But it doesn't mean I can't get better. I posted a picture of my sonic with a cache last night on G+ with a comment something like "As the boy scouts are fond of saying, be prepared." And got a few comments on it. I love when I find even more things in common with folk on G+. Quite a community, and so much more fulfilling to me than other social media I have been on.
But anyway, it got me thinking. What has been my best day caching? The absolute be all end all best day?
Was it wandering around a deserted, all but non existent town in the wilds of Pennsylvania? This was kind of a bucket list item for me. I love weird things and Centralia has been on my list for a long time.
Or finding the legendary Ark in a cave in the same state? This one we came across by accident just looking for great caches in PA doing a little pre-trip planning. Just from the logs we could tell it had to be done.
Or maybe exploring the abandoned remnants of the Pennsylvania Turnpike? Another item on my weird bucket list. Just fun to explore old structures and go where maybe I'm not supposed to go. Architecture screams at me to be photographed and to be entered and looked at once again as if to say, "Notice me! I was once this grand idea that someone had and I won't go off into obscurity quietly!" Old structures do speak. This one alone saw countless people just like me going off on their own adventures. Their are so many funny stories from the road. Some not appropriate for social media nowadays because of everyone being so PC. If you've met me and really gotten to know me you may have noticed that I am not PC. So here is one of the stories from the road, this road, the lost PA Turnpike.
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While we were going to and coming home from GWIX (that's Geowoodstock, for anyone that runs across this blog who isn't a geocacher) we decided that it would be great to see some of the stuff that I find in my wanderings about the internet and the shelf full of books on the weird and paranormal. I guess you could think of me as sort or a messed up tour guide.
I can't even remember how far we were into the return trip home. I know that Hitman had just called to check on us and see how things were going while we were trying to find a proper way in, and I remember losing signal and getting pretty far off the beaten path. After about a half a mile walk in the woods we came upon the cracked remnants of the old Pennsylvania Turnpike. Just a short walk later we saw the view that you see in the picture above and the postcard below. That was one of the first images that came up when I just did a Google image search. Amazing. But I can almost picture it that way, this postcard superimposed over what I saw that day. The hatch to the right there was standing open, we walked through and explored that door to the left and walked along the stone ledges on either side.
But anyway, it got me thinking. What has been my best day caching? The absolute be all end all best day?
Was it wandering around a deserted, all but non existent town in the wilds of Pennsylvania? This was kind of a bucket list item for me. I love weird things and Centralia has been on my list for a long time.
Or finding the legendary Ark in a cave in the same state? This one we came across by accident just looking for great caches in PA doing a little pre-trip planning. Just from the logs we could tell it had to be done.
Or maybe exploring the abandoned remnants of the Pennsylvania Turnpike? Another item on my weird bucket list. Just fun to explore old structures and go where maybe I'm not supposed to go. Architecture screams at me to be photographed and to be entered and looked at once again as if to say, "Notice me! I was once this grand idea that someone had and I won't go off into obscurity quietly!" Old structures do speak. This one alone saw countless people just like me going off on their own adventures. Their are so many funny stories from the road. Some not appropriate for social media nowadays because of everyone being so PC. If you've met me and really gotten to know me you may have noticed that I am not PC. So here is one of the stories from the road, this road, the lost PA Turnpike.
__________________________________
While we were going to and coming home from GWIX (that's Geowoodstock, for anyone that runs across this blog who isn't a geocacher) we decided that it would be great to see some of the stuff that I find in my wanderings about the internet and the shelf full of books on the weird and paranormal. I guess you could think of me as sort or a messed up tour guide.
I can't even remember how far we were into the return trip home. I know that Hitman had just called to check on us and see how things were going while we were trying to find a proper way in, and I remember losing signal and getting pretty far off the beaten path. After about a half a mile walk in the woods we came upon the cracked remnants of the old Pennsylvania Turnpike. Just a short walk later we saw the view that you see in the picture above and the postcard below. That was one of the first images that came up when I just did a Google image search. Amazing. But I can almost picture it that way, this postcard superimposed over what I saw that day. The hatch to the right there was standing open, we walked through and explored that door to the left and walked along the stone ledges on either side.
But I am getting away from the story.
For starters, you are allowed to be in this area. No vigilante historianism (I believe I just made a word, but it fits) here. These old roads are hiking and bike trails now. A good strong lamp is needed for your bike as it gets incredibly can'tseeyourhandinfrontofyourfaceohmygodwhatjusttouchedmyleg dark in parts of the tunnel.
As we walked up there was an older couple and there son and daughter out biking the trail and we stopped to talk. We'll call them Bob and Sue. Sue was very friendly and gave off a hippie vibe and when I say older they really weren't more than twenty years older than me so early sixties at best. We stopped to talk and did the geocaching explanation we all have given or will give at one point or another in our caching careers. Sue had actually heard about it and gave us a pendant she had made to put in the cache here, she said it was for positive energy, something we needed, so she told us to put it in and take it back out if we wanted to keep it. Trade in kind or trade up. It still hangs on the mirror of the Escape and more often than not gets touched on caching trips. They continued on their way down the road and we began our search for the cache. First in the tunnel for a good thirty minutes, looking in every nook and cranny, hole, crack and crevice we could find. Nothing. The pendant was not working. So we started to walk back out of the dark when we smelt something on fire. Something with a very familiar smell. Something natural...
I looked at G28 and Blaze132 just to see if I was smelling what I thought I smelled. I was right. Dope, pot, Mary Jane. Somebody was rolling their own.
I won't lie and say I've never smoked it. I no longer do nor do I condone it. I also don't believe it to be a gateway drug. Besides the killing of innocent brain cells I have never known one pothead to be a bad person. There. That's my PSA.
We emerged from the dark to see a shadow on a bike from the light at the end of the tunnel. Literally. It was Bob and he was unashamed sitting there on his bike smoking a joint in the middle of the highway. I am sure that wasn't lost on him, I mean how many other chances are you going to get? Bob had not talked to us much and seemed to want to get on his way in our first meeting. I approached him at the end of the tunnel, sidled up beside him and... jokingly, as I said, I've outgrown it, have kids to think of, and no longer partake. What I got from Bob was this bit that I don't think would be particularly PC but now at the end of this story ain't so bad, but I think it was funny as hell. The only words I ever heard from Bob in our short relationship.
Me: "Puff, puff, pass!"
Bob: "It ain't like that nigga!"
As he stubbed his joint on his palm, after which he gave me a quick nod and a smirk and rode off into the darkness of the tunnel, being berated by Sue to come back and share with these nice young men, never to be seen again.
At least by me.
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Stories? We got stories. Plenty of them. Some funny, some sad. But they're all part of life and a hobby I share with some of you.
This wasn't my best day caching. But it's in my top five.
We finished out the day here.
No more words needed. Until next time...
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