"Someday I'm gonna shoot the weatherman...

Someday they're gonna find him dead.

And then I'll get the other guy,

The guy who makes the weather maps up...

And spend... the rest of my life in bed!"

Old Army song (sort of)

I'm a very trusting person. Really, I am. I trust my friends, my co-workers, my Facebook buddies, the beautifully colored weather maps at weather.com... and the forecasts contained therein.

That's not always wise. But I WANTED to believe that Saturday, October 24, 2009 would be sunny, with temperatures in the mid to upper 50's, and that it would be a perfect day to make a late-fall trip up to nab some earthcaches around Sioux City, IA, two hours away. And that weather map was so pretty. The Trackable GeoKitten must have known better though; she doesn't like to get wet and stayed home. The Untrackable Geodad came along for the ride, however... after the usual Saturday morning Breakfast at the Moose, we were off. (And a final instrument check. Camera, check. GPS, check. iPod with music and cache notes, check.)

"Don't worry, Dad, it's supposed to get sunny today."

"This looks strangely familiar."

"Because we've been here before. We're going in circles!"

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Exhibit A - and a forerunner of approaching troubles.

Somewhere in the middle of that, there was an earthcache I wanted to find. Don’t see it? Neither did we! We just couldn’t find the right turn-off, try as we would. And we DID. Try, that is. Used up a good hour on this crazy loop, before I reluctantly conceded defeat and moved on. I think I was more upset about it then the geodad - he’s used to unexpected detours by now. It was approaching 1 PM when I called a halt. *shakes a fist* I’ll be back…

"Don't worry, Dad, it's supposed to get sunny today."

“The rain rain rain came down down down, in rushing rising rivlets.”

Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day

Sioux City… at last. Off the interstate and into the backstreets, and feeling good - the geodad wouldn’t leave the car, but he was happy enough to watch me find caches. One LPC, one DNF, one ammo can in the woods. As I emerged from the latter, I noticed little dark spots on the walking trail. Those spots got fatter and heavier on the walk back to the car, and soon I had to exchange my baseball cap for my coat hood, to keep that wet stuff off.

Neither of us knew Sioux City very well, so we were having trouble navigating (my GPS doesn’t have detailed maps for that area), and the rain was thickening. A few more DNFs, a rumbling stomach, bad weather, and a bad mood, and we decided to head for a place to eat. After getting completely lost in the city, we finally made it back to a main route. I think we ended up at a McDonald’s about 2:30 pm.

We did get this pic along the way, at Sgt. Floyd‘s burial monument, overlooking I-29 and the Missouri River. The geodad is in the foreground. Apparently there was a micro there, but I didn’t have it loaded in. He was happy to have found the site - he’d seen it many times from the interstate, but never knew how to get to it. (I don’t think we could find it again if we tried, but that’s another story!)

After we ate, the rain had slacked off some, but it was too late in the day to think about heading further north to get those earth caches. We turned the car toward home, but not the way we came - crossed the Mighty Mo into Nebraska on Hwy 20 and descended on Dakota City like a whirlwind.

"Don't worry, Dad, it's supposed to get sunny today."

“I been up in Dakota territory gettin' caches.”

Gunsmoke (sort of)

Really got the feeling this trip that Iowa just doesn’t like me. Only two caches to show for the whole time in Sioux City, and it rained hard most of the time. Cross the river into Nebraska, it stopped raining, and I started finding caches. Pretty much cleaned out the six or seven in Dakota City - 2 DNFs, one of which was confirmed as a MIA by the owner.

Some good caches up there - I particularly liked the ones along the river. My dad liked the one at the old train depot - he’s very interested in trains, so this was right up his alley. Here he is again, closer up… if he’s waiting for a train, he’s going to be waiting a loooooong time! The very overgrown train tracks are off to the left.

But I still had a yearning for at least one earth cache, and lookie, there’s one close to Hwy 75, our route home! I gotta get this one!

"Look, Dad, the clouds are breaking.”

“Well, I- I could have sworn I saw something. No matter. First, let's drink. Me from my glass, and you from yours. “

The Princess Bride

The earthcache was a natural spring cache - not a very large spring, but… well, take a look! (Yes, that is me on the bridge. Eeek, right?)

Someone was very thoughtful and provided cups! The water was good for drinking, but oh, brother, did it leave a taste of iron in your mouth afterward! Like chewing on forks. We both had a drink, took some pictures, and just relaxed.

And then we drove home, stopping to take a few pictures near sunset, from a scenic overlook along the way.

“Look, Dad, the sun’s out.”

Until the next Chronicle - cheers and happy caching!