A Geocaching Easter

We decided to spend Easter with Karen and boy, did we have a good-ole time!

As an Easter gift, we gave Karen a denim geocaching shirt with a Red-Riding-Hood logo embroidered on it. Her reaction when she saw it was priceless. We're so pleased that she liked our choice of design. (It coulda been, "Swing, & A Miss", if you know what I mean).

And here is her lucky shirt in action. The first cache we were looking for, she picked right up on it.

And she picked it up too. Ok, so it was pretty big and kind of obvious. Don't worry, many of the geocaches we go looking for won't be as easy as this one.

The funny thing is, Karen could have hopped in her canoe and paddled over to this cache from her back yard, it was so close to home. It's funny how you find out about your neighborhood while geocaching...

This cache was a multiple-step one that made us walk from one side of this nature park to the other side. The first part wasn't too bad of a walk, but the coordinates were a little strange. Karen spotted it about 20 feet from where our GPS units said it was. Next, was a long hike of 4/10ths of a mile through some soggy trails to get to the monster ammo box.

Along the way, nature put on quite a show. Quite a few docile bees were seen hanging around these thistle-like plants with huge purple flowers.

Ah, the goal is finally in sight! The description for this cache said that the container was so big that it could be spotted by satellites in outer space... If it wasn't camoflauged in the underbrush, that is...

I reached in and dragged out the box so we could check it out.

Looks like this cute rat bobble-toy is going home to live in Karen's geocaching collection basket. Now, what movie was this guy from???

After concealing the container, we headed back along the trails, using Luann's hickory walking stick to vault several small bodies of water to get across, then at one particularly deep and wide 'water hazard', we had to place some aluminum channels that we found next to the trail down so we could tiptoe across them without taking a mid-calf dip. Needless to say, we all ended up with damp, 'squishy' shoes when we stepped on the improvised bridge and it settled down into the water by a couple of inches below the water's surface (this was a problem for coming and going). On the way out, we came across this unusual frog. He jumped into the 'water hazard' as we came walking up. With that pointy snout, he looks more like a native of South America than Florida.

Continuing down the trail with our soggy shoes and wet pant legs. Even then, this was still a nice hike with everything there is to see in Nature.

Like this plant with yellow flowers. I don't know what kind of plant this is, but I don't have to know its name to appreciate it.

At this point, we were exiting the park and Karen picked up some trash on the way out of the park (it's what we call CITO. Cache In, Trash Out). When she tried to make it through the fence rails, her backpack got caught. Seems like it wanted want to stay behind or something. Too funny...

We headed for yet another cache and after some serious bushwhacking, Karen finally made the find. Here she is, signing the logbook of her prize.

Actually, this cache was located by this light pole at a beach-front park. This picture was when she was searching for it. The place was swarming with people, who were enjoying their Easter holiday by soaking up the sun, salt and sand. Before walking over to this spot, we stopped by a nearby eatery for some ice cream (Mmmmm, Ice Cream).

Here is what her prize looks like before it was opened and signed. Karen was determined to get this one before we left, so she was plunging her hand into the grasses and weeds, checking every little spot. Finally, she said; "I got it". Out it came, with grass strands and dirt everywhere. You can see by the look on her face, she was proud of this find. You go, girl!

Well, this was the last cache of the day, so we decided to head back to Karen's house to post our finds on the Geocaching.com website and decide what was next. What happened next, was a complete surprise. We were driving along, working our way out of the beach-front parking area and were coming up to an obviously drunk female pedestrian on the right-hand side. As she was about even with the front of our car, she attempted to adjust the canvas-like, tent-flap of a halter top she was wearing and pulled down on it. Well, this only succeeded in popping one of her 'puppies ' out of the 'kennel' and she was oblivious to her visual infraction. Not only that, she had on this pinkish-orange lipstick and her clothes were so tight that her 'muffin-top' hanging over her waistline was only superceded in size by her puppies, which were obviously losing the fight against gravity. We were laughing so hard as we passed her, that she swung around to look at us, and sure enough, I could see in the mirror that we hadn't imagined the breach in her 'kennel'... (how muuuch for that puppy in the window, Arf-Arf??)

When we got back to Karen's place, we decided to head over to the Brew Company in Ybor City for dinner, which was a nice, peaceful way to end our Easter holiday. The most exciting part of the visit to Ybor City was after dinner and we were strolling down the sidewalk on our way to the parking garage, when we came across a huge gay bar that was having a transvestite show. You could actually see the stage from the front walkway, so a little education for Katrina was in order. It was interesting to watch this big, over-endowed black woman strut around, doing a dance routine. When she finished up, she took a bow, then pulled her wig off to reveal a big, bald-headed black man was the driving force behind all of that energy, which was accentuated by a huge, effervescent smile. Now, that's entertainment!

Uhm... yeah...

Well, that's what we did for Easter Sunday, so how was your Easter?