Nothing much new.

Last week I was on vacation with no real plans of any sort. I spent most of the week visiting a few places around the area, and driving some of the backroads to get there. This lead to visiting so smaller rural towns with a few Waymarks along the way.

I've already posted a couple of Lustron Homes in Team Farkle 7's new category. I've been interested in this since it was first brought up in the forums. It was something that I never knew about, and found there were a few in some nearby towns. I also grabbed a few new Ohio Historical Markers, a lighthouse, a unique weathervane, and a few others that got me some new icons.

In addition to that Dewgrl and I spent some time up in nearby Marion, Ohio. The Marion Area Convention and Visitors Bureau up there is have a contest of sorts called Marion's Amazing Treasures. Basically they have a list of various interesting and historical sites in and around Marion. You visit them and get either a stamp or sticker on a "game card." There are locations that are manned, such as the Union Station, and those that are unmanned like the Harding Memorial. The manned stations involve speaking to someone or taking a tour to get a sticker, and the unmanned stops have a green wooden box that has a small stamper inside so you can stamp your own card. Depending on how many of the 30 squares you check off, you qualify for various prizes. Many of the locations we were already familiar with, but some we were not. Either way it was still interesting to visit the various locations. It worked out well that I was on vacation...Dewgrl works nights so we were able to get to most of the various museums and such that hold odd weekday hours. There are still a few we need to visit, so we're planning to wrap it up this weekend.

Aside from the running around I got a little caught-up on my W'marking backlog. I mostly went through and posted those that are in categories I hadn't covered yet to get some new icons. I still have plenty more Waymarks to get through, so I've got some work ahead of me still.

Racing, and jumping through hoops..

I haven't been posting on here much lately because I've been somewhat busy. There have been a few new caches to go after, Dewgrl has recently found a love of rockhounding, I've been going up to Mid-Ohio for some races, helping my folks build a shed, and catching up on my W'marking backlog. The weather has been fairly hot lately as well, so I've opted to minimize my activity outdoors. It's pretty much typical for Ohio in late July-August, but it's been a mild summer up until now so it just seems worse than it is. The other day my thermometer was reading 101.5°f. Some of that is due to radiant heat because of where the outside sensor is located, but it wasn't too far off. Plus the humidity has been way up there. I also observed that this past winter my thermometer recorded a low of -17.1°f, so we've had nearly 120° difference in temperatures.

This past weekend I was at Mid-Ohio with my brother and sister-in-law for the Honda Supercycle Weekend. I've watched a few superbike races on TV, and have always wanted to go up for this event, but just never made it. I was there on Saturday for practice, qualifying and a few races. After getting sunburned at the last 2 races I've been to up there, I thought I was doing everything right. I picked up a light, long sleeve, fishing type shirt, put on jeans instead of shorts, and had on my everyday ball cap. I forgot to put any sunscreen on the few exposed areas thought and am suffering the result. I ended up with a decent burn on my face and neck, resulting in some blistering on my chin...maybe next time I'll remember the sunscreen!

As I also mentioned I've been working through my Waymarking backlog when I've had a few free moments. For the most part everything has gone smoothly, and most of them have been posted in categories that I've posted in before, so no big deal. This evening though I posted one in the Rails to Trails category. I didn't realize it before I went to post that they require one to not only upload pics to the gallery, but to also post them in the long description as well. I know that some folks do this on most of their Waymarks anyhow, but it's not something I'm accustomed to, nor regularly practice. I guess it wasn't too much of a big deal, basic HTML is easy enough, but it just seems unnecessary. Uploading into the gallery or posting in the description, one or the other, would suffice. It just seems arbitrary to require both. I did so to meet the requirement, but I'll think twice about marking, next time I come across some rail trails.

A few new postings

I finally managed to hunker down and get a few more Waymarks posted this evening. I've been meaning to work on them for a while, especially since I grabbed a ton of new W'Marks this past weekend.

This weekend started out as just going to a nearby farm market, in Mt. Vernon, Ohio, to see what they had to offer. Dewgrl and I make it out there every couple of weeks. Interestingly in going out to this market we pass near at least 3 other farm markets that are much closer to home. We just like this one since they have a large variety of fresh fruits, vegetables, and baked goods. The main reason we drive about an hour, instead of 5 minutes to the nearest one, is their selection of organic, grass-fed, free range meats. For me personally it's not that I'm some eco-snob or anything, I just prefer the taste, and it tends to be lower in fat and cholesterol....which is a big plus for me.

Anyhow, neither of us had anything to do on Saturday, so we decided to explore a few cemeteries that we always pass on the way to the market. We both like to explore old cemeteries for the history they offer...plus we were Waymarking them, and looking for Zinc headstones as well as Revolutionary War veterans, and bells which frequently appear in local cemeteries. We then decided to make a drive down to another cemetery in Kirkersville, Ohio, about an hour further away, that we had tried to find before. Along the way we managed to find an anchor, a few more cemeteries, and an Ohio Historical Marker. From the cemetery outside of Kirkersville, we traveled up into Granville, Ohio to grab some lunch. On a whim we stopped at an old Victorian themed cafe. I got a tuna melt, which I greatly enjoyed. Dewgrl got some turkey panini sandwich thing...I think, which she wasn't too fond of. After that we walked around the main part of Granville to grab a few Ohio Historical Markers, a bell, a few National Register spots, a museum, and some other Waymarks that escape me right now. We then headed back toward home, stopping along the way to check on one of my caches, and Waymark the spot, since it's a covered bridge, and on the National Register.

Sunday started out with a trip to the nearby Olentangy Indian Caverns. After taking a few Waymarks, and the tour, we headed up to the town in which I grew up, Prospect, Ohio. We planned to take a look at their progress in demolishing the Truss Bridge that I had Waymarked here. It's sad to see this go. It's really about the only thing this little town had in regard to history. As I mentioned on the Waymark page, to some it may have been just a rusty piece of metal, but it was a source of pride to the townspeople.

From there we were going to visit the Prospect Cemetery to mark the Zinc headstones there, since there are at least 11 of them waiting to be marked. We didn't make it there though. We ended up getting sidetracked by a few other little cemeteries, then decided to save it for another day, even though we passed right by it on the way home.

blah blah blah....racing...blah blah blah

It's been a little while since I've posted here. Mainly because I've been busy, I haven't had much time for Waymarking or caching lately. I did manage to get up to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course this weekend, and Waymark it, but it wasn't my main goal in going there.

Normally I head to the Pontiac Excitement Nationals for the pro NHRA drag racing, at National Trail Raceway. This year the moved it a little further away to Norwalk Raceway Park. I haven't been to that track in years, and I kind of wanted to go up there since they've updated the place, and this is the first year they've held an NHRA event. On the other hand I've always wanted to go to Mid-Ohio, since I've never been there but heard plenty about it. My father grew up near there and if I remember correctly he worked there for a little while during his youth. I've never asked, but I sort of suspect he may have raced there, or at least been around the track. He mentioned before that he knew the original owner very well, and my dad owned several different British sports cars when he was young...so putting 2&2 together....Anyhow, like I said, he talks about Mid-Ohio frequently, and I always wanted to get up there. I guess I always thought I wouldn't enjoy it as much since I always enjoyed drag racing, and NASCAR so much. I've watched plenty of road course events on TV, and found it a little hard to follow.

So I was left with the choice, drive almost twice as far and pay over twice as much for a ticket to go to Norwalk, or go to Mid-Ohio for the Vintage Grand Prix. Cheaper all the way around won out, and I have to say I'm really glad I changed my "tradition." I enjoyed the racing, the track and the atmosphere immensely. I think I've even found a new favorite racing genre. I guess seeing it live is a completely different experience. I now see where road courses are much more about the driver and the track, than it is about the cars. In drag racing, and NASCAR, a poor driver can still do well if the crew can manage to dial the car in just right. It just doesn't seem to be as much of a challenge to the driver when compared to road courses. Mid-Ohio was just a great place to spend a day. I also found that the food and souvenirs were cheaper than what they've been at most other races I've been to, so that was a nice bonus.

Today was spent cleaning up my Jeep and putting the interior back together so I can sell it. I don't really want to get rid of it, but I rarely drive it anymore, and can use the garage space, so it's gotta go.

Waymarking and Google Earth

I see now that you can download Waymarks into Google Earth. I haven't had a chance to look at it yet, as the laptop I'm posting this from runs very slowly (need to burn a bunch of Waymarking photos to CD and free up some room, among other things.)

I think this is a pretty cool deal. For me personally, it'll mostly just fill some free time, looking around at different waymarks on GE. It is one step closer to .GPX and PQs. For me those aren't that big of a deal. If I want to visit some Waymarks, it's still just as easy to download waypoints using .LOC files....I really don't need to take the entire description of a place with me at all times. I only need to know the logging requirements, and I'm good to go. I guess I don't understand why there are folks out there who refuse to participate in Waymarking just because .GPX files aren't available. Sure, it means the Waymarking site and functionality is different from Geocaching....but that's the whole point of Waymarking being a separate site.

A little more catch-up.

I had a few moments free this evening so I decided to go through a little more of my back log. I posted 5 locations in the US National Register of Historic Places; The Hotel Harding, Ohio Wesleyan University Student Observatory, The Dr. David Henderson House, the Hanby House, and Towers Hall. All of those were quickly approved by silverquill, and I'm beginning to think that he does nothing except approve Waymarks :) . In addition to those I also stacked a few locations as well. I dropped The Oldest Concrete Street in America into the "First of its kind" category, after previously listing it under the Ohio Historical Markers, and Superlatives categories. I also put the register for Ohio's highpoint into the Summit Registers, and Guest Books categories. While technically I didn't mark this in any other categories, I did mark the highpoint itself, which is only a few feet away, in the Superlatives, and Ohio Historical Markers categories the other day. The First of its Kind, Guest Book and Summit Register haven't been approved yet.

Hikenutty's reply...

A few days ago I mentioned having posted over 100 Waymarks in the Ohio Historic Markers category, to which Hikenutty replied. I was going to reply to that, but I figured I'd just do it as another entry since I realized that what I had to say was a little lengthy.

Having posted that many in that category really goes back to how I started in Waymarking. When Waymarking first came around, I looked at it, but I wasn't all that interested. There was nothing about Waymarking that turned me off, as a matter of fact, I had always enjoyed locationless caches, it was just that I was too lazy to take a couple of minutes to really explore the site. A few months later in some of the local Geocaching forums there was a challenge thrown out to try to get the Ohio Historic Markers above the Pennsylvania Historic Markers in terms of being the largest. For what it's worth, PA currently has more Waymarks listed in their category than Ohio has markers in the entire state....in other words, no way we'll ever win.

So from there I decided that I can certainly help in the effort, and I've always enjoyed stopping to look at the markers when I run across them. My first foray into Waymarking was solely in Ohio Historic Markers, and I took a couple of trips around through other parts of the state, just to mark historic markers. One day I decided to finally sit down and see what else Waymarking had to offer, and realized that it is really appealing to me. So a lot of the reason that my numbers are so high in that category is that I concentrated just on that one category for a while before getting into full-blown Waymarking. Because of that I feel that my numbers appear a little inflated for the category, but who cares, since I've had fun with it just the same.