Oh good Lord!

Enough already!!

Oh I want

The only way to park.

---

We cruised to Reno last night since I was seriously tired of Carson all of a sudden. Stopped by a couple bookstores and Best Buy just meandering around before heading back to Carson to the new The Firken and the Fox English pub.

While up at Barnes & Noble, we were getting ready to leave when b0neZ spotted this Jeep parked up on a snow pile.

Only one word really descibes this, though Bill thinks two.

Mine? NICE!

His? YOU ROCK!!

Geocaching Event

Garmin and Groundspeak are here and we're signing folks in.

---

Aspirin! Need Aspirin!!! OWWWW

Heard MooseMob's alarm go off and went in search of pain relief. Breakfast was a great egg casserole and we sat and talked while waiting for the rest of the house to wake up. It was during breakfast that I realized I was sitting with Dot Plotter and busted up laughing - since I'd picked on RoadRunner about doing a lousy job and it was this guy who should take over. He hasn't let me forget that moment of silliness.

MM had to take off early to go to the airport to meet the Lackeys and b0neZ and I decided shortly after, since we were given the keys to the truck (sadly, not the GJTB) we were going to go meet them as well. Managed to get there in time to see typical Seattle folks heading straight for the coffee bar. Had a blast watching Signal bound around interacting with the rest of the travelers.

BoneZ and I headed out to see if anyone was in the park yet, and then back to the house to see if we could do anything. While there, b0neZ got his smoke in and I wandered over to the nearby park to play the Wherigo tutorial. Fairly easy to walk through, it'll just take getting used to the menu layouts. We also grabbed a cache while there.

Back over to Sunset Park to see the early arrivals setting up. Pulled up and immediately got to work. MM put me in charge of the sign in table. After sorting out how the Colorado tours would take place, I got to work with 2-old. Another gal showed up early and asked if she could help. She stayed right there at the table helping out with the check in and tickets and, while I can't remember her name, she was an IMMENSE HELP!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

The party was absolutely awesome. Everyone drooled over the Colorado's that were sitting right behind me, jealously guarded by one of the Lackey's and/or the Garmin reps. There were a ton of people there, all mingling and enjoying the company of each other. From Seattle, Jeremy, Elias, Bryan, Shauna, and David all showed up to help out with showing off Wherigo.

Coins, coins, coins where the flavor of the day with a bunch given out as door prizes from the numerous donations (I even won a bag with dreamcatcher coins). There were some major collections there as well, and the trackables table was full. Even up from Phoenix was the Original Can of Beans (O.C.B.) in its protective case. We talked Signal into coming over and getting his picture taken with the relic.

I managed to walk out of there with two Lackey coins, a new Garmin Colorado coin, a nickel MM/RR coin, and three non-trackable Dreamcatcher Coins. AND jobosomo's mom brought me my very first travel bug that had finally made it back to Vegas after bouncing around the world for the last four years. Very cool to have my little Gambler's Bug back in my hands.

Packed up everything and headed back to MM's house were we just crashed. Watched Degrassi 101 for awhile before the need for food got the better of us (but it took Moose going "FOOD!" to get us moving). Grabbed two caches on the way towards the airport and we headed to our gate.

An easy flight back and only slightly bumpy. My poor truck was frozen (one door wouldn't open at all and all the windows were stuck) and we spent about a 1/2 hour scraping ice from the windshield - both inside and out!

Homeward bound and to our own bed.

It is seriously hard to believe that in the span of less than 48 hours we went from having pancakes with KG, to a night in Vegas and having lunch with the crew from Groundspeak, and back home to sleep under my own roof. What a wild adventure this weekend has been!

1/6/2008

You found Along a winding path..., Mona Outlet, Tree House, Meet & Greet Groundspeak & Garmin in Vegas

The start of a great adventure

Waiting in the airport for KG's flight to take off and ours to arrive.

---

Well, after the storm last night and a hearty breakfast of pancakes - we headed out into a beautiful sunlit winter wonderland. The drive to Reno was uneventful - though, once we got to the airport we discovered the line from Hell - and managed to make it to the plane with them holding it for a mere five minutes for KG to board.

Then it was our turn to wait. As you can see in the pic above - our weather was great. We meandered around the airport, got a call from Broncocacher on our status, and settled down to wait. Hurm, plane now delayed by 30 minutes... ok. It arrived at 1:30ish and we boarded just about 1:45p. As we backed away from the gate, the pilot came on and announced we'd be waiting for awhile as the crews came over to de-ice the plane. b0neZ and I watched as they sprayed pink goo all over the plane to clear the snow and ice and then sprayed green goo to do something. It seriously looked as if the plane was slimed!

Takeoff was bumpy, and the topper was when the pilot again came over the speakers to announce Reno Airport was now CLOSED!! We were the last plane out. Heading down,we got to watch our GPS units track us and I marvelled at a Nevada under a fresh blanket of snow. Getting to Vegas was bumpy again and the airport moderately busy. Called BC again and he told us they were waiting for us at the end of the baggage claim. Making our way over there - me scanning for BC or whtwolfden - we saw the one sight that we did not expect.

Signal the Frog was waiting for us.

NGA had a frog mascot costume made up for the arrival of the Groundspeak Lackey's and they were test running it. Even the Garmin reps in town wanted their picture with Signal.

BC, however, reminded us that caching time was burning and we were off. First stop, a quick cache in town that took my Delorme forever to find a lock on us. Great little quick cache to warm up with and we were off to Charleston. Up there, we focused on three of Patron and Mrs. caches. Plus one that was a mere 200 ft from where we'd parked. All of them were quite silly and as BC pointed out, not your standard ammo can cache in the desert. I loved the trip!

Back into Vegas towards the Moose Mob Motel. There were a ton of cars in the street and driveway. Once we got in the living room, dining room, and kitchen were packed. Mostly S. Californian cachers I didn't know (save for jahoadi and john and habu!) plus a lot of out of town reviewers. I went from knowing RoadRunner and Hemlock to meeting Krypton, Dot Plotter (from VA), RocketMan, and one other who I forget at the moment. Dot Plotter (who I met as his real caching identity) was kind enough to take all my trackables from me.

Time for bed - and I had the most killer headache that kept me awake all night. Hopefully in the morning I feel good enough to enjoy the excitment that awaits.

1/5/2008
You found GRIDLOCK!, New Year's Day "Surprise" Cache, GERONIM-OW!!, FUNTASTIC, BUILD A BETTER GEOCACHE

A lesson learned

Yesterday I had a powerful message sent to me by whatever power watches over us all.

I was driving out to go see kindergeek for his birthday party and meet b0neZ for the drive home. As I was driving I was also (stupidly) texting b0neZ and reading email of my phone. Now, I wasn't dumb enough to be sitting there typing while driving - I'm not that good - but I was reading whatever was coming in.

As I left Dayton on a wide open stretch of Hwy 50 with no one in sight, I heard an email buzz come from my phone. Easy, keep eyes on road, use finger to click the link. Wait for the page to pop up and then take quick glances at the screen and read.

Unfortunately, people have a habit of quoting ENTIRE NOVELS in their forum posts so, in order to get to the new stuff, i had to scroll down. Easy, put finger on the down button and just keep it there with periodic glances to make sure I hadn't scrolled by it.

THUD-THUNK!

WTF?? Rearview - something lying in the road. What it is? I can't tell, window's too dirty back there. I didn't see anyone - there were no cars... turn around, go back and check. There, pale yellow, what is it? I can't see, wait for a break in traffic, turn around again, drive by slowly, there in the headlights - a cat. Someone's cat. Some little kids cat lying dead in the road. Song on the radio - We'd make great pets - I'm going to be sick. Keep driving.. keep driving.. oh gawd, poor cat, I'm sorry. I didn't see you.

Few minutes later - another email buzz. No, I'm not going to check, make sure the cover is over the screen so its not too bright, WTF?!?!!

A hitchhiker was standing on the white line, wearing dark/black clothes, at 8:30PM, on a storm night.

If I had checked my email, I would have swirved just enough, while staying in my lane, to have struck that guy.

Thank you little cat. It took your life to teach me what I was doing wrong.

I would have moved you off the road so no one else hit you - but you weren't there when I went back later last night.