COAST

Michigan fall weather. Ya gotta love it. This past weekend was another round of COAST (formerly known as Outdoor Leader Training) training for scout leaders, at Camp Gerber. Friday was wet and cold. Jacket and poncho provided protection. I cached a little, even in the rain, on the way up, and found my last cache for the lower peninsula county challenge (see previous post.) Then arrived at camp, set up, and greeted participants as they arrived.

We had flags, then first aid instruction, then a cracker barrel. Saturday morning found the weather to be the same, if not a bit colder. We joined the patrols for breakfast (pancakes) then started right into our day.

Flags, site selection, then round-robin training in knots, stoves, map & compass, plant and animal ID, Leave No Trace, and woods tools. Stopped for a lunch break then right back into things. Finished at 5 p.m., by this time the rain had stopped though it was still damp and chilly.

Dinner was an instructional session in cooking, mostly dutch oven style. Good food was prepared and enjoyed by all. We had closing flags then a campfire (inside style due to weather.)

We had lots of fun at the campfire - each patrol had a couple of performances, as well as the staff. We put on a session of "If I weren't a Boy Scout" that had everyone rolling on the floor laughing! Another cracker barrel closed the day.

Sunday - cool but no rain! Breakfast again, was supposed to be eggs but the patrol I ate with had switched the menus and had pancakes today. I was looking forward to those eggs, but it was not to be. Morning flags, then Scouts Own, then packing/hiking and the usual inspirational talk from Mike, our council exec. He was surprised by DA BEARS (yep, my bears) with his very own bear which was actually an owl (his wood badge critter) dressed in full scout uniform in miniature. He was as close to speechless as I've ever seen him.

Closing flags ended the weekend, other than checking out and staff meeting. We were able to leave at about 2 p.m. Of course, I did some caching on the way home. Finally got to PJ Hoffmaster State Park to do the Entmoot virtual. That was a bit over a mile hike each way, up some big hills and sandy paths. Definitely got a workout! I now have Michigan's oldest virtual on my find list.

Next session of COAST: April 16-18, 2010. Looking forward to it!

The lower peninsula is done...

(would have been written on Friday, October 23)

I'm headed for COAST (the new name for our outdoor leader training course) today. In geocaching, I'm heading both toward my #2200 milestone and the completion of my lower peninsula county challenge. Only Oceana County to go. Both will happen this weekend, it's just a matter of deciding which when.

Earlier in the week, I realized that I would be near to Entmoot, the oldest virtual cache in Michigan. So I decided that I would make that my #2200, and pick up Oceana County on Sunday after leaving Camp Gerber.

This morning, the weather was wet and cold. Not really good to plan a two mile hike, so scratch the plans for Entmoot. Back to plan A, picking up Oceana County. So after taking my time packing up last minute stuff, got on the road about noon.

Finally got to the rest area cache right inside Oceana County and parked. Very light rain - so didn't feel I needed rain gear. You guessed it, heavier rain almost right away. That hindered my GPSr reception as well as my searching skills. I finally found the cache and with that completed the lower pensinsula county challenge. That means that I have found at least one geocache in every lower peninsula county in Michigan. There is also an upper peninsula challenge as well as an all of Michigan challenge. I still have seven UP counties left and don't expect to get them this year.

It's been quite the journey. Started caching almost 4 1/2 years ago with a cache find in Ludington State Park. Steve was along for the start, though he soon declared his dislike for geocaching. Oh well, his loss. The next day brought my first Kent County find, just a few miles from home. The surrounding counties were picked up over the course of the next few years, and most of the rest of the counties were found while on trips for other reasons. Four trips to Mackinac Island (three with scouts.) A day long trip around the thumb, on the bike with Steve. Three trips to Midwest Geobash. A circle tour of Lake Michigan, and another of Lake Huron, both on the bike with Steve. The last trip (the thumb-day tour) just a week ago was about the only trip that I made purely for picking up counties. The others were well-planned routes while on other journeys. Sometimes I would travel through a county. Other times I traveled just inside a county, long enough to find a cache then turn around and head back the other way. I've seen so many wonderful places that it would take too long to list them.

I can't think of a more satisfying way to spend time outside with nature. I only wish my family shared that feeling.

Happy Birthday, David

Yesterday (October 18) was my brother's 42nd birthday. He passed away when he was 36, but his birthday brought back memories of the time spent with him over the years.

I was not apparently too happy when he was born, because there are pictures of us three girls taking turns holding him. The picture of me holding him shows me with a scowl on my face. It might have been because of my hand-me-down boys pajamas, I don't know.

But I must have soon changed my mind (and hopefully the pajamas) because my memories of growing up with David are all good ones. He was the youngest, and spoiled of course, but had a charming smile and could get away with it. We used to dress him up in dresses and wigs and put him through all kinds of (to us) fun.

His seventh year brought new challenges: a malignant brain tumor. I was in high school by then, and it was a stressful time for us all, but especially for David and for our mom & dad. Through God's grace, though, the treatment was successful and David grew to adulthood. He had some struggles along the way but met each and every one of them. He had to have growth hormone shots for years because the radiation for the tumor had damaged that area of the brain.

As an adult, Dave had his share of difficulties as any young man does. (I'm seeing some of that now in my sons.) Getting finances in order, living independently, getting a job, and meeting that special someone. Dave met who he thought was that special someone and they were briefly married. Unfortunately, the girl didn't turn out to be what she seemed and they soon parted. Probably for the better. But what do they say, it's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all?

Dave had worked for Sam's Club for many years but then chose to move closer to my mom in southern Indiana. He was working for WalMart in Columbus and was at work when he died of a sudden heart attack.

We all miss him very much. Anytime I see a hot wheels car, or any depiction of an Eagle, sweet memories of my baby brother come to mind. Happy Birthday, David...

6 new counties, 24 caches, 12 hours of driving...

Friday was my reward day for staying away from sweets and snacks all week. My plans were to get the six counties that I needed on the east side of the state. I figured we weren't gonna get there by bike any more this year and I wanted to finish up this four year quest to get a cache in all of the LP counties.

So off I went - left home just after 7:30 a.m. I figured it would take at least two hours of driving to get to the first place I planned to go. Decided to take M-21 over instead of I-69 through Lansing. Figured I'd miss the rush hour traffic to Lansing that way. But it did turn out to be slower - it was close to three hours before I hit my first cache on the list (though I did stop for one on M-21 that was a new travel bug hotel on the way.)

First county: Macomb. Northeast of Detroit. Got off I-69 (I had met up with it in Flint) and took M-53 south, just over the county line from Lapeer Co. My destination was a cemetery cache. I was glad to find it, as I would have had to go about 5 miles farther south to pick up my backup cache. Then headed north again on the same road, passing through Lapeer County to Sanilac County.

Sanilac County's cache was also on 53, on the far western side of the county. It, too, was a cemetery cache, one that had just been out for a week. Surprisingly, I was only the second to find it. Wasn't a hard find, either. Again, glad it was there as I would have had to go about 10 miles east for the next closest one.

Then back down to M-46 and west into Tuscola County. I had several possibilities here as I passed through most of the county on my route. Ended up with three or four finds and one DNF. Cut across the corner of Saginaw County on M-15 heading northwest but no caches along that route. Got into Bay County and found several caches in Bay City, one was in a cemetery and one was an ALWAYS cache (WalMart parking lot.) Lots of construction in Bay City on the roads so didn't spend as much time as I might have otherwise. Got over to I-75 and headed north, stopped at a rest area cache and then got off at Pinconning Road and headed east to M-13.

Stopped in Pinconning for a quick late lunch at Subway (it was about 3 p.m. by now) and headed north into Arenac County. Just over the county line, stopped at a rest area and found the cache there. I was lucky that all three of the counties where I wanted to find the cache and then backtrack had me with quick finds each time!

South again on I-75 and got off in Saginaw (Saginaw County, of course.) Found several caches along the way so I was able to finish the six county quest. Now it's time to head for home. Wanted to get home before dark and (hopefully) Steve as he knew I was going caching but not necessarily that I was going this far. I did stop for some caches along M-57 on the way to Greenville, then headed home from there and got home about 7:30 p.m. Steve had beat me home but not by much. He didn't ask me any questions about my day, since he's not all that interested in caching.

12 hours of driving with 24 cache finds, lunch, and a gas stop to break up the ride. That made for a long day! But now I only have one county left, Oceana County, and that is close by Camp Gerber which I'll be visiting this weekend so it shouldn't be a problem!

New geocaches and a new outlook on taking care of myself

I'm sitting in the Lowell Library on high speed. Just came from church where I was working with my three cache series placed in the wooded/grassy area behind the church. Finally got permission for the placement yesterday after a month of waiting for the deacon's approval.

My first order of business was to move the third cache. Mainly because it was too close to the second one. Geocaches have to be at least a tenth of a mile apart, and these two were about 400 feet apart. It was fine for the kids when we did the geocaching activity this summer, but not for an official geocache. So I did some hiking around and finally found another good area. I put some new swag, a travel bug, one of my new pathtags, and a new log book into the cache, and moved on to the second cache.

Oops, it's still a little bit too close to the third. So I tweaked ITS location, found a similar place to hide it which worked well. Put in some new swag, a travel bug, and a new log book. Moving on.

On to the first cache. This one was hidden in a pile of rocks. On the way, had to go through some standing water on the trail, worst it's been on the three or four trips I'd made out to this cache over the last six weeks or so. Got to GZ only to find the cache gone. Not sure why muggles would be out this way but apparently they were. Since the water's probably going to continue to be an issue, I found a new location for this one as well. Only trouble was I didn't bring a new container with me. Thought about it, "just in case," but didn't do it. So will have to fix up a new container and bring it back with me to Awana tonight and place it. Thankfully it's pretty close to the parking lot so I won't have to walk far.

I set up the third cache as a puzzle cache. Left half of the coords each in the other two caches. Cachers will have to find 1 & 2 in order to get the coords for 3. Makes it a bit more of a challenge.

Have fun!


I'm being moderately successful in staying away from snacks and sweets this week. No, haven't had ANY. Make that very successful. The carrot I'm holding out in front of me is going out caching on Friday if I continue to be successful. I need to take a trip over to the east side of the state to pick up six counties. That will make one to go, Oceana, which I'm planning to get when I go to Gerber for outdoor leader training next weekend. Then I will have all of the lower peninsula counties after four years of caching. UP will have to wait until next year at least, I still have 7 counties to go there.

I know I have to get better at taking care of myself and drop some of this extra weight I'm hauling around. I may not have anybody else interested in how my body looks but I need to take care of myself for my own sake. Hope I'm not jinxing it by posting this...

ArtPrize - Grand Rapids 2009

On Wednesday, the weather had improved and I was finally able to make it downtown to see some of the ArtPrize exhibition. The organizers invited artists from all over the world to enter, and there was a $250,000 grand prize. That brought over a thousand pieces of art, both large and small, to Grand Rapids. In about three hours, I was only able to see about a tenth of them, but still had quite a nice walk around town. It kind of reminded me of spending time in Europe this spring, walking around and experiencing artwork.

I was able to post some of them here: at the top, the left picture shows a mosaic that was installed on the wall of the Grand Rapids Childrens Museum. It will be a permanent addition as the artists donated it to them. Next are two of the three pushpin portraits. Made entirely of pushpins. Pretty Cool. I almost voted for this one but ended up voting for the Children's Museum mosaic. Then next to that is a large piece of balloon art - I think it was supposed to be a jellyfish? Below the pushpin portraits and the balloon art is the painting that won the top prize. I'm glad I saw it when I did - I walked right into the building where it was being exhibited on Wednesday, but there was an hour wait yesterday (Saturday) just to get into the building, let alone to see the painting.

Back to the left side, showing a picture of the table and chairs set atop the Blue Bridge over the Grand River. Next to that, just to the south of the bridge, is "Nessie," our very own Loch Ness Monster, in the Grand River.

The picture below this entry is of the moose, made entirely of nails welded together. The other three top ten entries were a sculpture, another sculpture that was in the Grand River, and a "field of wheat" for which a still picture does not do it justice.

There was a wide variety of sculpture, painting, and other types of art, placed all over the downtown Grand Rapids area.

For $5 (price to park in the ramp) I spent a nice few hours!

Today's weather started out to be dreary. I had hoped for a nice morning so I could finally go to downtown Grand Rapids and check out some of the ArtPrize entries before the contest ends. Dreary and drizzly so went to the library instead to use high speed.

As I was leaving, the garbage was just being picked up in front of our driveway. Can't think of the last time I had the opportunity, so I yelled out the window, "Thanks" to the garbage worker. It's a thankless job for the most part I would think. So decided to take that moment. Why not?

Next stop was the post office. I finally had a package together for Scott. Didn't have any flat rate boxes left at home so just used a regular priority box. When I got to the post office, the clerk asked if I thought I could get the contents into a flat rate box as it would be a few dollars cheaper to send. I could and did. That was nice of the clerk; she didn't have to do that. Had to buy stamps, too - we'd finally used up all the ones we'd bought before the rates went up.

Then to the library - nice to go into a study room so I could listen to things as well. Uploaded Scott's facebook pictures from Qatar, and watched a video he'd posted. Wish I knew how to save videos from FB! Judy started IMing me from facebook, it was nice to have a chat with her. All of a sudden though I realized (thanks to Judy's question) that it was time to get to work! Went outside to a beautiful blue sky - where was that two hours ago?

Headed to work, but was almost late because of an accident that really slowed traffic. I'd allowed plenty of time to get to work, though, thankfully!

I'm hoping that the weather holds and it is still nice enough tomorrow to go downtown and check out the ArtPrize exhibits. Probably about my last chance.

Oh, and weather? The long-range forecasts actually have the "s" word in them. That's snow, not that other s word. Probably not enough to stick, but still.... that's Michigan for you.

A soggy Geocaching 101

Shoreline District of Tall Pines Council and Five Rivers District of Gerald R. Ford Council (Boy Scouts) put together a Geocaching camporee which was held Friday through Sunday at Camp Tapico near Kalkaska. Since the two organizers are good scouting friends who both geocache and know of my passion for geocaching, they asked me to present a geocaching 101 class on Saturday morning.

Drove to camp on Friday, through (mostly) drizzle, sometimes a bit harder rain. It's about a 3 hour trip, but found 8 caches along the way, all were easy almost drive ups considering the weather. Got to the camp turn off and discovered that the roads, which were trying at best last time we were there, are not only trying but muddy. The van is pretty dirty right now!

Set up in a light rain after finding Ted and Dave. They drove us back to the campsite, about a 3/4 mile walk so appreciated not having to haul my gear back that far. Then got things ready. My job was to sit in the OA lodge, with a nice fire in the hearth, and check the scouts in. Turned out that all of the participants came from Tall Pines; I wasn't surprised as our council had just been to Mackinac the weekend before. That was ok though.

Leaders/SPL meeting at 9 p.m., then we went down to camp. Not much else to do but turn in so I was in bed just before 11. A damp and chilly night but my sleeping bag kept me warm and my tent kept me dry. Did wake up in the middle of the night and had a debate with my body over the necessity of getting up and heading for the latrine. My body won. After I was able to get back to sleep, 6:30 came pretty early though. The guys cooked egg casserole for breakfast, then we met the Seabees from Camp Grayling for flags at 8 a.m. The seabees were in camp to do service projects all weekend.

My geocaching 101 followed that. I have a power point presentation now which helps get the points across much more easily. I had an attentive audience and that helps too. After my presentation, the scouts were let loose to tackle a 37-cache course set up in camp -- Cache to Eagle. There were "parts" of Eagle Scout requirements hidden in each cache and the goal was to collect everything you need to earn your Eagle rank. Not sure anyone finished as I left shortly after lunch.

We fixed our lunch at the OA lodge, veggie soup and grilled cheese. Felt good to get warm food in us as it was still cool and damp, though no rain. No duties in the afternoon so I left for home as I didn't want to miss church two weeks in a row.

My first stop was Geocache 612, a few miles away. More muddy dirt roads, but not as bad as those leading to camp. This cache is the second oldest active cache in Michigan so once I realized it was so close it was my plan to get this one if nothing else. Mission accomplished! Then I decided to tackle one more "dirt road" cache. Got stopped on the way by a large temporary body of water across the entire road. Had nightmares of what would happen if I got stuck or shorted out the engine so decided to turn around and get on home.

I did find four more caches on the way and made it home about 8:30 p.m. The fall colors were about at 40 percent or so of peak - getting nice. We're a few weeks away from peak around home though.

Once a month cooking?

I found an interesting book at the library the other day: Once A Month Cooking. The premise is that you shop for all the food you need for two weeks or a month, then spend part of a day cooking and freezing so all you have to do is heat up the prepared meal each night. Thought it was worth a try!

Yesterday, I went grocery shopping. Spent more than I usually do but this is for two weeks, right? Got it home but then had to go to Awana so couldn't do any prep last night. Though I did clean out my freezer and spice cabinet to make room (and they needed it anyway.)

This morning I started. First lots of cutting. Carrots, onions, green onions, celery, green pepper, red pepper, kielbasa, chicken, flank steak. Then the prep. First was a baked jambalaya. Combined ingredients and put them into a freezer bag. One down. Next was supposed to be stuffed pork chops. Oops, forgot the mozzarella cheese. Skip that recipe for now.

Then a curry. Had to cook the chicken and add other ingredients. Then into the freezer bag and the freezer. Then three different chicken recipes - one with a soy sauce marinade, one with a barbeque marinade, and one with a cranberry sauce and onion soup marinade. All done. Then Chili Burgers. Mix, form, freeze. By now the kitchen is full of dishes and I am almost out of time before I need to leave for work. So one more...a roast in the crock pot. It is supposed to be mixed with the sauce, then frozen. Thaw out when you need it. I skipped the freeze/thaw step and just made it now for tonight's dinner. And yes, I remembered to make sure the crock pot was turned on. Last week I put chicken in it, and forgot to make sure it was turned on before I left for the day. No dinner when I got home, just a mess of thawed out chicken.

I still have a few more dishes to make: goulash, a shrimp dish, and another dish or two whose names escape me at the moment.

My hope is that this "plan" will at least remove some of the work in cooking, definitely remove the "what should I make for dinner tonight" anguish, and feed my family a bit better. Too much reliance on convenience foods lately.

I'll let you know what happens.