Epic Road Trip - Eugene, Or to French Glen, Or

Morning came too soon. The car was mostly packed, but a last minute sweep of my house reminded me that there were a few things that I should have included. After making sure that my emergency pack was ready to go, I took off to pick up Dalby.

Even though I got to Mike's house before 9:00 am, errands and breakfast kept us from hitting the road until 11:30. Our spirits were high and we were off to a good start. Laughing and joking ensued. In fact, there was so much laughing and joking that we completely missed the exit to the Old Mckenzie Highway where the majority of our intended caches were located. Thrown, we made our way to Sisters to figure out what to do. We decided on a couple of caches in the Bend/Redmond area, along with one containing a coin that I *really* wanted to find.

Dalby's first cache (excluding the one in Beijing) was called Something Shocking. It was hidden below a power line in a pile of rocks. While we were putting our names on the log, a police officer rolled by. Immediately, Dalby started to slow his movements down. He needs to practice acting casual. I assured him that the officer would be familiar with geocaching, but he was still hesitant. The officer rolled his window down and slowed to a stop. Mike told the officer that we were caching, to which the officer responded "I figured. Is that your car parked down the way?" We told him that it was and he wished us well and headed on his way.

Laughing, we put the cache away and headed back to the car. I saw a downed cable on the rock by my feet. "Wow," I said. "I almost stepped on that." "Actually," Dalby corrected, "you stepped on it on the way in, but since you didn't die, I decided not to say anything." This is the kind of relationship we have. He's so special.

We got back in the car and decided we had time to try to find the cache that I had been looking forward to. It has a coin in it that I'd love to bring back to Eugene and we drove dozens of miles out of the way just to locate it. Unfortunately, there was no way to get to it without trespassing. The property was heavily wired and no trespassing signs were posted every 100 feet. We know this, because we trepidatiously ignored the first 2 sets. Bummed, we decided to pack it in. All in all, we had eaten up three hours with that cache and the drive to French Glen was still looming.

Dalby napped for the majority of the remaining four hour drive. We got to Fish Lake (which has no lake, FYI) somewhere around midnight. The stars were so beautiful that Mike requested we leave the cover off of the roof. The weather was clear and crisp, so the risk was small. Unfortunately, it was also cold and windy! All night long, arctic breezes would shake us awake. Yay, Oregon.