My World - Memorial Day

Having had a deliberately lazy Memorial weekend, we decided to do a little Geocaching today.

So we headed out into the wilderness that is NW Okieland. This particular area pictured, is the site of the final inter-tribal battle between the Native Indians that once covered this area. If you fancy your chances against the Rattlers, you can still find arrowheads out in these grasslands.

I enjoyed seeing the native flora all in bloom.

I especially love the colourful Indian Blankets. I once bought some to plant which the Hubster could not believe, as they're freely available on every roadside!

Another fascination of mine, all the abandoned homesteads spread throughout the countryside. In fact I am going to start a photography project on them I think and research their history.

There really isn't alot of anything out on these Plains!

We were after 3 newly published Geocaches, all in cemeteries. If we had given that a little more thought, we might have realised it wasn't the best day to hunt undetected in a cemetery!

We don't have a Memorial Day in the UK, when the cemeteries are all decorated and I think it's a lovely tradition, the displays of flowers are beautiful.

The flags are proudly flown and everyone remembers the servicemen who fought for their country so bravely. But it has also grown to where families decorate the graves of their loved ones generally.

I am always facinated by the choices people make for their headstones. I really wasn't too keen on this design I hadn't seen before, just a little ghoulish I think!

Now here's a surprise, I thought he was indestructable?!

I liked this design, obviously a keen fisherman.

And this one which illustrates our area nicely.

We passed another home that lost a fight with a tornado!

Found another Geocache at this very old cemetery.

The peace, quiet and endless views were amazing here as the sun finally broke through.

What do you do if your town is out of businesses?

Why you get someone to paint them back in as fun murals!

This was our Memorial Day, hope yours was fun too.

To see some great sights around the globe or join in the fun, go to My World Tuesday

My World - New Years Day

The first day of 2010 was a stunner out here in the Wild West. And as we are now heading into the 'deep freeze' again, we made the most of it, packed a picnic and headed outdoors.

A little New Years Geocaching was in order, so we decided to try and find a couple that are local to us, but are out of bounds in the warmer months due to Rattlesnakes. The first find of the day was easy and so we headed way out into the country in search of another.

The casual passerby, of which there are few out here, probably wouldn't even notice the old bridge as they kick up a dust cloud in their wake. But there are clues to be seen all around if you just take the time to look.

The silence is truly golden in this spot, but once upon a time the peace was shattered daily by a freight train. Now the only visitors are Geocachers like the Hubster, hunting for a very elusive cache.

This old bridge was on Santa Fe's branch line that ran from Shattuck to Perryton, Texas. It had a single car called a "Doodlebug" that ran five days a week. It not only carried passengers but the mail, bread, livestock feed, cream cans full of cream and milk, eggs, live chickens, and grain to the silo on the main line.

If you look off into the far distance, you can just spot the water tower in the destination town of Shattuck. The actual tracks were still there just 4 years ago, but it hasn't been in use for probably 20-30 years.

But it's not hard to picture the old freight train trundling through this scenic and now peaceful spot. Unfortunately the hunt for the cache was unsuccessful, so we will try again another day.

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Scenic Sunday

'Languid Lake Vincent'

Taken yesterday whilst out geocaching. So tranquil, utterly peaceful with just the sounds of nature surrounding us, and not another soul around - pure heaven and just 80 degrees!

Double click picture to get the full effect

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My World - Geocaching Sunday

The week before last, we headed out Sunday on a geocaching mission. The Hubster wanted to place a new cache at a historic rural site 25 miles north of us. It was the site of the last big Indian battle in our area, where the various tribes came together to fight the infamous Colonel George Custer.

The elevation at this point is 2500ft above sea level and whilst he located the perfect cache hiding place, I climbed into the bed of the Pickup to take photo's. Within a few minutes he had made a decision, after digging around whilst watching for snakes.

Next he created a Waypoint in his GPS, which basically means recording the GPS co-ordinates for the exact location. This then enables other geocachers to put these into their GPS and follow it to within a few feet of the cache. They then have to use their eyes and caching experience to find the cache.

Whoever finds this cache will hopefully enjoy reading about the local history and the wonderful endless views in every direction. It is also one of the most peaceful locations I have had the pleasure of visiting in our area.

Next up was a second attempt at finding a cache we had looked for in February, right in the panhandle armpit, on the Texas and Okieland border. At that time despite 25 minutes effort we never found it, so the Hubster had a chat to the cacher who placed it and we knew what we were looking for this time.

They had decided that probably alot of earth had blown into this isolated location and so the Hubster had to work for this find! It took him about 15 minutes of digging in 98 degrees, sweaty work and I was happy to give encouragement from the Pickup!

Finally the treasure revealed itself, he was very happy to find this one and tick it off our list. Yes that scruffy looking rock was the actual cache, hence it being so hard to spot buried in the dirt.

But geocachers are an enterprising bunch and this rock is actually a camouflaged key holder. Just large enough to hold a log to be signed, but tricky enough to be a tough find.

To join in the fun go to My World Tuesday

My World - Geocaching Drama!

On Saturday we did some geocaching on our way home from Enid, in the Cheyenne Valley in north western Okieland. As the name suggests, this is deep in what was Indian Territory and the Pickup is far more advisable than my Mazda 3 (note the tag/number plate)! All you will find there nowadays is oil wells, Rattlesnakes and some pretty rock - oh and crazy Brit's and Geocachers!!

Here's me posing in front of Lone Mountain, whilst keeping my eyes peeled for snakes, this is in the area where they have the Rattlesnake Roundup, so my concerns were very justified. Therefore I decided to stay on the road next to the car and take pictures of this lovely but deserted spot.

The Hubster however was on a mission to find the geocache hidden at the base of Lone Mountain, and off he trekked watching where he walked, GPS in hand. It was a warm day and the red dirt looked far too inviting for snakes to get me out onto it!

I took this photo of him and called to him "have you found it" and he shouted back "no big Rattlesnake", I just chuckled and muttered to myself "YEH RIGHT'! Back he came and I asked him if he signed the cache, "no, didn't you hear me? There was a huge Rattlesnake right by it". Turns out there really was one!!

He'd just spotted the cache when he heard the unmistakable 'chit, chit' sound of the Rattlers first warning! He said he froze instantly, went very cold and his butt cheeks were squeezed so tight, you wouldn't have got a toothpick between them LOL! Looking around he spotted it stretched out sunbathing 5ft away, it was as thick as his upper forearm (which is well developed) and he never did see the head or tail, just 3ft of it was visible - so it was BIG! He made a fast but careful retreat, forgetting the cache and looking out for another snake, as they usually travel in pairs.

My immediate response being the photographer was "well did you get a picture for my blog?", sadly the one on his camera phone did not come out. So bless his heart he agreed to go back with my camera for me, my very own 'Indiana Jones'! But when he got out there again the snake was gone, which made him doubly nervous and back he came even more warily.

We found the next geocache a few miles away adjacent to the highway, signed the log and called it a day. Once we got home he contacted the geocacher who placed the 'rattler' cache and related what had happened and the risks for people who don't know that area or Rattlesnake warnings well. Today the cache was moved 170ft closer to the road and out of the brush, much safer!

And a final funny, 5am Sunday the Hubster woke me up snuggling me, which is extremely rare as we both like our own space in bed. I asked him what was up, he said he was cold. A few minutes later he whispered that he'd also had a bad dream about the snake incident and how stupid it was to go back. I'm afraid it really gave me the giggles, that was obviously SOME nightmare!

P.S. Enlarge the first piccie and see if you can spot something very rude, the hint is - pesky Hubster!

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Weekend antics

Yesterday we headed to the Enid Radioshack and finally got signed up for a decent cell phone provider and service, that doesn't cost an arm & a leg just for voice calls! For about $15 more than we were paying, we now have 1500 talk minutes and totally unlimited web and text services - hallelujah. We also got the very latest Samsung Instinct S30 phone for just $49, which is a touch phone and have had hours of fun with it. I was even able to watch the Formula One qualifying on the phones TV service as we crossed the wilderness to return home, amazing!

After staying up until 2am we have the workings of it figured out! Today we will be using music tracks on our PC's to make our own free ringtones with a great site we found.

On our way back from Enid yesterday we were geocaching and the Hubster had a major Rattlesnake encounter, I will post about it for My World on Tuesday.

So the rest of Sunday will be spent phone fiddling, watching the F1 Grand Prix from Spain, doing laundry, cooking, writing blog posts and getting ready for my final week of school.

And a very Happy Mothers Day to all you mom's out there. So what does your Sunday hold?

Lost in stormy Texas - geocaching!

Under stormy skies, we headed into Texas for some geocaching.

First stop the Canadian Wagon Bridge, next weeks 'My World' pick, so history and more piccies on Tuesday. Whilst I snapped away, the hubster headed into the undergrowth beneath to find a cache.

By now it was raining hard and I decided to stay dry!

The Hubster however was not deterred, determined to find the next cache despite a soaking! He's a nut but I still love him.

It was chucking it down, so time to refuel at the 'Filling Station' in Canadian, a converted Phillips 66 gas station, now a restaurant.

The Hubster got to dry out and plan his next assault!

So we headed back out into the 'country', down the unpaved roads.

The only things out here are canyons, oil drilling sites, tons of Rattlesnakes, alot of surprised cattle and geocachers!

After another successful find, we headed to Lake Marvin, where the Hubster headed into the brush and I took photo's again! As I've said before, our hobbies perfectly compliment each other.

Due to 'Muggles' we moved on empty handed from Lake Marvin, but not far up the road we stumbled across a picturesque herd of Deer.

We were now heading home via GPS across open country, this huge ranch was impressive and in an idyllic rural spot.

By now it was dirt roads all the way and the Hubster had no clue where we were, we were just lost in Texas and entirely reliant on our GPS. It had turned into a Texan magical mystery tour!

The pretty views kept on coming, I'd live out here if it wasn't for the Rattlesnakes and the unnerving propensity for a tornado to hit homes in the middle of nowhere!

This was an inviting sign along our route, but with me in bright colours, we decided against a visit this time out!

Finally we hit a highway with signs again and headed home to Okieland with 4 more geocache finds in the bag.

Next Saturday we are heading to the World Champion Cow Chip Throw in Beaver, Oklahoma. Now you just know that's going to be an eye-opener for me and result in some interesting piccies!