Searching for Tupperware.....

This is my short explanation for geocaching:

"I use a billion dollar government sponsored satellite system to hunt for Tupperware in the woods..."

I find it a fun and unique hobby that has taken me to some very interesting places with the sometimes secondary goal of locating the camouflaged aforementioned Tupperware. As part of the Christmas holiday break I embarked on a special father-son weekend that had as one of its stated goals the thrill of the hunt for the elusive Tupperware. We had been planning this weekend since Thanksgiving and needed the weather to cooperate. Luckily Mother Nature did indeed send us some good weather but not before burying all our potential cache finds under some snow and ice....

We began on Friday afternoon and after what seemed to Jason to be hours of driving the GPS unit bonged we were close to our first stated goal, a cache named 'We Wish you Well', well disguised inside a wishing well in a small park just outside of Danville, PA. After rooting around a bit at ground zero our search was rewarded with a unique cache container that was not the usual Tupperware. Being a bit warm out we just had to stick around a while to play in this nice newly constructed park.

I think someone had a good time in the park. Next it was on to the Buckhorn to locate "Boppin' at Buckhorn", an annoying micro-cache near an abandoned section of the Columbia Mall that eluded us a year ago on Father-Son cache weekend 2006. I'm not a fan of these type of caches but can't stand the thought of having one get away from us. Now last year I searched and searched and searched but came up dry. Jason slept in the warm car while a cold biting wind zapped my energy on that cold and gray day. This time we walked right up to it. Instant find. Go figure...

After this successful hunt we headed off the the Wendy's in the mall for lunch. This was the first eating establishment on Jason's restaurant itinerary. We then completed two more caches before deciding it would get too dark when we arrived at our final destination. We skipped the additional 3 caches on our list and pressed on.

We arrived at "the big house", as Jr. calls it, just as it was getting dark. Despite the doom and gloom forecast if ice and snow blocking the way in we were able to pull up without a problem. We were greeting inside by a live Christmas tree, something that hasn't adorned the house since 1995. It was nice to see and it put a nice touch on the weekend.

While I set about unpacking our bags Jason decided to reconstruct a roller coaster with his new iCoaster set

We lounged about a bit and then headed off to Jason's second requested restaurant, Henry's Ghost Steak House in Henryville, PA. Henry's is the latest incantation for this one building nestled on a sharp curve on PA 715. A few of the on-line reviews I read were good so I agreed with his choice and we headed out.

Being our first time here, no matter which incantation, we had no idea what to expect. The interior was pleasantly decorated even if it did feel like a crazy mashup of the 1970's and 1990's. There was a distinct wet ash odor coming from the fireplace that temporarily assaulted my senses but that soon passed. The food did live up to its reviews and Jason enjoyed his kids meal but our young and inexperienced server couldn't get his order right no matter how many times I tried to explain it to her. What part of 'he gets french-fries and a dessert as part of that' could she not understand? It says so in big print in the kids menu.

We never did get his free dessert and I ended up paying for the free fries but it was getting late and I was tired and decided it wasn't worth the fuss over a measly16 bits. We'll give the Ghost another opportunity on a later date. Despite all that you can see from the smile the Ghost was good.

Saturday was a slow day that featured our only home cooked meals, breakfast (requested menu was pancakes and bacon) and lunch (grilled cheese). Reminder to self- bring a decent frying pan next time.

After spending the afternoon visiting some friends I hadn't seen in quite a while it was time for phase 3 of the weekend, the BB gun shoot:

Jason is a great shot. After seeing A Christmas Story for the umpteenth time he loves to quote "but kid, you'll shoot your eye out...". Don't worry... he is wearing his safety glasses!

After shooting Black Bart and the rest of his Dastardly Gang it was time for restaurant three on this ever more expensive itinerary, the Dansbury Depot. This is one of Jason's favorite spots and I like heading here myself. The food is always good and I never had a problem with the service. They also have Boylan Soda, made from real cane sugar, so I always have to get a bottle when I come here.

There is just something about an old train station....

Sunday AM featured restaurant 4, Billy's Pocono Diner. We met up with some friends who can be scary looking that early in the morning:

After Billy's it was time to reactive the geocaching phase of the big weekend. First stop was God's Glorious View in Mt. Pocono. I couldn't believe we found this one which as I fear was buried under the snow and ice pack. We got real lucky here! The view did live up to expectations. I only managed 2 snaps. This one is looking towards Camelback ski area

and this one which I believe is overlooking the new Mt. Airy Resort and Casino.

After some fit and start navigation we were off to successfully find Tomato Soup. To avoid a stream crossing in the cold we approached from a back way in and discovered more snow and ice.

This marked our completing the entire Soup for Lunch cache series we started during our 2006 adventure. We thought we'd check out the nearby Big Pines Forest cache but the trail was much too icy, with a steep slope straight into the creek, for us to chance.

On our way back to teh car we spotted this tree growing out of a rock, reminding us of nature's power and how life always finds a way to survive.

We wrapped up by finding two more caches and one DNF, an annoying micro in the woods nobody has found since August of 2006. We headed back to the big house, packed up, and ran out the door to head home before the big snowstorm struck. We made it back to Danville stop at McDonald's, our final restaurant on the itinerary. We picked this one because of the awesome play-place.

Our geocache weekend adventure yielded a meager 8 finds and 1 dnf. For some folks 8 finds in a morning isn't even breaking a sweat. All told I must've dropped over $125 on food and gas for the weekend. But it is not about the numbers.....

The time we spent together was priceless and for good measure had some geocaching and visiting old friends thrown into the mix. I can't wait for next year.