Yeah, this past week was my birthday, and this coming week is Ms. Kimberly's birthday. I just had my previous birthday a few days before, so I really can't figure what's up with that. But since these things somehow keep coming around again, we figured we'd make the best of them and do a bunch of celebratory stuff. Most of my birthday festivities went on last weekend, but on Friday night, I got a little bonus celebration going caching around Greensboro with my old friend Beth "Bogturtle" Walton and Debbie "Cupdaisy" Shoffner. It had been at least two or three years since I'd seen Beth, who lives in Florida these days, so it was great catching up, signing logs, and making a stop at one of our local cache bars afterward.
Yesterday, Ms. B. and I headed to Chapel Hill to hit a few of our preferred destinations for shopping and entertainment (and for me to find a few geocaches). We took the scenic route through Hillsborough to have lunch at
Hillsborough BBQ Company (in my experience, their beef brisket is second only to
Blues BBQ Company's in Roanoke); then, after going walkies around Chapel Hill and grabbing a handful of caches, we each suffered through a glass of delicious wine at the Weathervane bar at
A Southern Season; we checked out
West End Wine Bar in downtown Chapel Hill, of which we both approved mightily; and finally, we had dinner at
Thai Palace, where the fare has been consistently excellent for us. Once back at Ms. B.'s, we watched
Cold Mountain, which I had never seen, and, in general, I quite liked it. A bit overlong, but for the most part engaging.
After gorging myself on way too much, way-too-delicious food yesterday, I ended up not eating much of anything today — go figure — and getting in enough exercise to burn off at least the cole slaw from Hillsborough and all but wipe me out for the evening. I spent the better part of the day on the trails at Bryan Park North, hiding a new series of
caches inspired by
The Walking Dead, and things couldn't have worked out much better. I discovered a few prime locations in the woods, put in several miles of strenuous hiking (plus a bit of running when it looked like rain was going to set in), and undertook a physically taxing and moderately perilous tree climb. There are four caches in the series, which I call "Terminus," after the storyline in TV series, and I think I'm pleased with the results. Those who hunt and find the hides will be the final arbiter of their quality. They should publish in the next day or two.
And for this coming week, it's back to the salt mines.
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| Searched long and hard and couldn't find that cache. |
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| Enjoyed running into a few local young geocachers in Chapel Hill |
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| One of the intriguing fixtures I discovered in the woods while setting up "Terminus." |
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| Near the final location of "Terminus." A scary cache! |
