Geocaching August 2025

The month started with our trip to Minnesota, so we made finds along the way out.

Our first find was in Hancock, Maryland. Old National Pike Mile Marker 96 is a mystery cache that was an easy and quick find, after solving the mystery. Our next stop was the next day in Ohio at one of the rest areas along their turnpike. What Is Your Final Destination? leans into the fact that cachers would only be here because they are on the road to another destination. Nobody jumps on a toll road just to get geocaches. At least, nobody I know. At least, they haven't admitted it. Also at that stop is the multi-cache Turnpike trivia 2 which requires an NFC device and then solving a simple crossword. We walked back to the car and drove away, forgetting it was a multicache. Once the crossword was solved, we got the final coordinates. Hopefully there will be another Minnesota trip in the future and we will remember to stop here?

On our way, we took a short jog off the highway to visit Michigan where we have never cached. I found sarepo.gnitsujda.gnirots, a mystery cache that was easy to solve before we even got there. The other Michigan cache was Oaklawn Shelter at a park with a playground that my children enjoyed. 

Playground at the shelter

We drove on to Janesville, Wisconsin, where I found Circle of Friendship, 50 Below, and Thank You Rogheff from Alex after dinner (so mostly in the dark). 

One of the Janesville parks

The next day we visited UW Madison which has a garden with a cache hidden in it.

Allen Centennial Garden cache

We finally made it to Minnesota. Our first full day there I found Rainbow Colors Challenge (a cache I have been working to qualify for), Stop (at a stop sign, naturally), and MnSQ: Green Lake Cemetery (a multi-cache). The finds were fairly easy though the neighboring grass was pretty high.

Cemetery

Tramping out a trail

In Cambridge (Minnesota), I found Smell Good For Church Pt. 2, which is part of a small series in town. The container made the title make sense.

A church to smell good for

We drove down to Eden Prairie and found a lot caches, including EP Veterans Park: Semper Fidelis, a multi-cache that takes some information off a list of locals who died in service of our country. The final was on a nearby bridge where I pretended to be a maintenance worker.

Veterans Park

Daniel R. Olsen

More of the memorial

Finding the final

"She Blinded Me With Science!" was a favorite of ours, a library cache. The first stage of this multicache was under a lamp post just outside the library. Unfortunately, it was also a wasps' home, so I had to use a lot of spray to make it accessible. The message pointed to a book inside, which we found quickly and safely.

Signing the book

Leaving a Pathtag

We also found a trivia series: Sports Team Trivia #2, #4, #8, #10, #11, and #12. The solutions were tricky, which is why I didn't find the other numbers since I couldn't solve them quickly. Maybe I will work on them for that next trip. A similar challenge limited me to Training Puzzle #2 Alphabet to Numbers, Training Puzzle #4 Google Is Your Friend, and Puzzle to Solve Puzzle to Solve Puzzle. 

In Isanti, Grandpa and I found Wayside Welcome!, Hwy 65 Tour: Cambridge, MARS Evil Lead Scout, and PANDA-ACME : PTG Part 1. Then we got a beer.

Best find ever?

Then we headed home and made some finds along the way. In Wisconsin, I found Guardrail #9 in the rain (thankfully a quick find), then later on in Indiana an earthcache--Richey Woods Nature Preserve Earth Cache, Righty, IndyScan Hide #6 Trucker Sam, and I signed Emilie's 3/4 Challenge, which requires 100 finds with the numerals 3 or 4 in the title (I am at 70, so not too far).

Nature trail

Bus stop in the woods!?!

On the final push home I found I-70 EB Rest Stop Cache in Ohio. Then, to fill out my counties in Maryland, we found a couple in the panhandle that are a long way from home--Mountain Light and Footer's Dye Works. 

The mountain light!

The dye works!

Back in our home area, I found Big City Cacher Challenge X since I made it to ten big cities with an Indianapolis cache. Other mystery/challenge caches filling in my calendar were Fetchez le Vache, A Mystery About Dragons, Falling Snow, and Omnicache. I also found a traditional cache that looks like a mystery: Gur dhvpx Trb-Whfgvpr Ntrag whzcf bire 14 ynml qbt, quite the mouthful! Translated, that's "The quick Geo-Justice Agent jumps over 14 lazy dog"--why no "s" at the end?

We made a quick visit to the Museum of American History in DC and I found The DC Bioretention Cells across the street--an earthcache about rain gardens in the city.

No spoiler photo

The next week had a trip to Baltimore, where I found the garage rooftop cache Light of Baltimore 2 along with Carter's Forgotten Legacy, No Malady Here, MDCT - John Cadbury, Cenosillicaphobia #11, and LoZ Series: Theives' Den Intro. 

On the rooftop

Fun sign at a local coffee shop where I got a drink

The Cenosillicaphobia Location

I finished out the month with the multicache Calculate & Dismantle, The Maryland Virtual Challenge II, 365 Challenge, and MDCT - Domenico Ghiradelli. The MDCT is the Maryland Chocolate Trail, a series that has been mostly archived, so I won't find many more. We did stop in at the local chocolate shop and got some truffles to go. We also did the Adventure Lab: Tour of Catonsville which started near the chocolate shop. 

Random picnic bench near the 365 cache

Box of chocolates (sort of)

The month ends with 57 finds in August 2025 and a grand total of 2029 finds. 

Travel Bug Adventures

We picked up the Travel Bug Hard Drive Travel’s out of Going West TB Hotel on our recent driving vacation to Minnesota. The geocache is located behind a truck stop in Indiana. The find was a little tricky--we had to go through a fence to what seemed like an abandoned road. You know, the sort of place where you would run into a zombie horde. All was quiet.

Hard Drive Travel's (sic)

TB Hotel location

When we discovered the bug’s destination, we thought we had to help out. This particular travel bug is trying to get to North Dakota, which happened to be part of our destination, visiting relatives and some family graves. Geocaching took us to a different cemetery in Geneso, North Dakota. We dropped the travel bug in Iron Wall - NDSQ and retrieved it from there because we were worried it might be a while before it moved on.

The cemetery gate with silos behind

Me and the bug

The cemetery

Our route back home happened to swing through the top of South Dakota. We couldn’t resist the urge to get another cache and another state. We found a cache, MGR Inspector Visits Claire City!, in Claire City, South Dakota. The small town’s park had the hiding spot. We took some pictures there after making the find. We again dropped and retrieved the travel bug so it could get the extra state in too!

Location of the South Dakota cache

The bug at same

On the way home, we stopped by a cache in Illinois (because we haven't cached in Illinois yet). The cache wasn't big enough to drop the bug in, so we gave it another visit at 11-11-11 #9.

The cache is somewhere in the picture

We got home and tried to drop the travel bug at All Hail the Queen but the cache was too small. We had some shopping to do anyway, so it wasn't a wasted trip.

The cache is somewhere around here, the back parking lot of the store

We went to a different parking lot where the cache Cats and Dogs and Fish Oh My! is located in pretty much the same hiding spot. The container was the same size, so the travel bug would not fit!

Even folding the plastic bag didn't help!

Then we couldn't even find Southbound Roach Motel, a cache specifically designed for travel bugs going south on Interstate 95. The cache location was behind some very tall grass (like four feet tall!). Hopefully the rest stop people will get their weed wackers out and take care of some business.

After that, we found O Christmas Tree! which claimed to be a regular-size cache. The container was big enough, but the space inside was not. It was a very fun container, so we'll give them a pass this time.

View from our parking spot

We finally found a cache big enough to fit the bug inside. We went to the Benjamin Banneker Historical Park and Museum which had the Horse high, bull strong and hog tight geocache. The title refers to Osage Orange, a bush that is often planted close together to make a fence. You know, one that is too high for a horse to jump, too solid for a bull to ram through, and too tight for a hog to slip through. At least the cache was accessible and now has a traveler ready to move on.

Somewhere in there

The park and museum are well worth visiting, even apart from the cool geocache in the front!

Evil Czech Brewery

We visited Evil Czech Brewery for dinner on our way home from Minnesota. It's located just outside of South Bend, Indiana. Our original plan was to arrive in South Bend in time to catch the 5 p.m. vigil Mass at Notre Dame's basilica, but we didn't count on crossing the time zone border in the wrong direction! So we went to our hotel, relaxed a bit, and then went to dinner.

The brewery is fairly unassuming with a fun logo. I do find the half-helmet a little weird.

Evil Czech Brewery

Not someone to meet in a dark alley

We are fans of fresh-made pretzels, so we ordered that as our appetizer. Given the evil bent of the venue, this pretzel was particularly untwisted.

Amazed children

Even as a sort of micro-loaf, we enjoyed the pretzel a lot. It came with the standard mustard (that was too spicy for our mild tastes) and beer cheese sauce (that was just right by our reckoning).

I had the "Cali B" burrito for dinner that was very yummy and not too large. We definitely did not want to take leftovers home to the hotel. The fries were an unusual side for a burrito but they tasted great too.

"Cali B"

My son was happy because the menu had his favorite, mac and cheese, in several varieties.

A happy patron

Of course, I ordered beer. The waiter explained that they've had some CO2 problem with their brewing equipment and many of the beers were not available. We sat right by the brewing area (the big silver vats you see all the time at breweries and brew pubs). Since it was Saturday, I just assumed the brewers were not working the weekend. Anyway, I wanted to order the Voodoo Vanilla Rye Porter but it was not on tap. I opted for the Just My Luck Pale Ale, since it was just my luck that the beer I wanted wasn't available. Maybe they are too good at being evil here?

Just My Luck Pale Ale-American

Just My Luck is 6% alcohol by volume and a fairly standard drinking ale. I liked it but wasn't wowed. The waiter did wow me, however, when he came back later with my second beer. They had Voodoo Vanilla Rye Porter in cans and they poured me one!

Voodoo Vanilla Rye Porter

I was very happy with the extra effort. Beer snobs would say that cans aren't as good as fresh-pulled drafts. I'm not so fussy and was delighted with both the beer and the waiter's perseverance. The porter is 5.2% alcohol by volume and quite flavorful and easy to drink. I should have bought some cans to bring home!

They do have a funny tag line--"At Evil Czech Brewery, we believe life is too short to drink bad beer, but there's always time for Evil Beer!"

They offer great dinners and we'd probably go again if we were in the area.

Tippecanoe Battlefield Museum, Lafayette, Indiana, Part II

More from the Tippecanoe Battlefield Museum! See Part I here.

In 1839 William Henry Harrison, hero of the Battle of Tippecanoe, campaigned successfully to become President of the United States. His candidacy included the famous "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" slogan. The campaign also included several songs, some set to traditional tunes like Auld Lang Syne. Groups would go from town to town, teaching the song and putting on a bit of a show in favor of Harrison's candidacy. It was the first big media campaign for President. At the inauguration, Harrison developed pneumonia and died just one month later.

Campaign materials!

In 1874 the Methodist Church bought the battlefield area and established a camp. The camp was a retreat for churchgoers and a place to go on summer vacation inexpensively. They built many cabins and a large gathering hall.

Items from the Methodist camp

More from the Methodist camp, including a communion dispenser in the lower right

Outside, the battlefield is a wooded area with a large, impressive monument to the U.S. military who fought.

Battle monument

Harrison

Enlisted casualties

Officer casualties

Many memorials are spread over the area showing where the officers died.

Maj. Davies memorial

Col. Owen Memorial

Capt. Baen Memorial

Lieut. Berry memorial

The battlefield is mostly empty now, with no scars from the war or traces from the Methodist camp.

The battlefield today

One building holds a small nature exhibit with some animals on display and a bird watching station.

Nature Center

I decided to do some geocaching in the area since I was getting lunch too. The nearby town is called Battle Ground and has a few shops and restaurants. I went to a diner across from the fire department. The diner had good food, though when I walked in the waitress told one table they'd better behave themselves in front of a stranger! After finishing lunch, I found a microcache that was hidden on that street. On the way back to the highway, a geocache was located just outside a business, sponsored by the business, and contained refrigerator magnets made by the business. I swapped a Gen Con button for a magnet.

The business

The geojunk

The museum, town, and geocaches made a nice break in a long drive. I'm glad I visited!