Happy Thanksgiving From The Front Lines

JeepWhile the turkey was cooking and some of the guests were boating, Donna and I headed into downtown Stuart to do a little Geocaching. There were very few people in most of the places in downtown, so it made it fun not having to look over our shoulders to make sure we weren’t muggled while signing logs. Our total take for the day was 7, we had done 2 earlier that were within walking distance of Sandy’s house and then five more in downtown.

My favorite hide was the one from the picture above, called Road To Victory, mainly because of the hide of the cache itself. The size was listed as a regular, which normally means an ammo can, but those are usually kind of hard to hide in an “urban” environment. So it was nice to find exactly that, an ammo can, that was hidden in plain sight, bolted to the back of a Jeep in front of a little military museum.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 495

Made It

Lakeside InnWe arrived at our destination in Palm City by lunch time today. A slight mis-turn in the town Okeechobee and two trips to the local Publix put our mileage for Wednesday at 203 miles instead of the 160 Google maps advertises. This brings our total mileage from Aiken to Palm City at 958.

It rained pretty much the whole day so the closest we came to geocaching was a virtual one in Okeechobee, but it was coming down so hard that we did not even get out of the car to answer the questions. I’m not going to count it as a DNF.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 493

Pond Water

Mud HenWe drove a whopping 76 miles today, to Winter Springs and back and we finally ran into the Florida we love to hate, 6 lanes of heavy traffic interrupted by traffic lights every 1/4 mile. We did find an alternative route back that involved a toll road (best two bucks we spent today) and a two lane back road. The trip over was to have a quick visit with the fellow who lived across the street from us in Aiken. Oliver was the neighborhood historian as he lived there from the beginning and made friends with everyone he met. Unfortunately a couple of years ago his family moved him down here to be close to them when he and his wife began to show their advanced age. He enjoyed our visit and we enjoyed brightening his day.

Did minimal geocaching today, striking out on the one that is actually only 350 feet from our room at the Lakeside Inn, but we did find the one that was in a park a short walk away.

This evening we walked into downtown Mt. Dora for dinner. Last night’s dinner at the dining room at the Inn was fantastic, but we were looking for something a little lighter. Donna wanted ravioli so we walked up the 5 blocks to a pizza place thinking that they might have something Italian as well. They did. but no ravioli, so we backed back down the hill looking for likely suspects. After dismissing a couple we ended up at the Frog & Monkey Pub. No ravioli, but they did have a small flat bread pizza that was the perfect size for us to split. Donna got a bottled water and I got some Pond Water – Guinness & Root Beer. Don’t laugh, it is actually pretty good.

Started up, went down, went up, down again, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 493

Faded Florida

Florida TrailWe are spending the next two nights at the Lakeside Inn in Mt Dora, FL and while the place is nice it would probably have been in its prime several decades ago.

Today it took us only 147 miles to go the 136 Google told us it would. We stopped several times to do some geocaching, finding 7 of 8, and walking along several trails of the Ocala National Forest.

Started up, went down, went up, back down, back up, down again, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 489

Church On Sunday

Emperor Goes To ChurchThere is a sign on US17 in South Newport, GA that proclaims “The Smallest Church in America.” With our love of Roadside Americana we would have stopped to look at it even if there hadn’t been a cache nearby. Donna went inside and read a sign that said you can have your wedding here, it had better be a small party as it would be a tight squeeze with just preacher, bride, groom, best man and maid of honor. At 10′ x 15′ it is pretty small and I’d have a hard time fitting the Miata inside, but someone has found even a couple more churches littler – Smallest Churches in America.

We didn’t do a lot of extra driving today, Google says it is 197 miles from Pooler, GA to Lake City, FLORIDA and we only took 244 to get here. It was raining when the day started and for most of the trip it varied from drizzle to downpour until we entered the Sunshine State. Then true to it’s nickname the skies cleared and within a few miles we had the top down. Found 7 geocaches today, including our first one in Florida, DNF’d only one and that was another Florida first.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 483

100,000 UFOs

100 GrandJust shy of Bowman, the Emperor, Donna and I split a candy bar in honor of his latest mileage achievement.

From Aiken, SC to Pooler, GA it is 136 miles as the Google flies, but we traveled 288. Along the way we visited an honest to God (pun intended) Abbey with real monks and stuff to look at 47 different nativity scenes in media that varied from rolled newspaper to stainless steel. We geocached in 3 different counties, finding 5 and DNFing one. We had Japanese for lunch, American for dinner and we are spending the night in a hotel that doesn’t have ice machines.

Tomorrow we cross into the other world where you can’t get sweet tea to drink, but you can get a paperweight made of a baby alligator head encased in lucite, the glorious Sunshine State, Florida.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 481

How Long Does It Take You To Drive 514 Miles?

Over the bridge and through the swamp to Donna’s sister’s house we go. It’ll take us 4-1/2 days. No, we are not riding the tandem. Five hundred and fourteen miles is the most direct route down I-95, which we hate and avoid like the H1N1 virus, so we will spend most of the trip on two-lane back roads and beating back thorny bushes looking for Army surplus ammo cans full of Happy Meal toys.

The route back home will be 582 miles, half Florida Turnpike, half Georgia state routes and it will take us about 14 hours.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 479