The Boat

OK...now let me ramble for just a while on one of my favorite things to do...play on my boat! I think I have always loved the water. My parents had us taking swimming lessons at a very young age. I can remember going to the community pool on the first day it opened every year. My mom would also take us to the Michigan Dunes during the summer and I loved playing in Lake Michigan. As I got older, I realized that I really enjoyed boating and skiing. I love the water!

I purchased my first boat about 17 years ago and have bought another since then and that is where I like to spend a great deal of my summer. I wish someone would hide a bunch of caches around the lakes at which I like to spend time. I could do two things that I love at the same time.

I have been in a funk lately, and I took the boat out the other day. I had such a great time. It made me forget the drama of my life. The sun felt good, the water was smooth as glass, and life was great. I was so happy until I had to take the boat out of the water and go home. Oh well, this just gives me a chance to think about my next trip out. I can't wait!!!

“When the tides of life turn against you and the current upsets your boat, don't waste those tears on what might have been, just lie on your back and float.” -unknown

Naples, FL-Spring Break

Even though I went to Naples back in March, I'm just now getting a chance to write about it. It seems to be coming at a good time since my posts of late seem to be a little on the negative side. I will take this opportunity to remember a very good time. Not a lot of partying, just some relaxing good times with close friends.

The flights to and from were not so hot, but the company was great and so was the weather. My sister and her husband have a nice place down there, very close to the beach. The routine for the week was getting up, going downstairs to work out, and then out to the pool or beach...whichever we chose for the day. After that, showers and out for the evening. It was quite a break from my normal routine of burning the candle at both ends. It also came at a great time since it was during a time when some folks in a geocaching organization that I belong to decided they had nothing better to do than attack people that I care about on the forums. It was great getting away and not reading the "trash" for a while. I wish more of my friends could have been there to enjoy the great time!

“True friends are like diamonds, precious and rare. False friends are like leaves, found everywhere.”

Drama

My friends had always talked about a yearly trip they take to Florida. I have always wanted to go to experience this "great" time. I was invited and accepted. Turns out...mistake. This had to be one of the worst trips I have EVER taken. Part of it was my own fault, however, most of it was not.

Within an hour into the trip, there were signs of bad things yet to come. From that point, it only got worse, except for a small amount of time that included beach, sun, and "shipwrecks." I personally spent the last three years of my life drama free, except for a small amount of drama within a geocaching organization of which I am a member. This trip had enough drama to make up for the last three years. Anyway, the first day in Florida barely came to an end before new drama began. This, unfortunately, included me. It shouldn't have. I wish it didn't. Live and learn, right? So much drama went on, that at one point, one of my friends walked into the room and asked "Are we on TV?" It was very much like one of those reality TV shows. The next best part of the trip, for me, was the drive home and even THAT had drama.

At any rate, I think I'm going to go back to my drama-free life that I enjoyed before all this and hope that it won't take forever to recover. My lessons learned are to follow my gut and "walls are in place for a reason."

Too often travel, instead of broadening the mind, merely lengthens the conversation. ~Elizabeth Drew

Friends

After family, friendship is one of the most important things to me. I consider myself very lucky to have the friends that I have. As important as friendships are to me, the loss of a friendship is devastating.

AMY GRANT lyrics

When God takes something from your grasp, He's not punishing you, but merely opening your hands to receive something better.

Palm Springs-March 2007

This was a great trip! I had never been to California and I needed to add this state to my list of states in which I have found caches. I have to admit that Palm Springs was great, however, the flights to and from were not so much.

On the way out, I was delayed in Colorado due to the weather. They actually had snow. I left Memphis and the temperature was in the 70s. I was going to Palm Springs, were it was in the 80s. I was wearing clothes for that type of weather, not for walking from the plane, through the snow, to the terminal. Once there, I was told the plane was delayed. They were working on the problem. Once the plane was ready, we loaded on and had to sit and wait again for the plane to be de-iced.

I got into Palm Springs several hours late and was really too tired to do anything that night. My friends had already celebrated their first night there and weren't able to drive to the airport to pick me up. Luckily, there was the hotel shuttle, and my friend, Connie, gave me the information that I needed. It was dark when I arrived, so I didn't get to see how beautiful Palm Springs was until the next day. WOW!! What a beautiful place. It looks just like Memphis...NOT! The stay in Palm Springs made me pretty much forget about the bad flying experience. Much of my time was spent by the pool. Actually, MOST of my time was spent by the pool. I WAS able to snag a few caches around the hotel! As my friends always tell me, I'm a geek! I'm sure they mean this as a compliment! :-)

The flight home was much like the the flight out...delays! The first delay was in Palm Springs. A flat tire on the plane which took a couple of hours to fix. That, of course, made me miss my connection in Colorado...so you guessed it...more waiting there. I still managed to get back to Memphis ahead of my friends, who had delays of their own.

Needless to say, when it came time to go to Chicago a couple weeks later, I drove!

"Friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life." Thomas Jefferson

1 & 2K...Ain't It Grand?

One of my favorite things about my hobby of Geocaching, is the people that I have met and cached with along the way. I have cached with Amphimixus, Hoot Owl, Gibbenator, Cgeek, SarahAFS, Magicrock & Goalong, Byrd, JoeGPS, Nashville Joe & Abbys Grammy, Y&D, BDD, Sprout, Spencersb, 3, Hogfanbam and jbgreer, just to name a few.

One of my favorite people to cache with is Prontopup(Joe). Prontopup and I have the same philosophy when it comes to hiding and finding caches. We like for our hides to be interesting and we like to find everything. Most importantly, we love to have fun! For those of you who have ever cached with us you know what I'm talking about!

We figured out that we were both close to major milestones. He was getting close to his 1K and I was approaching my 2K. We decided at that point to hit those milestones at the same time. It took a lot of coordination, planning, and patience to do it. Joe had to practice the patience part. He also had to prod me along, as I hit a wall and couldn't motivate myself to go out caching. I was doing lots of traveling, but very little caching. As I finally caught up, we had to decide on the cache that we would do. We both wanted to do a 5/5 for the milestone. As we talked it over, however, we changed our minds. We decided that we wanted our milestones to be at a friend's cache. Our friends have always been important to us. Joe always says "Our friends are the family that we choose." We chose to do one of Bruce's(Abiectio) caches in West Memphis, AR for our milestones. The cache is called Greyhound. We had so much fun going after this cache. We had to travel through waves and waves of "poisonous I.V.s" to get to the cache. The moment that we had the cache in our hands, we both got this big, cheesy grin on our faces. We had done it...together!

Thanks Prontopup, Abiectio, Cgeek, and others that I have cached with to get me to 2K. I have enjoyed every minute of my time with you and I can't wait for the times to come!

"A friend is someone who dances with you in the sunlight, And walks with you in the shadows."
--Unknown

Chicago Road Trip-May 2007

Well, my first blog was about my family and my second post appears to include my family as well. My sister, Christine, flew into Chicago from AZ for a very short visit with the family. My parents always like to have all of the kids in at the same time, so I took off after school on Friday and headed north for a quick road trip. I stopped for gas, a restroom break and, of course, a cache. I made it home in time to see my mom before she headed off to work. I love my mom. That BTW, has got to be one of the best feelings in the world...seeing your mom for the first time after several months of being away.

It was great getting to see Christine! She is the twin of my sister Kate, and while they looked alike as little kids, they look very different now. Christine has dreds, which absolutely drives my mom nuts. Mom kept trying to drag Christine to the beauty shop to have them cut out, but Christine would not have it.

I was able to make it to Will's (my nephew) baseball game with my dad. Unfortunately, his game never happened due to the other team not showing. I was able to play catch with Will and some of his friends, though. Playing catch with 7 year olds can be quite exhausting. I had to chase after the ball quite a bit...their arms are still developing!

I also got to participate in the Walk For MS with Adrian's family. My brother-in-law, Billy, has MS and the entire family walked. My niece, Alexis(who is 7), wanted to walk two miles for her dad. Billy gave out after about a mile and everyone wanted to walk back to the car, except for Alexis. She was bound and determined to walk the whole way. I told Adrian that I would walk with her, so off we went. We followed all the people. The cool thing was that a lot of the people were walking with their dogs. Needless to say, Alexis got tired not too much later. I could hear the band playing and told her that we were near the finish line. As we approached, and we saw all the people, I got a sick feeling. Every single person had a dog. We had gotten mixed up in the adopt-a-pet walk that was going on in the same area. I asked someone where Centennial Park was and they told me that it was about a 30 minute walk from where we were. Alexis was not happy. We did manage to complete the walk and the family "oohed and ahhed" over Alexis walking so far. It was neat to see a little girl get so full of pride. She sure does love her daddy.

We all went out to eat Greek on Saturday night. The cool part was that my mom and dad actually socialized with each other. They have been divorced for a while and usually try to avoid each other. They didn't do that on this trip.

On Sunday, Adrian had everyone over for lunch. My niece and nephews begged and pleaded with me to take them caching. I told them that I would if it was OK with their parents. It was and off we went. We had a great time caching. When I cache with the kids, we take a lot of detours. We do a lot of playing at the cache sites and this trip was no exception. Each kid got to "find a treasure" with a little manipulation from Aunt Lisa.

Upon arriving back at Adrian's house, the kids wanted to go to Dairy Queen. That brought opposition from Adrian until she asked who was taking them and the kids replied "Aunt Lisa!"
Adrian's response then became "Oh, OK." Thanks, Ade!

I left on Monday and I was able to pick up a few more caches on my way back to Memphis thus turning an 8 hour trip into a 12 hour trip.

The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family. Thomas Jefferson