NoVa Night Owls

There was a great turn out for this event in Chantilly, hosted by FlyingMoose to provide a social venue for cachers during the holiday season. Despite the rain and chill, many of the attendees went night caching after the event!

FlyingMoose put on one heck of an event, and everyone came away with new friends, new stories, and in most cases, new caching items. My hat is off to FlyingMoose, PyroNorm, and 2Wheel'in for doing such a fine job with this event!

PyroNorm and Rufnredy share a plate of pizza and some caching stories. Geez, Norm, with a pony tail like that I'll bet every white tail buck in NoVa has an eye on you!

"Tell me what you know!" FlyingMoose extracts cache information from an unwitting suspect!

'The next winner is..." FlyingMoose pulls door prize tickets out of the cache box.

Oh, the anticipation is killing me! (L to R) Divervan, Mrs. Artweld, Nittany Lady, Artweld, and HoboDude watch the door prize drawing.

"So how was the food?" Baja Clan and PsyOp have a laugh during the door prize giveaway.

Gaiter Man and Beachbuddies - two of the most challenging hiders ever!

A Drive In The Country

I took a day off today and decided to explore Route 15 north of Frederick, MD. The day was a great one, with moderate temperatures and variable sky conditions. I started with some rural caches, working my way up to Thurmont where I had lunch at a great 'hole in the wall' restaurant. Lunch included cream of crab soup, which had a healthy sprinkling of Old Bay, and I left feeling like a new man.

The afternoon saw more and more urban style hides as I drew closer to Harrisburg. On the day I charted 20 finds - not my record, but a good effort just the same. This was a great escape, and I strongly recommend the Route 15 corridor in MD and PA for it's wide variey of caches, compelling local history, and great food!

Welcome to Bear Country! This factory store is jammed with bears of every type and description - well worth the drive! Of course, the nearby cache served as an incentive...

This is one of two covered bridges that I discovered in Maryland and Pennsylvania today.

This is one of the oldest family plots that I have ever seen. I didn't see any traces of the original farmstead - the land is now PA Game Land and is open for hunting.

This marker, in the above referenced cemetery, bears the name Christina Stouffer. She was born in 1734, and probably witnessed the birth of this country. I wonder where she was born? By today's standards, she must have had a hard life indeed.

New 2006 Signature Item Arrives!

Today I took delivery of my new signature item for 2006. These are 100% silicone rubber bracelets, similar to the popular 'Livestrong' bracelet, which I had custom made in a blue and white swirl to emulate the sky and clouds. The design process was quite painless, and the service was great. My order was finalized on the 7th and I received the bracelets direct from China 7 days later.

Now THAT is quick turnaround!

For those of you who read this post from outside of the local VA/MD area, I'd be happy to send you a bracelet - just email me through the GC.com website. Or you could invite me to cache in your neck of the woods!

Coming to a cache near you!

Hagerstown With Nightengale

Nightengale and I decided to venture a little beyond out usual territory today and hit the road for Hagerstown, MD. There are TONS of caches there for the doing, but very few of them are easy finds. Cachers like Phideo, Snurt, SMAK, and others call this place home, and they certainly raise the bar on cache hides.

The city itself is clean and inviting. Near the center of town is City Park, which is very pretty indeed. We spent a couple of hours DNF'ing everything in sight - (I told you the hides are tough!) but we thoroughly enjoyed our visit.

City Park, in Hagerstown MD, is just teeming with carp. There are so many that I'm convinced that you could walk across the pond on their backs! What's more, some of them are pushing 24 inches in length!

I managed to sneak a quick picture of Nightengale before she caught on and started avoiding the camera. 13 year olds... *sigh*

These swans inhabit the City Park in Hagertown - they are banded, but I couldn't tell if they had been clipped or not. I wonder where they go in winter?

The swans were even more spectacular up close.