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Today's content is posted on the bicycle blog!  Go there and be amazed!  No pictures today, though.

Saturday Along The Ted

I got up early this morning, well, not so early, and put together a plan to go geocaching along the Ted Williams Parkway, with I affectionately refer to as "The Ted".  There is a bike path running the length of the parkway and I figured I could hit maybe thirty of the caches along there.

I parked at the park and ride on Carmel Valley Road and Sorrento Valley Road.  Getting there was a comedy of wrong turns, though I shall not go into it.

First I headed south to pick up a few caches, although not all of them, as one has several DNFs and is Disabled, and the other I forgot to load into the GPSr.  But I found the other three.

Los Peñasquitos Lagoon

 WARNING:  File Size is an awesome 792 KB!

I then headed east and made my way to the bike path.  I'm sure you don't want to hear about every little bush I looked it, so I shan't bore you with THAT!

I saw several horses, with riders, and some without.  Saw lots of cyclists and runners and kids and families.  It's a very busy path.  There are two separate paths next to each other for a goodly distance. One is dirt and one is asphalt.  Horses tend to stick to the dirt path.  Road cyclists tend to stick to the asphalt.  Everyone else mixes it up.  As did I.

One of the places I wanted to check out was the starting point for a puzzle cache.  Yes, that's the entrance.  Wet feet are de rigueur!  The theme is something about Harry Potter and some tunnel or secret entrance.  No, I did not go in!

I found nineteen caches today, and DNFed two.  On the way back to the vehicle I took a picture of the afternoon sun and shade on the leaves littering the path.  How pretty!

I rode about twelve miles today.  Good thing I oiled the chain yesterday!  Maybe tomorrow I post a picture of all the little cuts on my legs.  Shorts and forays into the brush, even SHORT forays, do not go together well!


When I got home I called my mother for a good long Thanksgiving chat.

And that was my Saturday.

Turkey Day

Yesterday's blog post has been edited to include what was the primary reason I started that post.

I'm sure you will want to click the link to read it.

The Day Before Thanksgiving

I drove down to Chula Vista, taking all the back roads, to a geocaching meetup.

EDIT: I forgot to stick this in yesterday, and it was the initial reason I started to write the post!  I was driving along the road to the 94/125 in a 35 zone when I was passed by a Corvette quite quickly.  "Leadfoot", I said to myself.   I caught Mr. Speedy at the light, of course.  I peered at his vehicle 'cause it didn't say Corvette on the back, but there was an emblem that started with an "F".  Huh.  Couldn't thing of what that could be.  Too many letters for Ford.  It did say "Karma" also, and that is almost like "karmann", so I figured it was some kind of Teutonic creation, maybe an Audi?  I can't keep up with all these new-fangled car brands!  So I Googled it later and found out it was a Fisker Karma electric hybrid and there were only around 1,600 sold in the U.S.  Also, they cost around a hundred thousand dollars.  So I probably won't be seeing another, or at least a different one, any time soon.  END OF EDIT

Had coffee and a Breakfast Jack, I mean, Egg McMuffin, and listened to some great stories.  There was a big annual camp out the other weekend in the desert, and two of the guys present today had gone on an eight hour hike to find one cache that hadn't been found in four years, AND they were numbers three, four, and five to find it.

I brought the bike and after the meetup I biked to a couple of caches that I didn't find before, and I didn't find again.

I found my first cache of the day on Briarwood.  An easy find, although the n00b before me logged a DNF (Did Not Find).

I spotted what would have been my second cache over near Paradise Valley Road, but while I was fashioning a TOTT (Tool Of The Trade) to fish it out several cars came and parked next to me, and they just weren't not going anywhere.  Another day...

I stopped by another previous DNF (Twice, really) on Avocado Ave. and spotted it quickly, THIS time.

The last cache was a puzzle I had solved a long time ago and searched for several times.  It has been recently replaced and I found it quickly this time.

And then I went home and took a nap.

My total is 2,950 caches found, so I only have fifty to go to reach 3,000, and that is my goal for this year.

Got my blood work back. My A1C was ok.  The doctor says my potassium is a bit high.  Wants me to stop eating foods high in potassium.  Does that mean I should stop taking the vitamin pill with potassium in it?  The one they told me to take?  Well, ONE of them told me, I forget which one!

Later!

Finishing Up What I Started Yesterday, and, A Message On My Answering Machine!

I went back to finish what I started yesterday, the flume trail geocaches.


Driving to the trailhead, I was suddenly confronted with El Cajon Mountain rising up from behind these homes.  What do you suppose this view sells for?  About a million bucks, says Zillow.

File Size: 256 KB (Not so large)

NOTICE TO DIAL-UP USERS: Large images are noted with the file size.

I headed out on my journey of discovery, as it were, but was unable to find the first three caches.  Yikes!  This bodes no ease!

I have no idea what this is, but there is one there, and one across the canyon.

Near the last cache, which was actually the FIRST I was able to find today, there is bench to sit on.  I stood on it to take these pics.

Is that Cowles Mountain in the distance?  I think it is!

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El Cajon Mt. always make a dramatic pic, don't you think?

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I managed to find all the caches on the way back, in reverse order.  This was the last one, right near where I parked.

I was trying to see if the cache was in here so I used the camera on the phone to take a picture.  I couldn't see the dark picture to good in the bright sunlight, so...

I used the camera camera to take a pic, with its much brighter flash.  Yup, there it is!  Sure glad I wore a glove on the hand I slid in there!

I found six caches today, including two in Lakeside, for a total of 743 found this year, and 2,945 "lifetime" total.

When I got home I found I had my first telephone message from the Internal Revenue Services threatening me with legal action.  I feel so special!

Dead Meat Monday

I did my labs this morning at 7:30 AM. Hurt like a son-of-a-gun for a while, in that it was pretty sore, but it went away by the time I got home. After a couple of hours I decided to go geocaching, so I got the vehicle gassed up, went down to the Costco¹ to get the tire pressure checked,² and headed off to El Monte Park!  Oh yes, the flume trail!

WARNING!  Some (MOST) of these pics are KINDA big.  In file size!   You people on dial-up (and you know who you are!) might not want to click on them!

So after a torturous hike up the hill and back down again, here is the obligatory selfie at the flume tunnel entrance.

And here is the tunnel entrance without my mug.

And here is the inside of the tunnel.  See, there IS a light at the end of tunnel!

And here we have the first of many views of the valley, many of which look almost the same.

This seems to be almost the same picture, but with a rock.  Well, it's linked already, so you just do ahead and look at it.

So looking towards Lakeside, more or less.

Sometimes I took the same picture with the camera AND the phone. Can you tell which is which?

Towards Lakeside, again.

Across what would be the valley, except for the hill in the foreground, towards the El Cajon Mountain ridge.

Pretty much the same views from higher up, about twice as high, near the top of the ridge.

Higher up again.

You know, I may have totally mixed up which pictures were taken at what level.

So THIS one show the vehicle in the parking lot.  Zoom in and look for the red arrow!

El Cajon Mountain in all its glory!

I found six caches today.  I was really really REALLY beat when I finally got back to the vehicle.  And it was only 3.7 miles!  I was almost stumbling like a drunk person, almost.  And I WAS hydrated and fed.  Just really really weary.  I don't think there is any way I'm going to ever be able to do the El Cajon Mountain caches..  Not without a helicopter!

FOOTNOTES

¹I don't know why it is there, and not anywhere else, but I very often see people I know from work at Costco.  Today I saw a student and her dad.
²Note to self: Do NOT go to Costco during the busy time!!

Thanksgiving Vacation -- Day One

I went geocaching in the early AM.  I parked down by the Amigo Spot/Waffle Spot and walked up the hill.  I found the first cache, eventually, then I walked up the hill some more and found the second cache, eventually.  The second cache completed my personal goal for 2014 of an AVERAGE of two caches found per day.

I walked by down the hill, but decided to see if I could locate the stairs I had seen on Google Maps.  I did find them, too!  I didn't have the nerve to go up and see where they go, though.  There was some litter at the base of the stairs, including a very cute little box that said "Joe" on it, containing several Jr. Ranger badges from various National Parks, and some patches.  I wonder what the story is with those?

How short are those handrail posts?


Driving over to Fashion Valley I got behind this smokey truck. He only smoked when starting off, but it was VERY smokey and very smelly.  I can't remember what it smelled like, now, but it was very pungent.  At this point I had been behind him for maybe a mile, and I was letting him get ahead of me a bit so I didn't have to smell his stink.

But at the stop light I was kinda stuck.  And off he goes, while I'm turning right.

After parking at Fashion Valley and walking a bit more to find a cache, I found a group of cyclists on a ride in front of me.

And then I went home, for to share this all with YOU!

And wash the clothes.

Sweet Tooth

Made cookies this evening.  They taste pretty awful, but are very low in carbs.  I didn't have a baking soda can to form them.  Made do with a Clam Chowder (that I'm NEVER going to eat!) can.

It may be because I didn't have any allspice.  But really, what kind of bogus spice is "allspice", anyway?  Allspice?  Is it ALL SPICES?  Or is it ALL spice?

I got nothin'...

Sunday All Over The Place

I got up this morning and went on a spur-of-the-moment geocaching expedition.

I worked up the the nerve to head to Mission Hills.  Unbelievably, many people were out and about.  And they struck me as looking pretty fit, even the, ahem, old ones.  I parked on Fort Stockton near the coffee place (Expresso Mio), which I did not patronize due to my phobia about going into strange, i.e., new, places of business, esp. food places of business, on my own.  Decisions, you know.

I walked up the street to a cache which said to be easy.  It was.  It's hard to believe it is still there, it is so odd and obvious.  Maybe the Cache Owner lives near.

Next I went down Allen Road to the Allen Road Nature Trail.  I never heard of this place before, so that is one of the wonders of geocaching!

So here is a bunch of pretty much random pictures I took along the way.

Here is the start of the trail.

Lots of vegetation, look pretty non-native to me, like a lot of plants have washed down the canyon over the years.

I bet THAT made a NOISE when it came down!

Many fallen trees, some are being cut up and removed.  Lots of work still to be done on this trail.

Sometimes it got a bit narrow.

No, I'm not going in THERE!  But my GPSr just pinged, we are getting very close to the cache!

Multitudes of cactus growing up that hill!  I like this pic because it shows the cactus, mysterious cement (there are broken cement pipes and other oddities to the left of the picture), and you can even see the cache if you know where to look.  I was EXTREMELY lucky to find it quickly, without even reading the hint!  Almost disappointing, after I built up (based on previous logs) how difficult it would be.

That is the end of the pictures.  I continued down the canyon until I got to Mission Valley.  Technically, you COULD park behind one of the motels and come up that way, but that would be trespassing.

After exiting the canyon I headed over to Pioneer Park, also in Mission Hills, to look for a cache there, which I did not find.

Well, I wanted more caches for the day, so I headed down to Chula Vista, just south of the 54, to look for three caches.  Did not find them.  Yikes, now I'm getting bummed!

I parked (illegally) under the freeway on N. 2nd Street and walked from there to the BIG FIELD.  There were two caches there.  The first one took quite a while to find, there was a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, what I learned the day is called the Dance of the GPSr.  I finally read the hint, and it only took me another ten minutes to find it.  We are talking about something the size of a large bowl in a roughly 400 square foot area. Unbelievable.

I didn't think I had a chance with the next cache, but I was in this BIG FIELD so I thought I ought to at least look at it.  So stomping across the BIG FIELD, maybe 2,000 feet, it took me maybe three minutes to figure out where it probably was.  Then, having the proper TOTT (Tool Of The Trade) handy I was able to get the primary container open in only five minutes.  Then, looking VERY carefully for spiders, I got the secondary container open and signed the log.  Then I put everything back, which took some time to carefully do.  I headed back to the vehicle picking ants off my clothes, glasses, EAR,, and who knows where else.

I needed one more cache so I found an easy one nearby at a Park and Ride.  I also stopped at a few places in the various Rohr Park parking lots, but either didn't find or wasn't able to look because of muggles.

So I headed home and that was that.

I forgot to mention that I dropped off two mice at Lake Murray, but one was dead.  The other had got loose in the truck bed, so I put down the tail gate and he FLEW out into the brush. 

And now THAT was THAT!

Out and About South Of Eastlake

From the other day, our new fence at work, and some flowers.

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My geocaching route today.  How does that work for ya?

Here is a panorama I made at one point.  There is SUPPOSED to be an airship in the sky, that was the point of the panorama, but all I see is one little dot that MIGHT be the airship.

I swear I didn't want to touch this even after I figured out it was the cache.

How about this cute little critter?

And this guy was so hilariously fierce!

The hills are quite scared with motorcycle trails and roads.  I am quite torn, back in the day I would have been riding here, I bet, and I'd be tempted now if I had a bike.  A few minutes later a motorcyclist came down the hill on the road/trail to the left.

There was a stink bug (Pinacate beetle) in this cache hole!

Jets kept circling around.  I don't know why. Touch and go practice at Brown Field?
You can see the wheels are down in the next picture.

This picture is definitely better!

I saw a bunch of aircraft today.  The airship, helicopters, private planes going to Brown Field, the noisy, I mean Sound Of Freedom, jets, and a couple either "drones" or powered hang glider-type light aircraft.

I walked about 4.582 miles this morning, which I'm sure you know if you clicked the link to Google Pedometer/miler/meter.com

Nineteen caches found, and two DNFs.  No snakes sighted, no injuries to report.  My ankle-thing started bothering me a little, but no more than usual.

On a sad note I had transported two mice for release but forgot to let them go when I parked the vehicle.  When I got back they were dead.

The only sound in the cave was Howard, weeping.
"Shh," said Boots, patting him. "The mouses are sleeping." -- Gregor And The Marks Of Secret

Thursday -- I hate meeces to pieces!

Have captured five mice this evening and made two trips to the lake to dispose of four of them.  Number Five is gonna have to wait till tomorrow.


Favorite line from Firefly (tonight):

Wash (Pilot): Psychic, though? That sounds like something out of science fiction.
Zoe (First Mate (and his wife)): You live on a space ship, dear.

Tuesday -- Veteran's Day

Dragged myself out a morass of despair and, yes, ennui, to go geocaching this afternoon down by the Sweetwater River area of Nat. City/Bonita  Picked up seven caches and saw an airship.

Here are a couple of pictures of the airship and the projection building (I think) of the old Harbor Drive In theater.

Yes, it seems to be getting dim.  But it wasn't THIS dim!  I didn't have to turn on the vehicle headlights for another hour and a half!

Probably looks dark because I was facing the west, where the sun is.

I believe this is the last drive in I ever went to.  I believe this is where we saw the incredibly awful movie titled "The Omen".  I think we took our daughter along in her GMC Infant Love Seat.  I'm sure she was scared for life.

As far as Veteran's Day, while not ashamed of my service I am not particularly proud of it, either.  It just was.  I wasn't in any combat zones.  I probably couldn't have loaded an M-16 if I HAD to, we only went to the firing range once a year.  I would have been better off using my 30.06 from home! HA!  Anyway, save the free donuts and coffee and such for the people who truly made a sacrifice.  And often times their families, too!

Only the other hand, I'm gonna order me one of these!

Sunday Evening

We went on a drive to the Sunrise Highway and did some geocaching along the way.

This was at a big outcropping of rock in a big flat parking area.  That's what it is NOW.  I imagine it USED to be a great big hill of rock.  I suspect it was used for road maintenance over the years.

And standing on the big rock, of course!

I've heard of Bigfoot, but this is the track of Littlefoot, I guess.  Heading down the strange road/trail to the "desert view" on Monument Peak Road.

I always thought pine cones grew on pines, but I guess I was wrong.

On the Pacific Coast Trail (PCT), this is an excellent view of the desert.

A little later, a different spot.  It's a LONG way down!  Watch your step!

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A view of the desert panorama on the PCT.

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I forget how many geocaches we found, fifteen I think.  Not counting one burned in a fire (which had been replaced because no one could find it ) that I found in plain sight.

We saw a bunch of interesting stuff.  An old rusty car, maybe from the 40s. A mysterious building (I hear it has bats!). Beautiful views of the desert.  A basset hound.  And the Big Rock, of course.

My career geocaches found total stands at 2,899 to date.

We ordered pizza from D'Amatos (of La Mesa) when we got home.  Yum, so much better than frozen!


Have a good week!