I found my 10,000th Geocache, in California

Day 56:
13,050 miles and counting.
Today I met Monkey, hands down the coolest dog I have met this trip. I then met a monkey named Doggie.
I woke up in a campground near San Luis Obispo. I arrived just before I ran out of daylight. I got set up for the night, made some lasagna in a bag dinner with lucky charms for dessert, and rested these weary bones. That was a luxury I haven’t had much this trip. I was able to take my time, make a nice breakfast, have a shower, and refill the freshwater in my van without the scowling looks up a bunch of corpses in a graveyard.
I visited Morro Bay and Morro Rock. Fascinating area undercover of fog. There sure are a lot of rock karens on the backside of Morro rock. My wife would have a field day there kicking things over.
From there I went to Pismo Beach, and visited Shell Beach. Bit of an overcast morning led to the overall ambience. I watched and photographed birds flying and pooping for quite a while. After taking in the coastline for an hour or so, it was time to keep moving south. I consulted my maps and it looked like Santa Barbara 1 is where I was to go next.
Going for the old geocache in Santa Barbara was a little more than I expected. I didn’t expect roads quite like that. I could’ve drove all the way, but I stopped a few miles short. I walked that last straightaway and the horseshoe shape of the trail. I did not imagine there would be roads and trails like this, so close to major metropolitan areas.
On the slow, snail pace back toward civilization, I stopped for some of the other hides along that road. I finally made my way back to civilization and head toward Santa Clarita to look for a Light Pole Cache. I sure am glad I did! This ended up being one of the funniest, most creative geocaches I have found this trip. From there it was time to head back off the grid, and look for a really old geocache puzzle in the desert. It was about 3 hours away, and I only had about 1 hour of daylight. I found some dirt roads behind a shopping plaza and turned in for the night, with the intentions of starting to drive before the sun.

I believe this is my 10000th geocache find

Day 57:
13,400 miles and counting.
Today I met Barksey, hands-down the coolest dog of my trip.
I woke up predawn on a little dirt patch, behind a shopping plaza near Palmdale California. I had about a 2 hour drive to my first stop this morning. The middle of the desert, near Barstow.

Apparently today I will find my 10,000th geocache, according to the Internet. So far, the internet has never been wrong in my experience. I thought my 10,000 find would be somewhere close to home, and I had something special planned for it. It was also not supposed to be until well in the future from now. But this road trip I’m on to seems to keep going and going and going, with no end in sight, and no one at home forcing me to return. So, my numbers have continued to accumulate way faster than I ever expected. I had to spend a few minutes and put some thought into the 10,000, because I could not just have it be a random one. Also, these damn adventure labs have really screwed up keeping track of upcoming milestones. So, I believe the mine offset from the year 2000 in California will be my 10,000th find. California’s first and oldest Geocache puzzle(I think). That’s a fantastic one. It was an awesome puzzle dating back forever, had to be one of the original offset puzzles, and I personally put in a lot of homework to make this one as easy as it was for me. I’m excited for the milestone.
After that adventure first thing in the morning, I proceeded to the Calico Ghost Town near Barstow California. This kind of stuff fascinates me to no end, I wandered around for sometime. I felt like they opened this whole place today just for me. I don’t know why it happens to me but when I end up places there’s usually only a few other people at most at the tourist spots. Lucky me?
After the ghost town I was going to head back to the ocean once again. On my drive west I saw a sign for San Dimas. So, I obviously went to the San Dimas high school because San Dimas high school football rules. Took some great photos of me and my van in a high school parking lot. Please nobody tell anyone about this.
Then it was on to La Brea tar pits to find out what happened there. Mystery solved, stupid animals, watch where you’re walking. Next out to the Santa Monica area and the Santa Monica pier where I wandered around aimlessly for several hours. That tends to happen to me when I get out of my element, and into a city. But it’s always fun, and I always have geocaches to navigate by. I love that people feel passionate about their towns enough to bring me to the best spots.
The Santa Monica beaches are about as foreign as another planet to me, and from where I grew up. So unbelievably fascinating and fun. I could have watched those people perform on the rings, and acrobatics all day! I can’t believe places like this exist, and I am finding out at 67 years young. To end the evening I continued south along the coast, ultimately navigating to San Diego. I did not make it there this evening.

I started an album of this trip that I am updating regularly HERE.

I’m a 71 year old Goonie

Day 38:
Today I met Reggie, hands-down the coolest dog of my trip.
miles and counting.

I woke up in a hotel in Bellingham, and soon departed for Astoria.
After getting very little accomplished in the last two days, and being grounded at a hotel in Bellingham, I am back on the open roads. I got a start early in the morning. Before I left town, I filled Pervvie up with her favorite liquid diesel, topped off her freshwater tank, and found a truck wash where a couple of enthusiastic young men really gave her a great bath. They did not forget her undercarriage. They really gave her undercarriage the business. I haven’t been in a clean rig in weeks now. So refreshing.
Time to start heading south with today’s destination to be Astoria.
I traveled south on the interstate 5 corridor, only stopping for tinkle breaks and a few of the highly favorited geocaches.
Thanks to that I got to see some really fun and funny things. I spent about 45 minutes hanging out inside of a bathroom. While that’s not unusual for me, as my friends and lovers will testify, it’s rarely that I have to figure out how to escape one.
I got myself to Astoria safely, and did all the things that a little Goonie baby should.
I wandered around Astoria for a few hours. I had a burger, fries and a malt at the Custard King, because it’s 1968. After that it was time to get out to the coastline and start heading south. A couple of stops I wanted to make were also stops for the Goonies Adventure Lab. How convenient. That AL ended up being my all-time favorite adventure lab yet. Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperating. It was misting and very foggy. You couldn’t barely see 100 yards ahead. There’s still some kind of beauty to that ugliness.
I made my way through Seaside and kept going south. I finished at Canon Beach. This is where I will spend the night. Before turning in, I wandered around town, in the dark, by use of headlamp. I took some amazing pictures of the beach and Haystack Rock, lit up by the natural moonlight. The legend is that giant rock helps lead to the Rich Stuff.
Unfortunately I can’t stay in Cannon Beach. But the officer was kind enough to tell me exactly where to go, a few minutes down the road. Wonderful place. Wonderful police officers.

Day 39:
9950 miles and counting. Today I turned over the 10,000 mile of this road trip!
Last night I got rousted out of town by the police where I tried to sleep 🙂
I misread the sign and thought I could stay overnight. The officer informed me otherwise. We had a wonderful conversation and a few laughs, and I moved on down the road a few miles. I woke up near Cannon Beach Oregon. I stayed up late last night photographing Haystack rock and the waves lit up by the natural moonlight. It was a ton of fun.
I stuck around where I woke up for a little while, wandering around and talking to some new friends. A lot of people just like me, wandering aimlessly, were all gathered together at this rest area on the coast of Oregon. Who would have imagined? So I took the time to chat with every one that would chat with me. It was all of them. I even parked right next to another BEAST! Once I started heading south on the PCH it wasn’t long before I was at the Tunnel of Fun. This geocache deserves it’s own entire entry, and I am sure someone has already done it. Duck Duck Go there if you want. That tunnel was so much fun I did it three times. Once because I had to, the second time because it needed a replacement log, and the third time so I could do it with a friend of mine on FaceTime. I would have done it 7 or 8 times if more of my knucklehead friends answered. People back east are not happy about how much fun I’m having.

View from inside the Tunnel of Fun

After a bunch of random pull offs and photographs it was time to head inland a little bit and find out about Hembres Ridge.
Today is the day I hope to finish up the continental portion of the cache across America series. Once I find Oregon, I should have 49 of the 50. Hawaii being my last. I guess I just hop on a plane right after?
I continue driving south on the PCH, stopping often, taking pictures, making new friends, and thanking the universe for my life. I finally made it to the parking area for Cache Across America, Oregon version. it wasn’t dark, but I was running out of daylight. I dashed up the hill, made the find, took my pictures, gave myself a high five down low, and went back to my van. just then another guy named Derek, with the exact same van I have pulled in. We talked for a long time, laughed and made fun of other people neither of us knew, swapped road trip stories, and I listen to him about how he pilots his own propeller glider? The video was insane! Derek also let me play with his dog.
I decided that’s where I would sleep for the night, so did Derek. I bed down for the night and reflected on one of the most amazing days of my life driving south on the Pacific Coast Highway.

I did start an album of this trip that I am updating as I process. HERE.