Ormonster's Domain

Decided to try and find 3 local caches right here in Squantum. Hopped on my bike around sevenish to Marina Bay where there are 2 caches. The first one is right on Victory Road called GCZMYZ – Horsefire. My iphone continued to be a pain in the rear when it comes to the GPS. I might have dropped it a few too many times since I got it. I still had enough information to give looking for it a whirl. Success!

I was definitely a little worse for wear with a cracked lid and giant hole in the bottom. The baggie that holds the log book doesn’t close either. Even after the rain we had everything was dry. I may come back at a later date and do a little maintenance if the cache owner hasn’t done so. My next stop was Squantum Point for GCW955 – Squantum Point. I got to the parking lot to find it filled with vans, people, music and port-o-pottys. It appears that a 12 person relay race to Provincetown starts here. I decided to come back another time when it got a little quieter.

My last stop for the morning was GC22PZK – Moswetuset Hummock. Once again my iPhone was bugging out on me but I decided to give it a shot. This was a puzzle cache where I had to count letters on an engraved stone. I apparently can’t count too good because I messed it up a couple times before I think I got it right. This was a micro cache so I knew it was going to be small. After waiting for a couple people to leave I started looking.. and looking.. and looking. I came up empty. Just couldn’t find the dang thing. Oh well, it was still a nice little bike ride where I confirmed that I am woefully out of shape, especially on the uphill ride back to my apartment.

If I’m going to continue this hobby, I’m going to need a real GPS.. or at least one that works. I’m going to end this with a nice view of Squantum from the hummock

Something piqued my interest this week and I decided to give it a shot. I was browsing apps for my iPhone, as I do on occasion, and I came across an app called  Geocaching. I have heard of this thing before but never really looked into it. Here is a description of Geocaching taken directly from that link.

Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online.

That’s it in a nutshell. As it happens, my iPhone 3GS is equipped with a GPS chip. How convenient. I am a lazy couch potato. Given half a chance I will spend days on my couch watching TV/movies or playing video games. I rarely head out into the great outdoors. Whenever I think about it, it annoys me. The problem is, I have nothing to do out there. I walk outside get bored then come back inside and veg on the couch. There is a lot of napping in my life. This is where geocaching will hopefully fill the void. It will hopefully get me outside walking and/or riding my bike.

The question is, will I like it. I think I will. In fact I took the idea for a test drive yesterday. I have been thinking about this for a couple days and while I was working at Stonehill College I decided to see if there were any caches nearby.

GC17Q75 – West Bridgewater State Forest – This was located just one more exit down rt 24. I decided to go for it. I plugged the coordinates for the parking area into my Garmin Nuvi and off I went. There was one little hitch I noticed once I got there. My iPhone seemed to think I was around rt 27 in Brockton, the next town over. It’s hard to follow the directions when it doesn’t know where you are. Looking at the info page I decided that I had enough info to still give this a shot and off I went. Man it was nice. Peaceful. And what do you know.. I found the cache! That was neat.

I decided to try another one on the way home. GC1HTK1 – Gazebo Series #2.  This one was located in Crown Colony. I found the place easily enough and my iPhone GPS actually worked most of the time. This one turned out to be a DNF (Did Not Find). Now this does not mean it wasn’t there somewhere, I just couldn’t find the darned thing. Of course I had no idea what it looked like or how big it was. I spent a good 25 minutes walking around this little park area mumbling to myself and looking everywhere I could think of. Must have looked like a crazy person. It was still a pretty little place next to a pond. It was a windy day but not bad and I was outside doing something.. getting a little exercise even.

My plan tomorrow is to throw some air in the tires of my bike, adjust the seat and head out around Quincy hunting for treasure. If it turns into something I’m really enjoying then Sunday I think I’ll head out to Wompatuck State Park with my bike where there seems to be a few caches also. If that works out, I think I’m going to have an enjoyable summer outdoors.

Guess what? I have a blog. completely forgot about this silly thing. May blow it out and try something new. or just redo it. I like having a new project, I’m just terrible at maintaining it once it’s complete.

That’s all for now I guess. I just wanted to see if my Iphone app still worked. It didn’t so I got the newer app and now it works.

Peace

Finally! Something to blog about again. That’s the problem with being me.. nothing to talk about. As has been my wont, I will be chronicling my cruising adventure. (Is that a real sentence?)

I loaded up Windows Live Writer.. linked it to my blog.. and away we go.

This Friday, I will be embarking on a daring adventure.. I will be flying to Florida on the day of the cruise instead of giving myself an extra day padding. This is mainly because I was feeling to cheap to spring for a hotel room this time. I will be jetting on Jet Blue to beautiful Fort Lauderdale where I will be boarding the Carnival Cruise Ship Miracle for 8 fun filled days. We will be visiting St. Marten, St. Lucia and St. Kitts. Feel free to follow my adventures as I drink and sleep my way  through the Caribbean.

Have you ever seen that cruise commercial where they show the family going to all those great locations and he is sleeping.. just napping away… LOVE IT!

I think I’ll end this on that note and the next entry should be from Florida on Friday.

Good news, my father is doing fine. He had a cat scan and an MRI and I guess everything checked out good. According to my mother, the doctors said it was probably an inner ear thingy  (I’m paraphrasing here) that messed up his equilibrium causing the vertigo, dizziness and upchucking.  He is going to be checked out by his regular doctor and he’s going to see a neurologist. For now he is doing good and has been feeling fine all day. Yay!

Long day today, but it will be worth it in my check. Just finished my workout and you can get those details here at My Power 90 Journey

Just finished my workout. It was weight day. Was feeling a little sore today but that didn’t stop me. You can keep up with My Power 90 Journey by clicking on that link there.

I just got a call from my Mother about an hour ago. It seems my father was feeling dizzy and then got sick. My brother and mother took him to the hospital. All reports say he is doing fine now and is doing some tests and the doctors are treating the symptoms. When they know more, I’ll know more. It should be an interesting evening.