We say that geocaching is "not a competition." I always mentally add a "yeah, right." We have a way to compare the Sacramento cachers. We've knocked off a lot of these people along the way, and our sights are now on M, at 957 caches. Meanwhile, in position 6, G&V are definitely catching up with 766. I was thinking they were actually going faster... they started 2 months after we did and have been in the 150-200 caches behind us all along. Apparently, however, they get 2.76/day to our 2.77. If we could keep up the pace and they never went faster, they'd never catch us. (Somehow, I think he says "yeah, right" as well.) This week has been bad... we had only one on Sunday because of the blood thing, four on Monday, nothing yesterday (Rich donated blood.) Because I helped with the home show, there was nothing on Saturday. There will be nothing tomorrow since the car goes in, and I have Casey. There's a birthday party on Saturday. I know I said we can quit any time, but I didn't mean NOW!

The main problem is trying to get to 1000 at a specific cache. We're going to Roni's for Easter, and then to Monterey for a couple of days. I know Monterey is choc-a-bloc full of caches, which I don't want to have to ignore for fear they'd put us over, so the ideal would be to get #1000 next week. Eeeek.

So, with this in mind, today we went up to Grass Valley and Nevada City. There's a cache in GV that has defeated us before, and we wanted to give it another try.

First, though, Rich took Sailor for a short walk. As they were getting ready, a bird flew into the window and then was stunned in a plant for awhile. The cats were fascinated. I thought it was going to die, but eventually it flew off, addled birdbrain or not.

Monday's caches included one at Gibson Ranch. It was nice to be able to go in for fifteen minutes without having to pay!

OK, today. It takes maybe an hour to get to Grass Valley. Our first was a virtual at the fairgrounds with a statue of a draft horse. Next was the one that defeated us before. It's a 4.5 hide. I got a little sidetracked with a broken bit at one of the posts, looked like maybe that had been the cache and it was gone. Then Rich found it disguised as a sprinkler. Ten minutes, maybe!

Another in that park involves a walk through the #1 disk golf course in the country. We learned a little about that sport, as well as finding the cache.

And so on to Nevada City! There's a four-part virtual which involves, as well as everything else, no information as to which site matters for which question. It was interesting but challenging, and we wound up at the Veteran's memorial.

Then we had a quick one at the cemetery (the hint is "go Dutch" and the cache is near "Holland.") and then to lunch.

After lunch we went up to the Independence Trail. This is the old Excelsior Ditch, 27 miles to get enough water for the hydraulic mining. These old folks were really serious about gold! Anyway, in the '70s someone thought it'd be nice to use the ditch and flumes for a wheelchair-accessible trail. There're about 3 miles, flat, easy. On the way we stopped about 350 feet from a cache, but as we looked over the cliff, it became apparent that it wasn't a 2 terrain from that direction! There was a dead deer and a number of turkey vultures.

The first cache was to the east of the parking lot, where we've never been before. This one is easy enough to reach from the trail.

Then we walked over to the one with the 3.5 terrain. You take off on a side trip from the ditch. Oh my goodness! Down and down and down we went. I thought about mountain lions. Down at the River, we were to look for a "big rock." Well, there are scads of big rocks, and it's well hidden, but I wasn't going to make that trip for nothing! We looked and looked and looked. My mother was 54 when she was in London with me and couldn't get up a bus step. I thought of her as I heaved myself up over rocks. Finally, I found the cache. Then we needed to get back up to the trail.

I actually made the trip back faster than I thought I would. I kept thinking I did Hayes Hill, I did Yosemite Falls (not that that was easy), I did Watchman and Survivor, I can do this. Once we were back at the trail, we were only .6 miles from the one we'd seen from the cliff, so since the trail is easy and flat, we went there. Ah, I remember the ramp down to the creek and the waterfalls. Last time we were here, with the Solemates, we saw lots of newts. They look like Gummi newts, children's toys. I was disappointed, hadn't seen any, but there they were. (This one looks a bit like Gollum!) And, after quite awhile searching, there was the cache.

We trekked back to the car, and with about an hour of daylight left, decided to try for one in Loomis, one with a 1 terrain! Unfortunately, the satellites weren't talking to us, and pointed us into private land when I know it's in the next-door park, so we gave up. 948 caches.

I'd gone out early for pork chops and had marinated them all day, so dinner was really good and not too late. We'll sleep well tonight!

Q: How many John Kerrys does it take to change a lightbulb?

A: At least four. One to unscrew the old light bulb. One to simultaneously announce his courageous commitment to replacing the old bulb. One to vote against funding the new light bulb. And one to denounce George W Bush and America's Benedict Arnold CEOs for leaving everyone in the dark.
- Columnist Mark Steyn

Kerry gas tax calculator.

The John Kerry Songbook.

Eric Frisch's letter on Preemptive Action. (Glenn points out that it's working.)

Denbeste has a worthy (read it all) essay on What the World Misunderstands about America:

The main difference between the parties when it comes to foreign policy is that the Democrats are willing to smile and nod at the Europeans before ignoring them, whereas the Republicans are more straightforward in expressing their disdain.