Geocaching and getting wet!
Our big adventure today was to go find a geocache named "Yogi and Boo-Boo's Stash". For those not familiar with the sport, geocaching involves using GPS and the internet to find small stashes of inexpensive trinkets that have been placed all over the world. I discovered the sport last year and have turned several folks on to it through www.geocaching.com. It is an especially kid-friendly thing to do as the caches usually have several small toys for kids to trade out. Another aspect of the sport involves trackable items. Called Travel bugs or Geocoins these have a unique serial number engraved on them and in some cases an objective such as to visit the Eiffel Tower.Today we moved a geocoin from Big Pine Key, Florida to this cache. It started out in Germany a few years ago. Since we know the serial number, we'll be able to track all the bugs we've found as they move through the world.
In many ways geocaching is like a hidden world. If you don't know they're there, the caches are hidden and invisible. Similar to spies and their hiddden message drops, all are in public places but hidden. In fact, the name for curious people that don't know the game is "Muggles" from the Harry Potter novels where the "normal" world exists unaware of the magical world in their midst. It's always a worry that you will be "muggled" while in the act of retrieving the cache from its hiding place. Some muggles will vandalise a cache just because they don't know any better.
Many geocaches are placed so that you will slow down and take a walk in a very pretty place and see something you wouldn't ordinarily stop for. Some are virtual caches that ask you to learn something about the place you are in order to get credit for the find.
After you find a geocache, you go online and log the find and what was taken and moved.
For those of us who travel, this is a really fun adjunct to any trip. There are literally thousands of geocaches hidden around the world. They say that at any given place on earth, you aren't more than 25 feet from a rat. Nearly the same with as geocache. Inside the park are three and within 5 miles around fifty. Nearly every rest stop on the interstate highways have at least one. Military bases, national parks and most private property are off-limits as are hazardous locations. But some require rock-climbing and the airplane at the lake requires Scuba.
After walking through the woods,we found the nice paved trail and followed it for a few hundred feet to the cache. It was an old ammo can full of toys and trinkets for the kids. Savannah and Harken enjoy that part.
We put a geocoin into the cache. We picked up that coin in No Name Key, FL in May. It had started life in Germany and had no other purpose than to travel and be tracked, which is another facet of this sport. It is fun to see where some of these items have been and how diligent people are at moving them along.
Our last geocache for the day was a "virtual" cache. These have no container or logbook, but are really neat places to go that you wouldn't go without a push. In this case it was a rickety fire tower. The state put an odd sign up that said you were allowed to climb it, but it was all on your nickel. Just beyond the sign were two completely broken cast iron steps. Really intimidating when you look up and see acouple more that have been patched. The top platform was wood.
I made it to the first platform, but felt that wisdom did not include load-testing a fire tower. Terri, Rhonda and the kids went all the way up!
Terri did it twice as the objective was to count the steps in order to get credit for the cache.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
The Corrected Signs and Markers
(This article gets into atheist philosophy. If you're offended by that line of thought, don't read this. "Take the Red Pill and everything will remain as it was"-Morpheus)
Today we loaded the whole assemblage into Robert's big "King Ranch Special" and started scoping this place out. The rain stopped long enough to let us have a really good look.
I said before that I'm not a mountain guy. That will probably change. This is a beautiful place.
The area is part of the Cumberland Plateau formed by regional uplift from sediments laid down under the Tethys Sea 200 million years ago. That is the truth as the best minds have deduced it from careful study. Apparently that's not good enough!
The signage and markers here have been diligently defaced in a very specific way. Any reference to the age of the rocks as in "200 million years" has been scratched through with knives. Even the beautifully done displays in the Nature Center have this disfigurement.
This is a battleground between truth and the enlightenment of "Science" and the revelation of anonymous prophets in the "Scriptures".
The vandalism was done by successive waves of "Young Earth" Christian activists. If you add up all the lifespans in the Genesis stories as Bishop Ussher did you arrive at the conclusion that at 2 in the afternoon of a nice October day 6000 years ago the Judeo-Christian Sky Daddy said, "Yeah, I'm lonely! How about I create something?" And these doctrinaire redactors are a reminder of that "fact".
The scary thing about it is that these probably aren't drooling idiots brought here on the "short bus" for a tour, but otherwise normal folks capable of operating 21st Century technology such as cars, computers, and guns. They also vote. Exactly the way "Brother Johnson" at the Calvary Worship Center says.
Normally this group of people is aghast at the vandalism of the "tagger" and decry the general degradation of public spaces by the young. But they don't see their act as vandalism, but as evangelism. They know the "truth" that those educated in "government schools" don't. They've integrated this truth into their lives and don't see any schism in using a quantum physics derivative such as a High-Definition Plasma TV to watch a carefully groomed millionaire evangelist like Rick Warren on their satellite dish.
My main concern and worry with all this is the redactors' "certainty". These folks are detached enough from reality to be "certain" about this. Science isn't certain. The truth is not an absolute. "Truth" really doesn't exist. We only have maddeningly approximate solutions that explain what we see most of the time. Einstein destroyed the concept of "truth" by showing that even time and space aren't what we believe.
So "Christian Truth" is just a shortcut without all the messy fuzz that is really there. The easy way out. I saw a bumper sticker that said "The Bible said it, I believe it, And that settles it!"
Enough! It just always startles me that such intolerant, wrong-headed, arrogance is elevated to the position of reverence that we allow it. Eventually, people are hurt by this. Whether it is the "auto da fe" and burning in the public square, or the more socially acceptable demands that the people you elect or do business with be "good Christians". Even if they're uneducated boobs.
As for me, I think the majesty of sedimentation over millions of years trumps "Whoop! There it is!"
Today we loaded the whole assemblage into Robert's big "King Ranch Special" and started scoping this place out. The rain stopped long enough to let us have a really good look.
I said before that I'm not a mountain guy. That will probably change. This is a beautiful place.
The area is part of the Cumberland Plateau formed by regional uplift from sediments laid down under the Tethys Sea 200 million years ago. That is the truth as the best minds have deduced it from careful study. Apparently that's not good enough!
The signage and markers here have been diligently defaced in a very specific way. Any reference to the age of the rocks as in "200 million years" has been scratched through with knives. Even the beautifully done displays in the Nature Center have this disfigurement.
This is a battleground between truth and the enlightenment of "Science" and the revelation of anonymous prophets in the "Scriptures".
The vandalism was done by successive waves of "Young Earth" Christian activists. If you add up all the lifespans in the Genesis stories as Bishop Ussher did you arrive at the conclusion that at 2 in the afternoon of a nice October day 6000 years ago the Judeo-Christian Sky Daddy said, "Yeah, I'm lonely! How about I create something?" And these doctrinaire redactors are a reminder of that "fact".
The scary thing about it is that these probably aren't drooling idiots brought here on the "short bus" for a tour, but otherwise normal folks capable of operating 21st Century technology such as cars, computers, and guns. They also vote. Exactly the way "Brother Johnson" at the Calvary Worship Center says.
Normally this group of people is aghast at the vandalism of the "tagger" and decry the general degradation of public spaces by the young. But they don't see their act as vandalism, but as evangelism. They know the "truth" that those educated in "government schools" don't. They've integrated this truth into their lives and don't see any schism in using a quantum physics derivative such as a High-Definition Plasma TV to watch a carefully groomed millionaire evangelist like Rick Warren on their satellite dish.
My main concern and worry with all this is the redactors' "certainty". These folks are detached enough from reality to be "certain" about this. Science isn't certain. The truth is not an absolute. "Truth" really doesn't exist. We only have maddeningly approximate solutions that explain what we see most of the time. Einstein destroyed the concept of "truth" by showing that even time and space aren't what we believe.
So "Christian Truth" is just a shortcut without all the messy fuzz that is really there. The easy way out. I saw a bumper sticker that said "The Bible said it, I believe it, And that settles it!"
Enough! It just always startles me that such intolerant, wrong-headed, arrogance is elevated to the position of reverence that we allow it. Eventually, people are hurt by this. Whether it is the "auto da fe" and burning in the public square, or the more socially acceptable demands that the people you elect or do business with be "good Christians". Even if they're uneducated boobs.
As for me, I think the majesty of sedimentation over millions of years trumps "Whoop! There it is!"
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Eight Tons of Wet, Slippery Fun!
We're in Fall Creek Falls State Park, TN. Getting here was ALL the fun!
I'm not a mountain person. Hell, I'm not a hill person. I knew we were going to have trouble when the temperature alarm started to sputter.
I had looked at the route that Google Maps and the GPS said was shortest and adjusted it using a terrain overlay map to take the worst grades out. US 127 and TN111 are the truck routes. Nice wide shoulders in most places and four lanes much of the way, but there isn't much that can be done about the mountains. Long steep grades are bad for engines going up and going down.
Once we got on 111 the fun starts. First couple of grades were no sweat, then we started the long slow haul up.
The Holiday Rambler weighs over seven tons dry and is powered by huge Chevy 454 carburetted with a Rochester 4-barrel. And we're towing a 700 pound dolly with a Prius on it. All up around eight tons of rolling thunder.
And I don't DO mountains! This is the first time I've ever been off an Interstate highway in the verticals.
Now I understand why the big trucks get up insane speed in the bottoms. They need to get as far up the mountain with gravity helping as they can. Once the pull of Earth's core hooks into my recreational equipment, speed goes way down.
The pedal is welded to the floor, big four barrel pouring money and air down to eight bucket-sized pistons screaming up and down amid the explosions results in 27 miles an hour!
And the coolant is getting hot! I never thought of the water temperature gauge as particularly responsive or critical, but I'm getting a new one for the top of the dash and a transmission temp gauge and oil cooler too! Anything to cool this reactor down.
The temp gauge starts visibly moving towards that red rectangle of danger and then I find a new feature that Holiday Rambler built into my coach. A red "Temp" light and buzzing horn!
By the time we started hearing the horn, I could see the end of the climb. Pushed it through both times.
And just like sex, once it's over, things relax fast. I know the cooling system is in good shape because as soon as the load is off, the temp comes down withing fifteen seconds.
I've learned to kill the airconditioner, but I forgot the trick of turning on the heaters and using them as auxiliary radiators.
Coming out of here, I'm going to dismount the Prius until I hit US127 (around 40 miles).
Now for the slippery part!
Tennessee may be the Indian word for "rinky-dink"! (George, calm down!) In other states they're all over signs telling you the grade, and warning RV's and heavy trucks to take another route. Not here!
Once we got off 111, there were the usual brown, reflective direction signs into the park. Inside the park, they use wooden signs with routed-out 2-inch letters painted white. That's not a really bad thing, until they make the sign 4x8 feet and covered completely in letters and arrows. Two at each intersection. One points down each road telling you everything that's there. And I mean everything!
Approaching the intersection, even at low speed, you don't have enough time to read both signs completely before you start your turn. And towing means a turn is a commitment on the order of marriage vows or taking a commission in the Russian Navy! You can't back out of any of them!
So we committed to the long route inside the park. Saw the fire tower and the riding stables. And then we collided with the road. These are paved "all-weather" roads through deep gullies in high majestic forests. Some of the roads don't see much sun and have algae growing on them. Throw a bike down in a Milli-second.
And they stop my fun immediately! This "bottom" was like a folded piece of paper, down then up. And on a curve, too! No hope of building speed to coast up the other side.
When the dually's lost traction, my primary concern was sliding sideways in the heavy rain.
I got my left foot on the brake, loaded up the torque converter and modulated power to the wheels with the brakes while steering for the middle of the road. Out of the slick-worn tracks and straddling the relatively clean and pointy macadam in the center. It worked and squalling and bucking, up that hill we went!
Later, when the cute teenage girl at registration gave us a park map, I could see that that last six miles went around the perimeter of the park. If I had gone straight for two miles of reasonably flat road I'd have avoided the problem.
Guess which way I'm going out?
I'm not a mountain person. Hell, I'm not a hill person. I knew we were going to have trouble when the temperature alarm started to sputter.
I had looked at the route that Google Maps and the GPS said was shortest and adjusted it using a terrain overlay map to take the worst grades out. US 127 and TN111 are the truck routes. Nice wide shoulders in most places and four lanes much of the way, but there isn't much that can be done about the mountains. Long steep grades are bad for engines going up and going down.
Once we got on 111 the fun starts. First couple of grades were no sweat, then we started the long slow haul up.
The Holiday Rambler weighs over seven tons dry and is powered by huge Chevy 454 carburetted with a Rochester 4-barrel. And we're towing a 700 pound dolly with a Prius on it. All up around eight tons of rolling thunder.
And I don't DO mountains! This is the first time I've ever been off an Interstate highway in the verticals.
Now I understand why the big trucks get up insane speed in the bottoms. They need to get as far up the mountain with gravity helping as they can. Once the pull of Earth's core hooks into my recreational equipment, speed goes way down.
The pedal is welded to the floor, big four barrel pouring money and air down to eight bucket-sized pistons screaming up and down amid the explosions results in 27 miles an hour!
And the coolant is getting hot! I never thought of the water temperature gauge as particularly responsive or critical, but I'm getting a new one for the top of the dash and a transmission temp gauge and oil cooler too! Anything to cool this reactor down.
The temp gauge starts visibly moving towards that red rectangle of danger and then I find a new feature that Holiday Rambler built into my coach. A red "Temp" light and buzzing horn!
By the time we started hearing the horn, I could see the end of the climb. Pushed it through both times.
And just like sex, once it's over, things relax fast. I know the cooling system is in good shape because as soon as the load is off, the temp comes down withing fifteen seconds.
I've learned to kill the airconditioner, but I forgot the trick of turning on the heaters and using them as auxiliary radiators.
Coming out of here, I'm going to dismount the Prius until I hit US127 (around 40 miles).
Now for the slippery part!
Tennessee may be the Indian word for "rinky-dink"! (George, calm down!) In other states they're all over signs telling you the grade, and warning RV's and heavy trucks to take another route. Not here!
Once we got off 111, there were the usual brown, reflective direction signs into the park. Inside the park, they use wooden signs with routed-out 2-inch letters painted white. That's not a really bad thing, until they make the sign 4x8 feet and covered completely in letters and arrows. Two at each intersection. One points down each road telling you everything that's there. And I mean everything!
Approaching the intersection, even at low speed, you don't have enough time to read both signs completely before you start your turn. And towing means a turn is a commitment on the order of marriage vows or taking a commission in the Russian Navy! You can't back out of any of them!
So we committed to the long route inside the park. Saw the fire tower and the riding stables. And then we collided with the road. These are paved "all-weather" roads through deep gullies in high majestic forests. Some of the roads don't see much sun and have algae growing on them. Throw a bike down in a Milli-second.
And they stop my fun immediately! This "bottom" was like a folded piece of paper, down then up. And on a curve, too! No hope of building speed to coast up the other side.
When the dually's lost traction, my primary concern was sliding sideways in the heavy rain.
I got my left foot on the brake, loaded up the torque converter and modulated power to the wheels with the brakes while steering for the middle of the road. Out of the slick-worn tracks and straddling the relatively clean and pointy macadam in the center. It worked and squalling and bucking, up that hill we went!
Later, when the cute teenage girl at registration gave us a park map, I could see that that last six miles went around the perimeter of the park. If I had gone straight for two miles of reasonably flat road I'd have avoided the problem.
Guess which way I'm going out?
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