A geocaching day

It was geocaching bliss today. Friday afternoons are usually my caching afternoons, but I've missed the last two Fridays because of the holidays. Today was my chance, especially with so many new caches out there.

Started off at noon. Went to East Paris and picked up my first cache (and discovered how cold the wind was!) then went over to East Grand Rapids and picked up the second. I actually skipped the first stage accidentally as I followed a geo-trail and found the final first! Next went to a nearby one that I had been warned was for taller people. Yep, even parking my car really close and using the floor of the middle row seats as a step up, couldn't see it. Oh well.

Next headed down the Beltline, picked up one at WMU, then one at a Shell station at 28th & Breton (the hot chocolate dispenser was out of order...) before going to a cemetery at 28th & Kalamazoo for a letterbox cache (you follow directions after arriving at the waypoint instead of following your GPS. The directions headed me around in a circle so I looked at the cemetery map, realized it could only be one of two places, and found the cache. Next headed across the street to a park where I had already tried to find one hidden in a pine tree. Lots of pine trees to choose from. I thought I had a heads up from a caching friend, but the owner contacted me tonight and says it's much lower than I was looking.

Headed back eastbound on 28th, picked up several around the malls, then headed down Patterson to a Winter Fix cache at 44th and Patterson, which was behind a Wendy's. Wendy's doesn't sell hot chocolate.... went back up Patterson to one that I thought might be in the cemetery at 28th and Patterson. The cemetery borders the nearby shopping area, and sure enough, it was in the shopping area instead. Got that one, then my last one at the Cascade Meijers which was really convenient as I needed to go to Meijer anyway.

Surfing the MiGO website tonight (Michigan Geocaching Organization), I discovered that my Michigan ranking is #100! (it shows me as #102 but without today's caches added, I'm now ahead of the current #101 and #100.)

I have a Wood Badge meeting tomorrow but AFTERWARDS...there are caches in this new series that are up in that area, you can guess what I'll be doing!