July 2023 - Lake Michigan Adventure

Ever find yourself on a beautiful Saturday with no responsibilities, no commitments, but an urge to get out? It's rare, but TaGeez and I found ourselves in that boat. 

What to do? What to do? Grab a box of donuts and head west. Hey, want to go to Kalamazoo? That's the joy of geocaching - you can always make an adventure on a geotrail!

First stop was this sweet little campus of Western Michigan University.

Kalamazoo Sky Line Virtual GC9P6KV

Good thing he's not afraid of heights!

We had no plans. We visited Bricks & Minifigs. We visited a quilt ship. We visited an airport. What? I've seen this Virtual listed for years, but when would we fly out of the Gerald R Ford Airport? It was a little tricky reaching the Observation Deck, but we managed it.

We have seen this Virtual for years, but it’s always seemed a little off our path & too time consuming. Today was the day to do it.

First, a few instructions for future finders: Park in the short term parking ($2 for the first hour) and enter the terminal at Door 3. Walk forward and through the small hallway/tunnel area (past baggage claim & towards security). When you see the Gerald R. Ford Tribute Room ahead, look up. The Observation Deck is directly above it. You can take the stairs on the right to the second floor.

We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. We sat and watched for planes (wish we could’ve got better pictures). We strolled sound the terminal and even had our pictures taken with a President! After completing the AL here, we drove over to the Viewing Area (SO packed with “birdwatchers”!) and completed the lab there, too.

I’m surprised at how much I enjoyed this! ❤️ Fave point!

Bird Watching Virtual GC7B6CB

Did you see the "bird" in the background? We had fun exploring the airport and even visiting with the President himself!

In for a penny, in for a pound. Let's keep heading a little Northeast for another sweet virtual. 

Valley of Heroes Virtual - GC7B6VZ

After paying our respects and gathering the necessary information, we headed nearby to Cascade Roadhouse for a delightful lunch. This was a great interlude in our day!

Did you know that Grand Rapids has a Bricks & Minifigs, too? 

Well, now what? Hey, do you remember there's an oldie somewhere out here? A March 2001 traditional! Now, where is it? We need it for our double Jasmer. 

TaGeez and I are working on our double Jasmer, and, as others have mentioned, “March 2001” is rare. So, when we realized we would be in this area, we detoured here for the find.

First, we were stopped by the construction crew because the road 300 ft from the park entrance was closed for resurfacing. When we explained we were trying to get to the park, they let us pass.

After parking and lathering ourselves in bug spray, we headed off. Wow! There is not enough bug spray in the world for these bloodsuckers! Even TaGeez, who is normally immune, had to don his head net!

.7 mile further down this track, we found the cache and the mosquitoes cheered! There were tons of them! We signed the log, dropped my path tag, and scurried back out of there (out of the shade and into the baking sun).

Floodpain Folly GC4E8

Ok, out of the dark and sweaty. Let's go find water! Attached to a beach and a nearby lighthouse. Oh, the joys of Lake Michigan via Grand Haven and Holland. 

Summer is almost gone, and we almost missed it. So glad we detoured to feel sand between our toes. 

We wrapped our day by heading South to Holland for a picnic lunch in our favorite park. Have you seen Centennial Park and the Wizard of Oz exhibit? 

Isn't this the perfect ending to a gorgeous day? 

Thank you, Michigan, for another memorable summer day!

July 2023 - An Trip to Midwest GeoBash

 

It's that time of year! Road trip to Fulton County Fairgrounds for Midwest GeoBash 2023 (GC9WDWW)! This year's theme is videogames.

TaGeez and I had commitments so we could only attend Friday and Saturday, so we arrived bright & early! The weather was stunning - a good day for a geo-adventure!

Did I mention video games? TeamPhoenix421 did a brilliant job with the fairground caches! I could fill screens and screens of photos of these fabulous caches! We were lucky enough to see them intact - shortly afterwards, they were replaced with more common containers. 

We made a point of grabbing all the accessible fairground caches and adventure labs. So peaceful cruising up and down the fields, running into old friends, for a bit of relaxing caching. 

Then onto the poker run! And this is one of my new favorite spots! The Richard Allan Studios!

And we brought home 2 of these cuties! There was no way I was leaving without them!

Back to the fairgrounds for the traditional photo and, of course, more of the fabulously fun geocaches and food trucks!

I'm ridiculously proud of this one! This was a stage in one of the Adventure Labs. There was a group of cachers who had been struggling for a long time to put this together and eventually gave up. I sat down and BAM! Less than a minute! 

We wrapped the day by grabbing some of Team Doxie's EGG Challenge caches and then a delicious dinner at Outlaw Smokehouse in Napoleon. Have you been? Add it to your itinerary!

Saturday morning involved more challenge caches, fairground caches, and TREASURE HUNT! That never gets old. 

Buy a ticket (in advance, is best). Go to the horse ring early Saturday morning (the earlier the better). For each ticket, you search and find a t-shirt trackable. Everyone is a winner!

We bought extra tickets this year because Bash made a change. Instead of 1, they buried 3 different trackable t-shirts for finding. We almost had 2 complete sets (one of each), but we were one off. Luckily our new friend from Lansing was willing to make a swap with us!

It's been a full two days, and time for a wrap. After a final trip to the food trucks (and a lovely picnic in the shade), we headed to Spangler for the closing ceremonies. Needless to say, TaGeez's shirt was a hit!

Midwest GeoBash 2023 - Closing Ceremony GCAA9KM 

Next year is a birthday theme (20th annual), and we've already marking our calendars for July 24-28, 2024. Hopefully the swag will be as fabulous! I bought the Flamingo Package, again. Scored 2 t-shirts (1 trackable), several trackable t-shirts and event coins. Loved the path tags, too. 

My favorite one, was this amazing videogame geocoin! That "display" is a custom-shaped path tag, and I have 5 other path tags I can swap it out with!

There ain't no other mega like Midwest GeoBash!

July 2023 - Murder in the Snag-The-Tag Mansion

 Have you heard of Snag the Tag? 

Join a game. Get there first. Find the tag. Redeem for a prize.

Fourth of July weekend, TaGeez and I received notification that someone had hid a Murder in the STT Mansion tag in downtown Detroit! What? We're normally the hiders so it was a thrill to go on the run!

First to find the tag can claim the bigger associated Geocoin, and the Major Gold tag was up for grabs!

WOW! What a downpour! Streets were flooding, lights were out, but we made it to the posted coordinates in good time. The frustration of finding parking! To our surprise, there was both a Major Gold and a Mrs Garnet tag waiting us! We each scored this round!

Once you find and log the tag, we received instructions to claim the main geocoin. Look how cool these magnifying glasses are! And heavy, too!

Keep an eye on the site for the next game coming to a town hear you!

June 2023 - The Perry Adventure

It seems like you can always make an adventure with geocaching.

TaGeez and I found ourselves in Perry, Michigan in June. There's a Lego store on the outskirts, and we found we had an afternoon to kill so we decided to explore. 

We felt we were off to a good start when we pulled into a local rest area for a high favorited cache, and we realized we were being watched...

Keeper of the Cache

Surprisingly enough, Perry had a sweet little downtown (close enough to the former Grand Trunk Railroad line and the Perry Mitten and Glove factory). We even found one of our favorite shops - the Swan Creek Candle Company! Long-lasting clean-burning soy candles. We tripped across it doing the local Adventure Lab. 

Another favorite stop on the Adventure Lab tour was the local Roadside America-featured King Kone!

Twistee Treat buildings are 28 feet tall and 20 feet wide fiberglass ice cream cones topped with cherries. The design was created by Robert G. "Skip" Skinner who built the first location in North Fort Myers in 1982. The buildings were produced in Cape Coral, FL. They were made from 19 pieces of fiberglass and assembled on-site. By 1986, there were 30 locations, all of them in Florida. It is believed that about 90 of these buildings were produced over the years. About half of them have been demolished. [source]

King Kone was DELICIOUS!

It was a short Adventure Lab, but we enjoyed the history of this little town.

Old Perry Centre GCXEKQ

We found ourselves making a quick stop at a local rest stop. True to form, I stuck with the motto of "Always read the plaque!" You discover the most unusual sites the the Michigan Center of Population.

What else can we do in the area? Come to find out MSU has another research property nearby with the appetizing name of Muck Soils Research Farm. It has several geocaches, a linear adventure lab and an earth cache. It would've been a lovely place to explore the birds if it wasn't for the lack of shade on a 90 degree day!

Muck Soils Research Farm GC9PQMY

We added 2 more birds to our life list! I believe they have logged approximately 130 different migrating bird types here. 

It seemed fitting that we ended our day the same way we started... with another "Keeper of the Cache"!

Keeper of the Cache

What a sweet little afternoon in small town Michigan!