Geocaching - Back In The Swing Of Things

August 15th

Since Luann and I took the day off from work, we got a few things done, like taking Katrina to the dentist, titling and registering the van for Florida and going geocaching (of course).

Katrina's boyfriend Brad went geocaching with us.

We found these stickers in the first cache we located. I have never seen an angry Pooh-Bear before, so I call this picture, "Pissy-Pooh" & "Tigger-Tude".

Here we are, searching for a nano geocache somewhere on this fenceline. A nano geocache is about the size of a large medicine pill.

We came across an Anhinga drying his feathers after swimming and fishing in the lake. He's puffing his neck pouch out to let us know he thinks we're just a little too close while taking the picture.

This is one of the geocaches we found that had to be located, signed and re-hidden under the noses of some park visitors.

Here is one deeper in the woods. It's tied to a tree branch and covered with spanish moss.

We stumbled across a couple of mushrooms and we hadn't seen one like this black one before.

While we were looking for a big cache, Bradley mentioned that he saw a weird looking bug on a tree right in front of him, so I scurried over to get a picture of it.

And here is the picture of the strange bug, can you see it? Actually, it's facing head-down with a praying mantis shaped head (white eyes facing to the sides) and has a wide, flat thorax. What excellent camouflage (still checking to see what kind of bug this is). [EDIT: Turns out to be a Florida Bark Mantis, a close relative of the Praying Mantis.]

We even came across this cute little bunny. Unfortunately, we couldn't come up with the geocache that was supposed to be nearby.

We simply had to get a picture of this lizard sitting on a dried-out palmetto frond and watching us.

Ah, sorting through the container of yet another find...

I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille!

This is another fine example of why we like geocaching. We come across so much flora and fauna. Remember, you can click on the pictures to see a bigger version of it.

Another picture of one of my favorite photogenic flowers, the Black-Eyed Susan.

This little guy was trying to cross the street when we came up. He's another critter we need to identify.
[EDIT: It looks like he's a juvenile Southern Black Racer. It turns out the black racer looks like this when it is a newborn and in about 2-3 weeks, it starts getting darker until it is all black at about 2 months old.]

Last but not least is this Southeastern Lubber Grasshopper. As I got real close to him with the camera, he head-butted me, then leapt away.

August 14th, 2008

I took the day off in order to hang out with Katrina before she has to go back to school on Monday. She decided we should do what we do best, go geocaching!
We broke our personal record by finding 15 geocaches in one day.

Nature was out in full bloom, even though there were some serious rain storms all around us.

Can you see the cache container in this picture? Katrina was looking at me as if to say; "Of Course!"

Near where we found the last cache, we came across this empty backpack with all of these things thrown everywhere on the rocks. Hard to say what happened here...

As we were heading for a cache near the marina, the rain started to pour, so we beat-feet for this fishing catwalk underneath the bridge. It was coming down pretty hard, so the best we could do was wait it out.

At least I was able to get a neat picture of this pelican, standing in the rain.

After the rain quit, we picked up the cache at the marina and continued on for one at the beach. Love the pirate logo.

It was a bit windy at the beach, so the lifeguard put up a warning flag, which means: "Limited bathing. No rafts. Bathing beyond waist deep water may be allowed with swim fins. Boogie boards may be permitted with fins and a leash depending on conditions."

Be careful out there, folks.

It was fun taking pictures of the seagulls on this guardrail.

After a while, even they became tired of flying around in the strong wind.

Got another one coming in for a landing. Looks like the rest of the birds have been grounded.

And then suddenly, a kid shows up with pretzels and we have an Alfred Hitchcock moment...

I like how the one on the upper-left is looking at me while I was taking the picture.

This cache was simply mounted to a light pole in front of an eletrical repair facility. All you need is the combination to the padlock and...

...Voila! You gain access to an over-stuffed container. We dropped off a keychain fob that looks like the Owl from Winnie-the-Pooh (it's attached to the bright orange clip in the bag).

Katrina found this one while I was talking on the phone, helping out Luann with a sound-check. Taa-Daa!

So, she found another one. She's starting to look a little smug now.

Jackpot!

A mega-cache loaded full of goodies. We picked up a racing game and an Etch-A-Sketch pen, then left the fuzzy dice and Eyore, from Winnie-the-Pooh (seems to be a theme going on).