Grants Pass Food Carts

I've blogged before about food carts and other restaurants in downtown Grants Pass, but I haven't updated it for a while. So Grants Pass has grown from one Vietnamese food cart to having that plus a sandwich cart and 2 hot dog vendors. I've also seen a cart called "Taste of Alaska" but never at lunch time.

The sandwich cart called "Wowzers" is pretty good. I haven't seen him around for lunchtime lately. Next time I see him I'll take a picture.

The first hot dog cart I saw is owned by Mike Machado. Very friendly and you can get a hotdog chips and soda for $4. I'll have to go snap a pic for the blog soon.

Today I stopped at the cart called Big Fat Wieners. It lives up to the name serving giant hotdogs for $3. I got the Memphis Pulled Pork dog which is a giant hotdog topped with pulled pork home made BBQ sauce and coleslaw. Honestly while it was pretty good... it was too messy for me to eat while walking back to work. Next time I'll just get a regular hotdog. The provocative name might turn off a few... it shouldn't. Try it out.

The Grants Pass city council met to discuss new codes for mobile food vendors. It looks like they will be kept off 6th and 7th streets, but that hasn't really been decided. I would hope that they have looked over other cities policies on food carts.

 

August

It sure seems like this month has gone by fast.

So a little backlog

August 1: I found a cache. I went to get lunch and I knew one was in the area so I found it.

E.T. phone home

August 3: Was my birthday so I had chinese food.

August 4: DaveyDude asked if I wanted to go find some geocaches over the old Oregon Mountain road. It was a fun day but I'm glad there is a tunnel now. Biggieet_al ended up joining us and we had a good day. I think I logged 43. I won't link them all but my favorites of the day were

Toadally Awesome for the location
Rest Stop on Redwood Highway for the hiding spot

I guess that's about all I have done geocaching wise. Now for some pictures.

Las Vegas and more

It has been a lazy geocaching month but I did get one find

Out Back of Silverton

It was my only find in Las Vegas last weekend. I searched for another but didn't find it. I did scan a munzee I saw there though.

NBA Summer League was happening in Vegas so we got to see 2 blazer games. The last game they held out their top rookies though so that made it a little less exciting. My sister went with me so we went and saw the Titanic exhibit at the Luxor. That was pretty neat. They have a very large piece of the hull and a lot of personal items. Along with dishes and other ship related things. It puts a very human perspective to the story. We also went to Circus Circus and rode the roller coaster. That was fun.

June caches and Cub Scouts

I'll start with Thursdays adventures. Cliff (of Turner and Stitch) and I spent a day at Cub Scout camp to teach kids about geocaching.

I guess I'll start with saying that we had very little info going into this. I had traded a few emails with another geocacher about it, but details were scarce. In fact I had to look up the camp online to find the location. Even then all it said was Ruth-Hyde park which I had never heard of. Turns out to be a camp owned by the Girl Scouts. After some asking around the bank of girl scout mothers I finally got directions. So on the big day we show up and we never saw our contact. The camp manager had no clue we were coming, but was glad to see us. They crossed out soccer on the event sheet and put us in.

Despite the mix up we had a lot of fun. There were well over 100 kids (about 20 at a time every 40 minutes) and only a few in each group had heard or geocaching. We hid some temporary caches on one of the trails up there and let the kids loose after some basic instruction.

Things to know for next year if we are asked again, and if I still live around here

• Make sure to contact the camp director personally
• Bring more GPS's
• Try to get another volunteer or two
• Put stuff in the caches

My old Garmin legend just wouldn't hold a signal and even my new Garmin 20 seemed a bit off. Lots of tree cover. Would have been better if we had more time to have set up, but we spent a lot of our morning trying to figure out what we were doing.

The kids like to have turns with the GPS and with only a couple of them and 5 temp caches we just couldn't let them all have a turn. It would be nice to have a few extras, but the cheap ones I could get like my Legend just didn't seem to work well enough. One scout mother looking at the GPS which said about 90 feet 30 feet from the cache said "This just isn't going to work, that's not good enough" (Makes me wonder how I ever found 1000 geocaches with it? hahaha)

Anyway my other news is that I found 2 caches today

Home Sweet Home
Shack by the Track?

The food of downtown Grants Pass

Here is a food cart follow up story.

I know that with this economy real restaurants downtown have been hurting. To be honest I don't frequent any of these places despite working close to some. As I said before I usually would rather pick something up. So that leaves me with fast food or our one food cart.

Its unfair to focus on one cart so I've decided to do reviews of everyplace downtown I've been. For the sake of ease I'll call downtown A through M streets. 4th through 8th.

Taste of China: On A street near the high school. This started as a truck over by the Alibi Tavern. Its simple Chinese food and pretty cheap. Its probaly the place on this list I go to the most. My favorite Sweet and Sour Chicken with fried rice. If you call ahead they will have your food ready to go.

One Fifteen Broiler: On D street next to the Dutch Bros coffee house. This is a good steak house. I've been here several times for lunch and dinner. Lunch menu is a little limited for me. I'd recommend going for dinner and having steak.

Powderhorn Cafe: Famous for a group of old (influential) men that use to meet here for coffee. That made it kind of a landmark for locals. Almost all of those old men are gone, but it can still be hard to get a table. Good for breakfast and lunch. Try some pie while you're there.

4th Street Deli: This bakery and Deli is only open early now. They use to have great soup and sandwiches for lunch. In the mornings they have donuts and other baked goods plus Biscuits and Gravy for $2.50.

Circle J Cafe: On G street. Might be the closest place to me for lunch. They have hamburgers, pizza, sandwiches,  sweet potato fries... and probably salads. Like a lot of these its a small place and can get kind of crowded. My favorite a burger with the sweet potato fries of course.

Blondies' Bistro: In the shopping center on G street. I've been for lunch and dinner. Its a pretty nice place. I recommend the steak sandwich.

Laughing Clam: On G street by Blind George's. Good if you like seafood. They have Fish and Chips, Prawns, Clam Strips, Crab Cakes and the dinner menu has jambalaya. They also have hamburgers. I like this place, but I've had some under-cooked items. It can be really busy at nights when they have live music.

China Buffet: On the corner of 7th and G. This was a Sambo's back in the day. They have a lot of choices in the buffet. It was decent, however this place has a very poor record with health ratings.

Hannah's: At 5th and H. This is a southern restaurant. They have things like fried chicken, jambalaya, hush puppies, fried okra... you know southern stuff. Good, but can be slow and expensive.


Rosso's Trattoria: An Italian place on 6th street. If this place was a food cart I'd have their Italian Wedding Soup everyday... well maybe every other day. It is small and can get packed so I recommend going for lunch early.

Royal Barge Thai Cuisine: On H street. It might not look like much, but I like this place. I recommend the BBQ chicken and some Won Ton Soup.


Taqueria: On H Street next to the Rogue Theater. This is essentially the same as Si Casa Flores over by Fred Meyers. I'm not always a fan of Mexican food, but I do eat here. I like their enchiladas and the huevos rancheros.

Thai BBQ: On 6th Street. I've only been a couple of times, but I liked it. I can't recomend anything specific. Go try it and you tell me.

If a place isn't on my list I haven't eaten there (or forgot about it) places I haven't been. G Street Bar & Grill, Mediterranean Bar & Grill, Wonder Bur Cafe, Blue Stone Bakery, Lupita's Taquaria, Four Seasons, Luigi's Italian Sandwiches, and the Gold Miner. There is another BBQ place that was called Chick n Ribs its something else now, but still BBQ. And there is another yellow building across from 7/11 its Latin Cuisine of some kind. Never tried those either.

More on food carts

Here is another news story on our local food cart.

For those too lazy to click the link, someone tossed a home-made bomb into their garage. Luckily it didn't do any damage. The best part being that when he called the Sheriff they didn't have anyone to send out. They also say that many people have been harassing them.

So a little background on this. Right now in Grants Pass you can operate a food cart with permit on the street. You pull into a parking spot and sell right from there. He just has to follow city laws and not stay parked in any one spot more then 2 hours. This makes people angry because he could potentially park in front of any business. They don't pay property tax and other overhead costs. Some think that because of this he can undercut other restaurants prices.

I do think it would be better if he had a more permanent place to park. Maybe someplace like the farmers market parking lot could allow food carts on weekdays by permit. I would love to see more carts in town and a bigger variety of food. Maybe its time to dust off the old writing desk and pen a letter to the editor. I don't really want to attend any city council meeting and argue with weirdos, but if you don't the more vocal will get their way.

As for Sàigòn Xích lô I'm still a fan. They are very nice people, and the food is good. If you haven't tried it go show them some support. While you're downtown walk around and check out some local businesses.

Food Carts

It may sound strange for someone who is as picky of an eater as I am to like to try new things, but occasionally I do. I suppose things like Indian, Vietnamese and Korean aren't new anymore. I like them all. In Grants Pass there is one Korean Restaurant (its good but no one will go there with me) and one Vietnamese Restaurant (I wasn't impressed.)

Recently though there has been a Vietnamese food cart downtown called Sàigòn Xích lô. Its caused quite a controversy much like some of the food carts have in other cites. I have never gotten a chance to try the ones in downtown Portland, but there are a bunch with a wide variety of food types. I've hear Medford has a handful as well.

The main controversy with this cart is that he doesn't have a permanent place to park. They just park in an empty space on the street and move every two hours.Click Here for a news story about it. Personally I would like to see more food carts with a bigger variety of food. When I'm at work I don't like to go to a restaurant and sit by myself. I'd much rather pick something up to go and take it back to work or to home.

I've tried this cart a few times and had the first 3 items on the menu. All were pretty good. I wish they just had simple cheap Pho. That's what Grants Pass really needs is good cheap Pho... and Indian food.

 

The caches

Here is the list of caches from the last 4 days. Had finds in Oregon Nevada and Idaho

Decision Junction
My daughter had to go pee 2
Bison in a Skewer
Basque Station
Blue Mtn Pass
Oregon Canyon Rd guard pole
Who or What is Cleto
Another "TEN MILE"
Good-bye or Hello
State Line by Design
IDEAL PLACE FOR A CACHE
McDermitt Restin' Place
Rome Launch Ramp
Black Hole of Arock
Cabela Springs
Ethan's Ethan Cache
T & C Bday series #4
High or Low? Oh No It's A Nano!
I,E,R TREE
Black Cache
Not Us
River Sucrets
riverside park
Cache at the Crypt
Potters' Rest
Feeling a bit Drewsey?
Fort Rock : The Plaques

While some of these were fun and a nice break on long stretches of highway I though far too many of them were nano caches.

A few more pictures

Days 2, 3, 4 and 5

Didn't get around to updating my blog for the rest of vacation. Just got home today and have 31 caches to claim for it. I could have had a lot more but I didn't stop for several. Had a snake scare me away from one (watch out for snakes under those piles of rocks.)

So the trip was Grants Pass to Crane. Then Crane to Boise. Boise to Burns and finally Burns to Grants Pass. We took some side trips like driving 100 miles extra just to go to McDermitt. We also drove off the highway to visit Arock, Danner and Drewsey.

Some pictures from the first couple of days. More to come

Day 1: Grants Pass, OR to Crane, OR

Decided to take a trip East this week. Today we traveled over to Crystal Crane Hot Springs in Crane, OR. Had breakfast at McDonalds in White City and was not too surprised to see Lazyboy. Having trouble uploading pictures but these were today's caches.

Wagontire - Population 2 (+1)
Obsidian Point
Whoa! Ya Missed it
Crystal Crane

Bike Path Caching

I went out today with Kelly and Iseek to find some new geocaches on the bikepath between Central Point and Medford. Daveydude later joined us and we had a good time. I had 20 finds on the day which was 5 times more then I had found all year. It has been a long time since I went caching with everyone so I took some videos and pictures.

 

The finds for the day included:

TOLIP  

Tribute Trail:HsSrvnt 

Tribute Trail:Dustydew  

Tribute Trail:markens 

Tribute Trail:Phantom2330  

Tribute Trail:Goldenace 

Tribute Trail:FatNinjuh  

Tribute Trail:Daveydude & Freedom Queen 

Tribute Trail: RVbumOR  

Tribute Trail: The Lost Patrol 

Tribute Trail: Biggieet Al  

Tribute Trail: Peanuthead 

Tribute Trail: KDO1680  

Tribute Trail: Jack Herr 

Tribute Trail:Chickadee Girl  

Sea of Ivy! 

The Excited Old Man!  

Don't fence me in! 

One for the BOYZ!  

TB 

And here are some old time videos

March for Babies

Today was the annual March for Babies. We didn't do as well as previous years for fundraising but we still managed to raise about $2500 as a team. I took the team pic so I am not in it.

My first Munzee

So I had heard a bit about Munzee its a lot like geocaching except you find a QR code you scan with your smart phone instead of a cache. Many people have been placing them on geocache containers. The one I found yesterday was hidden by Kelly in front of his work. Its the first one in Grants Pass.

While cell phone coverage has been growing there are still out of the way places that a Munzee just wouldn't be possible but a cache would. I can see them being much more successful in an urban environment.

I might put out one of my own and I'll probably scan them when I see one. As for seeking them out... probably not, but then again I don't even go geocaching much anymore.

April Cache

My one cache a month streak is still alive

JCT1

Sadly the container broke and I couldn't put it back as it was... just my luck. This was a hard one to grab even on a Sunday afternoon. Lots of muggles and an odd to reach hiding spot.

I spent most of my weekend power washing my deck and cleaning up the grill to start the season. All my deck furniture is out and I even got a new coat of water seal on all the rails while it was warm.

Well...

I still haven't found my cache for the month, but I'll get one before the end of April to keep me on my 1 per month average. Next month however I plan to blow that out of the water. I'll be taking a vacation to Eastern Oregon and Idaho. Should be able to pick up a few without trying too hard.

In other news the bank I work for has been sold. In the fall it looks like another system conversion. I'm not sure if I'll get to see it or not. Sometime in the next month I should know if I'll be let go. From what I know most of their IS is based in Seattle... that would certainly expand my geocaching area. I'm preparing a new resume and keeping my eyes open just in case. So if you know of any good jobs let me know.

9 Years

9 years ago today I found my first geocache State quarter cache

I had signed up for a gc.com account months before and I planned to try it when the weather got better. The day before I found my first cache I ordered a GPS online. While I could have waited for it I decided to try to find a cache without it the next day, and I did.

Today I decided to find a cache to keep my one a month streak alive. Didn't need a GPS for this one

Housed

Maybe when the weather gets nicer I'll look for more then one at a time.

Memories of an odd bench

A little backlog for a cache earlier in the month. I got a call from Cliff (aka Turner) asking if I was going to the Discover Roseburg event. Sadly I had other plans but while we chatted he mentions he resurrected an old cache of mine and called it

Horse Lottery? Revisited

Of course my original cache wasn't much and certainly not one to be remembered, but those first couple dozen caches you find always seem to stay in memory. Anyway he mentioned it and I saw it hadn't been found... so I went and grabbed the FTF. Very rare for me these days. Only my second cache of the year and I didn't need my GPS for either of them. My new GPS is probably wishing it was purchased by a real geocacher so it could go on adventures. I'll have to dust it off soon.

One cache, new phone

A whole month gone by and I only have one cache to show for it

Dutch & Lucile

This cache was so easy that I didn't use my new GPS or even my new phone.

Previously I had an Android phone. I have used the geocaching app to find caches before but I didn't think it worked all that great. Android was buggy and in my opinion doesn't work all that well even when its running right. So I switched to the iPhone. I never thought I'd own an Apple product. It would seem to be against my very nature. But I've never been happier... it works so well. Best of all I can actually answer it. Probably 25% of all calls before my phone would freeze when I tried to answer. The only app I have purchased is the geocaching app and I'll have to try it out someday.

Sadly I am going to miss the Discover Roseburg 2 event this weekend. Might be able to grab a couple this month... we'll see

Last Day of 2011

Well its the last day of 2011. Its been an interesting year, and my slowest to date geocaching wise. Honestly I have lost some of the "fire" that geocaching use to spark in me. When I started you could find amazing places and cool caches. Today it seems you just find micros along the road where there is no place to park. I still like to cache in groups, events, finding a few on a road trip, and hiking to find good caches. I just don't do it as often...

Highlights for the year include:

• Completed the Discover Roseburg challenge
• Found 42 caches on 7/30/11 with Biggieet_al
• The Great Amazing Cache event
• NBA lockout ended!

My favorite caches of 2011 include:

• Willow Creek Rock Pile  
• BIG BEAR WHERE ARE YOU 
• Warmth from within  
• Stagecoach Roadhouse  
• The Great Amazing Cache  
• Transparent Wetness  
• Grants Pass Photo Cache 

Overall 2011 was still a fun year. Thank you to everyone who hid the caches I found this year. Maybe some of that spark will return in the new year. Hope to see you all out on the trail in 2012 and I hope the world doesn't end.

Tom Pierce Trail

Decided I needed a few more caches today so I could hit the 2222 find milestone. Sadly I guess I only needed 6 and now sit at 2223. I swear it said 2215 last night. Anyway it doesn't matter I'd have to pass it up someday.

Just to bring up old times 2223 caches ties me with the famous Rooster- for finds. Of course he quit caching a long time ago.

Today's finds included

T.P. Starter
millview#1
T. P. Trail #1
T. P. Trail #2
T. P. Trail #3
T. P. Trail #4
T. P. Trail #5

These were all on the newer Tom Pierce bike trail. Someday this should be the start of the greenway bike path all the way to Ashland. I just hope they finish it before I'm too old to ride on it.

Merry Christmas!

Hope all of you out there had a very Merry Christmas.

As I've done in the past I went out to find a geocache today. Just one this holiday. Probably could have squeezed in a couple more. Wasn't as cold today but it did sprinkle a little as we found it.

Reflections 1 

Depending on how cold it is tomorrow I might try to find a few.

One more year

Well its very well know that the world will probably end December 21, 2012

So I compiled a small list of "Bucket List" caches

Bombsite Cache
Pyramid Rock 
Mt. Elijah Cache
3 Corners (SE Oregon Hatrick) 
Alice's Rabbit Hole
DR. Who. 
The Government Duck 
Ramblin' Rogue aka Whoopee Tyee! 
Five Bar
Hot Cache 

I'm sure there are many more. Like any of the ones needed for The Oregon History Challenge!. If anyone local thinks they would like to try completing this challenge let me know.

All slow on the geocache front

Its been rather cold around her for the last several weeks. Colder then usual I'd say, but dry and sunny for the most part. The sun might warm it up to the high 30's but that's about it. I have no problem with saying I am a fair weather geocacher.

"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night..."

Bull$#!^ the postal service can have it... all of that stops me from geocaching on most occasions :)

With that said I have not found anything but an event in several weeks. I'll find at least one cache on Christmas day to keep with tradition, but that might be the last for 2011. The event was the

Second Annual Holiday Pot Luck Extravaganza

Great to see everyone and talk about old times. I even won a couple of raffle prizes. Lots of good food too.

Tomorrow is the shortest day of the year and after that the days will get longer. I'll soon have to write my summary of 2011. It might be a little shorter then past years with how slow I've been.

Slow

I don't think I have done any geocaching since the last event. Even then I only went to the event (and I showed up late.) I'll admit to being a fair weather cacher. Maybe soon I'll get out for a dozen or so.

Until then I have been selling some things on eBay. I got rid of my old PDA. I wanted it so I could have cache pages and hints especially when I traveled. Plus it had built in Wi-Fi so I could surf the internet at any number of new hot spots that were popping up. I bought it March 23, 2005 and I don't remember what I spent but it was over $500. I sold it for $40. My new GPS keeps all the hints, pages and logs that I want for under $200.

Its funny all of the electronic gadgets I have had over the years. GPSs, phones, cameras, PDAs, computers, video cameras, web cams, CD players, MP3 players and a Kindle. All eventually replaced with something better and usually cheaper.

Rogue River Greenway

Last weekend I tested my new GPS out on

Grants Pass Photo Cache

It was a fun walk around town. Also a good chance to test out the GPS with multiple waypoints of sorts.

Today I decided to try some newer caches along the Greenway from Rogue River to Valley of the Rogue state park. It was a great day for a bike ride and the path is now paved to just past the rest area. My finds for the day were

BERRY BUSH SAFARI
YA GOTTA LOVE IT!
RIN TIN TIN
"DANAGER" a Turner Cache
WATCH THE RIVER FLOW.
Don't look down yer nose,to find this one!
Many Trunks

The GPS works great I just have to get use to the menu. Was great to have the hints and logs available at my fingertips. Took a few pictures (Go milepost 1 1/4!)

 

New GPS

Today I got a new Garmin eTrex 20 GPS. I've been wanting one with paperless geocaching for a while. The new Garmin eTrex line offered paperless caching at a more affordable price. Plus it can track GLONASS satellites giving you even more accuracy... and it is fast to get its position. Tomorrow I'll try and find a cache with it.

Oregon DeLorme Challenge

5 years ago today SallyC and I completed the Oregon DeLorme Challenge. It still ranks as the top accomplishment of my geocaching career. Days of big numbers can't compare to those 77 caches.

I'm a big fan of challenge caches and feel they should have there own icon. Though personally I find it hard to compare say the ABC Challenge to those like the DeLorme or CCIO. I guess just like caches there is a challenge for everybody.

I want to visit Japan!

So I just read this story about the Japan Tourism Agency's plan to give away 10,000 round trip tickets to promote a return of tourists to Japan. The catch you ask? You have to publicize your trip on blogs and social media sites. I have no problem with that... I'll gladly go to Japan and play tourist. Maybe I could find some geocaches over there. Take pictures of all the monuments. Eat at interesting restaurants. I'd gladly blog about it, tweet about it and facebook about it.

Never Forget

More waterfalls

So I visited a few other waterfalls. My GPS was having trouble keeping signal. Bad satelite day I guess. So I gave up geocaching and just went to the waterfalls.

Starting with Watson Creek Falls



Then continued on to Toketee Falls which I had visited before with SallyC



And last Dry Creek Falls

Waterfalls

Today I took a trip along HWY 138 between Diamond Lake and Roseburg. There are many waterfalls along there. It wasn't a great day for GPS though. Coords bounced on me all day I started at National Creek Falls. I didn't find the cache as I didn't have the hint, but it was a nice hike.



After a stop at Diamond View. We went on to Clearwater Falls which was the location of an old Mailleman cache Transparent Wetness. Which I did find.




After that we stopped at Whitehorse falls and found the cache BRIDGE WHITEWATER which turned out to be the last of the day, but not the last waterfall.




Next three tomorrow

Found after nearly 6 years!

After last being logged 09/18/2005 my Travel Bug Mosquito Trap is on the move again. Found in the wilds of Canada... where it has been a complete mystery.

Of my original 4 travel bugs it is now the last. I hope it can move around a bit more now. Geocaching has changed a lot in the last 6 years...

Pictures

Decided it was about time to add some pictures from my trip to Denio and Fields. See my blog on Jun 25.

Camping

I went camping with the family this weekend. Took our usual trip to Waldo Lake. Found a few caches in the Union Creek area. Only looked for one at Waldo which I did not find. There are a lot around there, just not enough time to get them all. A couple of them are on small islands. Someday I'll come with a boat and time.



Then We went on a brief trip to Odell Lake and to Salt Creek Falls. Found a couple more caches and called it a trip



Caches for the trip were:
Road to Mill creek
Old Hat
Cachers Camp
Broken Tree
Old Ugly Snag
Mt. Mazama Viewpoint
Mt. Thielsen Wayside
Odell Troll
Afraid of Heights?

The story of a Cache

Its been almost 6 years since I hid my cache Haines Apple Tree. I hid it with SallyC just before Iseek's (once) annual Wilderville event.

When I first started geocaching this was the first place I wanted to hide a cache. My grandpa had shown me this location years ago and its the kind of out of the way historical item that makes geocaching so much fun at times. However at the time it was already the location of a virtual called They Didn't See it Coming. J-Freaks who hid that cache had quit the hobby by the time I started. I spent a lot of time looking for a few of their missing caches. One of these caches was called Over the River and Thru the Woods. It was a multi cache and after confirming the final was gone I collected the first two stages which were mint tins. I used one of these tins for this cache after the virtual was archived.

Despite a recent DNF it is still there pretty much in the same spot SallyC and I left it. The marker itself is a bit crooked and the site is as overgrown as ever. Without giving away the details the apple tree itself is generally considered the second oldest in Oregon being planted somewhere around 1852-54... and it still has apples...

The Great Amazing Cache

Yesterday was the first Great Amazing Cache event. This has been in the planning for a long time. I don't remember when I first heard about it, but it was at least January. I have to admit that a very secret event put on by two very new geocachers didn't get me excited. Often new cachers have grand ideas that never come to pass.

Sunday I got a call from Biggieet_al asking if I'd like to join a team with Daveydude and Golden Ace for this event. I didn't see any reason not to try it.

FatNinjuh and HsSrvnt put on a great event. The event, as it turns out, was a competition to complete a new 15 stage multi. Fastest time as well as a "closest time" to a secret preset number. Normally a 15 stage multi would hit my ignore list. In a group environment at the event it turned out to be a lot of fun. They had lots of prizes and trophies.

A lot of newer geocachers were in attendance. I am really going to need to start learning some of these names. Those I did know I had fun talking to. I've been pretty slow at caching but maybe I'll come up with some reasons to grab a few.

Some geocaching backlog

Earlier this month I went with family on a trip to parts of Eastern Oregon. Are first stop was just for a night in Lakeview. In my quest for the State of Jefferson Counties Challenge we went a few miles out of the way south to grab a cache in Modoc County

Steep Grade

The next morning we drove east. Going through Adel, Oregon and then down to Denio, Nevada. There aren't many geocaches on this stretch of highway, but I found a few

Breadcrumbs #4... Pride
Breadcrumbs #6... Glider
Take ten at the Border
Warmth from within
Breadcrumbs #11... Denio

Many of these were hidden by a local Southern Oregon cacher 2trax. He had some more, but they were archived for being in the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge even though they were right off the highway... one of them in a rest area. It would have been nice to have one in the rest area for sure. The refuge is nice. I saw a number of wild burros, horses and pronghorn but I can't see how a geocaching in the fenced rest area on the highway was a concern for the environment.

There is not much in Denio Junction. A store, gas station and small motel. The store had a cafe with pretty good food though. The hotel is commonly full from what I hear. There are many commercial opal mines in the area. Many of them let you pay to mine. I didn't try it Prices seemed to be $60-$150 depending on the mine and what you wanted to dig in.

Our destination was a bit further north to Fields, Oregon. Fields is about the same as Denio Junction. Just a store and gas station. There is a small motel and the Alvord Inn where we stayed. The store has world famous Hamburgers and Milkshakes. Our plan was just to look at wildlife and go to the several hot springs in the area. However they have had more water then anytime in the past 30 years. What is usually called the Alvord Desert was a lake. Many of the hot springs were unreachable due to the muddy road conditions. We still had fun and I found a recently hidden cache in town.

Stagecoach Roadhouse

The next part of our trip was to Summer Lake Hot Springs. This hot spring is private and has a several cabins and camp spots. The spring itself is fed into a large pool in a bathhouse. The pool is very nice but you run into a lot of weird people. There was a cache at the entrance

Hot Pools & Healing Waters

It was a fun trip. Maybe I'll get out for some more geocaching soon.

March for Babies

Thank you to everyone who donated to the March of Babies this year, or have donated in the past. Despite a late start and the rough economy we managed to raise over $3000. The weather for walking was good and it was a fun time had by all. Many children were there that in the past probably wouldn't have survived so you can see the progress being made.

A new project... not geocaching related

A while back I saw a blog about refurbishing an old Telephone bench. I liked the idea a lot as I enjoy old things, and I remember my grandparents having one. Today the idea of having a desk and chair devoted to your telephone seems very strange. I don't even have a home phone... just my cell.

So I was looking for something about the same style as my grandparents had and finally found one on craigslist... but it was in Corvallis. I had a friend of mine buy it, and used it as a good excuse to go visit.



Initially I sanded it and tried to stain it a bit darker. Because it was made of two different kinds of wood this looked very uneven. So I ended up painting it black and recovered the seat. Add in an old rotary phone and this is how it looks now

Event and State of Jefferson Challenge

Today was the April Geocaching Fools Party. Nice to have another event. We use to have them a bit more regular.

I talked to the "Evil" DrDan52000 and he was asking about the State of Jefferson Counties Challenge. This is a map of the Counties you must complete




All caches must be found after 06/17/2009.

March for Babies

Once again this year I will be participating in the annual March for Babies on April 30th. This is year 4 and its still my charity of choice because it has a big positive impact on young lives. These babies may be screwed up by their parents or society later, but at least we can give them a positive and healthy beginning. To the right ----> is a link to my page. Anything you can donate would be appreciated.

Actual Geocaching

A few weeks ago I decided it was time to complete another challenge cache. I had lots of fun with the Oregon DeLorme Challenge and even the ABC Challenge. The one I picked has been on my list for a while.

State of Jefferson Counties Challenge

The State of Jefferson being a proposed state made up of parts of Oregon and California. 19 counties total to find caches in. No problem except gas is nearing $4 a gallon and there is a lot of ground to cover.

All caches have to be found since the challenge was created. So I figured I could take my time. I quickly marked off Josephine, Jackson and Curry counties as those are the nearest to me. Over the course of the 2010 I found the remaining counties in Oregon (Douglas, Coos, Klamath, and Lake) but I still had none of the 12 I needed in California. I just don't get to California very often.

When a chance came up to visit a friend down around the bay area I decided to make this challenge an extra reason just to get up and go.

I took vacation days on Thursday and Friday and took off late the morning of the 17th. My goal was a simple 3 caches in Del Norte, Humboldt and Trinity Counties. Trinity county being a good 80 miles out of the way round trip. Despite a lot of rain I managed these three

Collier Tunnel Rest Area
Willow Creek Rock Pile
BIG BEAR WHERE ARE YOU

I stayed the night in Eureka and took off the next day. I only had Mendocino County on my path. It was raining even worse but I chose a cache I could just about drive right up to.

Andersonia

After spending a day with non-geocaching friends I took off for I-5. I found caches in Glenn and Butte Counties in heavy rain. It let up a bit for my find in Tehama County. Then the rain really drenched me in Shasta County. I decided to head for home that night and try searching for a Siskiyou County cache in the dark. Then I hit heavy snow. Going 20MPH with a white knuckled grip on my steering wheel made me forget about caches. I stopped in Yreka not ready to face the possibility of more snow over Siskiyou Pass. The next morning was cold and just a bit of rain. The nearest cache to my hotel had several DNFs so I decided that I'd find one later. So these were my last finds of the trip

Farmer Dwayne
Gianella Bridge
Gyle Rd Cache
Diamond in the Rough

Now I have Siskiyou, Modoc, Lassen and Plumas counties to complete. In June I have a planned trip to Eastern Oregon. A side trip to Modoc County could happen. The last 3 I could take out in a day trip or weekend trip to Reno. We'll see...

The Great War

I'm a little slow on my news these days I guess. Only today did I hear that Frank Buckles, the last US Veteran of World War I had died.

He lied about his age and enlisted at 16 serving as a ambulance driver. During World War II as a civilian working in the shipping business he was captured by the Japanese and helpd in a prison camp for nearly 4 years. Yet to all this he lived to the age of 110 and dedicated his last years to creating a national memorial for those who served in "the Great War" A memorial he never got to see built.

Born when William McKinley was president, his life spanned nearly the whole 20th Century. Its hard to imagine the world as it had changed to him. Everything we take for granted today such as cars, airplanes, computers, cell phones and GPS all invented in his lifetime.

When I was young I remember WWI veterans in the Memorial Day parade riding in a truck. Each year their numbers got smaller... and then one year there were none. Now that is true for all time, Frank was the last one. Thanks to an exception to the normal rules he will be burried at Arlington National Cemetery. Sadly, a bill to allow him to lay in state at the Capital was denied.

http://www.wwimemorial.org/

Concert for George

Today would have been George Harrison's 68th birthday. To celebrate all day they are streaming the Concert for George free. You can hear Eric Clapton, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Billy Preston, Ringo Star, Paul McCartney and others sing some of George's songs. A good mix of what he did with the Beatles and solo. It starts with an Indian music section just to make you feel worldly. Makes for great office listening on this cold, but sunny, Friday.