Moo Moo Land

I had to go to Danville this morning to handle some business, and once it was done, I figured I should go geocaching because there was a trio of new caches a few miles east of town along the Ringgold Rail Trail. Well over a decade ago, various geocachers had loaded the five-plus-mile trail with all manner of hides, and it was a frequent destination for me, but now, with so many cachers retired, passed on, or moved away, I haven't had the opportunity to get back to it for a long time. Happily, it was a beautiful day for a pleasant, fairly lengthy walk.

Sadly, the first cache I hunted turned out to be a bust. Based on certain information I came upon later, I strongly suspect it is missing. Ah, well. But as I was hunting, a handful of moo cows came wandering up and gathered around me. They were nice enough companions, but they kind of suck at geocaching.

Eventually, I decided to give up on that elusive first cache and move on toward the next. To my surprise, the cows decided to follow me for a fair distance, although they gave up shortly before I reached ground zero. I managed to find this cache easily, thus earning the dubious first-to-find honors (as I did on the next one as well).

Once back at the Rodan Mobile, I made my way to Tokyo Grill, which is my number one Danville go-to restaurant, and had a very good sushi lunch. Then, it was time to motor back home.

I reckon there's no reason to make a secret of it, so I'll mention that I was in Danville to close on a tract of land I have purchased across the street from our house. It's 1.25-acre wooded lot that's been part of a larger buffer between our road and another one that meanders up the ridge beyond. This woodland has been there all my life, but lately developers have been making overtures toward building in that area. Oh, no, no, no, you don't. That land is an extreme flood zone (in May 2018, it was completely underwater, which you can see in my video of the big flood here). You'd have to be a damned fool to build down there, but that is rarely a consideration where developers are concerned. So, after lengthy contemplation, I tore into some assets that I didn't really want to, but I absolutely cannot abide the idea of anyone destroying those woods, ruining the creek that threads through them, and putting a bunch of fucking shoe box houses on the land. I just hope the adjacent lots to the north remain untouched.

Anyway, there's no question that I'll put a geocache down there. And I've ordered some No Trespassing signs to post around the boundaries in case any developers get confused about who owns what (those signs will not apply to geocachers, of course). It's almost tempting to go down there and post "No Tressping!" signs, as someone did out in the country not too far from here; some folks in these parts might even find that easier to understand.

Moo Moo Land. Moo Moo Land. All bound for Moo Moo Land...

"I turn my back on you, geocaching hooman."

This means YOU, developer-types

From Mountaintop Experience to Locked Up

It was a tad chilly this weekend but otherwise perfect for geocaching. Friday, as is my custom, I spent a pleasant evening at the old homestead in Martinsville, where I had some Carolina Reaper wings from Coach's Neighborhood Grill, which were passable; not as hot as all that, but fairly tasty. I spent some time digging through the old vaults trying to find a copy of Japanese Giants #1, which took some work, but mission finally acomplished. Thus, for the evening's entertainment, I made popcorn and watched Destroy All Monsters, since it was the feature movie covered in that issue of JG.

Saturday morning, after some grocery shopping, I headed out on the back roads, bound for the northern reaches of Danville. There was a cache at the site of a music festival from a couple of months ago — “Mountaintop Experience” (GC9G0TX) — which took me through some of the most brilliant fall foliage I’ve seen this season. The cache itself proved fun enough (though it wasn’t really on a mountaintop), and I went after another one nearby in Danville proper, which put me close to Tokyo Grill. I always enjoy their sushi, and I hadn’t visited since before the beginning of the pandemic, so I stopped there for lunch. I was not at all disappointed.

Odd folk hanging out at the library
in Chapel Hill

Danville mission complete, I hit the highway, bound for home in Greensboro. After some compiling and editing for a new short fiction collection (details on this will eventually follow), Brugger and I headed over to Kernersville, to Casa di Nelson, where we dined and wined with friends Terry & Beth and Joe & Suzy. A lovely evening that ran quite late.

This morning — after a not very restful night, due to freaking old man physical issues — I joined forces with the No-Dead-Weight Irregulars (Rob and Scott) and hauled us over to Chapel Hill for Sunday geocaching. Our primary targets were a trio of Adventure Lab caches: “Explore More at Pritchard Park,” “Carolina Walking Tour,” and “Chapel Hill Art Walk”; the first took us around the nice nature trails at the library, while the latter two offered scenic tours of the UNC campus. Again, the fall colors here were pretty much at their peak, so it was really quite a lovely time of it. After the lab caches, we picked up a nice little hide called “Locked Up” (GC8G3G6) at the nearby arboretum.

We finished our caching day with a somewhat late lunch at Top of the Hill Restaurant & Brewery, which is something of an old Chapel Hill institution. It’s been ages since I’ve been there, mainly because the place is typically so crowded it’s the very devil to get inside. Today, though, the crowd wasn’t bad, and the wait wasn’t long. The food and brew hit the spot after four-plus miles of hoofing it today.

Back in Greensboro again, and tomorrow begins another standard work week. Thanksgiving is coming up, though, and I must say I’m looking forward to it.

Peace out.

Il Triello: Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo

Triceratops footprint in stone along the library's nature trail

Diefenbaker toots his own horn on the Chapel Hill art walk.