Lunar Eclipse

On Feb. 20, we watched the lunar eclipse for a couple hours, from its beginning until its midpoint. The moon never totally disappeared for us.

I remember standing out in our front yard with my grandma during a lunar eclipse one summer. We watched the moon turn coppery (and it looked larger than last week). I was expecting something more dramatic than what I saw, but Grandma was quite impressed with how round the moon appeared during the eclipse. I finally understood what she meant last week. I could really see the roundness of it around the edges as it got closer to being completely in the umbra. The edges would flare a bright silver and glint at us, while the reddish middle showed shading like a still life subject in an art class.

Nostalgia

I just browsed the photos from our recent road trip with my first find in MO, and found this picture of Mr. NU. Our trip to St. Louis via KC was reminiscent of childhood summer vacation road trips, but with seat belts, winter temps, no parents, and the absence of siblings fighting. We had a lot of good memories come up, especially when we saw and stopped at Stuckey's. Where else can you find a can of boiled peanuts, 3 T-shirts for $10, ice cream, and a tank of gas than a Stuckey's in MO?

The Fairy Door

Fellow geocacher egami established a waymark at Gray's Lake Park (in Des Moines) a while back. I read about it at the forums for the Iowa Geocachers Organization. I've wanted to see it since I read about it, and took the time to do so today -- my first waymark, awww.

"I" of GAIN Academy was ecstatic about the find. To her, it was proof that fairies really exist. She left a note with the hope that she'll re-visit and find an exquisite, hand-written reply, just like the other replies she found in the envelope. Her note said, "I believe in fairies." If you love fairies, you will want to visit this spot.

Two other groups visited the fairy door during our visit to Gray's Lake. One appeared curious just because we were there. The other group seemed to have prior knowledge of the door. (To read more, look at this article written by the local (news)paper.) Since the kids declared themselves "micro-haters," we did not seek any caches. I know we walked by three, but I think I agree with them. Micro-caches are not fun in the cold.

And, as usual, we did not leave the park empty-handed. We can never leave a place empty-handed. Two glass bottles for recycling and a rusty railroad spike left Gray's and accompanied us home.

When we had had enough of the sun and cold, we headed to the warmth of the car and Legion Park to find a geocache. The temperature dropped ten degrees during our visit. (Of course. See rule number two in previous post.) I had a burning desire to re-locate Mumbo Jumbo in order to keep it traveling (naturally, we stopped at Dairy Queen before we started seeking). It seems to be a relatively new travel bug, and I had been holding it much longer than I intended. I can't disappoint a new bug owner. "G" of GAIN recalled our own travel bug being held overly long, and understood the need to get it moving. I chose GC18YG2 Legion Park Hubbard #3 because new geocaches tend to have more traffic, thus increasing the chances that someone will see the travel bug, pick it up, and move it.