Road Trip

Columbia, SC

50 miles from home.

We were up early and on the road to Columbia to meet Donna’s sister Sandy, her husband and his mother. They drove up from Florida and came here for the same reason we did, to meet with a cousin of theirs from western Canada that they hadn’t ever meet before. The Canadian contingent was in South Carolina visiting some of the cousin’s husband’s family who live in Charleston. There were nine of us at the table for lunch at California Dreaming. Only Donna, Sandy and cousin Margaret were actual blood relatives (the same great grandfather), but it was a lively fun group to have lunch with. It was over all too soon and everyone promised to keep in touch and drop in on each other if we were ever anywhere near each other.

After lunch Donna, Sandy and I went and tried to grab a couple nearby caches with hopes of dropping off a travel bug. Wouldn’t you know it, but we couldn’t find the first one we attempted. It was a regular size and in a garden by a SCDOT building. After a few minute of looking we attracted the attention of an employee. She asked what we were up to and Sandy, who just learned what geocaching was, gave her a briefing. We had just about given up when a women who works at the credit union came out for a smoke break and asked if we were geocaching. She probably knew what we were up to because she is always out grabbing a smoke when people come poking around in the plants.

After that we went over to the state capitol building to complete a sure fire cache, a virtual one. With a virtual cache there is no hidden container to find, it usually entails emailing the owner a photo of you in the location or the answer to a question that can be there.

We had three caches picked out for the Charlotte area, but spent so much time with family that we crossed them off the list and headed straight for the hotel. Mark, lunch was also so big and late you dodged a bullet, that we didn’t have the room for Razzoo’s either.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 175

Anticipation

Our bags are packed with winter-like clothes (it snowed today at Mt Rushmore) and more electronics than an F-14 fighter plane.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 174

Vacation


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What started as a two week vacation in the American west to eyeball some of the great natural wonders it has to offer, has somehow morphed into a long distance cache hunt. Now instead of gazing in awe at Devils Tower or Monument valley I will be staring at the GPSr while peeking at the ground looking for ammo cans well integrated into the environment.

The Emperor got a bath today even though he will need another one in three weeks after sitting in long term parking.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 172

The Exact Opposite of Yesterday

Where yesterday was gray and rainy, today was blue and sunny. If it weren’t for a very stiff breeze it would have been a picture perfect spring day. Where yesterday we spent much of it indoors, today was spent mostly outdoors.

We had a 5 for 5 day geocaching. Last Saturday in Graniteville we picked up a Travel Bug who’s goal was to travel to state parks (why it got to Graniteville is a mystery) and we planned on dropping it in the Aiken State Natural Area. After reading the logs for that cache, Donna and I agreed there was a low probability of us finding it. It also wasn’t a high traffic cache, so it might be a while before it got picked up again.

A change of plans resulted in our deciding to go to Barnwell State Park instead. The park itself is closer to Blackville than Barnewll, so I found a couple easy caches in and around that town to give us some other things to hunt. There was even a Virtual Cache that was so easy that you didn’t even need a GPS – The Healing Springs.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 158

89,000 Raindrops

We made the trip east this morning for Breakfast With Laurie. For grins I decided to look for an easy geocache in Florence somewhere near the Cracker Barrel where we meet to maybe entertain us after eating Pecan Pancakes and Eggs in a Basket. Much to my surprise there was one real close, like so close it was actually at the Cracker Barrel. Q is for Quackers. How did I know? For one, its location on the map placed it right at the intersection of I-95 & US52 and secondly this phrase from the description: No rocking chairs were injured during the making of this cache. Looks like we wouldn’t even need the GPS for this one.

And it was a good thing we didn’t need it, as for some reason this morning I couldn’t download the data from the web site to the unit. I tried from both geocaching.com and the Garmin site with no luck. I tested the plugin and it said it was fine. I rebooted the PC. I turned off the GPS a couple of times and it still didn’t work. When we got home from breakfast I finally got it to work by reinstalling the firmware on the Venture HC.

About 4 miles east of the thriving metropolis of Salley, SC the Emperor crossed the 89k miles in service mark.

Oh, yeah, about that cache, we found it no problem. Thanks to the clue – Let this not wash you up for the day, the description of the cache – You are looking for a black magnetic key holder and the logs – I had to get over my shyness about sticking my butt up in the air. It was under an old timely washing bucket with a mechanical wringer in between two rocking chairs on the porch of the restaurant.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 144

Giant Metal Squirrels

On our little tour of Daufuskie Island there were several historic sites and a couple of art “galleries” that were highlighted for us to stop at.

When we left the General Store and Cart Rental place we started out following the recommended tour route. The first stop was a spot that held two historic places, an old church and an old school. Of course there were two other golf carts stopped there too, so we hung around until they left and instead of continuing on the “tour” we took the first left we could. From then on we almost never saw any of our ferry mates again. Hey we came here to get away from people.

We eventually rode on most of the tour route just backwards or coming at it sideways. There were a couple of historic cemeteries that we wanted to check out and in spite of traveling down the roads they were on, never did see any. We did find one of the artist galleries, The Iron Fish, and parked our golf cart under the tree in the side yard. It is a 100 year-old original island house that has a front porch that serves as the gallery and the front wall is covered with funky, yet appealing schools of metal fish. The are also metal crabs and mermaids mixed in. There was a note on the front door with purchase instructions: If you see something you like take it and slip your money under the door. For credit card purchases, leave a note saying what you bought and your phone number. A nice school of four small fish would be an awesome decoration on a living room or bed room wall, but at $85 per fish they were a bit rich for our blood.

As we got back into the cart to leave we both noticed several large metal squirrels stuck to the trunk of the tree and both of us went, “Coool.” I checked the price and they were $45 a piece and both of us went, “Naaah.” Just before turning the key to start the cart Donna said, “You sure?” I hesitated and then said, “Why not?” Chase, the artist, was in his backyard, so I walked over and gave him the cash. He offered to wrap it up, but we declined just sticking it in the bottom of our black travel bag.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 143

Daufuskie Island

The main reason for ferrying over to this small barrier island off the South Carolina coast was to take a picture of the Post Office, we also wanted to enjoy a place that the primary mode of transportation is a golf cart. There are cars & trucks on the island, but only the full time residents, of which there are only around 200, are allowed to keep one. We also wanted to try and find the one and only cache there, Life of Leisure. It is a micro, which we aren’t having too much luck with, but listed as “not at all hard to find.”

I’m sure we were right on it and with the clue given as eye level, it should have been easy, but we couldn’t find it. The location is right near the 18th fairway of one of the Daufuskie Island Resort’s golf courses, so we had to dodge golfers and balls. There was a dead tree right on the spot that looked like it was a woodpecker buffet line with lots of holes that a micro could have fit in, but I didn’t see one, nor did I find one hidden under all the chips. Dang.

We were now 0 for 3 on micro caches this trip with the two failure to finds in Beaufort yesterday. Not only didn’t we find this cache, but we didn’t find a full size one on Hilton Head that we tried before boarding the ferry. We suck at this. But we aren’t about to give this up yet, instead of being discouraged by the failures we are now more set in our resolve not to be defeated.

The round trip ferry ride is $23 a person and a 3 hour rental of a golf cart is $50, so we crammed quite a bit of traveling into our day. The boat arrived on the island at 11:00 AM and we covered a bunch of ground before heading back to the landing for lunch at the Old Daufuskie Crab company. After lunch with not much time left until our return trip, we decided to stay until the 5:15 ferry, if we could keep the golf cart. We I asked if it was alright if we kept it over the 3 hour limit the fellow told me usually they charge an additional twenty bucks, but he said don’t worry about it, just be back by 4:00 PM. I’m sure his answer would have been different had it been high season, but I thanked him and we set back out to poke around in some places we hadn’t been yet.

Most of the roads in the resorts and planned to be resorts were paved, but all of the internal main island roads are dirt. Donna, who is normally driving averse, actually loved driving the golf cart around the island because with traffic being almost non existent and with a top speed of 14 MPH down hill, piloting the cart is a blast. We will definitely be visiting again, may not be for another year, but a return trip is going to happen sometime. There are lots of little stories to tell, but my fingers are getting tired from typing, so maybe another time. The island is only 2.5 miles wide by 5 miles long, so just look up at the attached picture and note the green line, that is our track from the GPS and some of those routes we traveled more than once. We covered some ground.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 142