Oh The Fun Of The Hunt!

Last Friday, Cary and I hid our first cache! It can take about 3 days to even 2 weeks to get published, but last night, about 9 o'clock, it was put out so all the cachers could see the coordinates...and the race to be the First To Find was on!

Whenever a cache is first published, in this North Dallas area, it is like a swarm of angry wasps to the location. Cary and I eagerly watched the email to see who would be the first finder. And the winner? My dad (Pootwaddle) was one of the co-FTFs!

When I checked the geocache site this morning, this is what I found:

September 28 by txflood (277 found) Co-FTF with kedge & pootwaddle. We had just started looking when pootwaddle walked up. He actually spotted it with his huge flashlight. We signed the log, added swag, and I watched him add a TB to the container. We'd filled up the container pretty good, so maybe the other cachers just didn't see it. We chatted for a few minutes then parted ways. We were off to find a puzzle cache that had just published in Arlington. Chestmutt, your Dad is so nice! We really enjoyed meeting and chatting with him. I'm looking forward to your series. TFTC!

September 28 by GeoSick (128 found) #128-I was excited about going to find this one because I also know the pastor that you speak of. I have always enjoyed his teaching and my family even belonged to his church at one time. It took me a little bit to get the GPSr to settle in on a exact spot but it did and I made the grab. It hadn't been logged yet so I thought I had a chance at the FTF but as the earlier logs will tell you....I didn't make it. TFTC and for telling your story. SL and took the TB.

September 28 by beardoc (24 found) Found with mountainharp after a short search. TFTC!

September 28 by mountainharp (69 found) Saw the new cache around 10:30 PM, thought beardoc and I would try to see if we could get a FTF.. well, we found it, but it already had been found. Great location, did not see any TB's - TFTC!

September 28 by kedge (311 found) Co-FTF with pootwaddle and txflood! TXFlood and I had arrived and only been searching for a minute when another car pulled up. Pootwaddle introduced himself and then found the cache pretty quickly. TFTC!

September 28 by pootwaddle (74 found) Co-FTF with a nice couple - kedge and txflood. I drove up as they were homing in on GZ. I got out my big flashlight and located the cache almost immediately. We signed the log and rummaged around for swag to place. I commissioned a travel bug and placed it in the cache to get it started on its travels. Thanks for the cache and I will be following your Chestmutt series with great interest!

What a lot of fun to do! Cary and I are already planning our next cache hide, so we'll see how it goes from here!

The One With All The Hay

I didn't mention much about Killington in the last post because there were more cool pictures to show, and I wanted to make a post specifically about them.

In truth, we were just passing through Killington to get to another town, but just seeing what we did made it one of my favorite towns:














































































































































What creativity! I love that they were all made of hay, and just made the trip feel so...fall-ish!

The One That Was A Blast From The Past

Look at the bright eyes on this little one at 7:00 in the morning (6:00 Texas time) while on vacation!

When we woke up on Thursday morning, we decided to go the Farmer's Diner, where just a few weeks ago, we saw this on Yahoo!:

The Farmers Diner

Quechee, Vermont

This retro-style diner in the Green Mountain State is a crunchy granola advocate of the burgeoning localvore movement: founder Tod Murphy’s mantra is “Food from Here.” So his short order cooks only use ingredients (milk, eggs, bacon, cheese, and even tofu) sourced from regional farms and purveyors. Naturally, real Vermont maple syrup and sweet Cabot butter comes with an order of the Gleason Grain’s organic wheat flour buttermilk pancakes. Ask for a cup of Vermont Liberty Tea Company’s fruit-lavender brew or, during harvest season, a cold glass of Champlain Orchard’s apple cider.Best sides: Vermont Smoke & Cure ham steak or maple sausage.

So we all got dressed up and headed out to Quechee for the best breakfast ever!
























































Ok. So maybe not the greatest...but all in all, it was pretty tasty. And filling. Just what we need to get the day started for working on a tractor:

























Attempting to save (and act like) local wildlife:











































Work with the trains:











Visiting the coolest toy museum I have ever set foot in:
























Check out the Quechee Gorge (and get a cache as well!):














































Lose (and find) a little pink sock:













As well as do a little shopping!




































By this time, Brylee had leaked through her diaper and onto her pants in the antique/cheese/souvenir store and her mom forgot to put extra pants in her diaper bag...that's me. Fortunately it was sunny and warm outside, so we were able to wrap her sweater around her and walk around town and shop...all while she was so sleepy nothing could wa ke her up. Even a kitty in Gillingham's General Store.

Best part about this? It all happened before lunch! For lunch, we stopped by the Farmers Market in Woodstock and purchased some sandwiches. Cary had the Moonlight In Vermont, which I actually chose because of the name of the sandwich...one of our favorite songs!

After lunch, we put new, fresh clothing on Brylee and headed off again to visit Killington and then come back later to enjoy some ice cream and play some pool, ping pong, and darts in the basement of the house, while Brylee enjoyed discovering a mechanical horse, keyboard, and crawled around on the floor between our legs!