I Got Away!

This doesn't happen very often, but I had an overnight getaway by myself. Well, not by myself, myself, I went with a girlfriend. We left at 6:30 Monday morning for a Geocaching road trip to the western part of the state. We cached our way to back roads and ancient cemeteries. We walked through woods, and some girl gave me the finger for not understanding the crazy intersection. We cached in the dark, got spooked out at some of the dark places we had to go to find the caches. We laughed at some of the hides, like in the butts of elf statues, and rubber fish. We ended up at the hotel about 10:30 p.m. and got up bright and early the next day to cache our way back home. We cached on roads so narrow and slippery that I thought we would slip off the edge and nobody would ever find us. Of course we found the caches though. That's what counts. One cache took us up a hill so steep that I had to stop several time to catch my breath. The hill was dry, so it wasn't so bad. However, once we got to the top, (which was about 2 feet wide) where the cache was hidden, the other side of the hill was snow covered and slippery, and steep. So searching out the cache was tricky. We slid down, and pulled ourselves up by tree branches. At one point, I slid under a log, but my hips stopped me from going all the way under, thus resulting in me sliding all the way down the hill...on the wrong side from where we started. The only time I appreciated my hips. I was trapped there for several minutes trying to wiggle my way out. I couldn't get a grip on anything to pull myself out of there. My friend was searching over yonder, so she didn't see my stuckness. I thought that I was going to die there and the next cacher would find my skeleton. I say that because the last time anyone was up there was on Halloween. Not a high traffic area for geocachers, and zero phone service. Finally I got myself unstuck and just at that time my friend asked if I was still with her. "Yes friend, barely." In a matter of minutes after that, I saw a hint of the hidden container. My friend was saying that no way it was there because she was just poking around there. I insisted it was there. I slid my way over there, moved a few leaves and sticks, and wa-la, there was the cache! She was mad that she didn't find it first. Ha! What I shake my head at about geocaching, is that we go through all that just to sign a piece of paper with our geo-names, re-hide it in the same place and leave to go find the next one. Kinda dumb, but we love it. The rest of that day took us through quaint little towns, more cemeteries (my favorite) and searching out the tiniest of caches on giant tanks. We saw giant bikers, giant eyeballs, giant rock formations in the shape of a ship, and eagles. It's getting dark, and our last cache was on another slippery rustic road. We made it out alive, and headed home. We found 100 caches in these 2 days. I got home around 9 p.m. on Tuesday. Very fun time.

Me waving from bridge.
Very long way down, on a two foot wide road.
Giant biker.
Giant eyeball. Why? I don't know.
Ship Rock

The girls were on Spring Break this past week, so on Wednesday and Thursday, their grandma took them Easter shopping. Not sure why a girl needs 4 dresses for Easter. That's their grandma for you. Friday night we went to do a night cache. Tacks are out on trees or signs that can only be seen when a light is shined on them. So we started out at one end of a park, found the trail of glowy tacks on the trees and ended up at the other side of the park to search out the cache. We looked and looked, and looked for 2 hours, but we did not find it. At one point, I tried to cross the pond that was there. I was doing well on the ice until I was just about at the other side. Then....sploosh! I went in. I thought it was just a pond maybe about ankle to knee deep, but I went in up over my waist. Gross. I was OK with getting wet, but the stinky slimy water was grossing me out. Perry was busy looking for the cache so a friend started across the thin ice to save me. I had a walking stick with me so I handed it to her and she had me grab on to it. The ice kept cracking, but I eventually I got out. I'm upset that I dropped my flashlight in the water. So now I'm soaked through up to my boobs, but we must find the cache. We searched for another 45 minutes and then I started to get cold. As we were leaving, I saw the "Danger, Thin Ice" signs. Nice. We left but came back the next day in the daytime to find the cache. 3 hours later we finally found it buried in the snow. We shoveled snow everywhere to find it. As I write this I think..."How stupid". But it's fun. Things sure look different in the daytime. If I saw that the ice was that thin at night, I never would have attempted to cross it. I regret not taking a picture where I fell though. Perry regrets (after seeing that I was OK) not taking a picture of me waist deep in water. Ha!
It was a fun week. School is back in session tomorrow. Back to our routine. I think I'll rest.