well, mine wasn't really meant to be off road, but i'll post it here anyway. (I'm copying and pasting the message posted by the other guy i was with, as i haven't had a chance to write my blog for that weekend yet)
OK, in my Geocache Friends topic for myself, I've been egged on into a funny story that might include myself. I have one, and I was there.... but I was not the 'Victim' in this one. Mmuuaahhhhh
Oh... on the 17th of April, Bryan and I had set up a run that would take us across the State Line and into the Willow Slough area for several caches. Cool beans! That was a hell of a run for us, and one of us should start an entire new topic about it like I did with my Essex Run today. At least in that topic, there could be up to Four of us telling the entire story. (5 if Lazerpuppy signed here as well.) But for this topic, mine is gonna have to be the story that Bryan can chime in on to focus of this subject alone.
We got a couple caches found and we're on the way to the next one. I'm the Lead car during most of this run, and I should think that neither one of us did enough Map work ahead of time. So this is where this story takes a turn for the worse. As the lead car, I'm wondering if this road we're on toward the next cache is gonna circle around back to where we really need to be. I even pulled over and went to Bryan in his van to ask. So he set's his Car GPSr to lead the way.
"Yes, it will circle around" he says. OK, so I get back to my car and keep on going. All of a sudden, I see the lights flashing at me, the Horn's a blowin' and the turn signal is on to go South (actually~ Away!) from our next cache. But he has his Car GPS set, so I turned around and followed him and his lead. ....
Gonna get pretty ugly soon. ....
Down a dang Sand Path that really had NO business being driven on with a mini van (Bryan's) let alone my car! (98 Ford Taurus with the hot rod engine and low as all can be to the ground!
I may well have been doing this run in a FWD version of a Corvette, ya know? And here we are just a runnin' on down this sand path until....
A Dead End Gate! Locked, at that!
Now what to do? ???
So we all get out of the 2 vehicles (there were 5 of us there, total) to assess the situation, and in short order we conclude that we'll just have to turn around and head on back to the Real Road. Bryan looked to see if he could drive around the gate, while his wife and I look at the Very Locked gate with Lazerpuppy.
Like I said, it didn't take too long to realize that we just have to go back the way we came. So.. each driver back to each vehicle to make our 3 point turnaround with only enough room to do so that we had to make it more like a 6 point turnaround as taught by the standard High School's Driver's Ed program.
As I made my turnaround (with my FWD version of a Corvette...) I stopped and waited at the top of a hill for Bryan and his minivan to show up in my Rear view Mirror so that we can get back on the caching trail. (did I yet mention that my tires Suck on that car? I didn't think so, so I just did right now. Yup, Tires are about Bald!)
And I'm still waiting for Bryan to show up.
Uh Oh. Better get out and hike back to check on them guys. ???
Stuck! Mired!! Up to the Bumper DEEP into the Sand! Oh crap!
Long story short... it took more than 5 tries before he got that van unstuck and back on the way to the next cache (back to a real road.) Along the attempts, he went a bit Off the path a few times and really added some nice new scratches to the front and back doors and his wife was none too happy about that when we stopped again at the next two caches. She was a trooper and worked with us to Push on the van while Lazerpuppy got a mouthful of thrown sand at least once from the spinning front tires... ;D
Back as the lead car after that ordeal, I took a different direction and we made our way on through the rest of the planned cache run. Pretty much along better roads from there on out.
But Bryan was Fired as the Driver of that van after we shut the engines off at the next cache site. His Wife was awful Pissed when the van wouldn't start! >:( After a short while of jacking it up and taking a look at it, I found a loose Starter Wire under it and we (I) got it going again. (Pays off to have been an Automotive Tech a few years back, huh?) Yeppers! ;D
The rest of the trip went well enough, and one of us should start a topic about it to tell the rest of the story there, but for here in this topic.... That's my Story, and I'm Stickin' to it! To Conclude, I'd make a vote to toss that Car GPSr out the window when it comes to Geocaching!!!
the forum is here
http://www.cowboycamper.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=generalgeo&action=display&thread=232&page=1 this is a local caching group, out of Kankakee Il. the logs can be found:
http://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/view.aspx?guid=ed69807e-0c81-479a-9f68-7beb1eacbb2fbook mark list
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LUID=a5af08fe-08d6-4ba0-b873-2ca71374c235 Fish Creek (our first cache)
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LUID=55ee4593-90e2-4b7f-aee8-d58ec6e05f0e Friendship Fires (our eventful cache)
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LUID=d01a89a9-1781-4be4-b0fa-733aa3b88933 C C C Camp Road (back to the car)
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Bryan Laird
blaird83
and if you hadn't guessed yeah, i was driving the van
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