Blog Template Musings about Geocaching: And, now for something completely different . . .

Musings about Geocaching

Thursday, July 19, 2007

And, now for something completely different . . .

For the first time in two years, I loaded my kayak onto the top of my car and took off for the big city to see a Boz Scaggs concert at Humphrey's By the Bay. I drove in on Highway 94, a route I used to take almost every two weeks. Since gas prices have gone up so much, as I drove along the now-unfamiliar highway, I realized I had not driven that route into town in seven months.

I took advantage of my trip into town to stop at one of my favorite Thrift Stores to see if I could find any treasures, or any swag for trading. I found a pair of Birkenstock sandals, nearly new, in my size for only $2.95. Can't beat that. I also found a really cool French press for making my morning coffee for only $2.95. How could I pass on that?

By the time I left the store, I didn't have time to get the bicycle out of the car and take a big tour around Mission Bay to pick up a number of caches as I thought I would. I stopped to find one cache I DNF'd on my last trip into town. It took me much longer to get a parking place in the nearby Old Town parking lot than it did to walk over, sans GPSr, to the hiding spot, retrieve the container, sign the log, and return the cache to its very-public hiding spot. From there, I drove to the parking for "Why?", another cache I DNF'd on my last trip into town. When I got there, I realized the circle of caches I put into my GPSr just missed that one, and another nearby cache I had on my "to find list" for the day. Oh well, I knew where it was this time and, having memorized the hint, went right to it.

From there, I found two caches located in the newly-completed revamping of the old Naval Training Center. At one cache location, I met a man who trained on the 2/3 scale vessel prior to shipping out on a full-size Destroyer heading for Vietnam some 41 years ago.

After signing the log on that cache, I continued to the Put-in place at the end of Bessemer Street. A woman and her kids arrived shortly after I did. It was there first time for a Humphrey's concerts, so I was sort of their guide during the .7 mile paddle across the bay to the place where the "boat people" raft up for the entertainment.

The batteries died in the GPSr prior to my return paddle, which is too bad. I would have liked to see how fast I got going on that smooth-as-glass, after-midnight water.



The concert was great, but a woman on a boat behind us talked—loudly—during the entire concert, except during the one song, "Harbor Lights" that was her favorite. The man next to me and I finally disconnected from the "pod" of boats and floated, on the incoming tide, closer to the stage. Because the tide rose quite a bit, we could see the stage from our new position. When the concert started, at a period of low tide two hours earlier, we wouldn't have been able to see anything from our new vantage point. We enjoyed the last two encores, as Boz Scaggs played another couple of classic songs from the album I played and played and played back when it was on the "Top 40 chart."

Lyle Lovett is playing next week, so I'll plan my adventure a little better. It would be great to find more than just four caches as I did today, as long as I am making that 60-mile round trip into the big city.


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