Midwest Geobash 2011

I'm writing this blog entry while sitting outside my little tent, at my camping table, at the fairgrounds in Wauseon, Ohio, where I've been attending the Midwest Geobash.

I arrived at about 10 p.m. on Thursday night, having loaded my car the night before and going straight down here after work. Left about 5:30, made a stop for ice, then stopped again at a cache between Lowell and Ionia that was at an eastbound rest area. Hard to get those going the other direction!

Stopped in Grand Ledge to grab a bite to eat and hopefully check the internet. Wouldn't you know, I picked a McDonald's that DIDN'T have wi-fi! So kept on going south.

Made one more cache stop, a travel bug place at a southbound US 127 rest area. Had to walk through weeds as tall if not taller than me (definitely did a tick check after that!) but worth it as I picked up a military geocoin to take traveling with me. Stopped in southern Michigan for gas, wanted to try to get to Ohio but decided it was cutting it too close. Wish I'd have waited - paid $3.85 per gallon, then in Ohio it was $3.69. Definitely will fill up before I leave the state tomorrow!

Arrived at the fairgrounds about 10 p.m. Nobody on duty to show me where to go. I expected that. Didn't expect that (as I found out later) the sign for my section had been moved, I couldn't figure out where to go for a while. Finally had to get out of the car and walk with my flashlight to read the posts in the middle.

Set up the tent using my solar lantern. It is nice but would have been nicer to have more light. Still have a pretty nice campsite if I do say so myself. Sweating like a pig by the time I was done as it was pretty humid. Found the shower house not too far away so took a shower and felt much better. Tucked myself into bed and woke to rain. Very thankful for a nice dry tent. Only problem was not remembering to bring my rain gear into the tent given the forecast. Thankfully I knew just where to find my poncho in the car. Ate granola in the tent since I didn't want to cook with no rain fly. Things cleared up, though, and by 10 a.m. it was overcast, getting muggy, but no rain.

Met friends from home and we all went together out on the "poker run." We were given 7 sets of coordinates and visited 7 area businesses at those coordinates, picked up bar code stickers which corresponded to playing cards. The best hand won a GPS receiver. Mine is definitely showing signs of wear and tear but I didn't win.
We picked up some caches along the way as well.

Came back and finally got the code for wifi on the fairgrounds so got caught up on logging and such while waiting for the poker run results. Also got my travel bugs checked in and some new ones exchanged.

Soon time for dinner. I brought my backpacking stove, a "pocket rocket" and broiled some chicken that I had been marinating in teriyaki sauce. Also boiled some water for some couscous. Nice dinner. After dinner I got out my bicycle. Had brought it as it was recommended to get around. Found out just how nice it was to get around and find the caches hidden in the fairgrounds area! 12 caches in about an hour and a half on the bike. I'm hooked and want to take the bike out on some of the local bike trails around home. Cached until almost dark and then logged caches until bedtime.

This morning I scrambled some egg beaters and had a nice breakfast. Decided to get out there and get some caches, first stopping at WalMart for some non-stick spray as I'd not packed any. Ended up with 29 caches today, many of them on the Wabash Cannonball Trail which involved quite a bit of walking. My feet, at least the blisters on them, can testify to that fact.

Came back for a while in mid-afternoon after stopping at McDonalds to cool off in their air conditioning. Discovered that there was a challenge cache for completing all 366 calendar days (there wasn't one at home) so decided that was my evening caching's destination. Broiled a turkey burger and added a caesar salad for my dinner. (confession. lunch was a snack size Mcflurry during my cool-off stop.)

Did more walking on the WCT tonight to get the challenge cache and some others. Back to the campground, much the same routine tonight. The internet is a bit spotty so hope this posts ok. Tomorrow morning it's time to pack up and go home. Plan to cache along the way, of course!