First stop. Urban park. Complete with muggles of all ages. We don’t break a sweat. Well, actually we do. Our motis-distractius: Playing soccer with an old chewed up tennis ball we found under the trees. Dodging fido’s “presents” and a few nice body checks, I score goal.

Jen bounces back with a goal of her own. Then, “conveniently” I feed the ball under the tree with the cache container hanging from it and she goes in for the snatch.

We pause to wheeze and catch our breath to sign the log and it’s time for one more run. I score the final goal, making it a 2-1 win. YEEEESSS, I am SPARTACUS~! A quick ripping open of the jacket whirling it overhead in a triumphant jubilee was quickly squashed.

I was promptly placed in Bank Jail for excessive celebration. Yeah, still wondering about the whole “Bank Jail” word association but hey, I still had the ball. And that makes me the winner. So…. that’s how it is now.

With the rush of victory pulsing in our temples, we make our way along Mills Civic to our next cache, code named Leggo Bridge, a regular sized cache along a sprawling human highway. On our approach, within 25 feet of all this iron, where the GPS starts bouncing like crazy, we’re suddenly aware of that tense moment that occurs between two cachers…who’s going left and who’s going right….

To quote that famous philosopher, Sean Connery, “Choose wisely”. I spot it midway under and Jen locates it seconds later. With no muggles in sight, we leisurely sign the log, play with the contents, and pose for photos.

Well, not wanting to be selfish and steal all the good cacher karma for the day – we decide to try just one more. This is one that I’ve tried to find previously on two occasions. And failed. But I know when to bring out the big guns of logic and that’s my pal Jenny.

Approaching this nano, we know it’s a 1/1 that’s magnetic. My GPS is pointing where it always does at this location – along a fence line behind a huge slippery pile of rocks. We looked everywhere along the fence, on the fence, in the rocks. Had to wander around a bit to distract things as there were a bunch of crazy runner muggles in shorts. Freezer burn much? So….. that’s how it is now.

After a bit, Jen’s like “no, no, no, that’s all wrong…it’s a 1/1 so it’s gotta be right off the path….like….um…right here”, she says as she snags it from the yellow fire hydrant. Really. The fire hydrant. Really.

Here’s a blurry close up of this tiny super camo nano. I couldn’t concentrate. Two words – Dahl’s Fried Chicken.

So, having drunk our fill of geo-victory, we return to our everyday lives until the next great adventure beckons. So….that’s how it is. Now.

On down to the next one quarter mile up from here. As soon as the proximity alarm on the GPS went off I remarked “really…right here?!” I was in the middle of a parking lot! I think my GPS was getting some interference from the power transformer close to here or there was a solar flare. I reset the GPS and it still pointed in the middle of the lot. Thought, well I’ll have a look around the area – being a holiday there were no muggles anywhere. Could not come up with the find, though now that I’m thinking about it, I’m thinking this one’s a decoy out in plain sight. Will have to try this one again.

Well, not a good start to the day. I was determined to find at least one cache. I hadn’t been geocaching in months. I can’t be that rusty!

Onward and upward. Literally. Quaint little park just a short drive from this cache. Walking in I notice a nice little muggle family playing with their kids. They didn’t pay any attention to me so on I went in search of the two caches in this park. Followed the needle thru a short field and came upon a barrier of intense grass and thicket.

Poked thru only to find a creek just 50 feet  from my destination. Wait a second. I’m an idiot. I had my nose so glued to the GPS I didn’t notice the BRIDGE just around the corner to the left. Tromped my way out of the thicket (well, at least I got the customary leg scratches) and crossed the creek in style. And with dry boots to boot.

Thats. Just. Great. Being vertically challenged I knew I was going to have to use some skill and dexterity to snag this one.

Fortunately nature had left me a step stool – a large trunk lay just off in the bushes. Placed it right under the hole for that 2 foot boost I needed. It was wobbly but I was able to get my hand in there and fetch out the cache.

Giddily grinning now that I’ve taken my DNF streak to task, I marched back to the front of the park to another bridge.

Only problem here was the mosquitos.

A little tip toe stretch and I had it.

Swaggering back to the car I was keen on getting one more before calling it a day. Quick drive to this LPC with muggles everywhere. Sure to be expected: nice day + holiday + cold beer on tap = muggles.

Just as I was walking up to it, a car pulled right into the parking space next to it. Had to make a cell phone call to my favorite nobody to delay the snag. Luckily the “draw” of miller time made this muggle clear out quickly. Nice way to end the holiday with 3 finds in a row and smashing away the DNF blues.

My favorite find was this one at the end of a swinging rope bridge, aptly named “Swingin’ in Estherville”. The rivers in Iowa are running really high from all the rain we’ve been having and this one was no exception. The river was loud and rumbling as I approached the bridge entrance.

Took a few deep breaths as I moved out to the center of the bridge. True to it’s name, it was swinging… and creaking… and I felt quite uncertain what would happen at any given moment. As if the world was about to drop out from under me. I felt like Indiana Jones. Well, minus the Thugees. And the screaming blonde. “Hang on lady, we going to go for a ride!”

Back to the task at hand – find the TREASURE! Ah, here it is! And I didn’t have to bring a sandbag.

I left the “Big O” travel bug here in sacrifice for all the oh’s and expletives uttered during the crossing of the rope bridge and got out of there before Mola Ram shows up. I forgot to bring my sword.

On our way south toward Gendler Park, GPS shows a cache in a little roadside park. Both of us armed with GPS’s we raced to see who could find it first. Over here. No. Wait. Over here. Dang. No. Maybe back there…..Jen’s knowledge of all things carpentry worked in her advantage to find this cache. Otherwise, I’d still be out there looking for it. This happy little container was tucked under the tree in a cutout piece of wood. Nice fake out!

Well, enough with the easy finds *wink*. Urban caches abandoned we set out in search of Panther Creek’s cache. Ah, the peaceful Iowa jungle….we go tromping thru here – bushwacking with our shins – when we hit a big patch of stinging nettles. I’ve never know firey pain like that before. It’s like being stung by a dozen wasps.

Both Jenny and I must have hit the motherload of stinging nettle patches because we were cussing and dancing around for a good 8 minutes until the pain subsided. Oh, lookie here…..

We were a little gentler in our steps on the way back to the car. Really should have worn long pants. And shin guards.

Family’s first find at a home improvement store parking lot. Not pretty but we sure had fun doing the “Drunken Bee Dance” geocachers are known for….gps was bouncing the location of this cache quite a bit but we came up with it. I know my hair looks like I crawled into that storm drain to get the cache but no….that’s just the infamous “humid hair”:

On to the next find, everyone getting pretty jazzed now. A tough find but the nephew spots it – ah, he’s a natural – I’m so proud!

We find 4 more geocache’s that day and finished it off with a round of extra large slurpees.

Full of brash and sass from our geocaching conquests, we took time to relax at the beach.

GPS pointing at that tree….yes, that one surrounded by the ice sheet sidewalk. Oh well, I’ve always wanted to try the luge.

Ha ha – a great UPS (“unnatural pile of sticks”) here:

Time to go warm up and hit that chocolate sauce! UPS peace!

A race to the top to find this nano cache… hee hee, we’re the Outlaws:

Gloves, I don’t need no stinkin’ gloves. Well, actually that would have been nice. Never you mind – on to the next cache titled “Willie Nelson”. Oh, look, more snow…. well, if you got the gps honey, i’ve got the time.

I left this little German Police Travel Bug here to try and keep Willie out of trouble. Good luck with that.

I can’t wait to get on the road again…

Did a loop around the Library to head back west on Grand and the proximity alarm on the GPS goes off (wow, Jen I love this feature!) so I make a quick left and park at the top of the block. No muggles to speak of, it’s a wet, cold, gloomy Saturday, so I’ve the run of the block.

GPS bouncing quite a bit on this one as I’m walking between two very tall buildings – one being the namesake of this cache – The Meredith Corporation.

Did a few laps up and down the street. GPS still fussy so had to use my jedi geosense – aaaah, there she is!

Walking back to the truck, I pulled up the nearest cache to my location – no way! It’s just at the next block! Jumped in the truck and squared around to go west again on Grand. Quick right turn at the WHO headquarters and the proximity alarm sounds again. Nice. Pull over at a parking meter and open the door – oh, ha, there’s piled snow waist high here. Hey, I’m not leaving without finding this cache, so I slide out of the truck into the snow. A few steps later and I’m free of the white beast.

Hum, gotta be around here somewhere…..

I take a peek at my notes for this cache. Clue is Matthew 27:51. Fortunately I wrote down this verse in my notebook. Well, that was absolutely no help whatsoever. I need a sign God – a sign! Oh, there it is.

In my little town there is a Veteran’s Memorial park on Main Street. All these years I’ve driven by here I didn’t know there was a geocache right up under this truck in a cammo’d film canister!

Yes, it’s real. A real Hughy Heli that you can walk up to and climb about.

Next stop – an “icon” in our small town – the WALMART! Cache was called “Always” but the difficulty level was a 2 with a terrain of 1. Hum, can’t be that hard right?  Had to use geo-fake (the pretend use of the gps as a cell phone) to get a good look “around”. Finally spotted this after a good 15 minutes scrubbing the bushes with my feet – oy! Pull this hook and a long coat hanger device comes out with a film canister attached to the end of it – niiiiice! Now getting it out for this vertically challenged human, there was the difficulty rating right there.

Met Dad for lunch at a local favorite restaurant. Just so happens there’s a cache here too so I introduced Dad to Geocaching.

Fried caches not on the menu. Boo!

That concludes this Florida geocaching adventure with “the sign of the catfish”.

Drove out towards Gray’s Lake / DSM Water Works hoping to find a few caches that were not submerged under feet of snow. Oh, this looks promising. After wading out to this gazebo and climbing up to reach above one of the roof timbers, I was able to fetch the cache!

With this “boost” to the ego and ignoring the numbing return of feeling in my toes, I proceeded to the next cache across the street. What are all these people doing out walking around a frozen lake at noon already?! I used my super decoy of “hey, lets take a picture of the sign” to swoop in and grab the cache – a small magnet attached to the bottom of this sign:

Stopped by one of my favie cafe’s downtown, Ritual Cafe, to warm up a bit and “steel” myself for this find. Took forever to locate this little guy. As you can see, it’s barely the size of my fingernail, magnetically attached to the backing of one of these steel beams:

“Oh, I am fortune’s fool!” – from Romeo and Juliet