Friday, October 24, 2008

New Gps?

Recently I've been having some trouble with both of the GPSrs that I currently own. I have a Magellan Explorist 600, and a Garmin GPS V.

For a while the Magellan hasn't been holding much of a charge. Shortly after that happened, the screw where the power/data cable attaches stripped out. That has left me using rubber bands to hold the cable onto the back of the GPS while attached to the car charger. It's a pain when I need to remove or reattach the cable.

The Garmin suddenly started freezing on me. It did this in the middle of Waymarking a nearby cemetery, and the 30+ Zinc headstones there. I've done some reading, and it sounds like it's a somewhat common problem. There are also a variety of "fixes" out there, some work for some folks, others for others.....none for me. I have read that while Garmin no longer supports this unit, they are looking into releasing a patch to fix it. I assume they must be getting many complaints about it.

So this leaves me nearly GPSless for the time being. They both work, but not well, and it's really not worth the frustration of trying to get any waypoints marked.

This past August, I bought myself a motorcycle. Since then I've been thinking about a GPS solution for it. I mainly want a more accurate speedometer, and to be able to record my tracks. It'll also be nice to have along for any impromptu Waymarking and Geocaching.

After giving it some thought, I think I'm actually going to downgrade, rather than upgrade, so I've bid on a Magellan Meridian Platinum. I had a Meridian Green before the Explorist 600, so I'm familiar with the unit. I always like the Merigreen, but I thought that I would like the Exp 600 better. In the end, I really don't. The Merigreen never had any problems, even though I Geocached, and hiked a lot with it. I dropped it countless times, and had it out in all sorts of weather. So I know they're pretty rugged, and I also still have the handlebar mount for the Merigreen that I can easily transfer to the motorcycle to hold a Platinum. The Platinum has a little larger screen, and larger leather glove friendly buttons. Plus I still have the Topo software, so I can load detailed maps into the Platinum. Can't really beat the price either. Since they're old tech, monochrome displayed, antiques (in terms of tech gadgets), no one really wants them much so they're inexpensive!

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Townhall meeting 9/3/08

So in tonight's townhall the following has been discussed. This is a real-time rundown, so I apologize for grammatical and typographical errors:

- Phoenix has been backburnered
- The first priority for Waymarking was the forums, which are now fixed so priorities are being rearranged.
- There is still work being done to improve both Waymarking and Geocaching via incremental fixes instead of the one fell swoop of Phoenix
- Another priority is a .GPX solution for Waymarking
- .GPX will not have thoroughly detailed info at first, but will work easily with GSAK and its ilk. Variables will likely be appended to the long text description in the .GPX. Though details are still being hashed out. May work more along the lines of the "My Finds" query in GC.com
- "Garmin Content Toolkit, Orphaned Waymarks" (Garmin content toolkit was not discussed beyond this)
- Plans to aid communication on the site such as private forums
- Ways to search archived/invisible Waymarks will be addressed along with orphan Waymarks
- Setting up an "orphan queue" would require ALL variables to be optional. Variables may be switch over to a function of visiting rather than posting.
- Concern was discussed over lazy waymarkers putting out weak marks and having other folks do most of the work by filling in variables. (more discussion later, concerns are to be posted in the forums)
- Increased photo size
- Photo storage (temporary)
- Links directly to Flickr/Photobucket
- Kudos (awards one can give to other Waymarkers)
- Activation button at the end of the new cat creation wizard
- Cross linking photos to end multiple uploads when cross-posting a Waymark. Something like a bucket in which photos are dumped, and then one would be given an option to pull from that bucket when creating a WM. With possibly a 7 day "decay"
- Photo bug when U/Ling larger photos is still not fixed, but is being worked on.
- lobot mailer specific to Waymarking
- Deadbeat leaders/officers - GS may monitor how often they log in for a start. Or display average approval times on the cats
- New games (Nothing was discussed in detail, just mention that Nate and Sean have been working on new games, such as "scavenger hunt, and mini bingo". For instance, a list is generated for 10 or so nearby Waymarks based on one's own favorite cats. One then visits all in that list and earns an award. A number of these scavenger hunts could be on going in various states of completion, with a bingoesque format overall
- Removing closest Waymarks found from the list was broken with the last upgrade,


This list are just some of the ideas being kicked around over at the lily pad. They are expecting implementation of these ideas within the next 6-12 months at this point. Personally, it sounds like some great ideas upon which to build, along with some great ideas as listed.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Balooning Waymarks

Have you ever noticed how Waymarks can balloon into more Waymarks? Today I decided to travel down to Columbus for a little Waymarking. I originally intended to mark a 3d advertisment for the upcoming category. I thought it had been approved, but now I see it's not listed yet. Regardless, I wanted to photograph it before it gets taken down. After that I went up a few blocks to Waymark the Greater Columbus Convention Center. While walking back to the car I passed The Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral, and marked it too.

After that I visited the Ohio State University to mark the Wexner Center in the Great Buildings category. I've been meaning to get out there for a while now, but just never had occasion to be in the area.

I began by posting the Wexner Center first, and the moved on to the convention center. While posting them, I noticed that they were both designed by Peter Eisneman. I clicked back into the Great Buildings website to read more about Eisneman, and noticed a reference to Deconstructionism. Before now I never really looked into the Deconstructionism category. When it was first approved, I didn't recognize any of the architects names being used locally, so I didn't think there was anything around here. After learning more about Eisneman, and the Deconstructionism category, I realized I could post both the Wex, and the convention center in there.

Today was largely an effort just to find a few new icons, and I even ended up with a few new ones that I wasn't expecting.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Touring North Central Ohio


Copus Massacre Memorial.
Originally uploaded by Mr. 0
I'm just finally catching up on some Waymarks that I gathered over the weekend of July 26. It happened to be Dewgrl's birthday, and I had been promising to take her up to Malabar Farm State Park, which was once the home of Pulitzer Prize winning author Louis Bromfield. The farm was used by him to develop and teach new ways of sustainable farming. It, along with the Pleasant Valley area also were the inspiration for several of his books. These include "Up Ferguson Way," "Pleasant Valley," "Malabar Farm," and several others. Dewgrl had been up there once when she was little and has wanted to go back for a long time. I've been up there a few times. Once before Geocaching and Waymarking, once for some Geocaching, once...uhhh I can't remember why (it was cold and snowy, but I don't remember actually having done anything while I was there besides walk from the car, to the farm, and back) and another time just to Waymark the here.

We started the day by visiting our favorite
farmers' market in Mt. Vernon. After picking up a few things, we decided to hit a couple of caches nearby. They happened to be in cemeteries, so we Waymarked those, as well as a few Zinc headstones there. After the caches we worked our way north. I wanted to revisit a memorial that I knew was out there, not far from Malabar Farm.

I posted about the memorial in the "what did you learn today" thread. I originally visited the memorial as part of a multi-cache. I had to get some info off of it, and that was all I did. I stopped, wrote down what I needed, then left to find the cache. I knew it had to be significant in some way, so I wanted to go back to see if it could be Waymarked.

Along the way we stopped at various locations that could be Waymarked, and managed to squeeze in a visit or two as well. Most of the spots consisted of cemeteries, but we did get a few bridges and such as well.

So we finally get to the memorial after being chased down the road by a couple of little dogs. They chased the car for probably about a half mile from their home to the memorial. I wasn't worried about them, except that they might try to get under the tires. I just took it slowly until I got past them. They trotted up a few minutes into us looking at and taking pictures of the memorial. They weren't unfriendly, but they wouldn't let us get closer than about 10 feet either.

Upon leaving the memorial we stopped at another Ohio Historical Marker that we saw on the way to the memorial. We then made our way to Malabar Farm.

We stopped for a late lunch/early dinner at the Malabar Farm Inn just up the road from Malabar Farm. It was an 1800's stagecoach stop. In addition they sell fruits and veggies grown at Malabar Farm next to the inn.

We weren't able to spend a lot of time at Malabar Farm as it was getting late. In all we ended up with about 50 separate waypoints in the GPS, a few of which could be cross-posted. Many of them are cemeteries which I haven't posted yet. Some of the highlights include the barn linked above, the grave of Louis Bromfield, Pugh Cabin which was featured in the opening scenes of "The Shawshank Redemption", and about 5 new icons just from Malabar Farm

I finally got around to posting the Copus Massacre Memorial in the Wikipedia category, since I couldn't find another good fit for it. It's not quite 10 feet tall, so it wouldn't fit in the Obelisks cat, and I'm not sure where else it might go....any ideas?

The best thing about it, is that I finally learned what it's all about....in rather gory detail. The Ashland County Historical Society has a very detailed account of the events that occurred here. I mostly paraphrased that information, and removed some of the details to make it a little more "PG."

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Finally posted a barn


An old barn in a wheat field
Originally uploaded by Mr. 0
Ever since the barn category came about, I've had a tough time getting one Waymarked. It's not that there aren't any around or anything. I mean this is rural central Ohio. There are tons of barns around here. As a matter of fact you can see probably 10-15 of them from the barn I Waymarked. The problem has been finding something interesting enough to Waymark. Maybe because there are so many of them around, and I've lived in the area for most of my 30 years, I've become somewhat jaded about them. A lot of the barns are scenic, and historic, but they're just like another one right beside it.

The barn I W'marked is right on a busy road, and one that I've passed probably thousands of times in my life. I've always known it was there, but I never paid much attention to it...until this year. I happened to be going by when the farmer was planting his crops, and I noticed that he was putting in wheat. So I knew it was going to be a good year to shoot the barn

Most area farms rotate between corn and soybeans, but will occasionally throw some winter wheat into the mix too. This year it seems that more farmers than normal have switched to wheat. I imagine this is because there were so many problems with corn last year.

Last year many farmers planted corn because it was expected that it would be very profitable. There was talk of at least two Ethanol plants being built in Ohio, and regardless of that corn was supposed to sell at huge profits due to the Ethanol "boom." As many probably remember, Ethanol was suddenly touted as the answer to all of our fuel worries. Even though it has been mixed with regular gasoline for many years, and used exclusively in some vehicles since the late 90's, it was being talked about as though it was a brand new idea. Unfortunately this really didn't pan out, it seems. There is little buzz about it, at least locally, and Ethanol has dropped back to the status quo. It's still slightly less expensive than the dino-fuels, but it still provides less fuel efficiency. In addition there are worries about diminishing world food supplies.

This year I think many had the same idea to plant wheat. It is easily planted using no-till techniques, and it can go in right after the corn is harvested in the fall. Plus it's something different than normal which could prove profitable in the long run, and it adds additional nutrients to the soil for next year's planting.

I waited until just the right time to take some pictures. I knew that it would need to be a week or so before they would harvest the wheat, it needed to be sunny, late in the afternoon, with a few clouds in the sky. Given Ohio's weather, this is a lot to expect in the short time between the wheat turning from green to brown, and the harvest.

Luckily I got just such a day. I drove out here not expecting much as it was actually a little stormy and very overcast during the 10 minute drive up. I was going to settle for it though since I knew I didn't have much time. Many of the other wheat fields had already been harvested. Just as I pulled into the adjacent elementary school, the clouds broke a little bit and gave me exactly the sky that I was looking for, and the quality of light I wanted to highlight the barn and field.

The picture posted here was taken with the Kodak V570. It's actually an HDR image. Essentially a blend of 5 different exposures taken at 5 different exposure values. Basically normal, a little lighter, a little lighter than that, darker than normal, and darker than that. This allows a for more contrast, and an image that is supposed to appear more like how the scene looked in real life. I don't like to use HDR images for most purposes as it feels a little like cheating to me. I guess I'm somewhat of a purist when it comes to photography. I don't like a lot of post-processing personally. But I made an exception for this one.

I went with the intent of posting the Waymark, but once I got home, I decided against it. Once again, I looked at the photos and said to myself, "This is just like any other barn." I finally did post it though, partially because Hikenutty commented that I should post it. I guess it just took an unfamiliar eye.

In addition there are several other barns around that I have in mind to Waymark. They, like this one, will require a specific light though, so I've not gone out to shoot them yet. One in particular is going to be rather tricky. There is a very short period of time during which the sun will be high enough to clear some trees and hit the barn, and when the sun will be directly overhead, or behind the barn.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Ciro Flex model E Photos


Ciro Flex model E
Originally uploaded by Mr. 0
Over a year ago... May 10 2007 to be exact...I mentioned that I received a Ciro Flex camera. At that time I mentioned that it was probably a model C, but now I'm more positive that it is a model E. I finally managed to get through a roll of film, and get it processed.

I kept forgetting to take it with me, and also didn't want to take it out where the camera might get damaged. The Ciro Flex will take 12 exposures on one roll of 120 film. I wasn't 100% sure about where to get the film processed. When I spoke to the folks at the local Cord Camera when I bought the film they said they could process it. The problem was they would have to send it to their main store in Columbus, and they didn't know how much it would cost. They assured me it would probably be pricey. Since I had paid $25 for 4 rolls of film already, and this was my first roll through a type of camera I've never used, I figured I would try to find a cheaper route. I knew that there were going to be some throw-aways. I didn't want to pay a huge price for those. I took a chance and dropped it off at the local CVS. The cashier had no idea if it could be processed, since she had never seen 120 film before. I got a call the other day, 11 days after dropping it off, that it was ready. I just picked it up this evening.

Overall I like the quality of the pictures. The first one was shot out my back door just to make sure I had the film loaded and everything. The following pictures I took at the Scioto River, but they were far too dark. I didn't bother to scan those. After that the camera was on the shelf for a while. I got it out a couple weeks ago and took a couple of photos at Alum Creek State Park, which finished up the roll. One ended up being an out of focus, double exposure. I shot the first one, and then remembered that I needed to focus it. I focused, shot again, and remembered that I needed to advance the film....yeah I'm that spoiled on automatic cameras that I forgot to both focus AND advance the film. I advanced, focused, and took the last picture on the roll. I still have a lot to learn. Like to pay attention and advance more slowly. I only got 9 exposures on the roll, which should have taken 12. When I loaded the film I advanced past exposure #1. Then a couple of times between shots I advanced too far as well.

In the meantime I also purchased another Ciro Flex. It's the "top of the line" model F. I have a roll in it right now, but I haven't shot anything on it yet.

So here are the shots that I scanned. They are not cropped. The film itself develops square instead of rectangular.


First Exposure
The very first shot


Too Dark Fence
One of the photos that came out too dark




Double exposure
The out of focus, double exposure.




Alum Creek State Park
Alum Creek State Park. This is the one that came out decently.

Friday, June 13, 2008

New music

This has nothing to do with Waymarking, or Geocaching. I just recently picked up a few new albums. These include Weezer - Red Album, Portishead - Third, and Flobots - Fight with Tools.

Weezer's new album was just released on June 3. I actually had a pre-order for it on iTunes, but didn't get around to downloading it until this past weekend. On top of that I didn't burn it to a disc until Wednesday, and didn't get to listen to it until I was at work on Thursday. I had heard that it was somewhat of a departure from the heavy riff-laden records they released early in their career. This is true to a point. Many of the songs, like The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn) are somewhat different, but they still find time to drop in a few more subtle riffs. Some of the songs are a little more pop-esque almost soft love ballads. This certainly isn't a bad thing. I have to admit that this is probably my favorite Weezer album to date. I like the experimental nature of it overall. It's a refreshing change to hear something different once in a while. Luckily, I guess Rivers decided to stop listening to the "little bitches" who kept demanding Weezer crank out songs like those from the Blue Album. Aside from The Greatest Man..., I would have to say that I've most listened to Heart Songs and Pork and Beans, which is the first single off of the album. The link will take you to the official video for Pork and Beans on YouTube.

Portishead's new album Third was announced on Oct, 2 2007, and released on April, 28 2008 after one short setback. For those who aren't familiar with Portishead, they've actually been around for a while. They originally formed in 1991 in their hometown of Bristol, England. They take their name from the nearby town of Portishead. Their first album, Dummy, was released in 1994, followed by a self-titled record in 1997. In 1998 a live album was also released featuring music from the first two albums. From then little was heard from Portishead until the announcement about Third and a subsequent tour. It's been a long wait! I just got this one the other evening as well. I've been meaning to pick it up since it was released. I had wanted a hard copy CD, but could never find it in stores. I finally settled for the iTunes version.

Third certainly doesn't disappoint, but it is a little different from Dummy and Portishead. Third is a little more dark than the first two albums. It also has a deeper more industrial sound to it. It does take some work to listen to, as it's very complex. One time through and one might only pick up on some of the instrumentation, another time through allows one to hear the more subtle undertones mixed in with much syncopation, heavy beats, and cacophony. Yet another time through and one can begin to appreciate Beth Gibbons' poetic, meaningful, puzzling, lyrics. The first single from the album was Machine Gun which was released on March 18.

Finally, Flobots. I've been aware of them for a couple of months now. The album Fight with Tools was originally released in 2007 and then re-released in May of 2008. I happened to catch their single from this album, Handlebars, when flipping through the channels on XM a while back. I forgot about it until a few nights ago when it came on a local FM station. I remembered the song and that I liked it, so I grabbed the album the next day.

Flobots are described as an "alternative rock/rap/hip-hop" group. They formed in Denver, Colorado in 2005, and have released two albums, including Fight with Tools. This album is very politically motivated on an extremely liberal, non-conformist, end of the spectrum. They seem to stop just short of inciting a dissident movement. It doesn't necessarily follow my personal beliefs, however there is a lot of great imagery, deep meaning, and political activism. Not to mention strong beats, quick rapping, combined with guitar, bass, trumpets, and even violins.

The only thing that I didn't like about this album is a phony "underground radio" sort of sound that gets thrown in once in a while. A couple of times there is static between tracks, and it fades in and out of a fake radio station, as though one would forget they're listening to a CD (or MP3, or whatever) and suspend belief to think they're listening to the radio. I understand the idea, but it doesn't add anything to the overall feel of the record. At least not for me.

Saturday, May 31, 2008

Waymarking at work, more backlog completed, and more icons

Over the past week I've been working on getting the backlog posted. So far I've managed to get about 35 of them out there this week. Some of them have earned me new icons. I thought I was relatively diligent about posting Waymarks that fall into a new category. In going through these, I've found that not to be the case. In addition I've managed to cross-post a few in new categories as well. Most of them have ended up being cemeteries and Zinc headstones though.

Today was a fun day of Waymarking. Every year we have a departmental outing at work, mainly just to get out of the office and blow off some steam. This year it was decided that we would visit the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. This means I head into work at my normal time, we leave around 11:15am, and spend the rest of the day there. The weather was great for it too. We started out with a scavenger hunt of sorts, then had lunch and played a few games. After that we were free to do whatever. I stuck around a bit to grab some Waymarks. I've been out here a few times in the past couple of years, but I always seem to forget my GPS. Today I grabbed the zoo itself, the aquarium, a couple of coin-op binoculars, and the amusement park next door (Zoombezi Bay Waterpark). I really can't complain about having to work a 1/2 day, on a Friday, when it's beautiful outside, and getting paid while participating in one of my favorite hobbies!

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Memorial Day Weekend Waymarking

Up in Marion, Ohio is a cemetery that Dewgrl and I have been wanting to visit for several years now. The problems is that it is only open by appointment, or on special days....such as Memorial Day weekend. Marion Township, and those who worked so hard to locate, and repair the cemetery are very protective....and rightly so. They basically don't want people to go back there unattended and damage the place again.

During our visit today we spoke with the folks responsible for finding and fixing up the cemetery. They shared with us the great history of the area, and their adventures in trying to find it.

In addition one gentleman had a set of dowsing rods. I had always been skeptical about water witching, and dowsing rods, but it worked. I was quite surprised. Since I was actually using the dowsing rods I can say for a fact that I wasn't turning them intentionally....since I wouldn't have known where there was water underground there anyhow. I still can't explain if it was a subconscious thing, or what, but it was interesting just the same. So it was a cool extra to visiting the cemetery.

From my Waymark description:

Phillip Dreyer Cemetery is unique to the area and very historic. The cemetery was just recently rediscovered and fixed up.

In the early 1990's, this cemetery was known to have existed, but it was assumed that it was gone. A couple of gentlemen, who had relatives buried here, went on a quest to find it. The searched the fields and woods for miles around, as they only had a vague description of where the cemetery was. They finally found it in 1992. In talking to them today, they said they literally had to enter this patch of woods on their hands and knees, but soon began to find headstones. Over the years they worked to find the headstones, and clear out heavy brush and trees. They estimated that the cemetery hadn't been cared for in nearly 100 years. They replaced, and fixed the headstones they could find.

They have found about 50 of the headstones here. They estimate that there are still about 50 more stones that have been buried over the many years, and hope to use radar technology to locate them.

There are 10 families buried here, all of who are related. They arrived in the state of Delaware as indentured servants from Scotland. They eventually moved to Ohio in the late 1700's. The area where they lived, and where the cemetery is located was, at that time, north of the Greenville Treaty Line. It was uncommon for European settlers to try to establish themselves in this area. Essentially this land was part of lands set aside for the Native Americans, and was extremely wild then. Not only were the woods very thick and full of bears, bobcats, and many other dangerous animals, but many of the native tribes living here were hostile toward the settlers.

All but one of the headstones found so far have been made of limestone. Directly behind the cemetery was a limestone quarry that these people started. They also used the stone to make their headstones. The earliest burial found was that of an infant girl in 1800.

The cemetery is only open by appointment with 48 hours advance notice. The number to call is listed on the cemetery gate. They also have opened it the past couple of years on Memorial Day Weekend.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Geocaching presentation

I just got home from giving a Geocaching presentation at the Marion library. I was asked to do so on behalf of the Marion County Parks Department. They are basically looking to use Geocaching to promote their parks, since they're relatively new and mostly unknown. Several people who were not involved with the park did show up, but I was hoping for a few more folks. Oh well. I was sort of fun since I haven't really done any kind of public speaking since I was in high school, but it's something I've always enjoyed. I'm weird like that though. In a one-on-one setting, or a very small group, I'm very shy and don't talk much at all. However if I'm in front of a larger group, I have no problems. I guess I'm just wired wrong.


This coming Saturday we're going to have a program at one of the parks. It's basically an extension of the presentation, where folks are invited out to the park to actually try Geocaching. There is one cache at the park, and I may be placing some temporary caches as well. We're also going to have a few GPSr's for folks to use if they don't have their own. Should be a good time.

Monday, May 12, 2008

500 posted


I just realized that I submitted my 500th Waymark this evening. I hadn't really been paying attention, but I did know that I was close. It ended up being a local Recycling Drop-off that I just submitted. This particular drop-off is pretty much my secondary drop-off. There is another place that is closer to home, but the bins there are often full. When they are I end up having to drive down to the one I Waymarked. Sometimes I stop by this Waymark after work, since it is on my way home. That way I don't have to waste gas to take a special trip to drop off the recyclables.

I was planning to catch up on some of my back log, however I can't seem to find a file containing the coords for many of them. So I may have to end up pulling a BQ and wipe 'em out to start all over again. It wouldn't be a big deal since the majority of mark in my backlog are very local. I really wouldn't be losing much.


I also attempted to visit the local used book/video game store the other day, but it turns out they have closed. It stinks having to make a Waymark invisible, but even more when it was a place that I really liked. I used to drop in there when I was in town to pick up some books there. They always had decent prices (I picked up many books for a quarter) and the folks working there were friendly and helpful. It's sad to see them go.

Monday, May 5, 2008

A short hike


Delaware State Park
Originally uploaded by Mr. 0
Earlier this evening Dewgrl and I decided to take a little hike up at Delaware State Park. It was nice to get out and about in this area. I had taken this hike a few times before, but Dewgrl had never been back in there. It's in an area with no real trails. Basically all one can find are deer trails back there. Actually if you look back toward the beginning of my blog you can see some additional pictures, and the GPS tracklog of the hike (link is HERE) We took a slightly different path back as compared to my previous hike, but it was more or less the same. We didn't see much in the way of wildlife, but there were a few frogs, and geese. A buzzard, a toad, and a Baltimore Oriole also made appearances. We were hoping to see some deer, but we didn't...not until we were driving out of the park. We also managed to pick up a few ticks, but it wasn't too bad considering the area we were in.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

April's Photo Contest

Voting is now open for April's Photo Contest. So head on over to Waywardwaymarking.com . The direct link to the voting page is HERE!


Thanks again to Hikenutty for putting this together and setting up the voting page. :)

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Unplanned Waymarking


Caledonia Bowstring Bridge
Originally uploaded by Mr. 0
Today, Dewgrl and I were heading up to find a few caches near Marion. Along the way we were going to stop by the Caledonia Bowstring Bridge to take a look and Waymark it. It falls into the Abandoned Bridges, Arch Bridges, and U.S. National Register categories. I happened across it when looking through the National Register. I had never heard of it before, and found little information about it. Luckily I did find a map of its location, which surprisingly, was correct. Beyond that we really didn't have many plans today. When going into downtown Marion, I decided that I wanted to stop at the Marion Star, to Waymark it as well. I knew it would fit into the Newspaper HQ category, but later found it was listed on Wikipedia. Of course, I submitted it to the Wikipedia Entries cat as well. We also passed by the Women's Club Home. I originally hadn't planned to mark this due to the controversy in the category, but since we were going right by it, I decided to stop. I submitted it just to see if it would be approved....although I fully expect it to be declined.

In all it ended up being a rather productive Waymarking day. Sure, we only visited 3 locations, but we didn't spend much time at it either.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Don't forget to vote...

Don't forget to vote for your favorite Waymark photo over at Wayward Waymarking. Voting closes on the 15th, so there are just a few days left.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Nice weekend, Columbus BlueJackets Hockey, and Marion Star Newspaper article.

This weekend Dewgrl and I took advantage of the nice weather and visited a few local parks to walk around. We didn't do much Waymarking, and only found one cache. That cache was one that we had found previously, but since we were in the park anyhow we dropped by to check on it.

Today we, along with my brother, headed down to Nationwide Arena for the Bluejackets season finale. They ended up losing, which was a disappointment, but it was still a pretty decent game. We did get to see Keith Tkachuk score his 500th career goal. Unfortunately since he plays for St. Louis, it was a goal against us. It came late in the third period, short handed, and on an empty net almost coast-to-coast.

I got word this evening that the Geocaching article for which I was interviewed appeared in the Marion Star today. I've only skimmed it online, so I'm not sure if there is anything more in the actual print edition.

http://www.marionstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080406/NEWS01/804060327

Friday, April 4, 2008

Skybus airlines

In an earlier post, I mentioned the Columbus based discount airline Skybus. It was announced today that they are ceasing operations as of 12:01am on April 5, 2008. Sadly they didn't even make it a full year in service. While the concept was great, and it did offer an inexpensive alternative, they just decided they couldn't make it. They cited rising fuel prices and a "slowing economic environment" as their primary reasons for calling it quits.

I only had the opportunity to fly with them on one occasion. From Columbus to Kansas City, and back earlier this year. I thought it was a great experience even in spite of my original doubts.

It's sad to see them go, but I can certainly understand.

http://www.skybus.com/

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Making the move, tying up some loose ends, recent Waymarking, and excuses excuses excuses

So I've decided to make the move over to Blogger after all. It's nothing against Livejournal, but I just like the features, and options over here a little better. To the best of my knowledge I've copied over all of the old posts. I'm still going to keep everything up at my LiveJournal but new posts are going to go here.

As for the loose ends, hmmm, well I seem to forget most of everything that I wanted to mention. I happened to notice some things that I never really wrapped up from some previous posts. One thing I did want to mention though. When I started copying and pasting everything over here, I noticed that Hikenutty had replied to one of my blog posts here back in June. Back at that time I had copied over a few posts, and was playing around with the site to kind of get a feel for it. I didn't really have any intention of switching over at that time, but she just happened to find me on here. Since I never really checked this site, I didn't notice the comment. So to answer your question, HN, yeah, I am switching over, so please do update your links....I just didn't know I was going to do so when you asked. :)

I've recently been able to post a few Waymarks. More than I have in recent times, really. One in particular I really enjoyed going to Waymark. Ever since the inception of the Active Rail Locations category, I've been meaning to toss a Waymark in there. This past Sunday I finally got up to the spot I had in mind, which was the Marion Union Station. I've always been interested in railfanning, but I've never actively participated. I headed up and spent a little over 2 hours there and caught 4 trains up there. I was hoping for more trains, but I still wasn't disappointed. However it wasn't on par with the 100+ trains per day that makes it a nationally known rail spot. I did have the opportunity to talk to a few folks while we were waiting, so it was all around an enjoyable, if not cold, rainy, and windy day. I'm planning to head back up there more frequently just for fun.

Some may or may not have noticed that I've not been very active with my blog, or on the WM.com site lately. There are a few reasons behind this. Mainly I've just been busy remodeling a house to put it on the market soon. Long story short, I own a home up in Marion, and live in an apartment in Delaware. For the past 7 years or so, my brother has been living at the house. The way that worked out, shortly after I bought the house my job was more or less moved from Marion to Cleveland, and I moved up there. He moved into the house since it was only about 5-10 minutes from his work, and it helped me out. He bought his own home in October, and moved out. Since I'm still in a lease with my apartment here in Delaware, I couldn't really move up there. Plus it would increase my commute to work from 30min to a little over an hour. So I'm fixing things up a little, and am going to try to sell it....yeah I know, great time to try to sell a house. I'm still hopeful though since the area is growing quickly, and the house is pretty close to where all sorts of new shops, restaurants, and jobs are being created.

The other thing that's been keeping me away is my terrible internet. I mentioned it before in the blog and I'm still having the same problems. I can connect for about 2-3 minutes, then I get kicked off for 5 minutes, and then I can reconnect for another 2-3 minutes.....repeat all evening. It's just not very conducive to computing on the internets. I think at this point I've narrowed the problem down. I've noticed I have the most problems when it's cold, and/or wet outside. I believe there must be a problem with the wires somewhere. I've just not bothered to call about it because I hate dealing with their tech support, and I know that I'm going to get the run-around and that it'll be nearly impossible to convince them that switching my modem on/off for the 100th time that evening isn't going to magically fix it.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Geocaching interview, and some weekend Waymarking.

A month or so ago I got in contact with the director of the Marion County Parks District after she had posted on the GC.com forums. Essentially she had heard about Geocaching and thought it might be an activity the Parks District would be interested in. I've spoken with her on a few occasions and also presented Geocaching to a few groups in the area. She passed my name on to Marion's local newspaper, The Marion Star. After exchanging a few emails and phone calls with a reporter there, I stopped in there to do an interview for an upcoming article on Geocaching. Basically we met at the paper's headquarters where we talked about Geocaching, and I showed her around the website while a photographer took a few pictures. The reporter mentioned that she had read an article about Geocaching in a magazine over the summer, and was interested in it, but didn't know where to start. She, and the photographer both seemed to be excited about it on a personal level, so maybe they'll start caching.

After a few minutes in the office we went out to find a nearby cache. I was hoping to take them to a more traditional cache in a more interesting area, but it was pretty snowy, so some may have been a little dicey to find. The one we finally settled on was within walking distance, which made it much easier. It was a micro in one of the towns newer downtown pocket parks. As I mentioned, I would have liked to have taken them to an ammo can or something, but this one was ok in the end.

I'm not sure when it'll make the paper, but when it does, maybe I can Waymark it under the News Article Locations. Unfortunately while I was there, I forgot to get coords and pics to mark the Marion Star under the Newspaper Headquarters.

Today started out very foggy, and while we both wanted to get outside we just couldn't until around noon when it finally cleared up. After grabbing some lunch we visited a few places around the Columbus area. I managed to Waymark a Freestanding Arch, which I still need to add a few pictures to. I just haven't gotten my film developed. I also snagged a couple of Ohio Historical Markers and a Worldwide Cemetery. One of the Ohio Historical Markers also falls into the Irish-American Historic Places category as well. I so managed to sneak a visit in for an Ohio Historial Marker.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

A few more out of the backlog

I managed to post all but one of the Waymarks that I discussed earlier; the ones I just had to get posted now. The one that I didn't, I realized I don't have decent enough pictures, so I'll have to head back out to that site soon to take care of that.

Anyhow I managed to resubmit the Honda plant in Marysville, Ohio. I originally submitted it to the "First of its kind" cat back in November, however it was declined because there is no sign on site showing that it was the location where the first Japanese car was built in the U.S. It was suggested that I submit it to the Superlatives cat instead. I kept meaning to do that, but never thought about it when I was able to do so. In addition to that I submitted a Horse Crossing Sign in the "Uncommon Crossing Signs" cat, a Drive-In Movie Theater (I'm hoping to get back there this summer to catch a movie, and Waymark the neon there. I want to get some good night shots), and a Former School.

The former school has actually been pretty high on my list to get posted for a while. I didn't attend this school, but I did go to school in one of the other 3 Marion County School Districts, and I worked directly across the road for a few years. Also, Dewgrl, DID go to this school, and graduated just a couple of years before the story broke that led to its closing. In short the school was built on a waste dump that was formerly part of a U.S. Army base and POW camp during WWII, and into the early 1960's. In the late 1990's a former student of the school noticed higher than normal Leukemia rates in students who attended the school. After some misleading information, and cover-ups from the Ohio EPA and Army Corps of Engineers, over 75 chemicals were found on the school's campus at hazardous levels. The schools were closed in 2003, after the OEPA, Ohio government, and Army Corps gave money to build new schools elsewhere. A longer, more descriptive narrative can be found on the Waymark page once its approved. I guess because it was handled through the Army Corps, it never seems to have been listed as a Superfund Site.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Waymarking Kansas and Missouri

This past weekend Dewgrl and I went out of town for her sister's wedding in Knob Noster, Missouri. We flew into Kansas City, and had a little down time during which we did a little Waymarking and Geocaching. On Thursday, after we arrived in KC we visited the GARMIN HQ for a Waymark visit, and to grab a virtual cache. It looks like there are many who are doing some armchair caching on this one, but we really did visit there. After that we drove over to a great BBQ Joint. One of my goals in going out there was to try real Kansas City BBQ, and this spot fit the bill perfectly. I had a few more Waymarks that I wanted to visit but we were both a little tired from traveling, and with our bellies full of BBQ we just wanted to get to our hotel, which was on Whiteman AFB. Since access is obviously restricted, we had to have Dewgrl's sister meet us at the main gate to get us in, and take care of getting our passes and such. She was running a little late, so we took spent the time in nearby Warrensburg finding the Several Bridges Road (Version 2) cache there. We finally got our passes and into the base where we were lead to the hotel. Once there I logged the caches and Waymark visits, and we went to bed.

Friday was mostly free for us. The only things that were planned was a tour of the Oscar 1 site on base, and the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. We got up early that morning to run out to Otterville for the James Gang cache. We DNFed it, and I'm pretty sure that it's not there any longer, however it was still an interesting site to visit. This spot was a location where the James Gang robbed a train for over $20,000. While there I waymarked the Blue Star Memorial Highway Marker and the site as an Infamous Crime Scene. On the was back through Sedalia we stopped for an early lunch at a local diner which was great! We got back to the base, and met up with the groom to be for our tour of the Oscar 1 facility. Basically it is one of several sites around the U.S. that were used from the 1960's until 1993. These underground bunkers were sites from which the Minuteman missiles would have been launched. Because of our nuclear disarmament agreements most of these sties were dug up and destroyed. This one was left due to it being one of the only ones located directly on a military base. The silos and missiles that it controlled were destroyed though. The tour guide, who is stationed at the base, made what could have been a dry, boring tour, a lot of fun. The groom's father also worked in one of these facilities elsewhere so he was able to provide much additional information as well. Following that we drove past the flightline to see the B-2 bombers that were out on display for a visiting officer. I also got to see a few A-10's that were tied-down outside the maintenance wing. Once that was over we had a little more time before we had to go to the rehearsal and dinner, so we drove back out to a Missouri Historical Marker we had passed to Waymark it. We also found another Blue Star Memorial Highway Marker there, and directly behind the park where these markers were located was a cemetery that we drove around to find and Waymark. On the way back to base again we made a quick stop at the Backroad Bridge Micro cache. The rest of Friday evening was taken up by wedding festivities.

The actual wedding was on Saturday. Everything was held on base, which made it convenient for travel. Everything was within just a few minutes of our hotel. It turned out to be a nice day, and it was a beautiful wedding and reception.

Sunday we had to check out of the hotel by 11am, and head back to Kansas City to catch our flight home. We got up early and went back into Warrensburg where we visited the Courthouse which is also on the National Register among other things. In front of the courthouse is a statue of "Old Drum", a dog that was the center of one of Missouri's most interesting damage suits, and from which we got the term that a dog is "Man's best friend." The statue is also the center of a virtual cache which we logged as well. On the way back to the base for the final time we found another MO Historical Marker which we Waymarked. We got back to base around 10:30am, checked out, picked up some folks that we were taking back to the airport and traveled to KC on our way home.