Redlights' Reflections

TOOOOO LONG since I have posted!!

2011-02-06T12:57:00.000-08:00

Man has it been a very long time since I have posted anything here. I have decided that I am going to come back and try and do a better job. What has been happening since the last post? Well the school year is progressing. (Really can't say much more about it than that.) We aren't setting the world on fire with how fast we are moving through the curriculum but we will get to where we need to be when we need to be there.

Personally well things are going very well. The family is having lots of fun, even though we now have a middle schooler living in the house. We just got back from a great trip to the Great Wolf Lodge to celebrate our oldest son's birthday. Next week we are heading to New York City to celebrate our youngest son's birthday, since he was sick the original weekend we were supposed to go. I have been trying my hand at the "Project 365." It is a photo project where you take a photo each day. The thought is that at the end of the year you can look back and see what all you did, kind of like a photo diary. I haven't missed a day yet and I kind of like what I have done so far. If you are interested you can see the photos at Redlights's Project 365.

Now today is also kind of a special day. Maybe not to the rest of the world, but at least to me. Today, February 6th, in my 5th Anniversary of when I signed up for my account on geocaching.com. Five years and somewhere around 3,170 caches later I am still really enjoying it. Hopefully that will continue. I thought that I would take some time today and visit "THE" cache that started it all. Located at the Polling House in St. Leonard, MD, I went on back to that magnetic key holder under the sun dial, and took a look inside. My signature was long gone, since the log has been replaced several times, but I just wanted to see it again. I don't know - kind of reminiscing. The photo attached to this entry is off that cache. Who knows what will happen next?

T.W.I.C. (This Week In Chemistry) 9/27-10/08

2010-09-27T16:21:00.000-07:00

I thought I would let people know about the schedule for the next week and a little more. Here it is!!

T.W.I.C. (This Week In Chemistry) 9/7-9/10

2010-09-06T12:08:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone had a nice Labor Day weekend! I guess that kind of signals the true end of summer. The image below is for this week's schedule. You will also find a link to my "Class jump" page. There you will be able to find some of the handouts that we will use as well as copies of class lecture notes in case you missed something. See you tomorrow!!

Mr Redden's Class Jump site

New school year

2010-08-29T17:32:00.001-07:00

It's a new school year and I thought I would try this idea again. Check back here on Mondays, or the beginning of the week, to see what is happening in our class.

Winter is Here a little early!

2009-12-19T11:27:00.000-08:00

What more can I say? Isn't winter supposed to start on December 20th or 21st? I always getting some snow. But boy did we get hit for today. I'll have more photos later but I think that this one is my favorite so far. It is my oldest son just relaxing.

Highest Points Visited

2009-08-14T12:44:00.001-07:00

Here is a list of the Highest Points I have visited. It will be nice and easy to keep track of them here! I'll add a few pictures as well. Here they are in order by date:

04/09/2009 - Maryland - Hoyes Crest - 3,360 ft above sea level

07/22/2009 - North Carolina - Mount Mitchell (also the highest point east of the Mississippi River.) - 6,684 ft above sea level

08/13/2009 - District of Columbia - Point Reno - 409 ft above sea level.

12/05/2009 - Delaware - Ebright Azimuth - 448 ft above sea level

"HighPointing"

2009-07-26T18:34:00.000-07:00

Okay I think I have been officially been bitten by the "highpointers" bug. While geocaching back in early April of this year, my friends, Mrs SeeKPeeKRs, VinceHayter, and I got a chance to climb to the highest point in the state of Maryland - Hoye Crest - to find a cache. Since then I have been looking at the Highpointers website to find out where some of the other "highest" points in various states are located. Well with my trip to western North Carolina this past week I was able to check off another state. Not only that but Mount Mitchell is also the highest point east of the Mississippi River. We didn't have much of a view, due to clouds, but it was still a lot of fun. Where next?

July 5th - 12th (Across Pennsylvania)

2009-07-14T19:15:00.000-07:00

Now that I am pretty well rested from the week that was - let me tell some of you about it. My wife and I had decided that we were going to spend some time in Pennsylvania. One of my good friends from growing up lives in the Chambersburg area and one of my colleagues has property in north western PA in Clarion County. That coupled with the fact that my wife's cousin was getting married at the end of the week in the Poconos, in eastern PA, made this a great opportunity go out and have some fun. Sunday morning, July 5th, we loaded up the Highlander to the gills. Two kayaks, two bikes, sleeping bags , enough clothes for a week and other assorted stuff we couldn't have fit a flea in there if it wanted to stow away.

We decided this summer that we would try and have the family participate in "THE HUNT for Abraham Lincoln" put on by the M-NCPPC. I had visited one site the previous week with the boys and we knew that we would sort of "pass by" a couple of others along the way. We decided to stop in Antietam at the PRY HOUSE Field Hospital Museum. President Lincoln was said to stop there and visit with General George McClellan. My oldest son seemed a little more interested. So he and I paid the very modest admission fee to take the tour. The home had been used as a field hospital, as mentioned in the name, and several officers had been treated there. Over 500 enlisted men had been treated in the barn just outside. A humbling experience that I don't think that my son will fully grasp for a couple more years. From there we drove up to Gettysburg to visit the National Memorial Park and the location of the Gettysburg Address Memorial as well as the David Wills House, the site where President Lincoln stayed overnight the evening before his famous two-minute speech. After that we drove on to Chambersburg for a visit with my friend and his family. He and I even tried to take out one of the kayaks that evening with one of his four daughters but alas the river where we put in was way too shallow.

The next morning we drove to our friends in Clarion. They own quite a piece of property in the area and have set up their summer camp there. We stayed there three nights and enjoyed every minute of it. The weather never got above 78* and in the evenings we needed sweat shirts to stay warm even with a small campfire. Our kids played well together with lots of games of hide-n-seek, ladderball and just good clean running around and having a blast. One evening we drove into the town of Clarion itself for dinner and our boys remembered that they enjoyed the park just across the street from the restaurant. The kids loved yelling "FIRE" as they sat on the various old cannons there.

Having the kayaks with us we had to take them out for a little ride down the Clarion River itself. In years past we have canoed other parts of the river, and an image of one trip you can find in an earlier post from last year. But this time we had our own and wanted to try a different location. Well to say that the first trip was hard would be an understatement. My friend and I hadn't even put the kayaks on the ground before my oldest son says "Hey look a snake in the water." That set off my friend's children screaming. If people had gone by they would have thought that we were torturing the kids. We tried for a little after they settled down but it was no use. But the next day was 1000 times better. We put in at the Mill Creek boat launch with my wife and I in one kayak and my friend and his son in the other. My two sons wanted to be towed in inner tubes behind us. My friend's daughter ended up in the front of her father's kayak. And oh yeah - his wife was on shore waiting for us four miles down the river. She was our ride back to the car. It was fantastic! A bit on the long side for the kids, but I had a blast. We were on the water for two and a half hours and I enjoyed every bit. (Well towing the boys was hard at times - but it was worth it.) We even spotted a bald eagle, in flight, about 40 minutes before the end of our journey.

Now I would be remiss if I didn't mention that I had a couple of nice chances to go out and find some geocaches while in the area. I had learned from a friend earlier in the summer about the Allegheny GeoTrail. Similar in nature to other geocaching adventures, this program has geocachers finding caches within the various counties of Pennsylvania, particularly those along the Allegheny Mountains. Each county has a set number of geocaches within it and a finder must find only six within that county to earn a trackable geocoin.While in Clarion County, I was able to complete the necessary six caches, as well as a few more for extra measure, to earn my coin. The nice thing about the coin: the one for Clarion County has on its back a person in a canoe as well as a bald eagle. Could it get any better than that? The fire tower pictured here is located with in Cook Forest State Park and one of the caches in very close by.

Thursday morning we packed up and started our drive back across the state. But not before another stop at Beartown Rocks. We have visited the area before with the kids and always like to stop by and allow the kids to climb around. My oldest son loves climbing and I hope that he learns to be a little more cautious soon since he likes to jump from one to another. And I can't quite keep up as easily anymore. We even paused for a moment for a family portrait But please forgive me it was taken with just an iPhone with no zoom of course. After that it was lunch and heading on to Scranton. Our stop for a couple of nights before we hit the Poconos.
Now while in Scranton for a couple of days we wanted to use our time well so we thought that it would be neat to visit the Lackawanna Coal Mine. Once a working mine, it now serves as a tourist stop to learn about how the mines once worked and how the people of the area made their living. The mine tour took us down a shaft which, as we were told, was 520 ft below the surface. We got a chance to walk the shafts, see and feel how the ventilation worked and even at one point the lights were turned off so that we could see how dark it was. Amazing that the workers were able to get their jobs done and support a family if you ask me.

That afternoon we visited Nay Aug Park. What a neat place! There children's playgrounds, hiking and biking trails, two pools and a water park and a David Wenzel Treehouse. To see it built with in the trees and the trees coming through the roof was spectacular. An amazing feat of craftsmanship! Our family even took to one of the hiking trails for a little while so that we could see some of the waterfalls there. Maybe not exactly Niagara Falls but just as pretty within the wooded area.
Saturday morning we packed back up and headed the rest of the way across Pennsylvania to the Poconos. My wife was attending the wedding of her cousin and I got the chance to take the boys to our next night's stay. The boys, including this 40 year old boy, love staying at the Great Wolf Lodge. It is the kind of place that you can just relax and have a great time. While my wife was at the wedding my sons and I spent our time riding the water slides, especially the one that the boys thought that they were being "flushed" down the drain since you ended up going around a basin a couple of times. All totaled we spent probably 5 and 1/2 hours in the water park itself before calling it a night.
The next morning the family went down to the water park for a little more fun. Who am I kidding? A lot more fun before making the 5 hour trip back to southern Maryland. People, who care, have asked since I got back did we have a nice time last week. And my answer has been NO we had a GREAT time!!

June 29th My summer so far.

2009-06-29T10:33:00.000-07:00

Man has it been a very long time since I have posted here, considering that the last post involved a SNOW DAY. Well what has been happening you may ask? First the school year ended just fine. With the exception of one senior prank, nothing too exciting happened as the year came to an end. My sons participated in their school talent show and as a proud father I will say that they did quite well. Maybe I'll edit the video and load it up sometime for others to see.

Currently summer is in full swing and I am having a great time. The boys spent a week at "Summer Fun Camp" in Salisbury, MD. It is a Bible based rodeo camp put on by the Salisbury Baptist Temple. They enjoyed it a lot.

After that we spent a week with my family at the Corolla Light Resort in Corolla, NC. Private pool and hot tub, a chance to relax and go crabbing, kayaking and spend some time with family is always a GREAT time! While down on the Outer Banks I, in fact the entire family, tried our hands at hang gliding. Taking off from the top of the dunes at Jockey's Ridge, we flew about 100 ft or a little more. The boys loved it and would have done it all day but my wife and I got a little tried. We also spent some time on the beach itself, having driven onto the beach just north of Corolla at the beach access. There the boys loved playing in the ocean and watching an occasional horse, or horses, wander by.

But alas we are home, back in Maryland now. But when I think about it - the summer has just begun. Let's have some more fun!!

Geocaching Adventures Part 12

2009-03-03T13:46:00.000-08:00

March 2, 2009 - SNOW DAY!

First let me say that I didn't even know it was supposed to snow. My wife mentioned over the weekend that we might get a little rain, maybe even a little bit of freezing rain and a flurry or two. But by the time came around for the Sunday forecast, our area, here in southern Maryland, was expecting to get hammered! It has been quite some time since we have had even a couple of inches of snow but to get close to 8 or 9 inches was such a surprise! I spent the morning watching the snow still come down. And while checking the email I received notice that a new cache had been published about 14 miles from the house. Should I try it? Our road hadn't be plowed really so why chance it? I went outside with the family and enjoyed sledding and throwing snowballs. Then we headed in for lunch. While eating the snowplow went by. I could see the road surface... Was it time?

I called a good geo-friend and asked if she wanted to head south and try for the new cache. It always seems when I ask - she says "Yes" no matter the conditions. I picked her up and we made our way down to St. Mary's State Park. The area was gorgeous! The snow on the pine trees was sparkling like diamonds. We got out of the car a little discouraged since there was another car in the lot and many people had been here before us today. Had we missed the First To Find? The trail was magnificent even though we followed tracks for most of the two-tenths of a mile. But as the needle on the Magellan began to turn we saw NO tracks. We made our way to a likely hiding spot about 150 ft away and began scratching around. Again there was 9 inches of snow on the ground. But we finally came up with the cache. Upon opening it we found the log book and knew that we were indeed the FIRST TO FIND! We signed the log happily and rehid the container as best we could. We then walked around a little to try and cover our tracks and not give away the true location of the cache. And then we headed back to the car. After warming up a little we decided to hit one more cache that we hadn't done yet. That one entailed a quarter mile walk across a field and then into the woods again through thick snow. We found it and signed the log and headed back to the car, exhausted!!

To be completely honest about the day I don't think that my joy came from being the "First to Find" at the first cache of the day. But I think it came from being able to enjoy our world in a way that I don't get to very often. Yeah sometimes snow can be slippery and dangerous. But you have to admit that it can really make the world a beautiful place!

Geocaching Adventures Part 11

2009-01-25T16:33:00.000-08:00

For those who might not know what those four letters mean, well you probably didn't read the last post. But anyway - CITO stands for "Cache In Trash Out!" With the hobby of geocaching I get to enjoy the outdoors a lot more. But walking in a park and seeing bottles, cans and other trash on the ground bothers me. So as I mentioned in the previous post I have a renewed desire to pick up as much as I can each time that I am out. The first part of today's adventure was specifically designed to do that. Go out and pick up litter. The place I picked was one of my own cache sites. I could definitely tell from the area that people have used it as a dumping grounds and today I took part of it back. It is going to take another trip, too much for one load. But I can't say that I was alone. I had some great help today. A good geo-friend spent some time with me doing what I wanted in picking up the stuff. Thanks you very much to her. All totaled we picked up close to three recycling bins full of things today as well as other plastic bags and trash. As mentioned elsewhere - every little bit helps!

Geocaching Adventures Part 10

2009-01-15T15:49:00.000-08:00

I decided last evening that I was going to take the day off and get some rest for my ailing throat. It was kind of scratchy the day before and I thought that I could use the not having to talk. So I took the opportunity to go out and grab a few caches today. I, along with some friends and a whole lot of other cachers, have begun work on the Maryland Municipal League Geotrail. 11 districts across the state, try and find at least two caches in each district and use your passport to prove that you were there. If you are successful - you could be awarded with a geocoin. While I am interested in the geocoin, I have to say that it has been fun visiting the various locations around the state that I have visited so far. With having today off I decided to head back up to Prince George's County and grab the last two in that area. Neat locations, espeically the one at Bladensburg along the Anacostia River.

But with all of the being said - that isn't what has prompted me to write this evening. While out today visiting the various locations I picked up a couple of recyclables, bottles, cans etc. And while I visited other caches as well I noticed several other things that I could pick up. In fact while walking back to the car from one cache I spotted a hallow in a tree when contained quite a bit of trash. Thankfully I was only about one hundred yards from the car and I could run back to it and grab a bin for all that I pulled out of it. All totaled today I filled three-quarters of a recycling bin with things that people had thrown out. So now I have decided on my New Year's resolution for geocaching - a renewed effort towards CITO - Cache In Trash Out! I want to make sure that I pick up as much stuff while out this year each time I am out just to clean up the playing field. Anyone want to come along??

Just a thought...

2008-12-13T12:19:00.000-08:00

Just found out last evening when my wife got home from school that our school system, Calvert County Public Schools, has decided to give the students off on January 20, 2009. Since we are only about 40 miles from the very heart of Washington, D.C. I know that the thought is that many people will use the time to head in for the Presidential Inauguration. Maybe they are even thinking that students will stay home and watch the inauguration on TV. If they wanted to have students watch it, they, the school system, should have kept them, the students, in school that day and had teachers tune in. Personally I think that the students will use the time for other things. I think that they, the school system again, missed a big opportunity to possible show the students something bigger than themselves. But that is my humble opinion, I am just a lowly science teacher. Just a thought...

Coming up in Chemistry Class (Dec 1st - Dec 12th)

2008-11-30T14:50:00.000-08:00

Well it has been quite a while since I have decided to use this blog as a way to communicate with students and parents. But I think the time is NOW. With the current performances of some of my students I think they need a reminder that they can access at any time as to what is coming up and what is due when. So here you go. CLICK the image below to enlarge if you like.

Geocaching Adventures Part 9

2008-11-25T15:08:00.000-08:00

Man what a fantastic day!!

A group of friends and I spent this past Saturday, Nov 22nd, on the trails of the Caledon Natural Area. And boy was it time well spent. We met up around 8:30 or so and just went from trail to trail seeking the various geocaches within the park. This was my second trip to Caledon. A friend and I had come a little while back and found the then three caches there. Now a very gracious Virginia cacher had placed 12 more that we could spend the morning finding. After about 5 hours or so, we were headed to the last cache in the park. Poplar Hollow ended up being our 12th in the park and my and one friend's 15th of the day. IT also ended up being my #1,600! And what a way to celebrate a "milestone" - in a great park, on a fantastic day with good friends.

But if that wasn't enough - after leaving the park my good geo-friend Mrs SeeKPeeKRs and I headed a little further west to find a few more. And boy did we? We ended up picking up 33 caches on the day with NOT a SINGLE DNF. In fact we even clear up a previous DNF in the earlier evening. Fun times, Fun times. What is next??

Geocaching and How I get there?

2008-11-14T15:17:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week I was listening to the Geocaching Podcast and the topic was "Geo-vehicles" and started me thinking about the various ways I have gotten to geocaches. Personally my favorite way is a nice walk/hike in a secluded area, or maybe around a town I want to get to know better. But I have used several other means of "transportation" to get from one cache to another. Below are a few pictures as well as a list of ways I have gotten to caches.

First and foremost there is my car, a 2000 Durango. Nothing to special about that one because most people use their cars to get from one cache to another. I have also used my wife's car, a 1997 two-door RAV4, my parents' car (a Mercury I believe) as well as a friend's mini-van while I was caching in Georgia on vacation. I have ridden in several other people's cars as well, each of them having their own flavor if you get my meaning.

Second - BICYCLE - a couple of friends and I took some time about two months ago and did a cache called "Circle BWI." It was a puzzle cache along the walking/bicycling trail that goes around the airport. About a week later I got the chance to do the second cache in the series called "Circle BWI Again." Biking to a cache was a lot of fun. It also was a good exercise that I haven't had for quite a while.

Third - KAYAK - my wife and I purchased a couple of Malibu Two ocean kayaks for paddling around on the bay. As soon as I got them I was looking forward to going after a cache not to far from home called Spice Creek small boat. That cache took a friend and I along a tributary of the Patuxent River to a wonderful spot to see lots of water fowl. I even took the opportunity to hide a cache using my kayak which was a lot of fun as well. This photo was from a webcam cache located just off shore of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD.

Fourth - MOTOR SCOOTER - while I have only done one cache using the scooter, it was a lot of fun on a fantastic fall day riding down to Solomons Island, MD to pick a new cache that had been placed in the county.

I have used a a skateboard to retrieve information for a cache before. A part of "Psycho Urban Cache #7 - A Good Day to Die" must be gotten while inside of a very narrow drain tube. The easiest way to retrieve it is to use a skateboard and roll your way to the cache location. While this photo is not of me, it is a friend, it is my son's skateboard and my rope that are being used. (I guess the others in the group that day didn't trust me when I read the coordinates to them.)

I have even used my sons' Razor Scooter for a set of caches in Virginia Beach one evening. That evening was a BLAST! I started at our hotel and made my way around Virginia Beach, kicking with one leg. If I remember correctly I found 6 different caches that evening and about 6 more the next evening. All totaled I think I covered about 6 miles or so. Man did I sleep well both nights.

While this video is not of me, I did the cache previous to filming it. AND yes that is a paddle boat you need to get to the cache.

But my favorite is of course WALKING! I remember one day last December when a good geo-friend and I headed up to the nation's capital for a virtual tour. We used the Metro to get into Washington, DC but after getting off we spent about 8 hours walking around The National Mall as well as other areas gathering information for each of the cache. All totaled that day I believe we covered 12.5 miles BY FOOT. I hit a milestone that day. But best of all I got out to have some fun exploring. Again like in a previous post to this site - GET OUT THERE! You never know what is around the corner and no matter how you get there you will enjoy it!!

Geocaching Adventures Part 8

2008-11-10T16:03:00.000-08:00

November 8, 2008

About two weeks ago, some good geo-friends hosted a geocaching event called the "A Spooktacular Event." Unfortunately I was unable to attend it that day. Partially due the weather, not the best day to be outside, but mostly due to the fact that my sons and wife were attending a small festival at their elementary school. Either way I was NOT there that day. Today I got the chance to go and find the new caches placed in the park and it really made me wish I could have been there that day. I understand that the series was laid out so that people who attended the event could "race around" finding the caches and that a winner was declared. I think that would have been a really fun thing to try. But alas I could not make it.

The caches placed for the event were in a Halloween theme, of course. With titles such as "The Cemetery" and "Bats, Rats and Snakes" and "hiders" such as Mortica and Gomez" it was a great series. The small "props" that a couple of the hiders used made it very entertaining to see what was around the next bend in the trail. Here is a couple of examples of what I mean:

In my honest opinion, this is one of the best series of caches out there in our area AND more caches and more people should treat caching this way.

Geocaching Adventures Part 7

2008-10-25T18:51:00.000-07:00

October 12, 2008 - International Earthcache Day!

International Earthcache Day is held at the beginning of Earth Sciences' Week, sponsored by the Geological Society of America. They encourage people, not just geocachers, to get out and learn about the earth. In 2007, a couple of friends and I spent "Earthcache Day" together. We headed to Virginia to specifically visit GC105P8 "Wetlands: A Natural Treasure. That day we wandered around Huntley Meadows Park gathering the information. We then spent another great couple of hours in another portion of the park finding the other traditional caches there. This year we wanted to go bigger and better. So we ventured off to Great Falls National Park. Located on each side of the falls are two earthcaches. We visited an old gold mine, for the "Gold in Maryland" earthcache.. The hike to that one was fantastic. We then headed over to the Virginia side of the falls to visit the GCZDA0 Great Falls Earthcache. For this one we had to visited various lookouts along the river for some amazing scenery. We then had another terrific hike out to GCZP3V Mather Gorge. This one took us from the top of the falls down about 9/10 of a mile down to a terrific spot to look back up the gorge itself. After making our way back to the car we realized that we had missed one of the earthcaches on the Maryland side, since it looked like on the map and GPSr that it was in Virginia. But it could only be accessed from the Maryland side. Once back we visited GCZCGF Great Falls Olmstead Island along with about 200 of our closest muggle friends. But they were more concerned with looking at the falls and the kayakers enjoying them.

The entire day was a blast! Great hikes, with terrific scenery accompanied by good friends. Can't wait to see where we go next year!

I realize that this may not be the best or most descriptive posting of a such a great day. But sometimes words escape me. If you are interested in seeing a few pictures of the day check out the "other pics" link on the right side. Then look at the "12 of Twelve for October." More geocaching news later...

10/20/08 Life in general

2008-10-20T18:06:00.000-07:00

Man it has been a very, very , very long time since I have posted here! Over a month since I decided to let people know how things are going.

First let me say that life is very good right now. (Hope I don't jinx it there.) I am getting home nice and early after school because I finally got out of coaching volleyball. I have to say that I am much happier now knowing that I don't have to think about the sport that I once loved every waking moment for 3 months. Now I get home and have a chance to see my sons - it couldn't get much better than that.

School is going well. My classes are made up of some really nice students. Most are hard-working while others could show a little more effort but they do have great personalities. The first quarter is quickly coming to an end and some will be very surprised by their grades, especially since 70% of that grade comes from performance on quizzes and tests. It will be a rude awakening for many. But I have tried to keep them abreast of the situation.

My wife and I have bought a small 49.5 cc engine scooter. Most days we do carpool, since Valerie's schedule has changed and we can go in and leave at the same time. But I wanted to do what I could to use a smaller amount of gasoline. I have to say that I love riding it, even if it is cold in the morning. I was really stoked for about two weeks, until I rode by a couple of mile markers and realized that the odometer measures in kilometers rather than miles. But 87 mpg is far better than my Durango which gets 15 mpg on a really good day.

As for the geocaching front - I have to say that it has only gotten better. I have tried to get back to caching the way I really liked when I first started. Getting out in the woods and taking a really nice walk or hike. But more about that later. I have hidden one new cache, just last week. Calvert History 101 is another cache that I hope people will enjoy because it takes them to various locations around the southern part. Many will drive all around to gather the information but others will click the one button on the page that will help. Each of the historical markers is a "waymark" and the information can be read from each of their listings. I hope that people enjoy it!

Honest to goodness - no sooner do I write that everything is going well I develop a pretty bad pain in the neck, literally. More later.

Snakes is St Leonard

2008-09-13T17:44:00.000-07:00

Man what is going on in our own neighborhood?

New video

2008-08-13T16:20:00.000-07:00

It's been a little while since my last post so I thought I would show everyone my latest creation. Monday of this week, I went for a little kayak tour of Fishing Creek in Chesapeake Beach, MD. I say little well three hours later I was back at my car. My desire that day was to head about an hour up the creek and find a spot to place a new cache. I ended up knee deep in the muck, and lost my sandals but I was able to find a spot. While on my way to and from, I was able to spot all kind of wildlife. Eagles, ospreys, herons (both green and blue), I even got to see a muskrat swim across the creek. I took lots of pictures that day and thought that I might share them with you. So here goes:

This past weekend

2008-08-04T19:08:00.000-07:00

Man what a great weekend! Unfortunate our camera is still "on the fritz."

We spent the weekend camping with good friends just outside of Clarion, PA. They own quite a piece of property and have a couple of small trailers up there so we didn't even have to sleep on the ground. Our weekend started early on Friday when we arrived and we decided to take a nice hike in Cook Forest State Park. We went down to the area known as the "Forest Cathedral." We had visited the area the previous year but it was just a pretty as we remembered. We climbed down about 20 steps to find a small natural pool where the kids could wade in and try to cross the small stream that was meandering past. (Boy was the water cold?) After that we headed up one of the trails and found "The Swing Bridge" a suspension bridge about 60 ft in length and about 20 ft above the stream itself. There are some photos of it on googleearth image of the area, if you want to see it. Later that afternoon we took another hike, about 1.5 miles one way this time to an old "Fire Lookout Tower" within the park. The tower itself was able to be climbed, at least to the platform just below the observation deck. WHAT A VIEW! Both my sons, wife and my friends and their children loved climbing up it. It has been a dream of mine for a very long time to climb one as well. And I finally got to do it! After that we went to dinner at a place in Clarion itself. On the way home, my friend and his son and my youngest son stopped at the Helen Furnace. It is an old iron furnace that is being restored. If you check out the link provided the photos still show a ramp that no longer is present. What a great piece of history!

Saturday we spent most of our time on the Clarion River. We decided that we would take a canoe trip down the river. We drove to the Pale Whale where we picked up our paddles, an inner tube for the kids. Then we boarded one of their trucks to be driven to our starting point. From there it was a very leisurely paddle down river, allowing the river to do most of the work. We had packed a picnic lunch and since it was near lunchtime when we started we decided to break early for it. This is a googleearth image of our trip down the river. Then returned back to the property for a nice meal of hotdogs, corn on the cob and baked beans. (Terrific camping food.) But we weren't done there... That evening we pulled out my friend's telescope and did our best to watch Jupiter cross the sky. The kids loved looking into the telescope as did I. We were even able to view Jupiter's four moons and strangely enough they were all in a line that evening. Probably something that I will never see again.

Like I said - WHAT A GREAT WEEKEND!

July 30th Day 3:

2008-07-30T17:03:00.000-07:00

Day 3 was a whole lot easier. No new caches published by the local reviewer, or at least in a close enough radius for me to know. Swim lessons for the boys, a little work in the yard before lunch kept me busy. I did get on the geocaching site once this evening. BUT to explain that was only because a friend was doing some walking in Rhode Island and wanted to know if there were any caches nearby. So I looked for him. Maybe I am tooting my own horn but I am feeling a sort of accomplishment saying that I can do it. I'll just have to see how it continues...

July 29th: Day 2

2008-07-29T19:21:00.000-07:00

Okay day 2 of my self imposed moratorium of geocaching was a much easier than the first. I still can't believe that the day I decided to take a break from caching a new hide comes out less than 5 miles from my house. I actually found out from a friend that it was also considered to be a "terrain 5." Once I heard that I really wanted to head over there. But if I want to give it a rest I need to do it "cold-turkey." I can't say that I was busy all day today and it kept my mind off of it. I am not really sure why? Of course the fact that no new caches were published within a reachable area helped. Day 3 is tomorrow. My wife goes back to work, and I have the boys pretty much to myself for most of the day. I'll just have to let you know how things go...

Geo-Break Day 1:

2008-07-28T05:22:00.000-07:00

TEMPTATION!

Here it is less than 10 hours after sending out the email to my good geo-friends about taking a break from geocaching AND a new cache gets published less than 5 miles from my house! AAAAHHHHH! Can I do it?