they were super-understanding about my really high nerd level here and just ventured off into the wilderness with me!
We arrived at the nearly-empty parking lot around 8:30am. Only one other car was here and four people had just gotten out with bicycles, heading the same direction as us. We stocked up with flashlights, lanterns, and head lamps. We grabbed our water bottles and both my GPSr units. And off we went.
Personally, I enjoyed the whole trail. We had the tunnel basically to ourselves the entire way to GZ, except when one of the bicyclists doubled back looking for a missing pair of sunglasses (which had actually seen as we went past - he found them and sped past us one more time.) My caching son and muggle daughter did a great job as well. The tunnel seemed to bother my husband more than I expected though. I still feel bad about that, but he knew how important this cache was to me as I had been explaining the history to him for the last couple of days.
Arriving at GZ, we all started searching (I had not looked at spoiler pictures) and it was my muggle husband who spotted it first. My son and I signed in. I took a look at the trackables inside and decided to take some back home with me. My daughter even alerted me that there is a Snapchat location filter just for this cache here! After taking the obligatory pictures of celebration, we started back. I mentioned that I wanted to stop for the 2000 cache on the return trip and my husband mentioned that he was going to jog through the tunnel rather than walk it - I guess he was a little more creeped out than I had realized! I gave him my head lamp and took his lantern and he was off. My son ran with him at the end while my daughter stayed with me to walk back as we had done before. The return walk had way more traffic, all moving in the opposite direction of us. A group of a dozen joggers and another group of about a dozen bicyclists were the biggest groups by far.
SL, TFTC! I am SO glad Groundspeak un-archived this cache! It was a total highlight of my trip, both geocaching and just the overall experience! Of course it needs a favorite point from me!!!
*Family Vacation 2019 takes us to the Pacific Northwest. We will loop from Seattle, up through the Olympic Peninsula, ferry over to Victoria, ferry back to Vancouver, drive south again to Seattle, visit Mounts Rainier and St. Helens, detour over to Astoria, before ending in Portland.*
**This is day SIX. We woke up in Seattle (again again), but headed immediately out of town. First stop - APE cache! Next stop - Mt Rainier National Park. We ended up hiking about 10 miles today and spent the night in Packwood, WA.**
We arrived at the nearly-empty parking lot around 8:30am. Only one other car was here and four people had just gotten out with bicycles, heading the same direction as us. We stocked up with flashlights, lanterns, and head lamps. We grabbed our water bottles and both my GPSr units. And off we went.
Personally, I enjoyed the whole trail. We had the tunnel basically to ourselves the entire way to GZ, except when one of the bicyclists doubled back looking for a missing pair of sunglasses (which had actually seen as we went past - he found them and sped past us one more time.) My caching son and muggle daughter did a great job as well. The tunnel seemed to bother my husband more than I expected though. I still feel bad about that, but he knew how important this cache was to me as I had been explaining the history to him for the last couple of days.
Arriving at GZ, we all started searching (I had not looked at spoiler pictures) and it was my muggle husband who spotted it first. My son and I signed in. I took a look at the trackables inside and decided to take some back home with me. My daughter even alerted me that there is a Snapchat location filter just for this cache here! After taking the obligatory pictures of celebration, we started back. I mentioned that I wanted to stop for the 2000 cache on the return trip and my husband mentioned that he was going to jog through the tunnel rather than walk it - I guess he was a little more creeped out than I had realized! I gave him my head lamp and took his lantern and he was off. My son ran with him at the end while my daughter stayed with me to walk back as we had done before. The return walk had way more traffic, all moving in the opposite direction of us. A group of a dozen joggers and another group of about a dozen bicyclists were the biggest groups by far.
SL, TFTC! I am SO glad Groundspeak un-archived this cache! It was a total highlight of my trip, both geocaching and just the overall experience! Of course it needs a favorite point from me!!!
*Family Vacation 2019 takes us to the Pacific Northwest. We will loop from Seattle, up through the Olympic Peninsula, ferry over to Victoria, ferry back to Vancouver, drive south again to Seattle, visit Mounts Rainier and St. Helens, detour over to Astoria, before ending in Portland.*
**This is day SIX. We woke up in Seattle (again again), but headed immediately out of town. First stop - APE cache! Next stop - Mt Rainier National Park. We ended up hiking about 10 miles today and spent the night in Packwood, WA.**
31-Dec-15
Today was my second full day to explore NOLA and the French Quarter. This was the last virtual I needed to find in the French Quarter and it luckily coincided with my need for a place to sit and eat my lunch I had purchased at my previous GZ (and then chase with some cafe au lait and beignets!) The information was quickly gathered and I took a seat on some nearby brickwork to consume my delicious treats!
TFTVC!
TFTVC!
Today was my second full day to explore NOLA and the French Quarter. Our group took a ghost tour last night and while the blacksmith shop was mentioned, it was not one of our stops. It was my first post-cemetery-tour destination today though! I took a round-about path to GZ and stopped to take a group photo for a group of friends who were sitting in the garden area. It was also a good cover for me to get into the garden area and take some pictures of my own!
I took a peek inside but decided it was a bit early in the day to grab a drink, no matter how many accolades I hear about the hurricanes here.
TFTVC! Email has been sent and I'm adding a favorite point because otherwise the pirates may come get me!
I took a peek inside but decided it was a bit early in the day to grab a drink, no matter how many accolades I hear about the hurricanes here.TFTVC! Email has been sent and I'm adding a favorite point because otherwise the pirates may come get me!
Today was my second full day to explore NOLA and the French Quarter. I signed up for my tour of St. Louis Cemetery #1 as soon as I had my itinerary for this trip; it turns out that I got really lucky in choosing the group I went through and had an excellent master-of-ceremonies who gave us some really great stories about the people who are buried within the walls. Marie Laveau was one of the first tombs we stopped at on our 90 minute tour and I was elated that I found the information I needed so quickly (and without having to be obvious.) All said and done, I'm guessing I took about a hundred pictures while on the tour - absolutely stunning visuals.
TFTVC! Email has been sent and I'm adding a favorite point as this experience was one of the highlights of my visit.
.) All said and done, I'm guessing I took about a hundred pictures while on the tour - absolutely stunning visuals.TFTVC! Email has been sent and I'm adding a favorite point as this experience was one of the highlights of my visit.
30-Dec-15
After four days of driving, today was my first chance to explore NOLA on foot. When we drove into town yesterday, the car's GPSr directed us down Decatur Street, so I already had figured out at least two of the answers in a literal "drive by." I returned on foot today to gather as many of the other answers as I could. A father and daughter were there taking pictures at the same time but otherwise, few people were in this little area (they were all standing in lines across the street.)
TFTVC! Email has been sent.
TFTVC! Email has been sent.
After four days of driving, today was my first chance to explore NOLA on foot. I had worked my way north into the French Quarter using various streets but decided that taking the footpath along the river would be the best way to return south to meet up with the rest of my group for lunch. It also gave me a chance to grab this virtual cache before a wave of rain came through the area. I was treated to the whistles of the steamboat Natchez playing several songs as I studied for my answer.
TFTVC! Message has been sent.
TFTVC! Message has been sent.
After four days of driving, today was my first chance to explore NOLA on foot. I'm trying to get to all the virtuals I can reach on foot (or streetcar) and this was must-do for me! Another passerby stopped to look at the statue at the same time as me; I don't think she knew anything about the story behind it save the detail about "where" the statue was standing based on the nearby plaque. We chatted for a moment about what he would look like in color instead of bronze before she left. I took a couple of pictures and moved along myself.
TFTVC! Email has already been sent.
TFTVC! Email has already been sent.
After four days of driving, today was my first chance to explore NOLA on foot. This was my first stop in the morning, starting here and working my way into the French Quarter. One of our other family obsessions is smashed pennies, so this was a two-fer stop that I had to get to. Looks like all of the construction is finished in the brick area, but since the temporary requirements are still the only posted ones, I took the required picture while I was visiting. My grandfather fought in WWII and my wedding anniversary is D-Day, so it felt appropriate to be here.
TFTVC!
TFTVC!
After four days of driving, today was my first chance to explore NOLA on foot. When we drove into town from Chalmette, my car's GPSr directed us down Decatur Street, so we had already had a peek at many of the monuments along the way. Since I was walking, I was able to stroll a bit more, and wait out the passing muggles who were interested in their own pictures. The information was not difficult to gather and I took several pictures of this neat statue.
TFTVC! Email has been sent.
TFTVC! Email has been sent.
29-Dec-15
Today was day four of our trip from NW Illinois to New Orleans. We decided to take US 90 instead of I-10 in order to appreciate the towns along the trip as well as actually see the gulf! This was our last stop before heading back up to I-10 to complete the trip into NOLA. Stopping at this building was well worth it; the history is impressive and the reconstruction of this site is really well done.
TFTVC! Email has been sent.
TFTVC! Email has been sent.
Today was day four of our trip from NW Illinois to New Orleans. We decided to take US 90 instead of I-10 in order to appreciate the towns along the trip as well as actually see the gulf! This is the first virtual we came upon after leaving our hotel. Seeing as this was the first day of our vacation where it did not rain on us, I took full advantage and strolled around the park a bit while collecting my information. That isn't to say that my feet stayed dry since there was some ponding near the country flags! It was nice to see so many others (locals?) enjoying the park and using the trails for exercise. I gathered my information, paid my respects, and headed out, continuing west.
TFTVC! Email has been sent.
TFTVC! Email has been sent.
Today was day four of our trip from NW Illinois to New Orleans. We decided to take US 90 instead of I-10 in order to appreciate the towns along the trip as well as actually see the gulf! Once we arrived in NOLA, we parked the car and took a nice long walk around the Superdome area (since we are in town for the Sugar Bowl festivities, we thought it would be nice to see the building before all the people started swarming in!) My daughter and I crossed to the median in order to inspect all of the columns, not just find the correct one. I really loved the brick one, how it twists as it rises! We collected our information, took many pictures, and continued on our walk.
TFTVC! Email has been sent.
TFTVC! Email has been sent.
03-Aug-14
August 2-9, 2014... our family heads west on this year's version of "The Great American Family Roadtrip." We're hitting Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and then circling back home to Illinois. The goal is to add some stamps to my National Parks passport, add a variety of icons, earn some of the "7 Souvenirs of August" that nicely coincided with this trip, and see some places that we would never have visited without the target.
We were enjoying the scenery of driving from SLC to Moab. While reception on my phone was spotty, I had managed to pull up the map and see that there was one very close to the road here. My husband gave me a minute to look, but it took far less than that.
Grass is very tall here, so that helped hide me from view as I looked and grabbed the cache "in plain sight." We added our names and town name since the previous finders had all done the same.
SL, TFTC!
We were enjoying the scenery of driving from SLC to Moab. While reception on my phone was spotty, I had managed to pull up the map and see that there was one very close to the road here. My husband gave me a minute to look, but it took far less than that.
Grass is very tall here, so that helped hide me from view as I looked and grabbed the cache "in plain sight." We added our names and town name since the previous finders had all done the same.SL, TFTC!
