The Road and beyond!

Bad news first, I'm not going to Lodi - found out that of the 5 papers assigned in class, one determined a pass or fail for the class. That one is the one I was planning on blowing off. Guess I'm working tomorrow instead.

So today, kept my agreement to go out with GeoSpyder and John (of Jahoadi and John). The two of them were busy while I was at school, I think I heard John say he grabbed 14 by the time I caught up with them.

First it was off to Qdoba's for a quick lunch - I was starved. Wolf need FOOD!

Then we headed towards Spyder's West of Pyramid series. Good warm up caches for me (and provided flying lessons for my ill-fated tacos, now I need to vacumn the front) and a great chance to have everyone all rattled up on dirt before we head out the long road to Pyramid lake. Got the 4 caches in the series, a creative multi, and a tricky ammo can in a large rock pile. However, while we were there, John had a great time naming off the various military planes and choppers flying into the airport - including a (I'll get this right) H-60 BlackHawk with a big medical cross on it's belly.

Next we shot straight out to the Reservation line and began to work our way back from there. Lot's of new caches thanks to byjer, plus some semi-easy ones off the highway up in the hills. A totally wicked road up there and I had more fun sightseeing than actually finding the caches. I'd love to go up there and explore some more and according to both Spyder and my map, more caches await! In the hills we bagged 3 caches before heading back to pavement.

Then it was down the road, stopping before a mile passed each time to find a clever little micro cache hidden in some plastic critter. Best one was the tarantula, because - well, Spyder went looking for a Spider!

Once we made it back into Spanish Springs, we decided to head off to a new one near the Geocoin Icon Madness cache. Course, the boys wouldn't listen to me when I told them "Wrong road!" Having been up there twice at night helped with directions, but now we trucked up a deadend road and I managed to push into the lead to take them where we needed to go. Spyder tells John nearly flipped when we drove 300 feet from the Geocoin cache and Didn't Stop!

We headed back to Spyder's in time for his 4:30pm deadline. A beer for the guys and a soda for me along with some chitchat before we were kicked out so the two could enjoy their dinner together. John and I weren't done yet though!

I hopped into the FJ and we were off again, cutting through Reno in an attempt to find any cache that neither of us had found - HA! Apparently we each have found what the other needed, so our list was short but exciting. The best one was Abe's B52 cache that we hit, the only way to it was through a gated community unless you felt like walking, which I didn't. So round and round and round we go until we timed it just right for a car to be heading in and we tailed behind them to slip pass the gate. Drove really close to the cache and had a good time learning where the bike path led and why there were so many tire tracks on it. Answer - nowhere and because geocachers were making u-turns further down the trail.

Then it was down into the Mayberry area, where we scored a handful of caches that were all clumped together. The first stop was Cell Service by WestyCrew. Her level of creativity is amazing and while I was able to see the answer, it took close to 5-10 minutes to realize it. Very nicely done and no, I'm not saying what it is. Though the sun having set prevented us from going after the final stage.

We hit a few more along the river walk, including an embarrasing find with an ammo can! We both thought we were looking for a micro and when the ammo can was revealed, I felt like an absolute idiot! But, the best part will be if I got the answer right, or at least can log, my first EarthCache! Score, I've wanted one of those icons for awhile now!

We headed back into town to go retrieve my truck, but a miscount of the found caches (stupid GPS calendar was labeling all the caches I'd set a GoTo on, not just the ones I'd found), I thought I was two away from a solid 30 for the day and to end on 1200 would rock! So we hit two of Spyder's, one of which was Quackaduck. Very clever, but I've been hearing the idea from my dad for awhile now, so the thought was in the back of my mind.

Unfortunately, that only made 1199 - but if I can log the EarthCache, there's my 1200th!

It was a very good day, and tomorrow is going to "suck swamp water" - to quote sayterliften.