First Kayaking

This was the first kayaking expedition for the new blue kayak. It was loaded up in the driveway,

and unloaded at Brown Bridge Dam.

Meet and Greet

Another Meet and Greet today at the Cottage Cafe. It was sparsely attended, but you can have a good time if you've a mind to!

Dick and Charlie

Our table

Sharkie Crew

4 lumbrjax

Somebody told a joke!

Afterwards, Dick and I dropped Laurie off downtown so she could do a little shopping, and we went to Dunham's to buy a kayak for Dylan. They were having a two day sale, so it worked out great.

Guess Who's Here?

Flap Jack's idea of a healthy breakfast for Dylan!


They arrived around 10 p.m. - drove all the way from Mammoth Cave yesterday. Whew!

We all met today after the gym at Flap Jack for brunch, and now our summer adventures can begin!

Hoosier Valley & Arrival !

We spent the day in our jeep over in Hoosier Valley and environs. We put out nine new caches which will be unpublished until after the Meet and Greet next Saturday. A couple of the caches are quite creative, and it'll be fun to see who can find them. It was fun driving around the two-tracks in the jeep - one or two times we really needed the four wheel drive. We'll have to tell people not to attempt some of these finds without 4x4.

Sometime close to 9:30 p.m., the Gillespies and the guineas arrived! Hooray for summer!

Happy Birthday Brooke

Lucky Jack's was the venue for the Bowling Blast for Brooke (with pizza!). It was a great time for everyone, and now Brooke is officially nine years old. Did you ever notice how kids grow up too fast?

The pizza was yummy, the conversation was interesting, the presents were fun, but the bowling was the most fun. I think Shelly was the overall winner - she's in a bowling league all winter, so she's had lots of practice.

Autumn has really learned how to help host an event - she was very gracious - serving and offering things and clearing off the tables - I was very impressed. She's a take charge kind of girl.

Everybody signed a get well card for Odette. Hope she can feel all of the good wishes by remote control.

All in all, we had a super time.

This afternoon we had the driveway sealed - it looks really good. They patched the cracks, and did the edging all the way around - nice.

Our Florida kids are on their way to T.C. - they left this morning. Mammoth Cave is their destination for the weekend. They'll be here sometime next week. Yaay!

Round Robin 2011

A quick review of what's happened since I wrote last year's Round Robin letter to the SLG's of Traverse City Central High, class of 1953:

What a treat to get the Round Robin before the summer company arrives. We’re expecting all of the kids to be here soon - some for a week, and some for a month! It’s the best part about summer in T.C.

We’ve had a fine year. We spent a month in Ann Arbor during football season, and while we were there brother Jim and I hosted the Kanitz family reunion in Saline. We had 111 cousins there - unbelievable! I think I know about six of them personally,

Geocaching is still a big part of our lives - it has been a fantastic hobby for us. The get-togethers are special - meet and greets, road rallies, and State-wide socials. We have met all kinds of people pursuing this hobby, and some of them have become really good friends.

You just can’t beat Christmas in Florida! The whole family comes, the weather is lovely, the ocean is beautiful, and the Christmas spirit prevails. What could be better?

Last February (2011) daughter Jana got a job! It’s not her favorite job, but she has a great salary and good benefits - and it’s a job, job, job - after being unemployed for 30 months! Hope springs eternal….

Northern Michigan had a very cold, very snowy and very long winter. We were so sick of snow and icicles - bad case of cabin fever. When we thought it was finally over - another major snowstorm descended, a tree fell across our driveway, and we said enough already! Spring did come as it always does, and it has been worth waiting for - lush and green with beautiful bright flowers and warm sunshine. Hallelujah! We feel so lucky to be here, far from major floods, tornadoes and wildfires.

The best trip this year was Out West - flying into Las Vegas and driving around Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico. The goal is to find geocaches in every State, and after this trip the only State left is Hawaii - we thinking of doing that next Spring (2012).

After that road trip, we flew to San Diego to stay with Tom for a week. Another reason for the California trip was to attend the Bar Mitzvah of the grandson of our best friends from Belleville whom we’ve known for 40 years, That was a very joyous event - we had a great time, and it was wonderful to touch base with their whole family. Son Tom is a very good host, and we had a blast in San Diego - I highly recommend it J.

Twice so far this summer we’ve gone to Interlochen concerts - the first was A Prairie Home Companion, with Garrison Keillor. We enjoyed it more than I can say - a most enjoyable couple of hours. He had nice things to say about Interlochen, and T.C. The second one was to see The Temptations - and I was disappointed because the sound was way, way too loud - almost painful - are all concerts like that? (I don’t get out much.)

There have been great extended family times here at home with our Traverse nieces and nephews - Thanksgiving, birthdays, Easter - it’s so nice to have family close by.

Dick and I both have gray hair disease, which means that we’re not getting any younger - but we’re hanging in there and enjoying life to the max. Live the life you love and love the life you live.

Cherry Festival

The tourists had the weekend and the 4th to enjoy the Festival - today we decided it might be safe to brave the crowds and try for lunch at the food court in the Open Space.

It took some logistics to get me and my walker properly dropped off and met up with, but Dick is getting really good at it, thank goodness.

There were still hoards of people, but there were some empty tables, even at lunch time. Dick got a Greek salad from the U&I and I got fish and chips from Minerva's. Yumminess. We sat with some businessmen - a contractor, a realtor, and one other. It was interesting.

It was another ideal day to be outside - the Festival people have been blessed with good weather this year. We walked around a little bit after lunch - over to the water to check out the boats, and around Gibbyville. The mini train was absolutely loaded with families - we saw one empty seat.

These posters are at the entrance to Gibbyville - no way to tell how accurate they are, but evidently people are here from all over.

The Fourth

How to Avoid the Cherry Festival

07/03/2011	You found End of the Road Uba		Visit Log
On a beautiful July day in northern Michigan, with the Cherry Festival in full swing, we decided to get out of town on a caching expedition. This find capped off what is for us a normal full day of caching, eight interesting finds on a nice drive with stops for lunch and beverage replenishment. On our tour, we spotted 5 other happy groups cruising along in their yellow rag top Jeeps but none as nice as ours. This cache is definitely in muggle heaven on a warm summer day, we had to wait out two sets of them but the scenery makes the wait more than bearable. Spotted the cache, scooped it up and took it back to the cachemobile to sign. Then, after the boat pulled out, the young lovers left and the next boater was backing down the ramp, quickly replaced it. Thanks for the fun.
07/03/2011	You found Williams Cache		Visit Log
We were aware of the story, we have both read Al Barnes books, but we have never visited this site before. Once more we write, "Were it not for Geocaching, we would never have known this was here." Thanks for showing it to us.
07/03/2011	You found The Old Roadbed		Visit Log
Cache was sort of out in the open. We covered it in place. Picked up quite a bit of trash, signed the log and left Jack Squat. Thanks for the smilie.
07/03/2011	You found MLT Lodi		Visit Log
We like the MLT series and we love ammo cans. Put our sticker in the log book and left our card. TFTC
07/03/2011	You found The Unwanted Headstone		Visit Log
We were out caching on a beautiful Sunday. After finding the Historical Kalkaska cache, we cached our way home. We think that the stone is probably someone who was reinterred nearer his family or home. We singed the log and placed it in a ziplock. Traded what we think is a gold nugget for some geojunk. TFTC
07/03/2011	You found North Branch of the Manistee		Visit Log
Our goal today was to find and log the Historic Caches of Kalkaska. After finding that one, we came over here. The area around the cache is heavy with poison ivy so we tread very softly and carefully and I washed my hands and legs off thoroughly after replacing the cache. The original log book and the cache contents are wet. Some one has replaced the wet log with a new one but placed it in the same unsealed zip lock. We dumped the water out of the container, removed the geojunk and dried it out as best we could, We put our sticker in the damp log and placed it in a fresh baggie. TFTC
07/03/2011	You found Historic Caches of Kalkaska County		Visit Log
Today was a fantastic day to be out and about. With the Cherry Festival in full swing and the second day of the air show, we wanted to get out of town. We had found all of the caches required for this cache and so this was today's target. Our first three we logged on a busy day in eight years ago. On July 5th, 2003 we visited GC4D3A Stop Pining at Seven Bridges, GCA060 Ghost of Prince Froggers, and GCE309 Take me out to the ball game. Later that year we found GCGJW9 The Cascades at Rugg Pond on December 9th. We learned of the importance of GC36 Geocache 612 and made it the target of our first outing of 2004, finding it on January 4th. We were the 55th to find this, the second oldest cache in the state. In reviewing the logs, we find that more than 60% of those who logged it before us have less than 250 finds. In fact, of the first 10 to log it, only one is still active. We loaded up our kayak and scored GCGPMH Torch River Paddle In on Oct. 13, 2004. Then there's GCJ287 MLT Sharon, we can't log it because we own it, or can we? Oh well, let's not revisit that discussion. We took nothing, left our card, our tag and a magnifying glass. Thanks for the cache, it brings back a ton of memories.
07/03/2011	You found Cache to Eagle #14 Scenic Trails-Bay Trails Dist		Visit Log
Our goal today was further east but we couldn't resist this one. We were absolutely wowed by the bridge! Although GZ is damp, it is far from "mucky" now. We traded one of our tags for a golfball. Congratulations to Cullen Lane for his accomplishment. A job well done!

Happy B-Day Izzy

Sweet little Isabelle is two years old! Adam and Melanie hosted a party/cookout at their new home on Cherry Blossom Drive. What a great address for Traverse City!

All of Barb's kids and grandkids were there - Peter and Melissa and the girls arrived from Kalamazoo just in time for burgers. They're in town for the Cherry Festival. It's always so enjoyable to see everybody and catch up on the latest news. The best part was watching all of the kids play in the water and squirt each other! I only got wet once. It was a really hot day, so I didn't mind.

Jim H. is home recovering from surgery - we missed him - he would have loved this get-together.

We got a tour of the house (air conditioned) and a chance to talk to everybody.

Happy Birthday Izzy

This is the first day of the Cherry Festival, and they certainly planned the weather well - couldn't be nicer. We've been driving past the venue downtown and watching them set up the tents, etc. It's always a mob scene - so many people - it seems to me that there are more people this year - yesterday at the Visitor Center Dick saw 180 people in three hours.

The Birthday Girl




Dick and Shelly

In Which We Meet the New Neighbors

While I was riding around in the golf cart, I noticed activity down at Barker's. Maybe these are the new owners, so I drove down to introduce myself. It was great to finally get to meet them - they've owned the place since last fall, but on their previous visits we've been out of town. Their names are Mike and Jean, and they're younger than I had pictured them,. They're here for the Fourth of July weekend, and their daughters are coming for the 4th.

Mike and Jean live and work in Uruguay, and this will be their summer home. They're both in education - I believe Jean is a teacher and Mike an administrator. I was able to answer some question such as trash removal, etc, and I was very glad to have met them.

Odette

Roger's report:

Thanks to Sue's persistence making sure all the proper forms got signed, faxed, etc. Mom did move to the Bellbrook rehab center last Monday, after a 12-day hospital stay. The staff and facility there are very nice, and the location is very convenient for Dad. Mom has begun therapy and is beginning to steadily recover. She is in much less pain and is mostly bored. She appreciates hearing about what's going on in everyone's life, so feel free to send a card with a note to Spartan Court and Dad will make sure she gets it.
______________________________________

All we can do is write letters and cards - she doesn't want flowers. I hear that Odie is very popular at the Rehab Center because she tries so hard. She really wants to go home. We are really pulling for her.

A beautiful summer day - perfect in every way.

It's always fun to ride around all of the paths and trails in the golf cart, and today was the best day for it!

To top things off, we drove around the entire county in the Jeep - the Old Mission Peninsula is the most beautiful place in Michigan (in my humble opinion).

Meet and Greet

The Meet and Greet for this month was at The Cottage for breakfast instead of at B.C.'s for pizza. They have a very nice room, and we had a good time - the food is good, too! We met some new people, and traded stories with old friends. Next month we'll host the Meet and Greet, and we'll have it at The Cottage, too. Dick's planning to place five new unpublished caches in Hoosier Valley so the folks who come to the M&G can find them first.

Adam and Melanie and friends came out to go kayaking - it was a beautiful day for it. They went from Brown Bridge to Beitner, a really nice, long float. Melanie tipped over, but it was OK. Lydia is coming home for the Cherry Festival and Izzy's birthday - everybody is excited.

Dick mowed the entire yard - no small feat.

Father's Day

What's our favorite thing to do? Touring Leelanau, that's what! So what better way to enjoy Dad's Day.

We started out at The Other Side, a new coffee house by Scott's. It's so new that the staff hasn't exactly figured out how to perform service or clean up. But they do know how to socialize with friends. The breakfast was good - but once again we couldn't eat it all and boxed half of it up.

Driving north we came upon our old bugaboo, the cache at the Clinton F. Woolsey Memorial Airport. Couldn't find it again! Next time we will, though! Dick has since emailed the owner and we got a good clue. Can't wait to go back and check it out.

Near Northport at Peterson Park Dick found a couple that we hadn't picked up before. Despite the holiday, it wasn't crowded at all. We enjoyed driving around Northport and touring the marinas - it's a beautiful day.

It was also beautiful at Glen Haven on Lake Michigan - the historical center has built a new pedestrian deck/bridge/walkway thing - looks terrific.

Late lunch at Boone Docks in Glen Arbor - mostly because Art's was jam-packed with a line of people waiting. Boone Docks is always good. We ate indoors because it was a little too chilly to sit outside.

Dick's Father's Day logs:

06/19/2011 You found Glen Lake (EC) Visit Log
Because of its depth, Little Glen is one of the first lakes to warm up in the spring. A couple of years ago when we were in high school, there was an informal contest to see who would be the first to go swimming each spring. We would drive up here in May and give it a try. It was a different bridge with a lot less traffic when we used to jump off from it. Spent some time taking water samples and answering the required questions. Email sent.

06/19/2011 You found Crystal River (EC) Visit Log
We love to drive through Leelanau county and chose it for this years Father's Day caching tour. The rivers here, the Platte and the Crystal, meander slowly from their source to Lake Michigan. They are the only rivers we have canoed where, when the wind is in your face, you must paddle to keep from floating upstream. It was very busy today with lots of dads and their families enjoying their day. We spent some time observing the river at the portage and answering the required questions. Email sent.

06/19/2011 You found Foreign Exchange 2 Visit Log
Out on a Father's Day excursion. We found our first cache on Father's Day, 2003. Once we figured out how to approach the hide it was an easy grab. As non golfing geocachers, we think this is a perfect use for a golf course. The log book is full, we left a temporary one. Traded a Danish 2 Kroner coin for a quarter. TFTC

06/19/2011 You found 112 Steps to Rock Bottom Visit Log
Caching on Father's Day is a tradition for us since 2003 when we found our first cache. Today's excursion has been a wildlife medley. We've seen deer and fawn, fox, and here a brazen chipmunk and a pair of mergansers. We had a DNF on this one the last time we were here and we had to give it another try. I think GZ was closer to the steps today than it was the last time we tried. Signed log with our sticker, took nothing and left our pathtag and a gold nugget. Thanks for the exercise.

06/19/2011 You found Search & Sunset Visit Log
We came back up to the park today to attempt to remove some DNF's we compiled on our last trip. Went to GZ, spotted the cache, walked to where it was and - - - it wasn't there! Searched, searched and searched some more. Finally found that bugger and signed the log. Thanks for the challenge.

06/19/2011 You found Poet Tree Visit Log
Caching on Father's Day has become a tradition for us. We found our first cache on Father's Day. That was 8 years, 83 Michigan counties and 49 states ago. We stopped here today and found the pickin's in the cache to be pretty sparse. We took out some Geojunk and left a matchbook car, our Father's Day coin, Apache tears and Jack Squat.
Our poem was;
The Boy stood on the burning deck,
Eating peanuts by the peck.
A girl stood by all dressed in blue,
And said "I guess I'll have some too."
As to the trees, Cottonwood, maple and of course, cedar.
Thanks for the fun!!

Prairie Home Companion

Facebook informed us that there would be an opportunity to sign a petition against the State's Emergency Manager Law today at the Open Space. Since this is a program which allows the manager to come into a community and dismiss elected officials, we are only too happy to sign this petition. On the face of it, it's a power grab, pure and simple - unconstitutional and undemocratic: "...the law, gives emergency managers -- with the state treasurer's approval -- the power to effectively dismiss local elected officials, and to cancel all or portions of employee union contracts to restore financial stability."

After signing, we went over to Bay Bread on Randolph Street and got box lunches for a picnic. There is one lonely picnic table at the Open Space, and we were lucky enough to find it available. Great lunch, beautiful bay, fun people watching!

We had tickets for Interlochen this evening - Garrison Keillor and the Prairie Home Companion, and we wanted to get there early. Took a nice ride out around Long Lake on the way over to Interlochen.

We thought we were early, but today's concert was sold out, and the parking lots were all almost full already. Dick let me out by the auditorium area, and drove way, way down to where the parking lots are gravel. It was quite a hike for him to meet me.

Gee, what an enjoyable evening we had. We love to listen to the show on the radio, and it's ten times as much fun in person. Garrison did some funny skits about the cherry festival, and the Traverse City area in general. He also really promoted the Interlochen Academy for the Arts. They featured two students - one a violinist and one a harpist- we were so impressed.

After the show, we went to the newly refurbished Fresh Water Lodge, which is now called Harrington's by the Bay. (We remember when it was Schweitzer's by the Bay!) The dinner was wonderful - especially the salad - they know how to make a salad! The service was great, and it has a nice ambiance - a little noisy, but then it was really busy, too. It got significantly more quiet after one particularly noisy patron left! We would go back there.

Odette

Odie is still in the hospital. There have been some complications from the surgery and from the fall. Somehow her elbow was injured in the fall and has become infected. She'll be having another surgery on her elbow.

Here's an excerpt from Roger's update:

Mom is still in the hospital. After last Friday's leg/hip surgery, she had a lot of pain in her left elbow. By Tuesday her arm and hand were very swollen. Thursday an infection was confirmed, and early this morning (Friday), surgery was performed to clean the infection from the elbow area. The current plan is for Mom to transfer to Bellbrook (a rehab facility that's a mile from Spartan Court) on Monday the 20th.

Doesn't it seem that bad things happen to the best people?

Are You Geocacher Enough?

Dick's log is my blog for the weekend!


Are we Geocachers enough? If one were to simply look at our list of finds this weekend (and the condition of our Jeep this morning) one would probably think so, but looks are often deceiving.

Friday evening we shared a GeoPizza with Dino Duo and Capt. Bud and his First Mate. They graciously accepted our request to be their “Tag Along Teammates” for the weekend. Without their aid, energy, and enthusiasm we would have undoubtedly experienced another of our normal caching days, 10 - 12 finds on Saturday, maybe a half dozen more today.


They kept pushing until we reached our limit at 9:30 last night and had us back in the saddle at 7:00 this morning. Had it not been for a couple of slip ups, most notably at 266 Steps, we probably would have found them all.

(Team BassDinoBud, or Team DinoBudBend, or Team Capt.DuoWood - we couldn't decide.)


Although we wound up thoroughly exhausted in both mind and body, we had a fantastic time! It’s a blast to bump into our known caching friends and a pleasure to meet and make new ones. It’s a good thing this only happens once a year because it might take us that long to recover.

(Most of the caches were along the AuSable River - river caching = wet feet, so Tim and Dick came prepared!)





We appreciate more than we have the words to express, the efforts of the organizers, meaning Chad and his family, Jason and his family, Chris and the others who volunteered to help as well as all of the cash donors and sponsors. Although this was our first Road Rally experience, we believe it to be a major contribution to quality Geocaching in Michigan.

As Mrs. Bend often exclaimed as we were bouncing and jouncing, slippin' and a slidin', down beautiful northern Michigan two tracks toward an ammo can placed at a beautiful spot in the woods, “Now this is what they were talkin’ about!!”

That, and the folks who share our joy, are what keep us involved in this activity.

(Marty and Susie)