If you say it out loud....

If you set a goal I think the best way to achieve it is to say it out loud to someone else. Then you feel pressured to make sure that you get it done. Well after logging all these geocaches from our recent trip we are at 75 caches found. With the summer just around the corner I think that I can be confident when I say that our goal should be to reach 100 by the end of the year.

There I said it. 100 by the end of the year, that's our goal.

From home...day 6

We started the day with a little shopping at the Grove City outlets. I hit my fav store - Lane Bryant and got some good deals. But Scott knew he was in trouble when we discovered that they had opened a Disney Character outlet store in Grove City - I was like a kid in a candy store!! Luckily we made it out with just one thing - some really cool mickey Christmas lights. Guess you'll have to visit us next Christmas if you want to see them.

We headed up to Erie, PA for a quick stop at Millcreek Mall. Then we had some lunch at TGI Fridays (they have the best Jack Daniels glaze on everything there) and hit the road for home.

I think Scott's "kid in a candy store" moment came when we walked into the duty free shop and had to choose what beer to buy. But eventually he made his choice and we were back on the road again. Luckily there was no border delays and we were home in time to watch the specials leading up to the last episode of one of our favourite shows...Corner Gas.

We were welcomed home with a chorus of "meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow. As you can tell, I guess Alice missed us a bit.

So we're home. It's cold and the grass is brown. And I have to go back to work tomorrow. Time to think about the next vacation so I have something to look forward to. But maybe next time we should fly - I think I have a serious case of "numb bum" from sitting in the car for so long.

I am just watching Scott crack open the jar of chocolate we got at Hershey's and put his "tasting" skills to work. MMMmmmm...chocolate.

From the road...day 5

Happy Easter!!!! Well here we are, day 5. This morning we said goodbye to Allison, Phil & Jacob after a great visit. We spent the day in the car travelling from North Carolina to Virginia to West Virginia to Pennsylania. It was a long drive but very scenic as we were driving along the mountains much of the time.

This is Pilot Mountain, NC

Then we drove by Mount Airy. Mount Airy was the birthplace and childhood home of American actor Andy Griffith, and is widely believed to be the inspiration for the fictional community Mayberry, the setting of The Andy Griffith Show.
This is the view from Virginia looking back at Pilot Mountain and Mount Airy area of North Carolina. This was a spectacular view and the picture does not do it justice but I tried.

We passed through two mountain tunnels in Virginia.

This was the hiding spot of a geocache I found at the West Virginia welcome centre. Scott found another one just off the highway later in the day. Looking for caches was a great way to break up the drive a bit and give us a chance to stretch our legs a bit.

This is the view from the bridge over New River. This is the Western Hemisphere's longest Arch Bridge. (Who knew?)

This was a monument to a one of the largest coal mining disasters that took place at the same location as the current Pennsylvania Welcome Centre.

It turned out to be a rather educational trip today.

We finished off our day by having Easter dinner at the Olive Garden just south of our current location, Grove City PA. Tomorrow we do a little shopping at the outlets and head for home.

From the road...day 4

Day number four in North Carolina. It was another beautiful day here with the temperature reaching about 22 degrees Celsius. Last night we had some pretty good thunderstorms. My car is now clean from the rain we had.

We got out for a walk this morning and were able to find some geocaches in a green belt not to far from where we were staying. Here is Scott finding one on our walk.

After lunch we took a trip to Chapel Hill, home of the 2009 NCAA Division 1 Basketball Champion University of North Carolina Tar Heels. We took a walk down Franklin Street and visited some of the stores that were selling championship gear. Scott was able to pick up a couple of t-shirts and hats.

A very special thanks to our host Phil for taking us there today. We understand how hard it must have been for a North Carolina State alumni to visit this unholy ground, but we appreciate the sacrifice and won't tell anyone of your journey today.

What visit to Chapel Hill would be complete without a visit to the Dean E Smith center? Home of the Tar Heels. Unfortunately it was closed for renovations and we could not get inside. Maybe next time!

After a delicious diner that evening we were treated to a quite an entertaining show from Alison and Phil's son Jacob. Full dress costume and all.

All in all this has been a wonderful trip. Tomorrow we start to head for home.

Tales from the road...day 3

It was a warm and sunny day so it was off to the beach we went. We arrived at Carolina Beach just around noontime. The water was pretty cold so this was as wet as we got. It was pretty windy but it was still nice to walk the beach and by the end of the day I was doing my best lobster impression with my bright red shoulders.

We found a geocache under one of the boardwalks nearby.

Our hosts for the day Allison, Jacob and Phil walking the beach with us.

We went to the aquarium at Fort Fisher a little further down the beach.

Scott was missing Alice, so instead he was playing with the catfish.

I think anytime you can go to the beach in April I would highly recommend it.

And sorry Mom, I didn't have any fish for Good Friday but I did see lots of them :-)

From the road...day 2

Well, we made it. We left Hershey nice and early for North Carolina. We stopped to do some geocaches throughout the day. We made pretty good time except for two traffic jams driving through Virginia. Scott is convinced that he doesn't ever want to have to drive through Viriginia ever again. BTW...have I mentioned yet how much I love our GPS? It has made this drive so much easier and I love it!!!!!!!

This is Scott at the outlet mall at Gettysburg finding a cache near the edge of the parking lot.

This is me signing the log of a cache at the Maryland Welcome Centre.
This is the dirtiest car we saw all day. Yes, that is our salt covered, bug splattered car.

We finally made it to the right state! Only a couple more hours to go.....

Well, we have made it here safe and sound. Tomorrow it's off to the beach...thats right, the beach :-)

From the road....

OK so this is brilliant idea to get back to blogging. We'll see how it goes. We are on the road to visit my friend in Raleigh, North Carolina. So Scott says why don't we update the blog with tales from the road. Well seems like a good idea at least for today but who knows how much time we'll have to keep this up.

Anyhow, today we left TO about 5:30am (after stopping at Timmy's of course!). I fell asleep on the way to the border and when we arrived there was practically no one there so we crossed in no time. Buffalo was getting a blizzard and as we drove east across New York eventually it disappeared. And once we were out of NY state there was barely any snow at all.

We arrived at our first stop in Hershey PA at about 1pm and headed straight for Hersheys Chocolate World. MMMmmmm...chocolate.

After a tour of how they make chocolate we went to Hershey University and graduated from a chocolate tasting class. Its a rough life - no really!!!

We checked into the hotel, then headed back out to check out the outlet mall. We looked around for a bit and then went to find a Geocache in Hershey. We (Scott) found it, almost too easily for his preference.

Then off for dinner. Scott wanted to try out a Chilies. It was pretty good - margaritas, nacho chips and salsa, fajitas and hamburgers. I would definately go back again! So now we are back at the hotel, relaxing a bit before getting a good nights sleep and getting back on the road for another 7 hour drive tomorrow.