Tracking our progress

Well, we intended to pickup another 3 caches today on our return trip.  Alas, mother nature decided to water the lawn and seems to have forgotten to turn off the sprinklers.  So, we just came on home.  For some time now I've been wanting a better way to track where we've been and how we're doing on our journey.  So....I turned to my good friend Google to create a map.  It took a bit of grunt labor to build it, perhaps I'll eventually move it all into a database to build the KML file for me automatically using Geocaching.com's API to gather details on which caches we've been to and such.  But until then, here you go.

Oh, and I updated the template for the blog.  Good, bad?  I know I need a new header photo, but that's gonna have to wait until our annual trek up Pinnacle for New Year's (assuming we don't get iced out this year).



Direct Links to the posts:

Spring Break Part Two - 2017/03/27
On the road again - 2017/03/20
4 days, 2.5 tanks of gas, 834 miles, 10 State Parks, and 10 caches
Closing in on half way - 2016/08/06
Mark another couple off the list - 2016/03/21
New Years Trip - 2016/01/02
On the Road Again - 2015/11/24
Another Weekend More Caches - 2015/09/07
Caching the State Parks - 2015/08/23

On the Road Again

School's out for Thanksgiving so must be time to visit more State Parks and grab a few more geocaches.  October was pretty busy so we didn't manage to collect any State Park Caches but now we should have a bit of time.

This trip it was time to hit a cluster of parks in North West Arkansas, and to visit the new niece/cousin.

First up was Lake Fort Smith State Park.  This is a new old park.  Back in 2002 they closed the old park to allow for the expansion of Lake Fort Smith.  They packed up and moved 2 miles north.  We hiked a bit of the Ozark Highland's Trail to get to the cache.

Next up was Devil's Den State Park, 9 miles as the crow flies, 32 as the car drives.  We've camped at this park before, it's a nice place to go "off the grid" since it's now in a hole that cell signals don't get to.  It's also unique in that it has both sandstone and limestone caves.  They are all closed right now to protect their resident bats from the White Nose Syndrome but there's still plenty of trails to hike.

The last stop was Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park, one of many Civil War parks in the State.  We learned a bit of history.  The park was flying 2 flags, the current US flag as well as another flag that took google to determine what was.  It was the official flag of the Confederate States.  Most people assume the Confederate Battle Flag was their flag, it wasn't.  It has 3 stripes (2 red, 1 white), a field of blue, and a circle of stars.  Lots more information here.

So, for those keeping score we've collected 11 of the 52.  Maybe we'll manage to grab another 3 next weekend to keep our streak alive.