Midland Meanderings

Since Brugger's folks in Midland, Michigan, are getting up there in years and require more help than they did once upon a time, we do our best to venture northward and spend time with them several times a year. This was the week for our Spring trip, which coincidentally fell over Easter weekend.

Waiting for Del & Fern to pick us up from the airport as the rain pours down

Friday, April 18, 2025
Because getting an even remotely reasonable rate for flights typically means traveling at the least desirable times of day, Brugger and I got up at 4:00 a.m. and drove to Greensboro for a 7:15 a.m. Delta Airlines flight to Saginaw (MBS) by way of Detroit (DTW). Both outbound flights were slow to get off the ground but made up time in the air, so we arrived in Saginaw right on time at 11:15 a.m. Shortly thereafter, Del & Fern arrived to pick us up, and so, off we zoomed to Casa di Brugger. Rain was coming down in blinding sheets, and driving proved kind of hazardous, but we thankfully made it to our destination damp but none the worse for wear.

 

I'd had a miserable night, with less than three hours of sleep, so once we were settled in, Brugger and I half-zonked out for a little while. We needed groceries and other provisions, so once she and I had at least partly regained our senses, we made our traditional first-day-in-Midland pilgrimage to Meijer...which was a freaking madhouse. Usually, things in this town are pretty mellow, but Judas Priest...I've never seen such a frenetic, wall-to-wall, oppressive bunch of human beings seething and roiling in confined spaces since I lived in Chicago. Oy! Anyhoo, we stocked up with goodies, I grabbed a geocache, and back to the barn we flew.

 

For dinner, Ms. B. and I headed to Molasses, where they smoke the best dead animal this side of Hillsborough, NC. The Three Amigos sandwich—loaded with brisket, pulled pork, and bacon—may be the finest concoction of smoked meats anywhere. The accompanying Maple Old Fashioned didn't cause me any grief, either. Once done, I sought and found another nearby geocache, and then we returned to the casa, to spend the rest of the evening in traditional fashion: with the family in front of the downstairs TV.

I didn't make it very late.

The Three Amigos sandwich with dill potato salad at Molasses in Midland

Saturday, April 19, 2025

Having been seriously sleep deprived the past few nights, I slept in a little later than usual this morning. Once up and reasonably refreshed, I set out after some geocaches, the first couple of which were out on the Père Marquette Rail Trail, near downtown Midland. The morning started out dreary and cold, with a stiff wind blowing, but after a while, the sun came out and I warmed up very quickly. Once off the trail, I parked the car at a fairly central location near downtown and set out on foot after several more caches. Most of them were quick and easy, but at one of them, I dropped the unique container as I was returning it to its proper location, and...horror of horrors...I was unable to find it again. I never like to be responsible for losing anyone's cache, so I drove up to Meijer, picked up some implements to fashion a replacement, and returned to the scene of the accident. It's not the world's most permanent solution, but I hope the substitute container will hold up until the cache owner can set it back to rights, if he so desires.

 

At the Jefferson Street overpass above Highway U.S. 10, one of the nationwide "Hands Off!" protests of the current administration was going on, so I headed over to support the effort; I didn't realize an advance sign-up was required, though (I'm guessing because a limited number of people could occupy the bridge at the same time), so I sufficed to drive by and offer some serious honking and waving to show solidarity. I don't know how much good these protests stand a chance of doing, but it is heartening to see the growing pushback against the malignant policies of a narcissistic, moronic tool who's done more damage to this country, our international relations/alliances, and basic human rights than any other in my lifetime, if not ever. I'm glad to see increasing resistance from official quarters as well, and it's more than about time.

 

For dinner, Ms. B. slow-cooked a pork tenderloin all day to make Bahn-Mi rice bowls. We'd made this dish at home a while back, and it was good, so the folks were keen on trying it out. This time... it was even better. One of Brugger's finest concoctions! 

Art under the U.S. 10 overpass on the Pere Marquette Rail Trail

The trail along the Titabawassee River

The Currie Street suspension bridge viewed from the trail

View of the "Hands-Off" bridge takeover (from the event's webpage)

Brugger's pulled pork banh mi rice bowl. Delicious!

Afterward, I spent some time writing, and Ms. B. had freelance work she needed to complete. Eventually, we retired to the downstairs den for our traditional family time, mainly watching some of Del & Fern's favorite evening shows. A most welcome, mellow evening.

Tomorrow...believe it or not...we are going to church with the folks.

Sunday, April 20, 2025

There's a bing-bonging clock in the house that chimes the hour, starting at 6:00 a.m., and it usually doesn't wake me up, but today it did. I lay there for a while but didn't go back to sleep, so when the chiming started again at 7:00, I staggered on out of bed. It was as well that I did because I wanted to start prepping our midday dinner fairly early. Fern had very kindly prepared some breakfast for me—waffles and sausage, which were delicious—so once I'd laid waste to those and fortified myself with coffee, I commenced to chopping up steaks, browning the meat in the skillet, and dropping it in the crock pot. If all goes as planned, it'll turn into Beef Stroganoff somewhere around 1:00 p.m.

 

I still had plenty of time before getting ready for church, so I went walking after a couple of newer geocaches less than a mile from the casa. I found those with no problem and then hoofed it back home.

 

So, off to church we went, and Del & Fern saw many of their friends they hadn't seen in some time, many of whom knew Kim. The services there are "contemporary," with a band that plays modern Christian music. Today, it was an uplifting, to-the-point message with lots of rocking Christian tunes. If you follow me, you probably know I'm not exactly "of the faith," but I grew up in it, and my experiences were generally positive. I know a lot of people who can't say that. For today, the only thing that has really pissed me off was Trump's disgusting, wholly false, and inappropriate Easter message. "Unfit" is a gross understatement. Whatever failings this country has ever had in the past—with our policies, our politicians, our relationships—Trump exemplifies everything that we as a country should never be.

Thing is, in that church we went to this morning, that awful human being clearly has an awful lot of devoted fans. I do not approve.

 

The Beef Stroganoff turned out to be fantastic. As with most of my concoctions, I'll probably never quite reproduce it since I rarely use an actual recipe, and when I do, I usually turn it inside out before all is said and done. And dammit, I forgot to buy parsley, which I like to throw on top of the dish, both for garnish and because parsley is delicious.

During the afternoon, I put in some serious writing time and a bit of fussing on Facebook. Ms. B. had to work on some more freelance projects, but after she finished, we needed to make another provision run to Meijer. I found some oysters, so I made oyster stew for my supper—which was fantastic, no matter what any of the non-aficionados of snotty shellfish in the house (which is all of them) might tell you. And we ended the shopping outing by hunting a geocache, which was marginally challenging and a lot painful, given the particular variety of greenery sheltering its hiding place.

 

I may have overtaxed my brain "debating" some contentious points with people on Facebook, but sometimes, it's what I must do. Apart from that, for the rest of the evening, we spent our traditional family time in front of the television. And that's all kinds of perfect.

Midland Nazarene Church

The plated Beef Stroganoff (sans parsley). Delicious!

Monday, April 21, 2025

I woke up before dawn to the sound of crashing thunder and heavy raindrops on the roof. The storm didn't last long, though, so I went back to sleep and remained oblivious even through the bing-bonging of the living room clock until I crawled out of bed about 8:00 a.m. Coffee. Coffee! COFFEE!

 

Midland is full of squirrels, more than anyplace I've ever visited, I'm pretty sure. Gray squirrels, black squirrels,  red squirrels, and big brown fox squirrels. In Virginia, we have lots of grays, mostly small and skinny, but here, like most of the wildife, squirrels grow big and chubby. And most of them are tamer than our skittish little guys back home. Once Ms. B. got up and going, she went out to the backyard to feed critters, and one big fox squirrel came around and immediately made friends with her. This one didn't eat out of her hand, as some have been known to do here, but he was perfectly relaxed and ready for Ms. DeMille to take his close-up.

Sometimes, one finds odd things when out geocaching. The rain appeared to have let up for a while, so I headed out mid-morning to seek a few caches. I found all but one of them, which appeared to be missing; I found only a wire hanger where there should have been a container. At the base of its host tree, though, there were two dead little critters with a few rocks and sticks placed around them. I'm guessing one or more youngsters found the poor animals but also found the cache and removed it. I notified the cache owner, who indicated he'll replace it.

 

On Ashman Street, there's a house whose yard, every Halloween, is decorated with about a hundred skeletons, including one of the twelve-foot-tall variety. Looks like the big fellow has become a permanent fixture there. Fun stuff.

After lunch, the rest of the family went on a shopping excursion, while I stayed home to work on my current novel-in-progress. It was a productive session.

 

For a long time now, it has been clear that telemarketers have mercilessly targeted my in-laws. Because their landline rings every five to ten minutes all day, every day, I've recommended that Fern turn off the ringer and let the calls go straight to their answering machine; however, she doesn't much want to do that because they also receive a handful of legitimate calls each day. After a persistent, infuriating series of bell rings this afternoon, Fern finally yelled at the caller, "No, I'm not interested, I'm tired hearing from you, and why don't you just go into your bathroom and play with yourself?!"

 

You tell 'em, Fern.
 

Family time and bed. And g'night.

Tuesday, April 22, 2025

Coffee and bacon and eggs, oh my! What a fine breakfast!

Kimberly had to take her mom to a doctor appointment this morning, so I spent the morning getting in a couple of miles of walking and then writing. Again, I made decent progress. Once they got back, we went out and helped her folks with some yard work that needed doing.

Ms. B. wanted to visit an arts & crafts store in Saginaw, about thirty minutes away, so after lunch, we drove over. She headed into the store, and I headed after a couple of nearby geocaches. One of the containers was a 3-D-printed tiki figure (at left), which was kind of cool. About 30 minutes after I dropped her off, Brugger called, so I returned to pick her up. From there, we went after a couple of more hides, my favorite being one that was about 20 feet up in a big pine tree. Tree caches are among my favorite kinds, and it's been a long time since I've had a good tree climb, so this one really hit the spot. I didn't even fall out and go boom!

L: Starting the ascent; R: Hey, where's the old dude?

Oh, there he is!

At the cache

That pretty much did it for the afternoon caching, and so, from there, we returned to Midland and decided to visit Whichcraft Taproom, one of our semi-regular bar & grill hangouts in downtown. We enjoyed a couple of refreshing beverages, and then we hauled ourselves out for dinner at Fuji Sushi, the best of the Japanese/Asian restaurants we've found in Midland (there are some newer ones we haven't tried, so we'll be giving them a go on a future trip, no doubt). The sushi was very, very good, though—as with so many restaurants now—instead of a large variety of fish, you get three pieces of three different fishies. Definitely tasty, but I much prefer having several options on the plate.

Back at the casa, I had a Lovecraft eZine book discussion podcast to attend. Tonight's story discussion was "The Dunwich Horror," which is one of my favorite H.P. Lovecraft tales. It was a good discussion, as we all had unique perspectives on the story, and several of us rated it very differently in the "HPL Favorites" column. Tonight's discussion was for Patreon subscribers only, so if you have any interest in Lovecraftian horror—or cosmic horror in general—you might want to consider supporting the eZine. The amount of content and entertainment that Mike Davis provides is exceptional.

 

The usual family time in the family room followed (and I worked on this blog). Tomorrow is the last day of this Midland trip for us, but our flight doesn't leave till early evening, so we'll have most of the day here before we leave. Hopefully, we won't have any flight delays; the late-night arrivals back in Greensboro have tended to be problematic in recent days.

 

We'll see. For now, nighty-night.

Wednesday, April 23, 2025

The family had a few guests pretty early this morning—Kim's cousins JoyAnn and Rosemary, and JoyAnn's husband, Bill. We spent a good while having enjoyable chats, largely about cats. Following that, Kim had to take her Dad to a doctor appointment, so I put in my daily steps and made some forward progress with the current novel.

 

Late in the afternoon, we packed up to leave and headed out to the Saginaw airport (MBS). Our departing flight was slightly delayed, but it wasn't significant enough to impact our connection in Detroit. I must say, they make very good, very spicy bloody marys at the single little bar & grill at MBS. Once in Detroit, we found that our Greensboro flight was also delayed, but again, not significantly. We had just enough time to grab fair-to-middlin' sandwiches from Subway for worse-than-extortionate prices.

 

We arrived back in Greensboro around 11:00 p.m., less than an hour later than our scheduled arrival time. And wonder of wonders, by the time we got down to baggage claim, our single suitcase was already there waiting for us. Hooray! Anyway, we hit the road for Martinsville and got home just about midnight. We'd found some hot red-pepper stuffed olives in Midland, and I couldn't resist having a martini nightcap with a couple of those. HOOOO, YEAH, they is delicious!

All in all, it was a nice trip to see the folks, and I'm especially glad that we've been able to give them some help (Kimberly doing a hell of a lot, of course), particularly with things that have become more physically challenging for them. I so hope that we'll be able to keep this arrangement going for the foreseeable future.

 

A new cache in Martinsville awaited my attention once we returned. A nice first-to-find on Thursday, April 24, at 8:15 a.m. Yay!

A Helluva Weekend

Given the dearth of nearby geocaches I've yet to find, it's always a treat to see new ones published that aren't that far away. A trio of new caches popped up on my map Friday — out in Floyd County, about an hour northwest of here. Since I couldn't get out there at the time, I got up early on Saturday morning, grabbed coffee and a danish at the nearby Valero Fas-Mart (their coffee does rock), and sallied forth onto the shadowy backroads. Long ago (the 1970s) and far away (about 20 miles), I attended Ferrum College, and I frequented these backroads, usually seeking the influence of what some might consider illicit substances. There was a commune called Travianas in this area that I used to visit frequently, and I read not all that long ago was still in existence. I don't remember exactly how we used to get there, but I was pretty close to the location, though.

My destination was a place called Riverstone Farm, a gorgeous place in the middle of nowhere, more or less, with a little store where you can buy their fresh produce, and it's all on the honor system. You weigh your produce, fill out your own sales slip, and drop your money in a slot. I picked up a couple of fabulous fresh tomatoes, which weighed over a pound, for $5. And I got first-to-find honors on all three of the new caches, each of which was nicely done. I so appreciate geocaches that lead me to such splendid locations that I would surely never have discovered otherwise.

On my way home, I stopped for lunch at the Railway Café in Bassett. A delicious fried chicken sandwich and a much-needed cold iced tea. Damn, it was hot out there.

The Riverstone Farm produce store

Trail along the Little River

A purty trail view

Last night, we saw the news of Donald Trump getting winged by a shooter. I've seen all sorts of conspiracy theories, lots of anger, and all too much true hate, enough to be totally overwhelming. I have a lot of things I can say on this issue, but not here and now. A bit later, I will.

This morning, again I rose early, grabbed coffee and a danish at the nearby Valero Fas-Mart, and hauled myself down to Burlington, NC, where I met friend Scott (a.k.a. Diefenbaker) for a day of caching in Hillsborough. As it has been lately, it was hot out there. Fuckin' hot. We both added quite a few to our total number of finds, including a bunch along the Eno Riverwalk. Another gorgeous location I enjoy visiting, and — as we usually do when in the area — we grabbed lunch at Hillsborough BBQ Company. Smoked chicken wings for me today, and damned good.

My favorite find of the day was probably the very photogenic black rat snake we ran across at Blackwood Farm Park.

I've no idea what level of madness our country and the world will reach this week, but I've no doubt it'll set a new fucking record.

A nice black rat snake we happened upon

Train trestle over the Eno River, viewed from the Riverwalk

Another view of the Eno

Wildlife at the Eno River

A nice little turtle we found on the trail

That wildlife was a trio of geocachers — Cupdaisy (a.k.a. Debbie), Diefenbaker (a.k.a. Scott), and an old dude, commonly known as the No-Dead-Weight Irregulars. It was almost like old times: the nowadays all-too-rare gathering of several of us old-timers for a Sunday on the caching trail. Ah, for the days when every Sunday meant a gathering of old-timers on the geocaching trail.

Today, our target was Hillsborough, NC. I headed out bright and early this morning, bound for Burlington, NC, to replace one of my own caches that had gone missing and meet the other two reprobates in our party. From there, we hit the highway and in less than an hour began roaming little graveyards in the woods, big graveyards not in the woods, trails along the Eno River (which Scott and I forded at one point because the cache turned out to be on the other side and there was no footbridge), and up and down the Historic Oconeechee Speedway, where we've hiked on several previous occasions. We snagged all the caches we sought and hiked well over five miles, some of which were pretty rugged.

And to cap it off, we had a somewhat late lunch at Hillsborough BBQ Company, which is always a highly anticipated treat. It did not disappoint. For afters, we went next door for some frozen custard at Whit's Frozen Custard. That stuff is now officially a highly anticipated treat. That shit are good.

Hopefully, more geocaching later this week.

Into the Eno we go.

Little graveyard in the woods

Caching, Wining, and Barbecuing

Very little blogging in recent days, with too much time being occupied with all manner of obligations and necessities, not the least of which is dealing with less-than-happy medical situations. Without going into detail, I am doing okay, but as certain (mostly) age-related issues rear their ugly heads, I’m having to spend time, energy, and resources (financial and otherwise) staying on top of them. So far, still alive and kicking.

Brugger and I had a nice respite yesterday by heading down to the Lexington area to get in some geocaching (well, for me, anyway), visit a couple of wineries, and have some dynamite Lexington barbecue. Our first stop was Lake Thom-A-Lex, so named because it sits smack between Thomasville and Lexington. I’ve cached there many times, and since this newish one was so close to our chosen wineries, Ms. B. was kind enough to go out on the trail after the cache with me. It was about a two-mile round-trip hike, and the somewhat cooler weather (84°F) made being in the woods generally pleasant.

From there, we booked up to Old Homeplace Vineyards at the northern end of the lake, where we sampled several of the wines and had a picnic lunch. As with most North Carolina wineries, the wine was only fair-to-middlin’, but for us, it’s all about the experience. It’s a scenic location, there are farm animals all around, and the temperature was pleasant, so we quite enjoyed the place. Once done there, we headed over to nearby Childress Vineyards, which is as large as Old Homeplace is small. It’s a pretty big operation, with a busy bistro, wine & gift shop, an outdoor cantina, and more. Relative to other local wineries, the tastings are quite expensive, though the prices for glasses and bottles of wine are pretty much on par. Also, like most North Carolina wineries, their wine is drinkable but mostly unremarkable. Now, they did offer a unique bourbon barrel–aged white wine called Angel’s Wrath, which I quite enjoyed.

So, all in all, the winery experiences for the day rated high.

After Childress, we were closing in on dinnertime, so we went to Lexington Barbecue, which I’ve enjoyed a handful of times while caching in that vicinity. I had their coarse chopped bbq plate, which was huge, smoky, and melt-in-your-mouth delicious. This made a fine closing for our day in Lexington.

Back home, we watched a couple of movies — You Only Live Twice (I had a craving for some classic Connery Bond, and Ms. B. humored me), and the 1999 The Mummy (Ms. B. had a craving for cheese, and I humored her).

This morning, I went out after a single cache in High Point, then did maintenance on one of mine on the way home. And now, it’s back to work writing. Ciao, y’all.

One of Old Homeplace’s farm critters finding some shade and trying to avoid the swarming bugs

A neat charcuterie board at Childress’s gift shop that would be SO spot-on for friend Beth

Winter Storms, Blogger Fuckery, Historic Churches, and Smoked Cow

Immediately upon our return from Myrtle Beach last weekend, dire weather fell upon us. We had only a light coating of snow, but there was ice aplenty and winds like I've not heard since the last hurricane to blow through here some years ago. We lost power at 4:00 a.m. Monday morning, though it came back on about noon — some kind of speed record for Duke Energy. Our yard became a mess of branches and sticks, but next door, a whole tree uprooted and fell. It remained as you see it in the photo above for several days, until finally, this weekend, the neighbors took it upon themselves to get rid of it. Rather than call professionals — an admittedly expensive prospect — they employed a couple of friends, a pair of electric chainsaws (one of which got stuck in the tree for a day or so), an assortment of wooden boards, a footstool, and a pickup truck (which got stuck in the mud in their backyard for a day or so). 

"Maybe if we put this over here, and that over there...?"

At this point, the chainsaw is stuck in the tree, and the truck is stuck in the mud.

On Friday afternoon, I headed to Martinsville while the trio of men were out there working, so I didn't get to see how things eventually unfolded. But when I arrived back here yesterday, the tree was gone. The fence between yards (which I believe actually belongs to the neighbors behind the next-door folk) failed to escape damage (relatively minor), and there are deep ruts and mud splatters aplenty in their backyard (and part of ours). However, to the best of my knowledge — and by some minor miracle — none of the guys out there suffered death or dismemberment. I guess you'd call that a win for do-it-yourselfing.

More snow fell in Martinsville than here in Greensboro, but there appeared to be less ice and far less property damage. I have no idea whether it was actually storm-related or not, but the heat pump at Pleasant Hill had ceased the pumping of heat, so I found the house rather chilly. Yesterday morning, I managed to engage a service tech, who determined the system needed a new thermostat. He installed one, which got the heat pump working again, but a most complicated device, this thermostat. I hope I can figure it out without needing to go back to school to get an engineering degree. In any event, I managed to get the Christmas decorations taken down and finish up a significant writing project, which I'll be promoting the hell out of in the coming days.

St. Matthew's Episcopal Church
in Hillsborough

Since today's weather, at least for the morning, appeared conducive to geocaching, three old farts — Scott (a.k.a. Diefenbaker), Old Rob (a.k.a. Old Rob), et moi — decided to head eastward to several different locations, culminating in Hillsborough, where a new Adventure Lab cache awaited us. First, we headed to the Haw River Trail in Graham to see if we could snag first-to-find honors on a newly published hide (we did); then we zoomed over to a nearby park & grab hide, of which we made very short work; and finally, we moved on to Hillsborough. The Adventure Lab cache ("Historical Churches of Hillsborough") took us around the town's picturesque historical district, to... guess what... several historical churches. Hillsborough is a lovely town to walk around, and we enjoyed the opportunity to see the sights (again).

We topped off our Hillsborough outing with a visit to Hillsborough BBQ Company, which is a longstanding tradition when we're over in that neck of the woods. I'm a smoked beef brisket junkie, and Hillsborough BBQ Company has historically had some of the best brisket I've ever tasted. Some time ago — over a year, I'm guessing — we had visited to find the brisket not quite up to snuff. Not bad, just not top-notch. Someone we met on another caching trip told us that the restaurant had changed their smoking time or process or something, but the brisket was definitely inferior. Regardless, I wanted to make sure they had another chance, and this time around, it was better. Much better. Maybe not quite what it used to be (and certainly not as eyes-rolling-back-in-the-head-incredible as The Smoke Pit in Salisbury, which is now our favorite brisket venue), but we were altogether satisfied. Plus I found a really good, jalapeno IPA (Fire Escape, Asheville Brewing Company). So Hillsborough BBQ is most definitely back in my good graces (not that it ever fell very far).

But speaking of falling far....

The most frustrating — no, infuriating — issue of the weekend was discovering that Blogger (and by default, Google) fucked up my blog in numerous instances by their constant altering of code. At one time, formatting this blog, including placing photos (for which one might have a reasonable expectation of being permanent, since they're from Google's own blog photo hosting site) was simple. You could pop a photo in, place it as you desired, look at the html code, and see the photo ID in the code. No longer. Now you get typical Google Photos gobbledygook for the ID, leaving you with no way to trace it back to its origin. But the worst issue here was that a shitload of my blog photos, mostly from 2017, now displayed only broken link images. So I ended up spending a massive amount of time replacing and relinking the pics — with no guarantee the code will actually hold. Jesus God...  this constant ABSOLUTELY GODDAMN NEEDLESS fucking around with the blog code by bunch of technological halfwits is so infuriating, if it were up to me, I'd shitcan the lot of them (the decision makers, anyway) and make sure not a one of them could work in a technological environment ever again. Maybe cleaning shit out of pigpens would be more suitable.

Anyway. Go on, git. Bye.

Three Old Farts: Old Rodan, Old Diefenbaker, Old Rob

Falls Lake Rail Trailin’

The Vaccinated But Still Socially Distant No-Dead-Weight Irregulars

No fire-breathing Tyrannosauruses on today’s geocaching adventure, but we did encounter a fire. The Vaccinated But Still Socially Distant No-Dead-Weight Irregulars — Diefenbaker (a.k.a. Scott), Fishdownthestair (a.k.a. Natalie), Old Rob (a.k.a. Old Rob), and ye olde fart (moi) — met up at Falls Lake in Durham County to hike one of the area’s rail trails. This one is the long-abandoned Durham & Northern rail line, which dates back to 1887. There are ten caches along this particular stretch, and we set out to find them.

The hike took us about a mile and a half out to a point in the lake accessed by the narrowest of land bridges. The cache out there — “Guardian of the Point” (GC1DN30) — was an easy favorite for us, as the scenery out on that long, narrow strip of land turned out to be pretty spectacular. And we found fish. Dead fish. Many dead fish. They had clearly been swimming around there during a period of high water, and when it receded, they were trapped. Well, that really wasn’t what I would consider a favorite moment, but it was different.

Smoke pouring from hollow tree

One of the caches along our trek — “Loco Fuel” (GC5K7D4) — may have been the victim of the fire-breathing tyrannosaurus I sought yesterday (“The Lair of a Fire-Breathing T-Rex”), for at ground zero, we found not a cache but a sizable area of scorched earth. It was recent enough that we found smoke belching from the trunk of a hollow tree right at ground zero. Much to our chagrin, we couldn’t come up with even a melted lump of plastic here, though since we do know the cache owner, we took it upon ourselves to replace the container to (hopefully) keep it in play.

Once finished with the rail trail, our crew sallied forth to Hillsborough where we took a tour of several of the town’s myriad historical buildings by way of a recently published Adventure Lab cache. This one proved fun and edumacational. Then we made our way to Hillsborough BBQ Company for the first group lunch we have had in quite some time. Happily, we were able to sit outdoors, which we all still prefer.

And after all that, exhaustion set in. My birthday is coming up, so I may be even more exhausted at this time next week.

That is all.

All that remains of an old trestle

Something fishy

Heading out to the distant point

The view from GZ back the way we had come

From Danville to Durham: Big Flood, Big Fun

I headed to Martinsville after work on Friday, spent a relaxing evening, and on Saturday morning, headed back to Greensboro by way of Danville, where I hoped to snag a relatively new geocache. As I was heading into Danville by way of US 58, I found the highway closed at a point very near the cache location. After some massive storming on Thursday, apparently the water levels in the area have risen well past flood stage. After a considerable detour, on my approach to the cache, down a long hill, I could see the Dan River rising higher and rushing faster than I had ever seen it. It's hard to make out the water level in the photo above, but the bridge on the left typically has about double the clearance above the river that you see here.

At ground zero, which is near a medical facility barely above the river level, I saw that the river had flooded a portion of the parking lot. This was more than 24 hours after the big storms, and the water had evidently receded somewhat. The hint for the cache indicated I needed to look for a small evergreen at the edge of the parking lot, and, to my chagrin, I could find no small evergreen at that location. What I did find was lots of cut evergreen branches littering the ground. Well... fart! I figured at this point, the cache must have vamoosed. However, about that time, a young lady who worked at the nearby facility, who was obviously on a smoke break, wandered over and asked if I was looking for "the little bottle somebody had placed out here." I said I was. She told me the evergreen tree had been cut down a few days earlier, but someone had moved the "bottle" to a different spot. She then pointed it out to me. Well, what do you know! Saved by a muggle! And I had been on the verge of writing off this side trip as a wasted venture. I explained geocaching to her, which she appeared to find amusing, and then off I went.

I took a different route back toward US 29 to head south to Greensboro. But... hang it all! Just shy of the exit to the highway, I come upon several feet of standing water and a bunch of cones blocking the road. From here, the only way to the highway was another lengthy detour. So, I decided to bite the bullet and see if I could make it through the water obstacle. Suffice it to say I did, though I ended up having to perform a slight — and fortunately simple — repair to the trusty Toyota once I got past this new, temporary lake.

From near the geocache site, the view looking east

The view looking south

The view looking west

The obstacle I faced on the way to US 29. Made it!

After successfully quitting Danville, I headed back home to Greensboro for a brief respite between travels. Then I picked up Kimberly at Casa di Brugger, and off we went, bound for Durham and long-overdue visit with my former next-door neighbors and fellow geocachers, TravelinFarmFam, a.k.a. Paul & Jamie. Since they left Greensboro, their family has grown by two much younger members. During the intervening years, I've seen Paul several times, when he's come to deal with issues at their house next door, but I haven't seen Jamie since they left here in 2013, and I had never met their wee little offspring before.

It would be safe to say it wasn't long after our arrival at Casa di FarmFam that the first bottle of wine popped its cork. Things haven't changed too much with Paul & Jamie because, way back when, they owned magical wine glasses. Those are glasses that magically refill themselves when one is looking away. Apparently, they still keep some of these marvelous items on hand because, even after drinking a prodigious amount, the wine level in my glass never really diminished. I must have looked away several times. Wonderful and strange, isn't it?

For dinner, Paul grilled some of his famous burgers — bison, this this go-round. Paul has always been an admirable grill master, and he once again proved his prowess, as did Jamie with some delicious roasted vegetables and risotto. And I must tell you that these fine youngsters up and introduced me to Paqui ghost pepper tortilla chips. For them, the Paqui chips were a little too hot to enjoy, and Ms. B. got the hiccups after trying her first sample. However, I found these to be the most perfect chips I've ever enjoyed, and I was happy to finish the bag for our friends, so that none of these incredible contents should go to waste. The Paqui people sponsor the "One Chip Challenge," and I've actually craved the opportunity to try one of those hot-ass bastards. In fact, I just ordered a sampler package of Paqui chips from Amazon.com. Because, well, I kind of had to, didn't I? Anyhoo, we ended up watching some YouTube show with a hot, HOT chicken wing challenge, featuring numerous hot sauces, most of which I have already tried and survived. The viewing made for good fun. And it has done flung a cravin' on me... hence the ordering of the surpassing hot goodies mentioned above.

This morning, Jamie prepared a fabulous breakfast, and then the lot of us took off to do a little geocaching. Kind of like old times, except for the pair of wee young additions to the gang. We found a few caches, didn't find a couple, and then, with great sadness, we parted ways. About the time Ms. B. and I hit the highway, we decided we would need some lunch before we got home. So, we hauled ourselves over to Hillsborough BBQ Company, which has long been a favorite lunchtime destination, particularly for those of us out geocaching. And  — how fortuitous! — there is a relatively new geocache (Kiersten's Birthday Cache [GC8J2DD]) just across the road from the restaurant, which of course I have now claimed.

There's a new Ameri-Scares novel brewing upstairs, this one for the state of New Hampshire, chronicling a reprise of the famous UFO sightings near the town of Exeter in the year 1965. I first learned of these events when I was about six or seven years old, from an issue of Reader's Digest that my Grandparents owned (my grandmother collected years and years' worth of Reader's Digest issues). It was an article called "Outer Space Ghost Story," by John G. Fuller, and it immediately caught my youthful attention. A while back, on eBay, I found that particular issue plus a couple of others, which featured articles on the Loch Ness Monster and the Haunting of the George & Dragon Inn in England. So, of course, I now have copies of my own. "Incident at Exeter" seemed a perfect subject for a new Ameri-Scares novel, so I may take some of the brainstorming I've already done and begin composing an outline this evening.

So, this weekend saw me relaxing in the extreme to being remarkably productive. But it's about zoomed past now, and tomorrow it'll be back to the office and a full week of work. I so need a break from the break.

Till tomorrow and beyond.