NECT: The Webcams

The NCMCS was the main point and definitely a high point in the trip, but the entire trip was epic. Five days traveling from Niagara to Boston, Springfield to Providence via Hartford. Salem and Portsmouth and Kittery and Bennington. Our itinerary was a combination of webcams, high favorites, Roadside America and AtlasObscura. 

Our trip started early Friday as ShelleyJean and I departed from Detroit to Hudson, Massachusetts via Niagara Falls. To our delight, we found 2 Mountain Warehouses still had free promotional trackables and acquired a complete set on the way. On the down side, no stop at Niagara due to poor weather and huge holiday crowds. On the plus side, since everyone was at the falls, we had Power Vista to ourselves!

Power Vista - Niagara Falls, NY

Niagara Power Project Power Vista has 50 interactive exhibits about hydroelectricity and an observation deck perched 350 feet above the Niagara River Gorge.

It's a free museum that was as engrossing for adults as kids. If you are visiting Niagara and wish to get away from the crowds, it's a fascinating stop.

It also had a very unusual webcam. It all begins with a little card. When you walk into the museum, a volunteer shows you how to power up your Power Player card and setup your free account. You use this card to activate exhibits, score your stay, and...

TAKE YOUR PICTURE!

It took us a bit to locate the camera. It took us longer to select a background and settle on a pose that we liked. Afterwards you visit a website and save your picture. Pretty cool concept and a new twist on the webcam cache!

We were actually pretty lucky - we crossed paths with five webcams and all of them were functioning! The twist here (for all but Power Vista) is the CO did not give you exact coordinates to stand. And, in some cases, didn't supply a webcam URL either. They made you hunt for it. Luckily there were plenty of earlier logs with clues.

University of Rochester - New York

Rochester was sorta-ish on our way to Massachusetts. It ate a lot more time than expected due to construction, but the campus was lovely.  Biggest surprise here is they had these neat 15 minute parking spots - just enough time to run over to a common, snap a webcam photo, and hoof it back.

And there we are! Now to make our way back to the main road and head East. We stopped at all the 'text stops' along the way for some extra caching and our Massachusetts souvenir!

Since I'm sharing webcam photos from the first day, I might as well include the remaining three. All of them were fun stops that allowed us to slow down and enjoy a brief silly break.

University of Connecticut - "Who are you calling Husky?!"

Day #3 of our trip found us in Hartford, Connecticut. Since we were so close and new we would collect additional states the next day, we decided to drop in on Rhode Island and collected this webcam on the way. The traffic cop must've thought we were screwballs with all our comings and goings. This was a prime example of a webcam with no specified coordinates or posted URL.

As they are the U-Conn Huskies, the CO asks for you to pose in the form of a Y. (Ok, not kidding. It took us TOO long to realize why. U-Conn Huskies =Yukon Huskies). For some reason, SJ decided to cheer on the Maryland Terrapins!

University of New Hampshire

Admittedly, if TaGeez had been there to share it with us (he, alas, had to work), this may've topped my all-time favorite webcam. I agree with SJ - the image is SO clear! Love hanging with the cat!

Added bonus? This webcam was just a few miles from Kittery, Maine and the Warren Lobster House!

Yankee Magazine - Dublin, NH

For such a small state, New Hampshire has 4 webcams, but two were too far North. Yankee Ingenuity is on the way to Bennington, Vermont. We were luck enough to arrive while it was still daylight. As we were standing there, refreshing our screens, an older gentleman walking into the Keene Fire Department shouted out, "Make sure you get your good side!"

Be very, very careful if you ever stop at this webcam. If you click the page supplied by the CO, there are actually 3 webcams here, two pointing at this same strip of grass. He is very insistent that you use the one he specifies (which, IMO, was a little hidden down on the page). I couldn't use this image above in my log (wrong camera), but luckily SJ grabbed a screenshot from the right one.

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This makes 27 webcams for me. With each one, I keep thinking this may be the last. I see a good percentage of my webcam finds have been archived to date. I try not to dwell on the eventual demise of this cache type - it's so much fun! Instead, I'm hopeful that Geocaching.com will one day create a new cache type that generates as much loyalty as Webcams and Virtuals do.

Next up is our Springfield > Hartford > Providence adventure. 

OH-NY-PA Adventure

OUR FIRST REAL ADVENTURE OF THE YEAR!

TaGeez and I headed to Cleveland on Saturday to meetup with other members of Team Free Range Lobsters. Our primary purpose was the British Museum’s Pharaoh exhibit at the Cleveland Museum of Arts and dinner in Little Italy. 

Cleveland, Ohio 

It is a lovely museum. It's not as packed as the Detroit Institute of Arts, but they do a fabulous job displaying their treasures.  The building is an interesting blend of the original classic building with the modern glass & metal addition. If you go you MUST visit the armory upstairs. 

TaGeez just hanging around

Kriket and I had been planning this trip all Winter and were excited to check out the British Museum's exhibition with other members of the family. The place was packed and, by the time we arrived, the day's tickets were sold out. Glad we pre-ordered - it was worth every dime.

SnakeyLicks and WikidKriket at the Pharaoh Exhibit

After touring the rest of the museum we headed over to Little Italy down the street. It's an ethnic neighborhood, very similar to Detroit's Hamtramck, filled with restaurants, bakeries, and shops along a single, mural-lined road. Dinner was Mama Santa's and dessert were cannolis & amaretto Lobster Tails from Corbo's and Presti's.

Free Range Lobsters at their second bakery in Little Italy

Soon the others were heading their own way,, and that left TaGeez and I with a day and a half free, no commitments, and a rental VW Beetle with unlimited mileage. What to do? What to do? You see.. that's why TaGeez is the perfect traveling companion. When I mentioned to TaGeez that New York was only a 100 miles away, he grinned and pulled up the geocaching app on his phone!

New York Thruway - Westfield, NY

First stop: The New York Thruway where we grabbed our first NY cache and souvenir! It was a fun one in a hollowed log and shielded from the passing traffic by a dinner plate with a ceramic flower on it. Weird, I know.

WTNY (Welcome To New York) GC3YW58

We decided to head down to the next exit and grab a few more caches in Westfield. Westfield rests right on Lake Erie and is a quaint maritime village. We passed 'painted ladies' capped with widows walks along the scenic byway. No light illuminated the pier, but you could hear the water lap against the pylons. AND THE STARS! So far from the big city so the skies were dark as pitch and dotted with the brightest, most amazing stars! The dark, dark skies contrasted with those brilliant stars was awe-inspiring and overwhelming and made me feel like a tiny speck in a greater world. 

We comforted ourselves with more geocaching.

On the Corner Between Two and Four GC1V85H

Our path led us through the Village of Westfield and then along its back roads, up into the hills and passing grapvines by moonlight. We made sure to find about a dozen caches before turning towards home.

Presque Isle, Pennsylvania

The lateness caught up with us. We could've pushed it, but why risk it? Warily we pulled into a Pennsylvania hotel and stayed over for the night. After making arrangements with Papa Tree (of 3inaTree) to check on my furry ones, we headed home along the Lake Erie scenic byway. It's been a stressful winter and the freedom & peace were greatly needed.

I had told TaGeez a few weeks ago I wanted to go to church on Easter morning. I had meant to attend a service. Instead, we found a different kind of joy in the parish parking lot. 

If we had been in Michigan and not Pennsylvania today, we had intended to head to Mackinac City for the day. Since we were several hundred miles away, I was determined to walk on sand, lulled by the waves and enjoying the smells.... we detoured to lovely Presque Isle. My favorite part of the stop when finding a solitary bench on our visit and enjoying the last of our cannolis from Little Italy. Perfect. 

Perry Monument

This was a fascinating puzzle cache. Called Tombstone Rubble, it features three headstones that were mistakenly included a shipment of stones used for the breakwater off Presque Isle. Imagine being the first person to climb all over these stones and happen up on it. These three are visible, but, looking down the miles of waterfront, I wonder how many more have gone unnoticed?

GC1ZXGT

You can see how white we are - it's been so many months without the warm sun on our faces.

This weekend was gorgeous - 69° with blue skies and such a warm sun!

And, of course, there must be a lighthouse nearby.... 

Cleveland, OHIO - Lakeview Cemetery

After Presque Isle, we headed towards home. As we found ourselves near Cleveland again, we knew we needed to stretch our legs and find some food. We also took this opportunity to grab a large cache (a little library) and the final two caches in Lakeview Cemetery. 

The People's University GC4RT8G
See our Beetle in back?

This was our second trip to Lakeview Cemetery together - the first one was a fabulous adventure with Ratspazum two years earlier. Lakeview Cemetery (so called because you can see Lake Erie from the highest points) is a historic, 'garden' cemetery that catered to the rich off Millionaire's Row (Euclid Avenue) nearby. It has President Garfield's Mausoleum, Rockefeller's Obelisk, and acres & acres of the most impressive funerary art on the grounds.

It also has flowers. It is considered a 'garden' cemetery, "a style of burial ground that uses landscaping in a park-like setting."  And we just happened to stop in on Easter Sunday while they were having a Flower Tour. 

We had to stop by this old friend so TaGeez could redeem a DNF. 

Angle's Right Wing Friends GC2JAMA

Why is there not a cache here? Shameful!

One last spin around the perimeter, and we found ourselves with a most excellent view of Garfield's Mausoleum. 

President James A. Garfield Monument GC234RG

After a bite to eat, we headed home while singing Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody and racing ahead of a major rainstorm. This adventure was the medicine we needed. 

Our route and our spiffy new souvenir!