“Dad.”

“Yes?”

“I have a three day weekend, because of all the overtime I’ve been doing. Let’s go somewhere!”

“What about Valentine? I’d like to go up to Valentine.”

“Okay! Let me start plotting out the trip!”

“MEOW!”

“… yes, yes, the Trackable Geokitten can come along, too.”

Paraphrase of Super-Cacher Council, Monday, November 2, 2009

Five days, several more conversations, and some facing up to time & financial limitations later, we were on our way to Iowa City, Iowa by 8:30 a.m. But that is how things go on our trips. You plan so carefully… and then find yourself going in the complete opposite direction. But the weather was promising, (don’t think about last time), and we’d laid our plans much better this time (don’t think about last time); plus, we were going east into Iowa, not north into Iowa. (DON’T THINK ABOUT LAST TIME!)

The Sioncat looked smug, sitting in the backseat. I think she knew all the time, but just didn’t feel like telling us. It’s that whole precognition superpower that she has. Someday I’m going to have to throw her off a bridge.

“You have no power here! Now begone, before somebody drops a tractor on you!”

The Wizard of Oz (sort of)

First stop, according to the GPS, was a cache called “Deere in the western sky”. The cache itself was a quick find, but we lingered to take a few pictures. We didn’t stay too long, though… I sensed the dark side of the Force. Well, actually, there wasn’t much reason to stay around - Avoca, IA isn’t exactly a happening town. Still - it was an interesting cache site! Behold!

“The windmill. Doc, the windwill, we're goin' past fifty, you'll never make it!”

Back to the Future III

We decided to make a detour along the way - I wanted to show Dad the Danish windmill in Elk Horn, even though I’d already found the cache there. Sioncat was sleeping in the back, and not at all pleased at being woken up and dragged out to have her picture taken. The geodad did not help her mood. As you can see from the pictures below, he first tried holding her by her ear, then nearly strangled her, before he got it right.

As a result, this became necessary:

Oh, yes. Here’s the windmill. Neither sidekick was very happy with the other.

“We can't hold up the train.”
“Why not?”
“Lots of reasons.”
“Name 'em.”
“We're rustlers, not train robbers.”
“Well, if people didn't try something new, there wouldn't be hardly any progress at all.”

Cat Ballou

We got back on track after this trip, but I had to listen to Sioncat and the geodad squabble until I had to threaten to turn the car around and go home. Pretty soon, though, we all had something else to think about. We caught a rumor of a train robbery further east, and donning our superhero costumes, we rushed to stop it.

Unfortunately, we were about 136 years too late to do anything except take a picture. And find a cache.

“...and to make a long story short…”
“Too late!”

Clue

The geodad was getting a bit restless after this cache, so we gave over caching for now, and pushed on for Iowa City / the Amana Colonies. On the way there, he realized that we’d only be about thirty miles out of Muscatine, IA, where his mother was born, on the banks of the Mississippi. He’d never been there, so we decided to go there first before doing any more caching. Sioncat went back to sleep, and we grabbed lunch in Des Moines on the way past.

We did reach Muscatine, and took a pic or two, then toured part of the Herbert Hoover birthplace / library site east of Iowa City. But by that time, it was getting on to 4:00, and thanks to daylight savings time… it was an hour from sunset.

On the way through Iowa, we passed several minor rivers: North and South Skunk Rivers, North, Middle, and South Raccoon Rivers, the boringly named Middle River, the Des Moines River, the Cedar River. Yes, Iowa was very river-full! We were ultimately aiming to spend the night in the Coralville / Iowa City area, with some caching and sightseeing in the Amana Colonies. This was the area that was so seriously flooded out a few years back… which brings us to the next cache - an earth cache.

The flood - one in 1993, and one more recently - cut down to the Devonian bedrock, exposing a lot of fossils. At least, that is what the signs said - we arrived too late to explore much. In lieu of actual knowledge, I offer a picture, and my log from the cache:

Either Murphy or Kilroy was out in force today. Possibly both, from the laundry list of things wrong / not done!

A) Got to the site as the sun was setting. Not much time - my fault! Not enough time to go down into the bed and look around. :(
B) No maps to be found at the entry point to get the info on Discovery Point 7
C) Weekend in November, visitors' center closed
D) Meant to come back Sunday, after staying at a local motel, but it was game day, no room at the inn, so drove back home to Bellevue NE instead
E) Took pictures of all the signs, but no pic showing me or GPS... and I couldn't find the answer to #2 anywhere

But still... it was a cool place and I will definitely return if/when I'm back in the area. Let's call this a CNC - could not complete!

“Go home! Go home! bye bye. “

The Muppet Movie

Well… we picked the wrong day for this. It was Game Day in Iowa City. Not sure which game, even, but motel prices were through the roof, assuming there were any rooms empty. Did not wish to pay more then twice what I expected, so we drove back home… 4 hours, spelling each other at the wheel - no, Sioncat did not drive. Arrived back at 11 PM, worn out.

This means, of course, I shall have to make a THIRD trip back to this area. I still want to tour those colonies, finish that earth cache, and Dad wants to make more then a quick drive by through Muscatine… but I’ll not inflict more on my readers. J

Until the next Chronicle… Cheers and Happy Caching!