Keychain Craft

I felt the need to get crafty this weekend. This button key chain is what I came up with...

It's nothing too spectacular, but they are super easy and quick to make. I'll use them for geocaching swag I suppose.

:-)

Postcrossing Sunday - Taiwan

Distance: 11,715 km (7,279 miles)

Travel time: 15 days

Dobbins Lookout

Just another awesome location Geonarcissa and I visited on our day of caching :-)

Dobbins lookout is located in South Mountain Park at an elevation of 2330ft. The view of Phoenix was amazing, as you can see.

Our reason for visiting this spot was the South Mountain Metamorphic Core Complex Earthcache.

After reading the description a couple times, we successfully completed the cache and made our way down the mountain.

We grabbed caches on our decent and took advantage of all the photo opportunities.

I'm up to 5 earthcaches now! My favorite one is still in Tennessee, you can read about it here. My hardest geocache involved crawling through a cave, I almost got stuck... twice.

And since I've really started liking ask question if I can...

If you're a geocacher...
What is your most memorable Earthcache?
Link to it if you've blogged it ;-)

If you're not a geocacher...
Have you ever been horseback riding?

Phoenix Virtuals

Geonarcissa and I found our last four caches (all virtuals) at night. I was a little worried about being downtown in the dark, but there wasn't a soul in sight. My legs were also killlling me.. but Geonarcissa kept me going. That's one of the good things about geocaching with someone! I wanted to stop, but I'm glad we didn't.

One of our virtual geocaches was in front of the Arizona State Capitol building.

The virtual had to do with the reproduction of the Liberty Bell on the left side of the picture, but I was doing some wiki reading and found out some interesting facts about the building. The Arizona state seal represents the 5 C's, all having to do with the "foundational elements of the Arizona economy". They are cattle, cotton, citrus, copper and climate... However the seal depicted in the capital building is missing the cattle part... and guess what? That error came out of Ohio! Haha, Go Ohio (my home state). I also read that Arizona has the only copper domed capital building in the United States - they used Arizona resources to build it. Unfortunately you can't see the dome in my night picture.

Me ringing Arizona's Liberty Bell.

The rest of our virtual finds were in Bolin Memorial Park. All within walking distance of one another. It was a great spot to end the caching day.

I'm up to 12 virtual geocaches now, but I still think my favorite was my first one. Have you done a virtual? if so, which one was your favorite? Be sure to leave a link if you've blogged about it!

What is Geocaching? Answer here.

ThirtyOne

I don't think I'll ever get tired of seeing the Giant Saguaros here in the southwest. Every single one is different. Take this one for example. Thirty-one arms!! The thing is massive.

It has got to be well over 20 ft..... Which would be about 6 meters if your caching with someone from Canada!

If it weren't for the nearby cache, I don't think I'd ever see something so spectacular.

Did you know... it takes a saguaro 75 years to develop a side arm!?

In other plant related things... We've had a lot of rain this winter and there were little flowers everywhere we went. Purple, yellow, orange and white ones. Of course I only managed to get a couple flower pictures.... at least they are pretty enough to share!

Fiddleneck



What is Geocaching? Answer here.

Arizona's Oldest Cache

Yesterday I met up with fellow Geocaching Blogger GeoNarcissa. I was our fist time meeting and we got along great. It's always nice to meet internet friends in "real life." ;-)

I woke up bright and early and made my way north to Phoenix to pick her up. Besides a break for brunch at her friends house and dinner at Chili's, we cached all day! We had 17 finds and only one DNF. It turns out the DNF was determined missing by the cache owner the same day.

The highlight of the day was definitely Arizona's oldest cache. The hike was roughly 1.5 miles and with a handful of caches along the way, it took us about 3 hours round trip.

We spent some time looking at the cache owner's note and the logs.

I love that this is nearly 10 years old and still out in the desert. I also got a kick out of him calling it his "GPS Stash."

The first few logs interesting too... The game has changed a lot since 2000. Some of the items left would be frowned upon now and you don't see any of the TFTC SL TNLN type lingo. They signed with there real names too. I guess the nicknames hadn't caught on yet.

This is definitely a cache I'll remember doing! I'm so glad we decided to make our way out there! You must grab this one if you are in AZ!

What's the oldest cache you've found?

What is Geocaching? Answer here.

P.S. More highlights of this caching day to come ;-)

Postcrossing Sunday - Germany

Distance: 9,334 km (5,800 miles)

Travel time: 7 days

What is Postcrossing? Find out Here.

Sprouts

Remember those plants I planted a couple of weeks ago?

Here they are now.



2 of the 3 pots have sprouted. Not sure what is going on with the other one :-/

Nestled

Nestled in a little park along a busy street, was this itty-bitty cache hiding in a tree.

I wish I would have brought the tweezers, but I found a small stick that did the trick.

I signed the log and rolled up, snapped the lid and re-hid!

I see no future in poetry.

What is Geocaching? Answer here.

Front Yard Geocache

I tend to stay away from caches placed too close to houses. They just make me feel uncomfortable and I hate when people have that "what are you up to" look on their face. Then there is that who problem of the neighborhood dog barking the whole time you search. Front yard caches just aren't my cup of tea.

Today was a little different though. I was grabbing a cache on my "To Do" list. The cache owner stated they had permission to place the cache and the description went on to explain that this front yard wasn't a "typical" front yard.... and it wasn't.

This was my first glimpse of the yard. After I parked the car and walked closer, I was overwhelmed. Junk Art, may not be the proper term.... but that is exactly what it was... and it was everywhere.

Of course I had my camera in hand and took a billion pictures. I tried to narrow it down... but it was hard, so bear with me.

This one cracked me up. Boob Grabin'.

A future American Idol Contestant?

This guy had to be one of my favorites. He was a little astronaut. All silver and holding a mini American flag.

I thought I knew where the cache was... and when I finally worked up the nerve to touch the art, I made the find ;-) It was it this blue thing being held my some kind of welded creature.

What is Geocaching? Answer here.

The Bees are Back in Town

You know that bee that used to buzz a lot?
Every night he'd be on the flower shaking what he'd got.
Man when I tell you he was cruel, he was red hot,
I mean he was stingin'.

And that time over at Johnny's place,
Well this bee got up and he stung Johnny's face.
Man we just ran out the place.
If that bee don't want to go, kill it.


Original song by Thin Lizzy

Please note, ErikaJean does not approve of bee killings. Those words happened to fit ;-)

Postcrossing Sunday - Turkey

Distance: 11,190 km (6,953 miles)

Travel time: 13 days

What is Postcrossing? Find out Here.

Ch-ch-changes.

A few different blogs I read have been playing with templates lately... and not being satisfied with my own... I decided to join in on the fun. I've gone through many templates over the years, but only two of them have stuck around for any period of time.

Blogger, specifically Blogger Draft has really developed their designs and widgets the last few years... and they've gotten so good I've decided to just roll with it. I liked my old template, but I hated how the comment feature was at the top, there was no date and some other minor things I couldn't wrap my brain around fixing. It was basically what I was using because blogger didn't offer anything I liked at the time!

So, my point of this post was to say... Material wise, nothing has change and for the most part I tried to keep almost everything in the same "place." The background will probably go soon, as I want something more cactus-y and easier on the eyes ;-) I have to mess with my blog roll and links on the side a little more.... so if you were there and aren't there now... you should be back up soon.

Thanks!

Tohono Chul Park

I've said it a million times, and I'll say it again... Geocaching is great - It takes you to places you would have otherwise missed.

Today I went for a cache inside a Tohono Chul Park. I was a little hesitant at first, becuase it cost $7 to get in... and there was only one cache inside. After realizing I could probably snap a few good pictures while I was there, I decided to fork out the cash and go.

Mexican Poppy

When I got there a nature walk was about to start, so I joined in. It was nice and all... but too slowly paced for me so I bolted half way through. It was just a little too informative for my taste. You can't stop at every plant and explain it, you don't get very far that way. Have I mentioned I was a Seasonal Naturalist for a bit? I used to do that kind of thing... Ohio was a lot different than the desert though ;-)

Parry's Beardtongue

Anyway... I was really impressed with the park. Flowers and cacti everywhere. Nicely maintained and volunteers/staff present. It was a little desert gem I was glad to find!

One of my favorite parts of the park was right when you walked in. There was a little seating area surrounded by Mexican Fence Post Cacti.

Mexican Fence Post Cacti
*

The park had a great little green house too. The prices didn't seem to be bad... but since I just planted flowers, I decided I didn't need to buy anything. Well, except for postcards ;-)

I also met a fellow photographer and Flickrite there. Go check out Larry's photos, they are awesome!

As for the cache. I spotted it and waited for a mob of people on a tour to move on before making the grab. I signed the log and put it back in its place. I headed back to my car and went across the street for another one.

The cache was a camouflaged pill bottle. Easy to spot though. Some of camo was coming off and someone had left poor old Obama sitting outside! If your swag is too big for the cache... then don't leave it. I signed the wet log, snatched Obama and headed home.

What is Geocaching? Answer here.

Wooden Postcards

I have received awesome wooden postcards from Annie and Theresa in private swaps. I love them. A while ago I decided I could make my own.... and today I actually did! I'm still working on them, but couldn't wait to post my creations.

Yey! They aren't perfect, but I love they way they turned out.