Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Vacation (pic heavy)

Are you one, like me, that goes on vacation, only to really NEED a vacation when you get back? Whew, what a long week it has been. October is our annual HUGE Geocaching event in Florida that we go to every year. We drive both vehicles ( truck towing the camper, and then the Jeep)  6 hours to where all the fun and exhaustion takes place. Hopefully by next year, we will have a class A and we will only be driving one vehicle towing the Jeep. When we arrived at camp and started setting up the camper we noticed we had a hitchhiker among us


he was a decent size, we left him be and he did his own thing.

Then off to the woods we went, looking for some caches, I found a cool looking spiderweb
 looking straight down on to it


Then we ran across a field of deer moss


Then down some jeep trails and ran into a tree across the path, well we didn't run into it literally but it was in the way,


and dear hubby was determined to saw this tree out of the way, and he did,



and on our way we went only to encounter these trees a few miles down the trail, nope, not getting by these two today. Guess it is time to turn around and go back the other way, again. U-Turns are our specialty! Our caching name isn't "roundnround we go" just because.

Then one day while walking down some graded path ways that are like the bear highway around here,

  found some bear tracks, like usual. This one was a few days old, but my foot gives you an idea how big these paw prints are.


Some of the caches when we find them and open them up are just a little freaky, when you find this


a rat with red eyes, an eyeball, and a skull all staring at you when you open it up!

Then whenever there is something like this in the woods, guaranteed there is a cache hidden very near by.


Then there are always flowers around, didn't get too many pics this year, as we did a lot of volunteer help with the event, so we didn't have as much time to drive around and take pics like usual.


Then at one cache I caught out of the corner of my eye, this "zipper" so it make me look closer and check this guy out!
 Never seen one of these before, someone else told me they are known as Zipper spiders, I can see why they have that name, it was about 3.5 inches long from leg to leg, body was about an inch long. Very cool looking.
 Then on another day as we are driving we come across places that you can see quite a ways away, of nothing buy tree tops in a little valley.
Looking North....
 Looking South...
 Looking East....can you see my husband out there finding the cache?

Onto the next one


Here we are, there is suppose to b a lake here, but now it looks like a prairie, should be a cache by that big oak, lets just drive over there...........As we are driving to the tree I say, we are driving over top of the cache location, we get to the tree no cache. The name of this cache is called "Trust your GPS" well then we DID drive over it, lets walk back and see.........

 Well we follow the jeep tracks in the tall grass....and low and behold, the jeep tracks were touching the can, I think we may have even pushed the container. Never got that close to running one over before!
Some where in the forest we seen this little birds nest 
 There is a cache hidden among these palmetto forests...
 Wow hadn't seen one of these since I was a kid growing up in Michigan! Glad I was wearing shoes! It was about 18 inches across!
 One late night when we got back to camp, I made some fresh peach cobbler, mmmmmmm it was good! While it was cooking, I was sewing a quilt top together. First time I ever took a machine with me, told my husband from now on one is going. Just need to make sure I always have some quick to grab projects, that don't have a ton of pieces.
 Then there was the pigmy rattler that someone almost stepped on, this was a pretty good size one for being a pigmy it was about 16 inches long and a good 1/2-3/4 inch wide
 Then at the end of the trail, it takes us to a lake that still had water in it. Looked so peaceful, better than this photo shows for sure.
 While crossing the river, you could see for miles and miles
 This purple can was a letterbox cache......you stamp the book in this one with your personal stamp, and there is one inside for you to stamp your book too! I haven't done many of these, usually don't have my book and stamp with me for some reason, I had it on this day though. :D

Ok now let me go get the quilt top off of the trailer and take a pic, because I know you want to see it. It is done, now to figure out if I want to add borders, and what kind. Be back in a few......Ok here is the top I put together here and there on this trip........Finally done.


My rendition of a Jacob's Ladder. I used two different blue fabrics on each block, besides the chain one, carefully placing them together to form this. I didn't really know what it was going to look like till it was done. I like how it turned out. It is covering the loveseat so it is a good lap quilt size. Well that was a short trip through my vacation. Didn't take any pics of all the people that were there. Maybe I will remember next year. But I did bring back LOTS of bug bites as usual, some almost the size of dimes and a 1/4 inch tall, must be allergic or something. I will spare you the gross looking photos of those, all 90 or some of them, I look like I have the chicken pox almost. Well now I am heading to the sewing room, all the while anticipating Bonnie's huge announcement tomorrow..........the fabric requirements for the 2012 mystery!!! Yippeee, Hooray, Wooo Hooooo! Are YOU ready??? How many are joining in the fun???? See ya around and happy stitches!



8 comments:

Amy said...

Oh
Wow

That sounded like one amazing crazy adventure! And that spider...**shudder**... I don't know how close I would have gotten to it for that picture.

Amazing story! Truly, truly... thanks for taking all the time to write up the "safari-trek" and posting all the pictures. Amazing.

Karen said...

This is fascinating. It looks like you had a great time. So much to see and do.
And your quilt is looking great, too.

Anonymous said...

sounds like you had a grand time. and finished a top to boot!

Cherie said...

Wow what a vacation! Such great pictures.

scraphappy said...

Looks like a great vacation. With all the bugs in your pictures it is no wonder you came back eaten alive. Such great photos of the scenery though. Amazed that you managed to sew at all with all the fun. The new mystery is called Easy Street -- sounds like it is just perfect for me.

Heather said...

Looks like you had a great vacation!!!!!


heather

Jayne Honnold said...

Found you through Sew Many Ways; the quilt picture had me immediately! Your vacation sounds interesting - I doubt I'd be hanging around to take pictures of spiders and snakes (remember that song from the 70s?)

Thanks for sharing!
Jayne

Lynn F said...

Your quilt is visually stunning.