Bezabor: Still in OP...(posted from Ocean Park, Maine)
Tuesday, 10/12/05-
We had planned to leave today but at breakfast we somehow got on the subject of geocaching and decided we'd spend the day checking out some local geocaches. The clincher came when we logged on to geocaching.com, entered the OP zip code and there were six caches within a couple of miles of the cabin. Geocaching.com shows the geocaches within a hundred-mile radius by default and there are 2084 of them within 100 miles of zip 04063 (Ocean Park). That oughtta keep us busy!
We also decided we needed to go look for sand dollars at a secret sand-dollar hot-spot nearby so we did that at low tide, then took on 'Goosefare Brook Cache'. This one was very inventive and a great intro to the fun of geocaching for Labashi's buddy. After finding the hidden-in-plain-sight two-digit number needed to compute the fix for the hidden box, we first marched around in over-your-head weeds and sumac for awhile, then realized we had made a computational error and STILL had trouble locating the treasure but we persevered and eventually found it 'easily'.
We then tried 'Atlantic Woods' which led us down a spectacular path across a marsh and into the woods in the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge. Again, we struggled with an 'easy' find and it was great that it was our geocaching newbie who finally found the trove.
Finally, we did 'Ocean Pahk', which led us into a nearby old-growth forest of magnificent white pines--- arrow-straight and three-feet-thick. The paths were all deeply covered in pine needles and there was little understory of other growth so it was a delightful search. We had to find our way around a small marshy area but found this one easily.
Back at the ranch, we signed on to geocaching.com and Labashi's friend created a new account with her newly-chosen geocaching name-- 'Red Retriever'-- and made her first log entries.
We then had 'foursies' (appetizers you eat at four o'clock to tide you over till dinnertime) with another local couple (friends of Red Retriever) and talked about the day's big adventures and about big Italian families.
Monday, 10/11/05 -
The rain let up a little so Labashi and her buddy took a power-walk to Old Orchard Beach and I read. I'm engrossed in a book called 'Shadow Divers'. It's about two New Jersey wreck divers finding a sunken World War II submarine 60 miles off the coast. Labashi and I had done some inshore NJ wreck diving back in the early 80's and we were hearing stories at the time about the hardcore guys-- the guys who would do decompression dives, penetrating wrecks at 200 feet and more. The kind of diving where you make a little mistake and you are permanently disabled or dead..... scary stuff. The author of Shadow Divers does a great job of providing the background explanations --- the water column and it's relationship to nitrogen narcosis and 'the bends', the reasons why wreck divers dive alone for safety, the reasons why fishing and dive boat captains need to hide their 'numbers' (the LORAN fixes of wrecks), etc.--- and weaves the background material right into the story. Great reading...
We went to Chili's for lunch and ended up having an extended long-lunch (the margaritas had something to do with that, I'm sure) and that just made us sleepy. That evening we had supper with two of 'buddy's' local friends-- and we swapped stories about our Maine trip and their growing-up-in-Maine experiences.
Tuesday, 10/12/05-
We had planned to leave today but at breakfast we somehow got on the subject of geocaching and decided we'd spend the day checking out some local geocaches. The clincher came when we logged on to geocaching.com, entered the OP zip code and there were six caches within a couple of miles of the cabin. Geocaching.com shows the geocaches within a hundred-mile radius by default and there are 2084 of them within 100 miles of zip 04063 (Ocean Park). That oughtta keep us busy!
We also decided we needed to go look for sand dollars at a secret sand-dollar hot-spot nearby so we did that at low tide, then took on 'Goosefare Brook Cache'. This one was very inventive and a great intro to the fun of geocaching for Labashi's buddy. After finding the hidden-in-plain-sight two-digit number needed to compute the fix for the hidden box, we first marched around in over-your-head weeds and sumac for awhile, then realized we had made a computational error and STILL had trouble locating the treasure but we persevered and eventually found it 'easily'.
We then tried 'Atlantic Woods' which led us down a spectacular path across a marsh and into the woods in the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge. Again, we struggled with an 'easy' find and it was great that it was our geocaching newbie who finally found the trove.
Finally, we did 'Ocean Pahk', which led us into a nearby old-growth forest of magnificent white pines--- arrow-straight and three-feet-thick. The paths were all deeply covered in pine needles and there was little understory of other growth so it was a delightful search. We had to find our way around a small marshy area but found this one easily.
Back at the ranch, we signed on to geocaching.com and Labashi's friend created a new account with her newly-chosen geocaching name-- 'Red Retriever'-- and made her first log entries.
We then had 'foursies' (appetizers you eat at four o'clock to tide you over till dinnertime) with another local couple (friends of Red Retriever) and talked about the day's big adventures and about big Italian families.
Monday, 10/11/05 -
The rain let up a little so Labashi and her buddy took a power-walk to Old Orchard Beach and I read. I'm engrossed in a book called 'Shadow Divers'. It's about two New Jersey wreck divers finding a sunken World War II submarine 60 miles off the coast. Labashi and I had done some inshore NJ wreck diving back in the early 80's and we were hearing stories at the time about the hardcore guys-- the guys who would do decompression dives, penetrating wrecks at 200 feet and more. The kind of diving where you make a little mistake and you are permanently disabled or dead..... scary stuff. The author of Shadow Divers does a great job of providing the background explanations --- the water column and it's relationship to nitrogen narcosis and 'the bends', the reasons why wreck divers dive alone for safety, the reasons why fishing and dive boat captains need to hide their 'numbers' (the LORAN fixes of wrecks), etc.--- and weaves the background material right into the story. Great reading...
We went to Chili's for lunch and ended up having an extended long-lunch (the margaritas had something to do with that, I'm sure) and that just made us sleepy. That evening we had supper with two of 'buddy's' local friends-- and we swapped stories about our Maine trip and their growing-up-in-Maine experiences.
posted by Bezabor&Labashi | 08:36
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