June 2023 - Roadside America in Indiana

I'm not sure what Team Gates expected when he planned on this Jasmer run to Indiana, but it was definitely an interesting adventure! Saturday in June found myself, TaGeez, afishoutawater, and Team Gates packed into a Yugo. Ok, maybe not a Yugo... our goal was a roundtrip adventure to Indiana so Gates could work on his Jasmer while TaGeez & I worked on our double. 

Now Gates has been doing a lot of geocaching with the Cool Crew, who loves a number run. We, on the other hand, are a different crew. Everyone, meet the OK CREW!

TaGeez, afishoutawater, Team Gates
scrapcat

Instead of numbers, we focused on the obscure, the quirky, the old. And we have all the pictures to prove it. 

First stop: the Grave of Johnny Appleseed in Fort Wayne!

Apple of My Eye GC890MY

Let's avenge a DNF!

Island in the Fort GC6PBKM

And visit a dark alley 77 steps long....

77 Steps GC9P64H

We had to stop and pose at the Rotary Jail Museum. How odd is this? 

Rotary jails were a unique innovation in penitentiary design where the cells were wedge-shaped spaces arranged around a central hub. The entire hub could then be spun by a mechanism beneath the cells that was controlled by a hand crank. The cells would spin around so that the door could only be accessed from one opening.

Rotary Cellblock GCHXCT

We finally made it to Turkey Run Stash GCC6. Long walks, steep paths, narrow trails hugging rocky cliffs. A scrapcat terrified and having a panic attack - heights are not my friend. Luckily, there was a TaGeez nearby to talk her down. 

The Victorious!

Suspended Until Further Notice GC88YZE

Narrows Covered Bridge GCX3AW

The trip back just got weirder. We spied some 'keepers of the cache'.

Indiana Spirit Quest GC65YHQ

Found some Bow Tie Brothers...

The Bow Tie Brothers GC9P548

And detoured to the Indianapolis Speedway. 

Louie's Motto GC941B

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway GC7A1E5

Did you know the Indianapolis Speedway is down the road from the City of Speedway? Stop in at Dawson's for crab cakes!

And retro candy. YUM!

It's getting weirder. I'm taking a picture of TaGeez photographing Gates next to fish taking a picture of a giant bunny.

And here is the bunny! The cache nearby was in a Nestle Quik container! Fave point!

A Guard for the Rabbit GC95QWY

Grab a picture of the Muffler Man while exiting the freeway... 

... and on your way to an Artesian Well.

Anderson Area Artesian Earthcache #2 GCZDB2

HEY! We're in the area! Might as well stop at the World's Largest Ball of Paint. We were the record holders for almost 36 hours, I believe!

Big Ball of Paint GC12FPA

With the timeline blown, we might as well detour to the birthplace of James Dean...

James Byron Dean Birthplace GC9P4VF

... and Garfield, in Marion.

Who had a very good time? Well, THIS GIRL!

I'm not sure if there will ever be another trip like this one!

March 2023 - Happy Birthday To Us! A Snowy Adventure!

 

Rolling into the new year, TaGeez and I ruminated how much of the last 3 years we lost to the Big 3 C's. One goal that fell to the wayside was our Fizzy Grid. We are Jasmer, not Fizzy, cachers so we had decided we needed to finish our Fizzy before we got too old for the terrains. 

With age in mind, we decided our joint birthday adventure was the perfect time to knock off some of our Fizzy squares. At this point in February, TaGeez needed 4 and I had 3 to go. Looking at the maps, it seemed like an adventure to Shipshewana, Indiana was in order!

It has been decades since I've been to Shipshewana. This was the perfect central point for our 3 target Fizzy fillers: Shipshewana, Grant County (IN), and Niles (MI). The drive out was a lovely, and we rolled into town in early afternoon. The skies were blue, and we were blessed with a sunshiny day during the last days of February into March.

Not too many pictures of Shipshewana. We had a huge room at the Farmstead Inn, and there were a few nice shops (including quilt shops) downtown. We enjoyed an Adventure Lab, but we felt we had done all we could do in Shipshewana by early evening. 

TaGeez promised to make me this birdhouse
Look at the doorknobs!

We left early next morning to head to Grant County, Indiana (so TaGeez would qualify for another challenge) via Fort Wayne. 

Tommy GC528J3

We love Virtuals! Especially because they take us to the oddest and interesting places! Such as pulling off into a Fort Wayne park, walking up an apple-tree lined path to the gravesite of Johnny Appleseed! Oh, this must be beautiful when the apple blossoms are in bloom!

Apple of My Eye Virtual GC890MY

While grabbing a few more caches including this new Virtual (doesn't the umbrella add to the effect?), the rain started to pour down! WOW! This was a sign of things yet to come!

Note to self... on a road trip, you should actually checkout the weather report at some point!

77 Steps Virtual GC9P64H

Travel Bug Hotel Out Back GC98PY1

So, we were heading to Grant County, Indiana for TaGeez. We needed a D/T 1.0/4.5 cache for our Fizzy and decided qualifying for a challenge would be more manageable than a cliff climb or scuba cache. TaGeez needed one more cache in a county named for a President and Grant County was the closest from home. 

We thought, no big deal! 2 hours down and 2 hours back. And then the plan went out the window...

Grant County is the birthplace and final resting place for local resident, James Dean. Perfect! This Virtual will fit the bill!

James Byron Dean Birth Place Virtual GC9P4VF

It's pouring so hard we almost didn't get the picture!

This made us curious, and we discovered he was buried about 10 miles away so off we went to Fairmont!

Not James Dean's Grave - but close by

Little disappointing isn't it? GC10MBZ

Garfield is also from Grant County!

We headed back as scheduled, but we REALLY should've kept an eye on the weather! The 2-hour drive took us well over 4 due to the blizzard that swept across Indiana and lower Michigan! There were power outages all the way to Detroit. The highway from Fairmont to South Bend is not protected by trees so the wind buffered us and the roads were horribly slick due to the snow covering the rain-slick roads from earlier. No exaggeration, but there was a ditch between the Northbound and Southbound freeway, and, for a long stretch, we saw cars crashed in the ditch every few feet! Nerve wracking!

The view from our hotel doesn't do the storm justice

And then, the next morning, it was like the blizzard never happened! Leaving the hotel, we grabbed our priority challenges between South Bend and Niles. This included a D/T 4.5/5 and 1.0/4.5. We even grabbed an FTF in Niles! Woot!

Last days we found ourselves in St. Joseph in Michigan for a little water and lighthouse therapy. It seems to be our tradition over our birthday adventures over the last few years. 

So cold, but we're happy campers. It was both a fabulous and a scary trip. 

We made it home safely, and, after logging our caches, we found we had only 2 caches left to go! 

In case you're wondering, after a quick trip to Toledo and an FTF in Warren, we completed our Fizzies on April 6th - 1 month after this trip!

Fizzy Completed! 04/06/23