Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Last Day of Vacation

The Last Chapter, in Which We Geocache in Poway in Tom's Porsche.

Here is what Dick wrote:

Our final day of our San Diego visit. I read my email and learned about two deaths that have occurred since we left Traverse City. On Thursday, Jim Hardy’s daughter Natalie passed away unexpectedly in Texas and then on Sunday, the mother of a former colleague and close friend, Sam Vicchy had a heart attack and died in Pennsylvania.

Both Tom and Conni had to work so we were left to our own devices. Also, this is a “Ride Day”. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Tom and a crew of about 6 other nuts take a mountain bike ride during their “Lunch Hour”. Now that we have seen the “trails” that they ride there is no other conclusion than that they are certifiably NUTS! These “trails” were made by goats. No four wheel drive vehicle could navigate them. The parts that are not vertical cling to the side of what can only be described as a mountain. Yeah, I know, they call them mountain bikes, but they should come with shoulder straps, no sane individual would actually try to ride on or in something while trying to navigate those goat tracks.

Anyway, this was a day for it and unfortunately, only the Subaru has the bike rack. Oh well! We got stuck with the Porsche again. For our last day, Nancy decided to humor me and go geocaching. There are so many caches in this area that deciding where to go is somewhat akin to choosing a Medicare Drug plan. We decided to head for the nearest real “town” Poway. There are 130 caches within a three mile radius of the downtown. For the sake of comparison, we think we are cache rich because there are 50 caches within 3 miles of the Visitor Center in Traverse City.

All went well on our Porsche cachemobile expedition until I managed to toss a cup of iced tea into Nancy’s lap. I quick, ran inside and grabbed napkins to mop up the car, then I took Nan home to change clothes.

For the day we found 10 caches. We also drove around and did a bit of sight seeing. We ate lunch at Wong's Wok in Poway. It was authentic (we couldn’t communicate with the waitress or the cooks) and good. Dinner was Mexican at a place named Chevy's, the same place where we ate lunch the other day.

In reviewing our stay, Nancy felt the whale watch was #1. I, on the other hand, leaned toward the Porsche cruise and geocaching. Poor Tom, he was such a great host he’ll probably have to have us back.

Altogether, we found 10 geocaches today - all in one small area. Two of them were in really nice parks, one was another fountain cache, one was one of those light pole things, one on a bridge, and several in bushes. It was a glorious day for it. Actually, it was a glorious day for anything!