White Whale Captured!

That feeling when you find your white whale! 5 years since this puzzle's last find and 4 years of us DNF'ing it!

 

It only took us 4 hours of searching this week, 1 bag of trash plus some blood, scratches, & snow to make the claim!

Equinox Souvenir

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

Mystery at the Museum: The Detective

Woo hoo! Day #1 of Geocaching.com's Mystery at the Museum game, and TaGeez & I found our Detectives at a cache! Next up we need to hunt for a 2 shadows, 2 footprints and 2 fingerprints each. We're not sure what we're doing yet, but we have a lot of new (to us) caches in Holland, MI this weekend to figure it out!

Searching for Challenge Caches

A dear friend of mine emailed me - she wanted to know how to pull a list of challenge caches from Geocaching.com. Here is my quick and easy pull, but be aware. Premium members have better filtering rights than Basic members.

1. Access Geocaching.com and execute a search for the State or Region you are interested in.
2. After executing your search (notice the 34,503 results for Michigan), click the Filters button.

3. In the Filters window, deselect all but the Mystery Geocache Type.  This will prevent inclusion of other caches in your query (like a Traditional called "This is a challenge!")

4. Enter the keyword challenge in the Geocache Name Contains... field.

5. (Optional) Select I haven't found to exclude your found caches.

6. (Optional) Select I don't own to exclude caches hidden by you.

7. Click the Search button (or Update Search button, if you are updating your query) to execute your search.

Your search results now appear. Notice we went from 34,503 to 346 results in Michigan (for me).

Michigan Counties on My Mind

It's going to be a crazy year at work so TaGeez and I are looking forward to some adventures a little closer to home. Time to check-out my Project-GC county map.

I think we've left the UP too long, don't you?

Are Challenge Caches Dead?

I was perusing the book of faces and came across a post on a UK geocaching site. It stated that, since the Challenge moratorium was lifted, only 26 new challenge caches were published in Great Britain.

Out of curiosity, I ran the same search for Michigan, one of the most dense caches per mile areas on the planet (or so I personally believe). Since the moratorium was lifted, there have only been 9 challenge caches published in Michigan!

I posted a poll on the Southeastern Michigan Geocaching FB Group. What do you attribute this to?

• The new guidelines are a deterrent
• The new checker requirement is a deterrent
• All the good challenges already exist
• I'm a finder not a hider
• I don't like challenge caches

Did I miss anything? What do YOU attribute this to? 

Leaping All Over Middle Michigan

Happy Leap Day 2016! Like many of our peers, TaGeez and I took the day off and went exploring. This was our first adventure of the new year. 

Our original plan was to grab some puzzle finals on the east side - we had a hit list and everything. But it was a special day and the sun was peaking out. With a last minute decision, we decided to dump those plans and head to the middle of the mitten. 

First stop - Lansing, Michigan.

There is a cool series of challenges called "Historic Caches of Michigan Counties". WONDERFUL challenges because, to qualify, you have to visit the oldest 5 caches in each county. Oh, the history! Back in the days when people wrote their logs in the log. Oldies on Power Island, abandoned cemeteries, near the Michigan Lost Towns. With WikidKriket and TaGeez, we've loved exploring back roads and nature trails in Michigan.

Last Fall, we signed our 10th HCoMC challenge, which qualified us for the metachallenge in Lansing. Imagine our dismay when we realized the challenge was only 83 feet from a Multi stage we visited not long before before! SO CLOSE! So back to Lansing we went....

This is Wind Lord. As you can tell, TaGeez is a kindred spirit. Here's him doing his best 'Karate Kid' impression.

With a little maneuvering, we made the find, though. 

Historic Caches of Michigan Counties
Metachallenge GC30JWA

Next up? Alma, Michigan

So north we head. The next few stops were a lot of fun. We visited historic cemeteries that had several things in common: old headstones, dirt roads, snowbanks, and wind Turbines. Yes, this area has miles and miles of ginormous Turbine fields.

Michigan Ghost Town Challenge GC1PVAD

Plus a stopover at Alma College

St. Louis, Michigan: The Middle of the Mitten

And our goal - the middle of Michigan. Such a small town with a large name! Can you believe this is on US 12 - Michigan Avenue? It's all over the place!

Quaint little downtown with a Civil War memorial, a time capsule, and a truly wonderful quilt shop. Yes, we stopped and supported the local economy!

And we found the marker! If you can overlook that it resembles a headstone, it was pretty cool! Although we had sunshine to and from this little town, the moment we exited the car to check out the stone it started to sleet. 

Nearby is the Pilgrim's Memorial in the middle of the park. Plenty of the room for visiting guests. 

And then onto the gem of the day: the webcam! Yes, one of only 3 active webcam caches left in Michigan! After requirements gathering, we stopped and posed. Pretty cool, eh?

Mt Pleasant to Southfield to Home

Next stop is Mt Pleasant for the only Virtual cache in the immediate area. As we only have spoiler pictures, we can't post anything here. We then booked it south to reach LadyB's event in Southfield for laughter, geocoins, good friends, and raffles. We started the day with an event (at midnight) and ended the day with another. Good, good day.

---

Some times it IS about the numbers (Leap Day edition)

• This was our first road trip of the year and the first road trip in my new Fusion.
• TaGeez finished his 366 grid
• I finished my "Placed Caches by Found Date" grid with my Leap Day hide
• Completed year #4 of my cache-a-day streak
• TaGeez and I each hid a Leap Day cache
• Plus we had an FTF at 12:05 am
• Our smilies included 2 events, 2 challenges, 1 webcam, 1 virtual, and 4 traditionals.
• We also logged a find in a new Michigan county.
• We now have 2 new souvenirs, own 2 new Leap Day geocoins and won 3 prizes at the raffle table
• AND we both celebrated birthdays. 

It was a fabulous adventure!

Challenge Cache Survey!

Deadline: December 21st!

Geocaching.com just posted their survey to determine the fate of challenge caches! You have just 3 weeks to post your opinions!

#BringBackTheChallengeCache! I love the thrill of this chase!

A Last Getaway: Traverse City

Summer is waning, and TaGeez & I had the opportunity to camp for the weekend in Traverse City, Michigan.  Here are some pictures of our last major adventure for the year.  We saw some odd and beautiful things!

Grand Traverse Lighthouse - Leelanau Peninsula

The purpose of this trip was to dip our toes into the sand and spend time with the family.  PopLob, JimLob65, and CampFamily6 were awaiting us.  However, we had several hours to pass on the ride up and came across some wacky and wonderful webcam and Virtuals.  It was miraculous that the heavy rain stopped each time we needed to exit the car for a geocache.

Who named the best little town by a dam site? GCJRV9 webcam

Although we crossed off 7 Virtuals on this trip, we didn't include many here so as not to post spoilers.  The ones we stopped at were very memorable.

GREATER HEIGHTS GCGMP0

Now, here was a particularly odd stop. We pulled into Cadillac to grab a bite to eat.  While in town, we stopped by Ferrum Equinus GC8105. As I was gathering answers to the verification questions, I saw TaGeez wander off.  What the?  Yes, those are boulders in the trees.  This postage stamp park was filled with trees and boulders.  Pretty cool art installation, right?  They look so real!

Ferrum Equinus GC8105

Finally made it to TC. After pitching camp, we met the family at world famous Moomer for a celebratory treat! 

scrapcat, Hockeyman40, PopLob, and TaGeez

Afterwards they went off to do their thing (they were in town for the Red Wings training camp), we moseyed downtown for Cherry Republic, the world's largest pie tin, some cemetery caching, and Mancino's pizza before heading back to camp.

Cherry Republic

World's Largest Pie Pan

Fence nob adorning a gate for a family plot

Grand Traverse Bay

Mancino's on the West Bay - YUMMY!

Day 2 broke as a brisk but sunny morning.  The family were heading out for the Red Wings again so, after breaking camp, TaGeez and I had a few hours to kill. We decided to hit some historic caches and take a tour of the beautiful Leelanua Peninsula.

Daybreak at the State campgrounds

As this was primarily a trip to spend family time, we didn't have too many caches on our list. However, we discovered we almost qualified for the Historic Caches of Grand Traverse County Challenge GC2QT2B and the Historic Caches of Leelanau County Challenge GC58H0W. Sounds like a plan to me!

First stop was the Cass Pond Cache GC7430 (July 2002).  Dire warnings at the gates but the views were breathtaking. Lovely walk on the side of a hill (really).  Following the length of an old rail line, we traveled through large ferns and past yellow mushrooms to this oldie.

Gives you a sense of comfort, right?

But well worth the view....

With that, we were able to make our claim for the HCofGT Challenge.  Now for a drive up the coast.

'SteppinOn GCNETP
That's Power Island on the left

Quick stop in Sutton's Bay

Several years ago my father brought out his brand new iPad while on a visit to Traverse City.  As I had never seen one, my nephew Jon showed me how it worked. He opened Google Earth and showed me the amazing Grand Traverse Lighthouse on the map.  You could see it?  Real images?  He showed me how to twist and turn and take it (almost) to ground level.  I was amazed and played with is all night. You could click on the little square next to it for additional historical information.  WOW! The image of the Grand Traverse Lighthouse on Google Earth is what motivated me to get my first iPad. Ever since then, I've always wanted to visit.  It is gorgeous!

Grand Traverse Lighthouse on the tip of the
Leelanau Peninsula

scrapcat and TaGeez at the Grand Traverse Lighthouse

Enjoying a walk on the beach

scrapcat and TaGeez at the tip of the Leelanau Peninsula

 On the way back down the coast, we had one more cache to acquire - qualifying us for the Historic Caches of Leelanau County Challenge. I've visited cemeteries all around the country, but this was by far the most rural Pioneer cemetery I've ever visited.  Down a seasonal road in the middle of miles and miles of woods, there purported to have been a settlement here once. The only trace left were the few headstones poking out of the scrub nearby.

Bland Cemetery GC911D (Sept 2002)

Back in town for lunch with the family, we enjoyed burgers and conversation at the Mackinac Island Brewpub. LOVED the time we had with the family!

Our time is running out, and we needed to turn to home soon.  TaGeez and I had one last stop to make.  The final to the HCofLC Challenge. What an unexpected boon for us!  We hadn't really planned to cache this trip and now we were on the cusp of our second Historic County Challenge! This was a biggie for us - this would be our 10th HCofMI Challenge which qualified us for the meta-challenge in Lansing.

Only one problem. It was closed.  As we pulled up to the park, the construction crew were pulling the barriers in front of the entrance. They said no vehicles were allowed due to the eroding berm. When we explained why we were there and asked if we could proceed, they just repeated "no vehicles were allowed" and drove away. Well.  We came this far. We hoisted our packs and walked in. As the crow flies, it was only 3/10ths of a mile (up hill).  Add a lake in our way and it was closer to a half mile each way.  But we got it!

Turning home, we detoured to Frankfort. We've heard this was an up-and-coming vacation town just south of Empire.  The beaches were gorgeous as well as the views of Lake Michigan and the dunes. 

We spent quite a bit of time walking shoeless in the perfect sand.  Not too hot and not too cold... But TaGeez had to work tomorrow so back to the car we went. 

Pride of Pierport GCD8B0

Everyone know's it's Windy GCH2AZ

We had the pleasure of visiting 4 more Virtuals on the way home, but posting more pictures would post their spoilers, too. One cool one, Ladies First GCJW51, was about a historical figure I had just read about in our Smithsonian's Pioneers of Aviation and heard about in a recent Memory Palace podcast. We didn't know until we visited the marker that this person was a Michigander!

It was a wacky and wonderful adventure to cap off our summer!  Thank you, PopLob, JimLob65, and CampFamily6!