Main Street

I've finally gotten around to doing a few of the local Wherigo caches, in part because many of them can be done from the air-conditioned comfort of the car until you get very close to the final cache. A couple of these highlighted some of the vintage neon signs that still survive along Mesa's Main Street.

At one time, four highways converged and traveled the length of Main Street.

Most of these businesses continue to operate although I wonder about the cash flow.

Buckhorn Baths is very well known. The original owners have passed away, and the property was recently purchased with the intent to restore and reopen the motor court.

I'm not sure how much more time this sign has. Bill Johnson's was a fixture when we moved to the valley nearly 30 years ago. This one (and perhaps all of the locations) is now closed and the property is for sale.

The highlight at the Kiva Lodge wasn't the neon as much as the "refrigerated" highlight. Air conditioning sells, especially this time of year!

I found this one hiding just off Main Street.

This one isn't neon, but it was memorable.

Now I know where old transmissions go to die. They make them into pizza!

Historic Florence

As usual, I was out of the house and on my way as the sun was developing its glow behind the Superstitions. I like it because it's cooler (that's a relative term!) and quieter that time of day.

One of the goals for the day was historic downtown Florence. Florence is one of the oldest non-native settlements in Arizona. Founded in 1866, it serves as the Pinal County seat.

The town has done a lot of work to beautify the downtown area. You can see the advantage of an early start. The sidewalks have been unrolled, but the majority of the townspeople are still on their first cup of coffee.

Among other things, I wanted to do a Wherigo cache that highlighted some of the historic buildings in Florence. According to Groundspeak, "Wherigo is a toolset for creating and playing GPS-enabled adventures in the real world. Use GPS technology to guide you to physical locations and interact with virtual objects and characters."

Along the way, I spotted a few memories in the window, but mine was a red International tractor.

Of course, I had to take note of a fine example of neon advertising along the way. I've not been there at night, but I suspect this sign still works.

The large buildings in town, including the Catholic church, are constructed of red clay brick. although some of the earlier buildings are adobe.

I'm enamored by the former courthouse. It's been restored, and the offices are now used by the county supervisors. The clocks on the bell tower never operated because they couldn't afford clockworks, so the hands are painted on, and are correct twice each day!

It was a nice, quiet tour of town and then I was on my way to goal #2 for the day which wasn't very interesting.

Checking Boxes in Utah

I love wandering the back roads of Utah in the early morning. Spotted lots of rabbits and four deer as I approached this abandoned house. It used to be home to the farmers who also took in boarders working some of the nearby mines.

The next series of caches were some that I've known about, but only recently met the requirements of the various challenges. The road was in great shape for much of the way, but did have some deep ruts in spots and was clearly a road to be avoided when wet. I'm glad I wasn't dragging the Scamp!

The caches themselves were very uninspiring. Typically pill bottles, but they represented culmination of geocaching milestones. Besides, who could resist caching on the outskirts of a town like New Harmony?

Along the way, I hit a personal milestone. I hadn't been paying any attention until I started planning this trip and realized the planets might come close to aligning. I signed the Four Kay challenge cache for my 4,000th find.

With the challenges out of the way, I started visiting the occasional historical marker virtual cache,

some creative traditional caches,

and some earth caches as I worked my way through several Utah counties.

Along the way, BJ and I tested the 'location sharing' functionality of Google Maps. The theory is that she can see on the map where I'm located. When I got home she asked if I'd bought gas at the same station we'd stopped at once before. I was a bit perplexed until I realized that we had in fact purchased gas at a unique station just across the road from where I stopped for a quick cache.

I loved the look and feel of the small towns I wandered through. In this town, a host for a cache I wanted to log was covered by a quilt which seemed a bit strange to me, but a muggle walking by took time to tell me all about their quilt celebration happening that weekend.

You can't go anywhere in southern Utah without passing by (or through) National Parks and red cliffs,

sometimes complete with VRBO cabins. (Just kidding...)

There was a brand new series of three letterbox caches that were supposed to be located on or near abandoned equipment. Unfortunately, in two cases, the 'abandoned' equipment drove away before the caches could be found! This one, on the other hand, isn't going anywhere easily.

By the time I approached Hite, I was ready for another stop. The viewpoint overlooking the upper end of Lake Powell was picturesque and confirmed that the lake is pretty nonexistent at this end. I did spot a couple rafts drifting down to the take-out after completing the multi-day trip through Cataract Canyon.

After crossing the Colorado River at Hite, I headed back up onto Cedar Mesa for once last cache.

My plan had been to boondock at the top of the Moki Dugway, but the bugs were active. Thinking I may settle for a motel room in Mexican Hat, I headed down the hill. Just as I reached the bottom, I found a bug free spot as the sun set that was a decent spot to spend the night.