Geocaching September 2021

A nearby church with a large complex has a couple of geocaches on the grounds. I found two of them. First was Grace 3 Again in one corner of the property. It's a reimplementation of a previous cache. The cache is up on a small hill and I am afraid that I scared a groundhog that was relaxing in the shade. He ran off; I ran up and found the cache fairly easily. 

Where the groundhog lies

Further down the property line are fence posts without any fencing in between them. I guess people just know not to cross the imaginary line? The next cache is called Where's the Fence? and, as one might guess, the cache is hidden quite cleverly on a post.

Maybe it's a magical fence?

In a local townhouse neighborhood is Yellow - Black Bottom.... This cache is also hidden on a hill, but down the hill, not up! I needed a little advice from the hint to find the right spot.

Not in the obvious spot

Two caches are hidden in a nearby supermarket parking lot. The Gray Top Cache... is on the front end of the lot and is a standard hide in some dense but safe foliage.

Whack those bushes!

The other cache, Black Friday Deal, is out back of the store. I walked from front to back since it was not very far and seemed like a waste of gas to get to ground zero.

The cache is back that way.

I found a trail into the woods which led to a bunch of cardboard boxes, some covered with plastic bags. It looked more like a homeless person's stash than a geocache. I looked around and didn't see anyone. Then I double checked the cache's log to see if others ran into the situation. The boxes must have shown up since the last visitor. I moved on to the cache location and saw a car drive up near the trailhead. I assumed it was another cacher ready to hunt. I made the find and headed back out. The lady was smoking and asked me if I was taking a shortcut. I said the cache was still there and she gave me a quizzical look. I realized she was a muggle and probably she assumed I was not entirely sane. I head back to my car. She drove off in hers rather quickly.

We've made it to 507 caches found!

Maple Lawn Street Festival 2014

As proof that we are taking advantage of all that goes around us back here in the USA, we'll have a couple of posts this week of summer activities we've already done. First, we went with some friends to the Maple Lawn Street Festival in early July. The festival was the typical street festival. Various businesses, volunteer organizations, politicians, and restaurants had booths along the road selling their wares. We saw Mary Kay and Chick-fil-A and the Howard County Republicans and the Knights of Columbus and etc. etc. The streets weren't filled yet because we came relatively early (trying to get it in before bedtime--the festival ran from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., with fireworks at 9:30).

One side of the street

The other end of the other side of the street

A stage with a live band sat right in the middle of the festival. The band was okay but too loud for J and L. We didn't get too close. I admired the Atari t-shirt from afar.

The stage

We were hungry for dinner and tried a bite here and a bite there. One restaurant was giving out chips and salsa for free, so we sampled that. Another was selling corn dogs, paella, and samosas. L wanted a corn dog but became less enthusiastic about it (yet another disappointing American sausage). J had some paella which he shared with everyone; Mommy had a chicken samosa. They were all delicious but not quite a full meal.

At this point, I think L was just unhappy to have her picture taken

We also ate popcorn from a credit union's stand and Belgian waffles from a cart on the street. The waffle was yummy but not quite enough. J later complained that he wanted a regular dinner where we sat down and ate. I have to admit I did eat some leftovers after we got home, so I should have had more.

J and L wanted balloon animals. We stopped at the booth and got tickets for them. L asked for a dog. The fellow asked what color and she said blue. When it was J's turn, he also asked for a dog though he chose pink. Dark pink. Don't judge!

Two balloon guys and two customers

We didn't stay for the fireworks (which were long past bedtime) but had a good time seeing people wandering around and enjoying a summer evening.