Virtually caching

I had plans to concentrate on some non-traditional geocaches during our travels this summer. With the travel plans on hold, I started looking for non-traditional caches closer to home. Tucson has a plethora so when time and weather aligned, I headed out on an overnight trip. I concentrated on multi-caches that highlighted classic lighted signs,

and virtual caches that highlighted various public art

of various sizes

and shapes, as well as

a world famous Spanish Mission with history that dated back to the early 1690's. The current church at San Xavier del Bac was built between 1783 and 1797. By the time I got here, sun was setting and I knew I was going to miss out on one of the other places I'd hoped to visit.

The church was closed by the time I got there which was too bad because as I recall, the inside is also pretty special.

Since the doors were closed, I noticed a detail I didn't recall from before. Not the most inviting door hardware!

The other one that I missed was at the Pima Air & Space Museum. I used to take my classes there, but haven't been there in nearly 25 years. With the gate closed, I couldn't get the info I needed for this virtual cache.

I finished up the day with a few more multi's that were conveniently located along a dirt road

that became my home for the night. I got my hotel parked just as the last light was disappearing in the west.

Home for the night was BJ's Subaru Outback. Just long enough for me to sleep stretched out.
Could have stayed at a hotel, but parking within 25 feet of the cache that I wanted to start with at 4:30 a.m. was much more logical.

All Hat, No Cattle

Sometimes I 'need' something that isn't so easily accessible, so I end up getting creative. I suppose I could have 'phoned a friend' but I decided to build my own. I started out with some small pieces of wood, wrapped in plastic and topped with some crude sheet steel butterflies.

In retrospect, I maybe should have used mortar instead of concrete. If there's a next time...

I didn't get quite the effect I was looking for, but I didn't have a cow or enough time to build them naturally.

Once the concrete set, the forms were pulled out, leaving space for a preform container.

Preforms are what one liter soda bottles look like before they're heated and blown into their final form. They make great containers for geocaching logs. In this case, I wanted to add a magnet to them to hold them in the homemade cow pies.

The E6000 glue works wonderfully, but sets just slow enough that the magnets wanted to slide off the tubes when they were on top. After about 10 minutes of babysitting and slowly turning the tubes to keep the magnet on top, I got smart. Since I was doing this on my steel table saw, it was MUCH easier to roll the tube over, putting the magnet on the bottom.

Three containers ready.

The container was intended to go into place with the magnet facing the top of the cavity, but the rare earth magnet is strong enough it can hold the container in place even when the magnet is 45 degrees to either side thanks to the wings of the 'butterfly.'

It won't fool a cowboy but it doesn't stick out from a distance. It might slow down a few city slickers while keeping the cache safe.

Of course, AFTER I made these and placed them, I found a organic source about 50 miles from home. I'm still trying to decide if I need to upgrade...

Where to Next?

Regular readers long ago figured out that the blog tends to trail real time by weeks. Sometimes, I'll have several already written & scheduled for future publication. Other times, it's just a title and some notes.

This one sat in the Blogger editor for weeks with the title and some cryptic notes, "Working our way north - jasper - Vancouver Island."

We had plans to depart May 15th, wander our way north, cross paths with our son & his family in Jasper for Memorial Day weekend, and then head for Vancouver Island for a few weeks. Key word is "had."

Instead, we're still at home, traveling twice a week to Physical Therapy appointments for BJ. Her back is slowly getting better, but we're not committing to thousands of miles of travel this summer.

I'm hoping that we'll get out together for some short trips later in the summer.

Meanwhile, we've invested in something that BJ's wanted for years.  We're both really impressed with how well this ILIFE V3s Robotic Vacuum does. I finally gave up trying to get a good picture of it in action and decided to use this fuzzy one instead.

Looks like I'll be spending some time creating more 'interesting' caches in the shop this summer.