CurlyShavings

Brat Park and Cannot turn back: my frustration with these two geocaches has left me confused. Last Fall, equipped with a map, some cache-making supplies and a sense that there was a gap in caches between the Doan Brook corridor and the Euclid Creek area, my children (aka the "cache crew") and I found this neat little park in Bratenahl. Clean, well equipped and deserted, the park has a tree with a nice crack in it that seemed ideal for hiding a small cache container, what they call a micro. In this case, it was a 33mm film canister with a log for visitors to sign, a pencil stub and a wheat back penny.

We left it there for a few days, check back on it, decided that it was a good spot and published it, with longitude and latitude to geocaching.com as "Brat Park". It was found almost immediately and we began looking for another park to place a cache.

The map shows a little green spot south of the walls and Interstate 90, on the Cleveland side of the line. We loaded up the cache crew and supplies again and paid it a visit. It's a neat little park on the edge of a residential neighborhood. There was no one there, the park was clean and we quickly found a spot to place the cache. I came back a few days later to exchange the container since I had doubts as to its suitability given the weather it would be exposed to (rain). Same experience: no one there. We published it, with longitude and latitude to geocaching.com as "Cannot turn back", after a phrase in MLK's famous speech. The park is named Martin Luther King Jr. Park.

My children at the time were 10, 7, 3 and newly born (now 11, 8, 4 and almost one). I am not a who-needs-a-parachute? risk-taker. However, I don't tell my children to be careful. I tell them to be aware. Aware of their surroundings, aware of what they are doing, aware of what might happen. Being aware of the dog that's approaching and how it is acting is more useful than being "careful", whatever that means.

So when "Cannot turn back" didn't get as much traffic as its northern neighbor, I went to check on it. This time there's a group of children who, without comment, mingle with mine on the playground. The cache is fine. I am aware of feeling a little odd being the only white people around. I am aware of the boarded up buildings and the graffiti. But I am not aware of feeling threatened or being uncomfortable. We visit again some months later in the afternoon with much the same experience. In all, after five or more "cache checks", we've never felt threatened or worried. Out of place a couple of times. The subject of interest and curiosity a few times. Meanwhile, the cache has been unmolested by muggles and somewhat ignored by the caching community (compared to the traffic at other caches, for example). Some of those who visit report feeling unsafe. In one instance, I was counseled to shut the cache down by "archiving" it. (I have.)

Brat Park is also archived, but for different reasons. Bratenahl is an affluent strip of lakeshore with monstrous homes, large and densely-growing trees and high incomes. To get to the cache's spot one must drive by a police station. I have never seen a child there and only occasionally see folks at the nearby dog park. This cache had a reasonable flow of traffic. At some point it was muggled and the cache container repeatedly needed replacing. As I don't have time to constantly replace caches, I archived it.

One poster to the Cannot turn back cache commented that while on the map there is less than ½ mile between the two caches, there may as well be a thousand miles separating them (my paraphrasing).

One is tucked away in a quiet spot with large trees all around, designated parking, tennis courts, a nice (expensive, tax-payer funded) gazebo, a dog park, heavy security, woodchips under the nice playground equipment and lots of green grass. The other is bordered by a few boarded up homes, has some graffiti, a strange spongy stuff under the chipped and outdated playground equipment and a fair amount of concrete.

They are nearby and yet a world apart. And I remain confused.

I really enjoy getting lost in the woods. Not completely lost, just mostly lost; somewhat lost.

After we woke up today and started moving again (coffee!!!) we went in search of a couple of geocaches. It's nice to have a somewhat large park full of windy paths and trees and stuff in your parent's back yard. Once, about 15 years ago (I haven't spent much time there in the last decade or so), I was there during that summer for a week (or something) and had gone for a walk in these woods. I kept hearing a baying sound and eventually found a woman walking two dogs who were making all the racket. She was chasing a fox. Yeah, right. I walked back to the house and when back to the streets and sidewalks, something caught my eye from between two houses. Yep, it was a fox, red as can be.

(Fast-forward to the present . . .) So after the woods, we went to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center (cheap/free admission, expensive parking, great museum) and met quite a gaggle of cousins, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, assorted spouses and two sisters. One of my more delightful times was taking my 6mo nephew for an extended walk (carry!) from the entrance to the southern extreme, up the spiral staircase (to see the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer, Steve Fossett's Burt Rutan-designed plane), down the incline to the northern extreme, back to the center, down the stairs, then back to the southern extreme (to see the Rutan VariEze) and then back to the entrance where Mom (my sister) was waiting in line for the observation tower. I'm a big fan of Burt Rutan. Fossett, while likely dead (missing anyway) is/was a Boy Scout.

Anyway, somehow we survived the trip, made it back to my parents' house where most of the gaggle met us. And we ate some more, drank some more (La Crema Pinot Noir, a Beaujolais Nouveau and a Spanish Cava) and had a really good time of it.

When the sun is shining, Cleveland is a nice place, even today when the high was in the teens and the wind chill was single digits, sometimes on the negative side of zero.

Today's post has a number of pictures of Cleveland in it. They were all taken from the north-east quadrant of Cleveland's Public Square while I was waiting on a 32x to take me home. I was playing with our newish camera, a Canon PowerShot SX100 IS. Even so, I love my city.

There's something special about interacting with a building with a camera. "Hmmm, there's a lamp post in the way. What if I stand on this bench?" Or "Wow! There's a neat angle between those two buildings—what if we try a zoom?"

And most, no, probably all the buildings have something really neat about them. And that's coming from someone who knows (relatively) little about Cleveland. Maybe it is because I've spent the last ten years walking amongst them.

When the Euclid Corridor Project messed up the commute in 2006 (yes, I think it's been that long), we 32x-ers got shuffled around downtown when the routes changed. It turned into a good thing. No longer was I dropped off in front of my building (the old May Company Building); I had to walk.

For example, my morning walk sometimes takes me from in front of the building seen behind the Peace Memorial. It's labeled "Cleveland Public Auditorium" in this picture. I walk past the Peace Memorial and along the side of the Metzenbaum U.S. Courthouse. Sometimes the east side and sometimes the west side. Sometimes I go into the BP Building for coffee and bypass the Soldiers and Sailors Monument. Other times I skip all that and just walk the Square to the May Company building.

Sometimes I just linger in the Square, looking around. The other day, for example, we had a Charlie Brown Christmas snow going on and the Square was just perfectly lit, it was early enough (7am?) that the traffic wasn't terrible and I could just enjoy the scene.

I don't have any 127 Public Square (Key Tower) pictures here, but I can remember a time on the 5xth floor in a training class and taking a recess to watch one of the falcons disembowel a pigeon on the sill. That was a day to remember.

My first experience with a subpoena was in the BP Building, testifying about a situation at a former employer.

My point is that these are like silent old friends. And some aren't so silent. My company has its roots in the Society for Savings building. I have a friend (and co-32x rider) who works in the Metzenbaum U.S. Courthouse. I have a work colleague who drags us out of the office once a year to the Soldiers and Sailors. I sometimes have lunch on its steps. I always look for the May Company building when I watch A Christmas Story because it shows up there in a couple of scenes.

Tower City can be seen in Spider-Man 3, complete with scaffolding. There's a geocache near this famous Charles Brush lamp on the corner.

I used to meet in the Old Stone Church with a bunch of men with the CBMC.

I used to work at 55 Public Square. That was an adventure. My boss would take me to Johnny Q's for my performance review. We'd have root beer floats. Nice. I think I've even passed along the favor a few times.

I have a piece of red granite from the BP Building in my back yard that I scavenged from a scrap pile years ago.

Even when the sun isn't shining, it's still a nice place. Sun helps, though.

Today is the little Boy's birthday (fifth one!) and he wanted to go Geocaching. (He's in the front row, far right.)

The day started last night with the really cool eclipse. Then we all camped on the floor in the living room with the fireplace going. Oh, and somewhere in there we baked Benjamint Brownies and ate most of them. For breakfast, we finished them off. After lunch we hunted four geocaches:

1. Doan-Cha Hear Piper Callin' ?


2. The Jack of What?


3. Shaker Grove


4. Who Shot Jr. ?

It must be nice to have one's life so well in order.

Today was a low-carbon footprint Geocaching day that increased our sneaker and hiking boot footprint.

curlyshavings found Not a Dogwood...Or is it? (Traditional Cache)

Nice hike from near St. Anne's to here. Out with the crew and Dave321. Thanks for the walk! From here we walked to Ambler Park.

curlyshavings found ambler park (Traditional Cache)

After walking from St. Anne's to "Not a Dogwood...", we walked here.

Looked for "Clark Freeway" but looks like it was retired as was "Nuclear Free Zone". Looked and looked and looked and looked. Finally found the flat rock, then counted back 25 feet.

Whilst standing in the middle of the creek reading the previous five logs (on my phone) and considering using clue #2, I saw a likely spot to match clue #1. Bingo. What a search, what a hike and what a day! With the walk back to St. Anne's, we think we logged five miles.

Found with Dave321 and the crew.

I was out at Beaumont for Saturday and left early Sunday morning. There's a cache near the front gate . . .

curlyshavings found The Main Gate (Traditional Cache)

On my way home following an OA Vigil ceremony. Thanks for the hide!

As mentioned elsewhere, we were at PNC Park today.

curlyshavings found Mini Tribute (Traditional Cache)

Take me out to the ballgame! My wife and kids (sirIan, Sweet+Pea and littleChip) are going to a Pirates game today. I, however, am headed to a Cubs game. Of course, we're at the same PNC Park...

Afterward we decided to drop by for this cache. Many thanks for showing us this little park.

curlyshavings found The Road to the 1800s! (Traditional Cache)

Out on the Buckeye Trail today with the rest of the crew. Went from Everett in the north to Botzum down south on one of the older Buckeye Trail routes for a total of 4.85 miles!

Found this cache on the way to collect the car we'd left at the Everett bridge. Signed the log and headed on!

Please note there's some poison ivy in the immediate vicinity of the cache container!

The turkey wasn't ready so we decided to go caching. Took sirIan and the littleOne with me. Celebrated the find by a walk around the lower Shaker Lake. Saw a blue heron and a million leaves.

The littleOne likes to collect leaves, so our celebratory walk around Lower Shaker Lake took much longer than it would have ordinarily. Additionally, we probably enjoyed it more as well! There are just so many leaves and so little time.