“With firm application and determination... I made a fossil of myself!” 

Court Jester (sort of)

 

July 16, 2010: Today we headed north to Dakota again! Making a nice, two-hour stop at Ashfall Fossil Beds first. Aside from the fact there was an earthcache there, I'd been eyeing this particular spot for several years, ever since I'd read a book called “A Short History of Nearly Everything”, by Bill Bryson. I'd wanted to get here for so long... and it didn't disappoint. It EXCEEDED! We even got to meet the palentologist (YOU try typing that after too much rum!) Mike Voorhies, who originally discovered the fossil beds. He is retired now, but still comes back a lot. They have built a huge barn over the area they are excavating, to protect it from the weather while they work – every year, there is a waiting list of student interns champing at the bit to come work here.

This place was awe-inspiring. We quickly got the answers for the earthcache, and took the required photo, but it was the other photos that really tell the story. We also got to talk with one of the students, who was working on uncovering a baby rhino. It was so nice of him to stop to talk to us, and he really knew a lot! We spent at least two hours at that site, despite the heat, and we could have stayed so much longer...

But... enough of that! Some photos. First of the geodad excavating... then of the intern doing it for real!

  

And inside the rhino barn... this was awaiting us.

  

 

Yes, that IS real. And just one of many!

 

“These are trained cachers, Larry. They won't stop until they hear a specific word.”

“Oh, you mean a word like... DAKOTA!”

Night at the Museum (sort of) 

July 17, 2010: Other earthcaches were calling, and the pull of South Dakota on the geodad was strong. We continued north, after camping at Niobrara State Park in Nebraska – chalk up another earthcache, and some great sunset pictures. This area of the river is getting very choked up with sand, which was part of the theme of the earthcache – even with all the flooding this year!

  

Coming up the way we did, we crossed into South Dakota on a fairly new bridge at Vermilion – the geodad liked that, we'd never been over that bridge before. It was a hot day, we sort of meandered around South Dakota according to where that little caching arrow led. And, much to my embarrassment... HE found the first two caches... but I was too vertically challenged for one of them. At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it! I told him he had to be careful, or he'd lose his 'honorary cacher' status, and I'd make him start logging them online!

Took a few minutes to drive around the University of SD campus at Vermilion where his father had gone to college, before we headed for Yankton. And here's where I realized my error.... on a 100+ day, excluding all the park and grab micros from your pocket query – NOT smart. All the larger caches required longer hikes, and we dinna wanna hike! So... not much luck in Yankton. North again... to nab earthcaches – but first I did some sitting on the dock of the bay. And the geodad made a new friend.

  

 

“The *engine's* overheating, and so am *I*! Either we stand down, or *blow up*! Now *which* do you want?”

Battle of Britain

Okay, this was the less fun part of the trip. The “out in the middle of nowhere and the car is acting up” nailbiting part of the trip. Really hot day, and as we discovered on getting back to Yankton, the car was very low on coolant. I'd noticed it was running rough, but … well. The engine refused to catch for about five minutes while at the Beaver Dam earthcache site, and we had to pop the hood, wait for it to cool down, and hope for the best. It finally agreed to start, and we didn't shut it off again until we got back into the city... Which doesn't mean I didn't cache on the way back, of course – but I was really regretting the lack of micros in my GPS! After we got the coolant in, the car behaved better. Not perfectly, but much better... dumped in some HEET as well, for good measure.

“I'm gonna divide the river.”

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (sort of)

We wanted to camp at Lewis & Clark State Rec area in SD (and grab those caches), but it was completely full up, so we got the last tent site at Cottonwood Campground, in the shadow of the Gavin's Point Dam, one of the five (or was it seven?) huge dams on the Mo. It looked like it was coming on to storm, but it never did. So after the clouds cleared some – we drove around a bit, crossed the dam back into Nebraska and came back up, ate dinner, cached, and got some great shots. In other words... we lived the caching experience!

Stormclouds & sunset over Lake Yankton... and Gavin's Point Dam, from both sides.

  

Going home the next day was sort of anti-climatic. We'll just skip that part.

 

“From this moment on, you shall now be known as Mosquitobait.”

“Mosquitobait! Hoo ha ha!”

“Welcome, Sister Mosquitobait!”

“Mosquitobait! Hoo ha ha!”

“Enough with the Mosquitobait.”

Finding Nemo (sort of)

August 7, 2010: Why am I here? How did I get here? Where is here, anyway? What is the sound of one hand clapping? Ah, philosophical questions like this are endless. Here, in this case, seems to be be Goat Island, in the middle of the Missouri River, between South Dakota and Nebraska. How I got here – well, the most immediate answer is bobbing in the river behind me – two canoes and three kayaks. Here's a photo, just before pushing off...

 

Why I am here – well, supposedly I'm here to help this group find caches... but I'm starting to sense that the real reason I'm here is to feed the mosquitoes. The fact that the first cache we are after is called “Starbucks” is a clear giveaway to... something. And they seem to be laughing at the layers of bug spray we have on! insert sound of one hand slapping.

Joined up with a group of northeast Nebraska cachers for their annual pilgrimage to Goat Island – there are about 26 caches on this 3-mile long island in the middle of the Mo. The only way to get there is by boat, and gosh darn it, I missed out on it last year, I wanted to give it a try! Now I'm thinking... maybe I knew something I didn't know I knew!

By god, it was hot – heat index of 111, I heard. The kids spent much of the time in the water along the edges of the bank, Old Man 124 rolled his kayak and got a nice bath in the Mo... I got to play lifeguard and throw him a rope, go me, go me, and my pitiful canoe-paddling skills were demonstrated for all! I felt like Goldilocks - “oh, no, this paddle is too long!” “oh, no, this paddle is too short!” I never did get one that was “just right”, and eventually switched to kayak instead – hadn't used one since kayaking on the Potomac 9 years ago, but hey, it was like riding a bicycle, or something.

Unfortunately, they'd already gotten most of the caches on the island, so we only went after a couple – including a FTF! Or maybe it was fortunately – it /was/ really hot, and the Mo was running REALLY high from all the rains – all the usual landing places along Goat Island were underwater. A lot of scrambling up 90-degree banks. Docked at the camping ground where we were going to cook and camp, after about 7 hours on the river. And the mosquitoes were waiting for us, there, too...

 

Regarding the FTF – little wonder why it was so tough to find! We had to search some Remnants of the Past... which didn't include the unhappy encounter with barbed wire one of our group had. Ripped pants and skin, oooouch.

  

Back to the water, where the mosquitoes DIDN'T roam... Dinner was under the cottonwoods:

And so were more mosquitoes! But my tent was a mosquito free zone! We all turned in pretty early, it had been a long, hot, tiring day. But looking back, I wouldn't have missed it – even if I'm STILL scratching at mosquito bites now! Meant to cache on the way home, too tired, just drove home the next day.

 

 

August 14 – 15: Made homemade calzones, beer bread, and went to church. Exciting, no?

 

Until next Chronicle – cheers!

By Sioneva

 

 

 

 A strangelet is a hypothetical object consisting of a bound state of roughly equal numbers of up, down, and strange quarks. An equivalent description is that a strangelet is a small fragment of strange matter. The term "strangelet" originates with E. Farhi and R. Jaffe. Strangelets have been suggested as a dark matter candidate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please login to post your comments.

Comments(1):

1. your trips always sound like real adventures, why dont you come down under for one, would love to show you around, the geodad too :-)

   Sunday, August 22, 2010 Ulla