Six Feet Over

In these rapidly changing times, apparently you need to put some thought into where you want your final resting place to be.  Geocaching brought us to a parking lot cemetery.  I'm sure these people had no idea back in 1828 what was to become of their homestead.

Quite literally 6 feet over

Graveside view

Satellite view---graveyard is the small rectangle in the middle

For additional information about Mary Ellis--the person in the cemetery---click here.

Little Things and Big Thing

 We are continuing with our road trip.
First the little things---count the grasshoppers that are in this shot taken from a small pond spot in Connecticut.

(They were jumping everywhere! Zillions!  These are but a small fraction.)

Now the big thing.  This is the largest sycamore tree in New England. Guess the circumference or read the link.

If you are an educator, and have an interest in adapted books, I'll send you a free digital one with a bingo game if post your guess (good for Pre-K to 2nd grade). 

Another geocaching milestone---2000

The hike

I know it sounds excessive, but today I found my 2,000th geocache.  I haven't and never will catch up to David (3200 about), and the most anyone has found (so far) is 55,367 caches. Seems like a lot to me!  I'll settle for being an amateur at this.

I wanted this find to be memorable, fun, and outdoorsy---the hike to the summit of Mt. Major in New Hampshire with David, my sister-in-law, and my nephew fit all three.  The mountain was encased in fog, and we all enjoyed the wild critters we saw.  The ammo box containing the log book and a few trinkets was an easy find, and afterwards, we munched on a few blueberries!

The summit

The route up

 

Along the way, we saw oodles of baby Eastern/Red-Spotted Newts!

2000!

Sad Times

I'm on vacation---hence the lack of posts about iPads, speech therapy, and school.  From a distance, I heard and read about the tragic death of one of my sweetest students in a house fire yesterday.  Did I say she was sweet---that doesn't cover it.  She was loving, funny, smart, wide-eyed, talkative, enthusiastic--everything you would want to see in a child.  It's hard for me to wrap my mind around this horrible tragedy.

Peace

Ruth

Cool! Literally!

David and I are still on our road trip---making a stop in Portland Maine.  I visited with an old friend from Kent State and the Kentucky School for the Deaf--Olivia.  She looked great, and we had a nice time talking, catching up, comparing lives and work, and enjoying the beautiful day! 

Speaking of beautiful days, after enduring the 100+ degree days at Chapel Hill, the temps up here are incredible!

5 Reasons to Geocache on a Road Trip

David and I are headed to New Hampshire--by car.  In the good old days, we aimed to drive as far as possible to get to where we knew we had to go--quickly. Anyone who is reading this with kids knows why--- 300-450 miles in a day were not uncommon.

Several years ago, my daughter, Vicki, introduced us to Geocaching which I wrote about in a previous post.  I don't geocache usually around home much--too busy with work or unmotivated.  Road trips, though, are a different matter.  My kids are not into it, others don't understand why, so I thought I would enlighten everyone why Road Trip Geocaching works for us (usually)

1.  We get to see things that we wouldn't ever think of seeing,

"Car Art" geocache in Erie

Jerome, Arizona, graveyard--a location of a geocache

2.  Geocaching offers an excuse to take a break while driving

3.  Geocaching gives opportunities for exercise---long walks are commonplace

4.  Geocaching has allowed me to learn identify most counties in Virginia (plus other states).  We have a few counties to go---we'll do some of them later on during this trip (headed to Virginia Beach in a week!)  For whatever reason, David feels obligated to keep track of these counties--we've cached in all of the ones that are filled in.  This seems a bit OCD to me---but that's what happens when a husband has too much time on his hands.

5.  I like to learn a bit of history and geography through Virtual and Earth caches.  Some places don't actually let you hide caches so the finder needs to either pose at a selected site, or answer questions about the history or geographical features.  I've learned a lot about all types of things that I never have thought about ranging from minor Civil War skirmishes to the geography of the Grand Canyon.  Usually, the final task for these types of 'caches' is to take a photo and upload it to the geocaching website.   Hence, this Grand Canyon shot from Christmas break.

That's all for now!  I'll be posting pictures from New Hampshire and Maine soon, along with other reasons for enjoying this hobby on a road trip.

Lake Erie

A little bit of geocaching!

That's where I'm at right now!  Visiting family in Erie, Pennsylvania!  We went to the beach at Presque Isle today for a late morning, early afternoon swim, then went geocaching with our nephew,  and had a picnic with the whole family.  It's really nice here and nice to see everyone. 

Cuyahoga River goop in the late 60s.

I reflect back to when I was growing up on the very same lake in the late 60s. I remember the fish kills--1000s of dead fish smelling up the beaches.  The Cuyahoga River in Cleveland at that time spewed toxic pollutants into the lake---and notoriously caught on fire.  I guess things can get better over time!