“Something is... different.”  
“Good or bad?”  
“Anything different is good.”

Groundhog Day  

The Sioncat isn't talking to me anymore. I left her behind by accident on the Thanksgiving trip down to Texas to visit my sister, brother-in-law, niece, and nephew. I tried to accidentally leave the geodad behind, too, but he clung to the seatbelt for dear life.  

But what a great Thanksgiving trip it was. It was as if the gods of geocaching and travel were smiling on me this time, after all the messes-up of the past few trips. Since our flight was at 6 a.m. Tuesday morning, we stayed at a motel 3 miles from the Kansas city airport over Monday night, and took the free shuttle to the airport. Saved on parking fees, and their continental breakfast included hot biscuits and real sausage gravy, along with eggs and make your own waffles! At 4 a.m.! 

No missed flights. No late flights. No holdups getting the rental car, a perfect day for driving from Waco to Killeen, TX (roughly an hour), and six hours to make the trip in, which gave us time for lunch – and of course, caching!  

“The turkey??” 
“The turkey is a truly noble bird. Native American, a source of sustenance to our original settlers, and an incredibly brave fellow who wouldn't flinch from attacking a whole regiment of Englishmen single-handedly! Therefore, the national bird of America is going to be...” 
“*The Eagle!*”

“The eagle.”

1776 

Wednesday, I went caching with the geodad, and my nephew, Nathan. We hit a nice hidden waterfall earthcache, several other hiking-type caches in the immediate area, and made a caching loop around a local park, snagging five more. I really enjoyed the hiking ones the best though – the area reminded me very much of the foothills around Las Vegas – complete with massive cacti. No rattlesnakes this time though! 

Thursday, I snuck out between cooking and eating, to find two more caches, with Nathan and his sister Nicole. I dropped off a “First Lady of Thanksgiving” TB. I felt accomplished. Then we went back to the house, and I gorged myself. TURKEY! 

Friday... I dragged along the whole crew! Nathan wanted to show my sister and Nicole the waterfall. But in the two day period, it had dried up – talk about seasonal!  

Here they all are, like something out of a “North Face” commercial... And there's me.  

And then there was the view, from another cache:  

Alas, Saturday came all too soon, and time to go back home again. The trip home was no problem at all. Up at 3:45 a.m.; one hour drive to Waco, along an interstate mercifully truck free; 30 minute flight to Dallas; Dunkin Donut raid; 90 minute flight to Kansas City; performance of the ritual of shuttle van summoning; retrieval of hondacar. 

So, what would you do, if you found yourself 2.5 hours southeast of home on a bright, warm, sunny, day, at 11:00 a.m.? 

Well.... the hondacar was restless, after sitting idle for five days. And I coincidentally had several earthcaches programmed into the GPS for Topeka, Kansas, 60 miles to the west... 

Oh, yes. I was very glad the Sioncat was not along! The geodad made a new friend near Lawrence, KS – see? 

“That belongs in a museum!” 
“So do you.”

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 

Then we were hot on the trail of some Roving Boulders. But before we got to THEM, the trail wound past a collection of old farm machinery. The geodad was in his element, explaining what each one was and how it had worked. He even posed for a few pictures – farmers and their toys! Apparently this is/was a rake... 

Back to the Roving Boulders rock group. These pink quartzite rocks evidently didn't like it in Minnesota and hopped the nearest passing glacier, about 780,000 years ago. I can't blame them... I mean, c'mon – MINNESOTA!? I guess their glacial tickets only took them as far south as Kansas before they ran out of frequent frigid miles. But there they were, all jamming together. Talk about rock concerts... 

They made good seats, though. And I forgot my hat in the car. 

Not too much to relate about the second earthcache – it was called Echo Cliff, but we didn't try to test it by yelling. From the logs, it's popular with rappellers – from the people hanging out in the park, hippies like it, too. We didn't stay too long, it was getting late, but we did get a few pictures. You could see the layers of rock in the cliff pretty clearly – that was pretty neat, I have to admit.  

“I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto.”

The Wizard of Oz 

All good things must come to an end, and after Echo Cliff, we turned the car around for home. Somewhere along the way, my body remembered it had been up since 4 a.m., aside from catnaps on the plane, and the eyelids started shutting down. We spelled each other at the wheel, the geodad taking it from Topeka to just before the Kansas-Nebraska border. I drove the rest of the way – it was a good thing I know 75N from Nebraska City to Bellevue, abut 30 miles, because I was really fighting to keep awake at that point! Made it home unscathed though.  

What a trip. Can I do it again? 

Stay tuned for the Christmas Chronicle... featuring Pennsylvania and points eastward! Until then, happy caching!