Tucson or Bust!

Some interesting things to see on our trip to Tucson. There was the skeleton of what I don't know, but I am thinking I am glad whatever it was, wasn't alive when I ventured on that dirt road. There are the weeping palms, which I mistakenly refer to as the weeping willows - I loved my willow tree and well guess it was on my mind. (note to self: make a willow tree post) There is the abandoned not to be built any time soon subdivision that the weeping palms are welcoming you to. There is the now requisite religious sign. There are the fancy underpasses in Tucson all colorful and welcoming, and the not so uncommon totally dry river. Then there is Frizzle driving home. Apparently after my driving "incident" on the move here, it has been decided Frizzle would be a better driver than me.

Geocache Adventure #4

This adventure took us towards Tucson. We decided to try to stop along the way to look for caches instead of waiting for our destination to start looking. Our first stop was in the Casa Grande area - anyway it was a dud of a stop for us. Apparently we are still very beginners and need to stay away from the micro cache until we gain more experience or something. Next stop was on a road towards the Saguaro National Forest. Last stop we made was in the Tucson city limits. The Loftus4 were down to Loftus3 and even then the 3 is questionable as one young one was having major allergy issues, and never got out of the car to help look. Frizzle was his usual help, and constantly had to be pulled out of trees. He is never afraid to climb a tree to look for cache, just has trouble getting down again. We found five cache on this gorgeous Sunday, had a look around at University of Arizona, a quick lunch at the local Sports Pub and it was time to head back home. A good day, being out in the sun always tires me and a nap was in order when we arrived home.

Geocache mini-Adventure #1

Biggest cache container yet - a five-gallon paint can!

The Geocaching mini-Adventures will probably be just Pat and me checking out cache in the area. We are starting to receive resistance from the other other two members of the Loftus4 team. So we decided to try some local cache to get more in touch with our inner-geocaching spirits. Out of five stops we found 3, probably could have found 5 but I have a heat tolerance and since it is still well over 100 degrees in this area, I can only look around for so long, before I melt. Tomorrow we are off to Tucson to search for cache.

On the Road To, In and Around Sedona

We got a late start on our trip to Sedona/Oak Creek. I had a dentist appointment at 7 AM and expected to be done by 7:30, I mean all they had to do was superglue a couple crowns in my mouth, how hard could that be. At 8:30 after having my mouth open for 1.5 hours and almost swallowing one of those crowns I was done, finally! So it was closer to 9:30 by the time we left for our third adventure in geocaching. Check out the huge truck full of hay that for some reason had to cut in front of us on the highway going 75!!! OMG did I mention I get carsick? That didn't help at all.

One of the spots we went to for a cache was a Catholic church in Sedona, in a most gorgeous area with breathtaking views. We didn't actually go into the church, but the outside areas were really nice. They had multiple different sitting areas with these great stone benches and statues with candles, nice places for meditation, sitting and enjoying the purple mountains majesty and feeling the swirl of energy as the vortex surrounds you. (If you're into that) They also had the Stations of the Cross outside, going around the perimeter of the church and buildings. Very relaxing, very beautiful, a nice trip.

Geocache Adventure #3

For our third adventure we went to Sedona/Oak Creek Canyon. It is probably my favorite area in Arizona. I love the red rocks, the creek and canyon are gorgeous, and the weather is so much nicer. I had a list of approximately 12 caches to look for. Max accompanied us on this trip, which we all know thrills me to no end. NOT!!! First two finds were fairly quick and relatively easy thanks to my natural geocaching skills. Cache number 3 was a bit harder, it was IN the CREEK under a rock, somewhere.....we never actually found it, well I never got in the creek to look, but Pat, Mike and William searched for quite awhile. Which is why I was left on the road with Max yanking my leash, holding Frizzle the mascot (he didn't want to get wet), carrying my camera and tripod and a bunch of papers and that is when I took a tumble. Fell right down there in the road on my CAMERA, banged up my elbow and knee, hurt my entire left side and lived to tell the story. My camera lens died that day, but the camera is fine and we just had to use a telephoto for the rest of the day's pictures. Soon after, the 3 searchers came out of the creek, carrying a soaking wet PSP. Yep Mike had it in his pocket, guess he wasn't expecting to get wet in that creek. Lucky for him the PSP lived and the only casualty was my camera lens. Cache number 4 was on the creek bed somewhere on the other side of the bridge, William and Pat gave it a quick look and we left that area zero for two.

We drove into Sedona to regroup, stopped in a parking lot and realized that a cache location was right there, so we hunted for that, but no my natural instincts had been whacked out of me with the fall, so after a quick search we abandoned that one. Checking our coordinates we realized that we passed two other caches on the drive from the creek to Sedona, and no one felt like going back so press on we did. Next stop a parking lot of an abandoned storefront office building. Pretty quick find under a huge rock, on we go. One more find at a church parking lot and that made our four finds for the day. We did search for one other but couldn't find it, and then the final two we decided to skip, everyone was tired and they involved a hike into a more remote area.

We had a great time even though we didn't find all the caches we were looking for. The red rock mountains are really gorgeous and look different at all times of the day depending where the sun is. Every stop had breathtaking views and it was a great day to be outside. I definitely want to go back to that area to search for more cache. That creek one is on my mind to find! We had to skip Slide Rock State Park too as it was way too crowded, the parking lot was full and no more cars were being allowed in. It looks like a fun place to spend some time and I will get back there soon.