Team No Dead Weight Rocks, Except....

Team No Dead Weight—Old Rodan (a.k.a. me), Old Bloody Rob (a.k.a. Rob), and Ms. Fishdownthestair (a.k.a. Natalie) ventured forth on the geocaching trail again today, this time around High Rock Lake and Salisbury, NC. Primary target: Eagle Point Preserve at High Rock Lake. We did grab a fair number on the way and then in Salisbury proper afterward. The trail at the preserve tried several times to reach up and drag us under prodigious amounts of water, but we persevered and conquered 25 caches before the end of the day.

Ms. Fish finds something fishy.

Victory didn't come easily at a few of the hides. The ones at which we figured we'd spend the least amount of time occasionally proved the toughest for us to find. That doesn't mean they were tough hides; only that we had a hard time finding them. One—a very obvious fake rock—eluded our gaze for lord knows how many passes up and down that particular embankment. Another, in downtown Salisbury, required a PAF (phone-a-friend) to help us find a very obvious real rock. Here we are, three experienced geocachers with nearly 18,000 cache finds between us, and we can't lay our hands without help on a container that screams its location to us. Mercy. At least we weren't alone in this. We received a call from a friend in Martinsville who couldn't find the cache even though he practically had his hands on it. On the other hand, on a few occasions, I spied something very subtle that led us where we needed to be, so at least part of the time, I felt like a real geocacher.

We did, at least, win at choosing a lunch destination. The Smoke Pit BBQ restaurant turned out to have some of the best beef brisket I've discovered since the late, lamented Blues BBQ Company in Roanoke, VA. Their fried okra is the best I've had since my mom's, as well. Highly recommended.

We found a few other cool things. An old church converted into a nice Italian restaurant. The only tree in North Carolina boasting vibrant fall foliage. A little park that provides spray paint cans so you can graffiti the place. After I got done with it, I think a new entry to the Black Lodge may have opened up. Fire walk with me, if you please.

And so, Team No Dead Weight has ridden again. We came, we saw, we rocked, except....

Possibly the only tree in North Carolina boasting brilliant fall foliage

Nice transformation—once an old church, now an Italian restaurant

House from Civil War days near downtown Salisbury

At times, Team No Dead Weight might as well have been hunting like so.