GIFF 2019 in Ferndale

The *LIGHTS* were dimmed...

The *CAMERAS* put away....

As my fellow cachers enjoyed the *ACTION* at this year's Geocaching International Film Festival screening in Ferndale yesterday.

Always a good time with geo-friends and the movies were better this year. Hard to pick a favorite, but I went with "Geocaching Documentary from Finland - Being Stealth | weellu & Harjus (Finland)". 

Remember to vote here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2019GIFF

Augmented Awesome Reality in Detroit

It snowed yesterday in Detroit. 

Seems like the sunny, summer days in Detroit are over for awhile. I'm glad TaGeez and I played hooky right before Halloween for Ally Financial's augmented reality game in downtown Detroit. 

Ally created a full-size game of Monopoly using Detroit as it's game board!

Hosted in six cities overall, Ally offered daily and final prizes totaling over $1M!

Ah, I bet this is what geocaching.com had wished for when they created their AR cache series last year. (I did one! Have you done it? AR_Find It in Ferndale). This AR game was so realistic! Rich Uncle Pennybags jumping out of the pavement. And TaGeez and I definitely had an advantage in Detroit - we know the D, it's history & geography, and are very good finders.

Ok, so what is this all about. You go online and pull up the game piece, read the hints to determine the correct geographical location (kinda like a letterbox), and then "capture" the Monopoly square to be entered into daily and final drawings!

It was a beautiful blue day in the D. 

First stop was Ally's headquarters and then the Spirit of Detroit.

Down to Hart Plaza and the Ford building (Oops! Wrong Ford building! There are so many in Detroit! But, hey! Did you know there's a Lincoln statue outside the Ford Building? Huh!)

Hart Plaza with Campus Martius behind us!

Can you believe there was a giant Monopoly piece downtown? SO FITTING it was the car in the Motor City!

We won $15 Uber gift cards!

So worth putting off adulting for an afternoon!

We rounded off our adventure with chocolate shakes from Shake Shack!

Did you get a chance to play?

That’s quite the octopus, isn’t it?

Do you carry a personal trackable when you cache? I have an ROT-13 key ring that goes Cache-to-Cache. Right now it has over 95,000 miles on it! Can you image the mileage if I had tagged back to home after each cache run? 

Looking forward to seeing this map after our trip to Seattle in August!

Bearly Caches in Maine

Have you visited the Garmin building in Yarmouth, Maine? 

Three of my all-time favorite caches off the same parking lot!

Bears in the Bushes

Maine Man

SOMEONE is off on another adventure!

TOTT: Log Extractor

This idea was shared by LadyMoon65 at September's Taco Tuesday. Super cheap, this is a small crochet hook used for extracting logs from small caches. The small hook extracts the log (even a wet one!) and the rounded top won't puncture your caching bag. This one even came with a protective cap.

I used it yesterday to reach up into a Stop sign and snag a magnetized PBN.

Thank you, LadyMoon!

MSPCGT: Muskegon to Home

**WARNING - SPOILER IMAGES**

As you can see, the weather changed Sunday morning. This was a first in all our geotour days.

It not only rained - it rained so hard we found out later they closed the coastal road several months early due to flooding.

It's hard to see here, but it continued to pour at Muskegon State Park's Blockhouse. Located at the highest point in the county, this is a reproduction. The original was burned down by kids (who were forced to rebuild it as punishment). 

Luck did not hold out for us here at Hoffmaster State Park, also. There are two versions of this cache - the fun Summer one inside the Visitor Center and the less exciting Winter one outside. I'll let you guess which TaGeez found.

And then we arrived in Grand Haven and the Heavens were beautiful & the waves high.  Kite surfers!

And Grand Haven's lighthouse is beautiful! So amazing to see how high the waves are! 

This was a rarity in the GeoTour - the site of an Earth Cache. Here's the obligatory group picture. #besthairday

Like Ludington yesterday, we spent a considerable amount of time here, too. Amazing view, kite surfers riding the waves, and (best of all) no hoards of tourists! After getting our thrills from the thrill-seekers, we made it to downtown in no time flat -- front row parking, immediate seating at Dee-Lite Bar & Grill, clear sidewalks up and down the main drag. Perfect for lunch and shopping for stickers (and Irwin Chocolates - TaGeez & ShelleyJean had some fun there).

Back on the road, and we're heading away from Lake Michigan. The rain ceased for a bit, but now Mother Nature is spitting on us. 

Yankee Springs involved Hunter's orange, mushrooms, a cemetery, and one of the best caches in the tour yet!

And, with that, ShelleyJean, TaGeez and I have completed 86 parks! It's like a good book -- it'll be a great sense of completion and a little bit of sadness when it's all over.