Miscreants in Midland

Monday, July 22, 2024
Yes, we're off to Midland, MI, again. Ms. B.'s folks are aging and need some extra help these days, so Kimberly goes up every couple of months. I accompany her from time to time and do what I can to help keep them living in their home of many years.

To get reasonably affordable flights, we have to pick those that go at the least convenient times, almost always before the ass-crack of dawn. We packed our bags yesterday, rose this morning at 3:30 a.m., and set out on the road, bound for Greensboro's Piedmont Triad International. We had a little bonus time this morning because our flight left at 6:30 a.m., rather than the customary 6:00 a.m. We connected at Chicago O'Hare, with less than an hour between our arrival and subsequent departure.

Both flights went off without a hitch, for which we were very grateful. After the big Windows crash this past weekend, there was still evidence of glitches in the airline systems; most all the info screens were still blank, and lots of bedraggled folks huddled and/or slept in various corners all over O'Hare, where we made our connection. There but for the grace of Yog...

Anyway, Del & Fern met us at Saginaw International, and we headed to the homestead. A quick lunch of sandwiches for us, and then I took a lengthy walk around the neighborhood. For the rest of the afternoon, we hung out with the folks, and then Ms. B. and I headed out for a relatively early dinner. We'd set our sights on Molasses, our favorite local BBQ destination, but they were closed for some remodeling. Hang it all! So we moseyed over to nearby Whichcraft, known for their plentiful stock of local brews and spirits. I tried their BBQ sandwich, which wasn't bad, but hardly of Molasses caliber. Their chipotle vodka Bloody Mary was also just so-so; thus, I can only give them a 3.5 out of 5 this time around. Last time we were there, my choices were apparently superior. Afterward, I found a cache.

The rest of the evening was our typical hangout at the homestead: watching television with the folks — mostly game shows tonight — and enjoying a spot of good wine. Since it had been quite a long day since 3:30 a.m., I retired early.

Tuesday, July 23, 2024

Old man and cache find #15,000

Up early for me, not so much for Ms. B. I made a nice breakfast of bacon, egg, and toast, with a bucket of coffee, and then headed out for some geocaching. I needed five to reach my 15,000-find milestone, so I set my sights on the Pine Haven Recreation Area, an extensive trail system out toward Sanford. I snagged a handful of caches along the trail, culminating with my 15,000th, which turned out to be a clever, well-constructed cache, worthy of a milestone find. I also discovered one of the world's biggest caches of mosquitoes, for the woods were full of them, and they came at me with far more vehemence than we typically encounter down south — and ours are not slouches in the vehemence department. And I had gone out without bug spray. Oy!

From there, I trucked over to the nearby Père Marquette Rail Trail, which runs thirty miles between Midland and Clare, with a geocache placed every tenth of a mile along most of it. I've cached several sections, but there are still many miles left for me to hunt. Along the trail, the summer growth was so thick and high that, in some places, getting to the caches was worse than problematic, so I only claimed five on today's outing. Again, the mosquito assault on my person was a thing out of some dark legend. Next time out, there will be bug spray. Lots of it.

These days, Del & Fern prefer to have their biggest meal of the day in the afternoon, so back at Casa di Brugger, I prepared a grand dinner of Chicken Piccata, which they've enjoyed in the past. It turned out quite good, so perhaps they'll continue to claim me as their son-in-law for a while longer.

Later in the afternoon, Ms. B. and I drove up to Calvary Cemetery, a few miles north of Midland, so I could snag a few more caches and she could wander among the graves. I found several, and she found a very friendly groundhog, which seemed quite happy to frolick around with her. Plus she found some cool old graves.

Shortly after our return home, Kim's aunt Cheryl and cousin Beverly came over for a visit, and there were stories. Many, many stories. If I ever need to write blackmail stories about certain folks of my acquaintance, I may have some ammunition.

This evening, the rain came down, but we hauled ourselves out for a couple of drinks at Three Bridges Distillery and Grape Beginnings, another couple of our regular local favorite hangouts. In the commons are outside these establishments, there is a Cornhole game setup. So we played Cornhole. Oh, yes we did! And then... the old homestead TV lounge.

Heading out on the trail at Pine Haven Recreational Area

Damned Rodan's Chicken Piccata over angel hair

Ms. B's new groundhog friend

Some of the many ghost pipes Ms. B. photographed

Wednesday, July 24, 2024
Having snagged geocache #15,000, my next goal is claiming 500 caches in Michigan for a challenge cache in Greensboro that requires you to have found at least 1,000 caches in one state and at least 500 caches in two others. Well, I have in excess of 11,000 in North Carolina and over 1,600 in Virginia; Michigan is next in line, since I've worked my way up to almost 500 finds over many trips here. As of first thing this morning, I needed 12 more to reach 500. So, bright and early, I headed out to the rural back roads of northern Midland County where tons of park & grab caches offer opportunities to increase one's cache find count with relative ease. Complicating matters, however, are that they are spread out over many miles and most of them are quite old, so lots of them have gone missing over the years without being replaced.

My first target was a newly published cache that one other local hunter had sought, but he'd logged a DNF (Did Not Find). He is a highly experienced geocacher, so I figured if he couldn't find it, the cache is not there. Regardless, I decided to give it a try. It was a loverly little neighborhood in the middle of nowhere, and I enjoyed visiting the place. However, as I fully expected, I found nothing — well, other than a couple of neighbors who came out of their house and gave me some looks for which "unwelcoming" is far too kind. I think it's safe to say they had no idea there was supposedly a cache hidden there. So, I retreated without a find. However, at the end of the run, I came home with a ten finds, which left me with only two to qualify for the second state with 500 finds.

For our midday dinner, Kimberly made shrimp tacos. Her Aunt Jeannie (sister of Aunt Cheryl, who visited yesterday) joined us. A pleasant visit.

After lunch, Kimberly and I went out to Midland City Forest, which has many hiking trails and several caches I haven't yet claimed. We put in about three miles of hiking, the lady seeking interesting fungi to photograph, the old dude seeking caches. As it turned out, it was Ms. B. who found two of the most difficult caches on our route. A couple of more disappointing DNFs, but I claimed my two to complete the challenge — plus one.

We decided to stay home with the folks this evening. Tomorrow, Ms. B.'s dad has an early-morning medical appointment in Ann Arbor, a couple of hours south of here, so she'll be heading out with Del & Fern before sunup.

Me, I'll be doing laundry tomorrow. One can go through some clothes on these hot summer days on the geocaching trail.

On the trail in Midland City Forest

Anyone lose a brain?

Thursday, July 25, 2024
The folks headed out for Ann Arbor at some ungodly hour this morning, so once I was up, about, and sufficiently caffeinated, I set out on foot after a Wherigo cache, which looked interesting because, to find the hidden container, you regularly query the program about its distance from your present position, essentially playing hot & cold. The icon on the map lay near downtown, a couple of miles away, so I figured I should start walking that direction. Off I went, and my queries gradually led me closer until I was less than half a mile away, at which time it became clear I needed to start moving westward.

Fortunately, I've become quite familiar with Midland's roads over the years, so I hardly spent any time moving back and forth to reduce the distance to my target; only when I was within a hundred yards did I need to go in several directions to determine the proper course. But soon I saw what appeared to be the perfect host for a geocache hide, and — yep! — there it was. What a fun journey and a cool cache.

Once back at Casa di Brugger, my health app showed I'd walked almost exactly six miles — hardly more than I put in on my regular daily walks back home. The walking has definitely been good for me, as I've lost fifteen pounds in the past year, and at my most recent physical checkup, back in May, my blood work results were the best I've had in decades. Also, I'm getting into a ton of audiobooks to keep me company while I'm out and about. I've been binging on F. Paul Wilson's Adversary Cycle and Repairman Jack novels, which I've found more engrossing than any series I've gotten into since Roger Zelazny's Amber novels. I'm almost finished with them, but I've got a virtual stack of various audiobooks loaded on my phone to keep me going.

We spent the afternoon taking care of assorted tasks around the house and hanging with the folks. An online friend had recommended an amateur production of H.P. Lovecraft's The Whisperer in Darkness, so I watched it on YouTube. It proved a mixed bag; very faithful to the source material, with effective atmosphere, excellent cinematography, and remarkably cool imagery. It also drew out way too many scenes to ridiculous lengths, to generate suspense, I suppose, but all it did was increase the running time to the point of tedium. Some of the film's shortcomings were so severe I found myself hard-pressed to finish it. But finish it I did, and in the end, I'll admit that I'm glad. The climax was excellent. Where the movie worked, I give it an A+++. Where it didn't, I give it a D–. The good outweighed the bad, but only just.

For dinner, Ms. B. and I went to Fuji Sushi, which is a regular Midland dining destination. A delicious sushi/sashimi combo for me, vegetable yakisoba for Ms. B. Afterward, I set my sights on another nearby Wherigo cache that required navigating by way of hot & cold clues. Since we completed the macro distances in the car, we managed to home in on the cache à pied in relatively short order. Once again, a super fun Wherigo.

For the rest of the evening, it was the usual gathering with folks in the TV lounge. As days go, this one proved far, far better than being slapped in the belly with a wet trout.

A couple of youngsters en route to "Midland Is Wherigo"

Friday, July 26, 2024

A beautiful morning at Hiwassee Lake

Today, I am slow-cooking a big ol' pork roast to make BBQ for Del & Fern, so as soon as I poured my first cup of coffee, I set about prepping the pig. It'll be cooking in the crock pot for most of the day, and there should be plenty of it left for them to freeze for later.

Over many trips here, I've claimed almost all the geocaches within walking or biking distance of Casa di Brugger, but I did see a puzzle cache on the map not too far away with a high difficulty rating. Once I gave it a good look, I realized I could almost certainly solve it, so I gave it a shot. The puzzle involves a geocode system called What3words, which identifies any location on the surface of the earth using three unique words. Then the puzzle requires projecting a set of coordinates based on those words. The projection I came up with looked promising, so I set out on Del's bike and rode the couple of miles down to Stratford Woods, where the cache is located. Much to my satisfaction, the coordinates turned out to be perfect, and I found the cache immediately. Woohoo!

But blimey, so few left to go after anywhere nearby. I has a sad.

During the afternoon, I drove down to nearby Freeland to grab a handful of caches for my last full day on this Midland trip. Once back, I put the finishing touches on Del & Fern's pork BBQ, which I hope they'll enjoy. Then Ms. B. and I got together with her friend Kim — yes, another one! — and hied ourselves down to Whichcraft for a couple of drinks (for me, dirty martinis made with local gin that I give very high marks). Then... at last!... to Molasses, where I ate what has got to be the best BBQ sandwich I've ever tasted: the Three Amigos sandwich, with chopped brisket, chopped pork, and crispy bacon, accompanied by a variety of sauces. Aggh! Incredible! Who'da thunk that as a BBQ aficionado I'd find such superlative dead critter in Midland, MI?! But truly. Yes. This. Is. It.

From there, we moseyed across the road to Grape Beginnings, where we met Ms. B.'s long-time friend, Darren, and closed the place down. And that was pretty much our finale for this trip. Tomorrow, it's back home — and, fortunately, we don't have to leave at the ass-crack of dawn.

Assuming nothing dire happens to any of us during the next few months, we'll plan to return at some point near year's end. Until then, Midland!

The Three Amigos BBQ sandwich at Molasses, with cole slaw and potato salad with fresh dill. Superb!

Pre-Dawn Muggle Madness and More

Since Ms. B.'s folks have reached that age where they need a bit more help from time to time, she heads to Michigan regularly to visit them. Sometimes I go along too, but this week, she made it a solo trip. Her flight out from Greensboro was at 6:00 a.m. yesterday morning, so we had to get ourselves up at 3:30 a.m. to hit the road by 4:00 a.m. We made it to the airport just before 5:00 a.m., and rather than turn right around and drive home, I decided to head eastward from Greensboro and snag a handful of geocaches.

My first stop was Burlington, a few miles east of Greensboro, where there is a newish Wherigo cache, courtesy of friend Ranger Fox. Despite the 25º-degree temp, I hoped  I might make my way through the stages without becoming an icicle. But after fifteen minutes, I still had a pretty good way to go, and even though I was reasonably bundled up, the chill and the brisk breeze convinced me that trying again at a later (warmer) time might be more prudent.

However, stopping here offered me yet another chance to experience the single-most inevitable geocaching experience of geocaching experiences: the fooking muggle sitting in his fooking car. At 5:15 in the fooking a.m., a muggle (one of the non-geocaching persuasion) drives into this otherwise totally deserted parking lot, parks his fooking vehicle, and proceeds to fooking sit while I'm going from stage to stage. It never fails when there is an otherwise totally deserted parking, does it? In this case, not necessarily a complication, since muggles will be present at this location on a regular basis. However, under these circumstances, it just reinforces the notion that there is no empty parking lot into which a muggle won't insinuate himself at precisely the wrong time. Go fooking figure.

From there, I headed farther east and snagged a handful of caches. My favorite was one in the woods along the Eno River, just east of Efland, NC. A lovely location just downriver from a dam, which was visible in the distance from the cache site. So despite the pre-dawn muggle madness, I enjoyed myself no end.

A now a week of bachelorhood, writing, and, hopefully, more geocaching.

Sunrise is imminent...

Run to the Outback

I gave it a good run... literally.

I am so not a running man. Now, in my search for geocaches, I happily hike miles upon miles at a time, climb and swing from trees like a monkey, and creepily creep through tight subterranean passages. But running.... nope. That's right out. Back in the 80s and 90s, I often ran for exercise. It was boring. Horribly, horrendously, mind-numbingly boring. Not my thing.

Well, usually. Anyway, there's this cache out there: Ranger Fox's "Run to the Outback" (GC27934), which is a Wherigo cache. A Wherigo is a variation on the normal geocache in that it requires an app whose features are activated by proximity to designated coordinates. A Wherigo cache may take you on an adventure where, at each stage, you have to answer certain questions in order to proceed, or enter what you see around you and eventually advance to the actual geocache. "Run to the Outback" requires the intrepid geocacher to haul ass out Greensboro's most rugged trail — the Owl's Roost — and arrive at each stage along the 2.2-mile path to the cache within a prescribed time period. If you fail, you must start the preceding stage over again.

Well, in theory.

"Run to the Outback" has been in the wild for damn near ten years — since April 21, 2010. As hard as it is for me to ignore a geocache (hunting them has become a pathological need), I have deliberately ignored this one because the requirement to find it struck me as more excruciating than exhilarating. However, today I was feeling a little fidgety, so I decided to try trucking out to this aging hide. Things actually started out swimmingly. I made good progress and cleared the first five (of eight) stages with time to spare. It was when I got to stage six that things went south.

I reached the designated marker in plenty of time, but the Wherigo app would not advance to the next stage. I returned to stage five to try again, mais alas, no joy. Needless to say, there was no way in heaven or hell I was going to go back and start the whole business over again. However, certain of my geocaching friends (who keep fastidious cache notes) had found this one way back when, so rather than give up after this much effort, I broke down and made the holler for help. Thankfully, I was able to acquire the info I needed to reach the final stage.

Better days, this one has seen.

At ground zero, I found the perfect host but, at first, there was no sign of the container. Rather than give up, I started digging in the mud and... bravo!... at last struck paydirt. The container was buried under about six inches of muck. The lid was cracked, the container full of water. Yuck. I did manage to get my signature on the soggy log. I cleaned things up a bit, but I couldn't do anything about the cracked lid.

Mission accomplished, albeit in roundabout fashion. Wherigo routines falling down and going boom are apparently commonplace, and looking back at many of the past logs, I am far from the only one to encounter such difficulties on this cache. Right now, my feet are on fire and my legs feel as though they've been twisted in several directions at once. But for all that, I got my little smiley for the find, and the workout was worth it.

And now... there is wine. Wine is good. Wine is our friend.