Our Virtual Has Been Published

Time is growing short for the Virtual Rewards to be submitted and published. As reviewers, we were granted one to place. I could say we love to procrastinate, but that would only be partially true. We were actually torn between where to place the virtual. One side of us said Northeast Ohio is our home, and it should be there. We also thought of placing one near our home in Pennsylvania. It has been a place of rest and refuge for us. We also thought of places we both consider special with great memories. In the end, we thought about...

Northeast Ohio

For Northeast Ohio, we considered resurrecting an old virtual which was archived when the subject moved. The Lawless Politician was a good subject for a virtual in the past. In the end, we decided to let a the former virtual remain a former virtual ans create a different experience for cachers.

Warren County Pennsylvania

We thought about placing a cache in the Hearts Content Scenic area. It is a place we have enjoyed for many years. As a scenic area, placing a physical cache requires permission. It has been granted once while we have been caching.

Sheldon Marsh along the Lake Erie shore

Sheldon Marsh is a special place for us. It is a place of peace for us and a place we have retreated in time of concern and uncertainty. It is a place we visit at least once every spring. As a State Nature Preserve, there is no chance of a physical cache being granted permission.

Franklin Mineral Museum (New Jersey)

I think the Franklin Mineral Museum was the first choice for both of us. It required a trip back to New Jersey. It has been a long time since we enjoyed a couple amazing vacations in the state. It was a great time to go back. It wasn't going to happen with my schedule this year. :(

And the winner is... Sheldon Marsh! We're hoping visitors enjoy this virtual as much as we have through the years.

Virtual Extremes

We recently enjoyed a short vacation in Texas and Oklahoma. Our main goals were to visit and hike the LBJ Grasslands and Wichita Mountains. We enjoyed both. We were also able to add another virtual extreme to our cache finds when we visited the world's littlest skyscraper in Wichita Falls.

Whoa, that's four floors shooting upward toward the clouds!

The Newman-McMahon Building was built in 1919 after cash was raised from investors to build a 146m tall building or so the investors believed. What they really invested in was the 14.6m tall building shown above. Yes, it was a scam created by a local oilman. At 146m, the building would have been 40% of the height of the Empire State Building. In the low skyline of Wichita Falls this four story building would still give a great view of the town, but it appears to be used for retail.

This wasn't our first virtual at a little place with big plans. We also enjoyed visiting the world's smallest park in Portland.

Mills End Park was another fun stop on our too brief visit to Portland in 2011.

I am happy to see virtuals have returned for at least one encore. Like all of caching, they were a mixed bag of good and uninspired, but many like the two above give us a reason to visit fun, quirky places we haven't seen and wouldn't see except by sheer luck. We have been lucky to be awarded one of the new ones to locate. Our biggest issue so far has been deciding which of the out of the way places we want to share with only one winner possible.