Hotspur.us

So thanks to wvangler I can say I have found an actual physical geocache in every one of the 55 counties in the lovely state of West Virgina. Now anyone who is not from WV may wonder why we have 55 counties. To this I say, “please don’t get me started.”  Not having had a satisfactory answer, a non-resident of WV may then ask how hard it could be to get all 55 counties since WV is small. To that person I would say, “don’t make me kill you.”

At any rate after making one last heroic journey to the ends of the earth (Williamson, WV) I found a cache in Mingo County and from there pushed on to Wayne County, grabbing my last remaining pages for the DeLorme Challenge as well.

My reward for dragging my arse from one end of this Wild and Wonderful state to the other was the coordinates to the final for GC1QWJF.  And to be honest I was probably more than a little delighted when I received those coordinates from wvangler. Immediately I started scheduling with pbump to see about going after this cache. After all he had done an awful lot of planning last year that facilitated knocking off a good many of the counties.

With few open weekends we decided that July 10 was the day. I figured it wouldn’t take much to convince Aquacache to come along on a nice long walk. 89SC had already said he would love to come back to the final (yes, Mr. Overachiever had already completed the challenge).

Thanks ‘angler. I don’t necessarily take back all those nasty things I said about you…but it was sort of fun!

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We had a few days off – ok I had a lot of days off and Chad had a week. Staying at home wasn’t an option since that never ends quite as well as it should (too much together time and too many chores). One of the members of my think tank suggested we go see the wild ponies at the Outer Banks. See the ponies, drive a jeep on the beach. Sounds good to me!

I was a little anxious at first after hearing how NOT to get your jeep stuck in the sand. I really, really did not want to be that guy. The one buried in the sand up to the axle (and believe me…we saw plenty of those guys out there.) But after we crossed our first dune,  which was a lot smaller than I had anticipated, I felt pretty confident that I was not going to get stuck.

It took us a little while to find the ponies. They are wild and they do go wherever they darn well please. Plus it was hot, blazing hot. Which meant they were most likely seeking shade. I was delighted thrilled spastic with glee when we ran across our first band just hanging out and grazing. We saw one hugely pregnant mare. She didn’t move at all.

After hanging out and taking pictures for a bit (you have to stay 50 feet back from the horses) we headed out and continued our search. You might think finding something as large as a horse would not be difficult. You would be surprised. If they don’t want to be bothered, they can make themselves pretty well invisible (trust me, I speak from experience).

And speaking of Villain, I always say I’d love to have him in my back yard. Well, after running across these guys I may have changed my mind.

This band of horses also happened to have a burro in it. No one knows where that fellow came from or how long he’s been around. But there he is. Go figure.

Enough with the narrative. It was loads of fun. We had a grand time and I would totally go back again.

(also we did some other stuff on our way home and I just threw those galleries in here. Richmond, VA for a cache and then Bluestone & Pipestem state parks)

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The 5th Great MEAT-n-Greet at Coopers Rock is coming up. And it’s always good to have cool stuff to give away.

As modeled by my lovely assistant sidekick Little Wooden Boy, I present….a selection of shirts. (no worries, they will be laundered before the event)

Everyone that attends the MEAT-n-Greet will have his or her fair chance to win one of these fabulous shirts. There are 9 in total, three each of Medium, Large & XL.

See ya Saturday!

This photo was in the Fairmont Times West Virginian recently.

That’s my Gramps (D.J. Romino) on the left listening to Sen. Byrd play the fiddle.