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!

Labor Day Weekend: On the GeoTrail in Coshocton

 

It's become almost a tradition. Labor Day and geocaching with TaGeez & ShelleyJean. This time we headed down to Coshocton, Ohio for the Coshocton Ring GeoTrail. 

The Coshocton Ring Trail offers fun, free, family-friendly activity you can do any time of the year! There are 45 NEW caches placed for you to find. In order to earn the coin, you must log a total of 16, including the Cache to Rule All Caches, complete the passport, and get a cool Coshocton Ring Trail Coin.

Seen on the way! Such a good sign!

We were limited on time so we headed out Friday afternoon to grab some Ohio counties on our way. Did you know Switzerland is in Ohio? At least Little Switzerland is! Sugarcreek is home to the Guinness Book of World Records "largest cuckoo clock in the US". 

Tick Tock Virtual GC9P769

We were lucky enough to be present during the mid-hour entertainment, occupying ourselves beforehand with a nice little Adventure Lab across the street.

Lovely adventure into the town of Coshocton, where we spent a night at the Coshocton Village Inn. Jacqueline at the front desk gave SJ a heads-up that the onsite cache was kept behind the desk. And, with that, we grabbed CCR #45: Council of Elrond GC9RXM0. 

Since we only had the day, we got an early start. The fog was out and there was a bit of a chill in the air. It lent an air of mystery for a beautiful day ahead!

First stop was the Old Fort. 

"Located just south of the present-day south bank of the Tuscarawas River, near West Lafayette in Coshocton County, stands Ohio's oldest building. It is a small (16' X 16') sandstone structure, with rifle ports, known as the 'Old Stone Fort'. That the 'Old Stone Fort' is Ohio's oldest existing building, and one of the oldest European-built or early US buildings west of the Appalachian Mountains, is not in question. The question and the mystery is, who built the 'fort'?"

Dew covered

Now to start the geotrail. Caches are laid out into 3 rings: Narya, Vilya, and Nenya. You need to complete a total of 16: minimally 3 from each ring plus the CCR #01: The Cache to Rule All Caches. 

To simplify, I ran a pocket query for the series and then color-coded each ring. Voila! We had a plan of attack!

We spent 4 fabulous hours driving the backroads of Coshocton County. Farm stands, Amish Markets, cemeteries, libraries, and several of fabulous local businesses. We also detoured for a Carnegie Library and a local quilt shop. 

TaGeez and Scrapcat

Low-flying planes

And the final cache was impressive! CCR #01: The Cache to Rule All Caches included the final stamp we needed to complete our passports. Afterwards we visited the Coshocton Supply Company, where we met the indomitable Mindy! Lovely lady who enthusiastically awarded us our coins, sold us our t-shirts, and directed us to the local sites (including the horse-drawn canal boat). 

The Coshocton Supply Company is situated in historic Roscoe Village, a fabulous brick-lined downtown situated amongst other shops and down the road from the Warehouse Restaurant, "home of the legendary onion rings". And, MAN! They smelled and tasted delicious! More than enough for 3 hungry cachers!

Sadly, it's time to head home, but we had a little time to grab a few more counties and enjoy a little more sightseeing. My favorite stop of the trip was the Mount Vernon Dog Fountain! What a hoot! SJ, can we go back when we do Belmont? 

Must Love Dogs Virtual

TaGeez having too much fun!

Scrapcat and TaGeez in Mount Vernon

TaGeez is such a trooper! Another county down!

Swartz Creek Covered Bridge, Wyandot

In the end, we checked off 8 more Ohio counties and making plans for more on the way to the Belmont Geotrail this Fall!

Another fabulous adventure with the Super Sexy Trio (SST = Scrapcat, ShelleyJean, and TaGeez)! Coshocton is a friendly little town, nestled in small hills, and steeped in history.  We thoroughly enjoyed exploring the backroads but, more importantly, spending time together!

Coshocton Geocoin and Discover Tags

If you decide to visit, Mindy from the Coshocton Supply Company said they still have about 100 geocoins left. One Trail to Rule Them All!

Geocaches, Pizzas and Friends - Seneca County

TaGeez, ShelleyJean, and I headed to Seneca County with our new friend, geostasee. For today we are enjoying the Slice of Seneca County Geotrail!

geostasee, ShelleyJean, scrapcat, and TaGeez

Under clear blue skies and with a lovely breeze, we spent our Saturday finding 19 traditionals, letterboxes, multis and a puzzle from Fostoria into Tiffin and out to Attica. Each cache was associate or located near a different pizza place, and, with every find, we punched or wrote a passcode on our passports to earn a really cool (2-piece) Pizza Tour Geocoin served up in a mini pizza box!

Seneca County is very friendly to geocachers - this is not the first tour we enjoyed here. As we stopped at the Caverns, walked the trails of the preserves, or stood outside the parlors gathering puzzle clues, friendly locals cheered us on and were fabulously positive.

We lunched at a Tiffin diner, but dinner was a highlight at Reino's Pizza & Pasta in downtown Tiffin. Founded in the 1950's, the staff was friendly, and the owner stopped at our table twice. Dinner for us was a delicious Hawaiian Pizza Foldover and Garlic Bread with cheese! Next time we visit we'll return to try the pasta.

Our favorite geocaches of the day were the SSCG 04: 🍕 Here Today, Gone Tomato GCA9D2T at the local library and Iron Triangle Rail Park Caboose (Webcam) Virtual GC9P8VX.

Thank you to Seneca County for another fabulous experience. We appreciated the well-maintained caches taking us across the county plus the ability to pick-up our geocoins at the local hotel at the end.

International Geocaching Day - 2023