Today was The Day! We left early in the morning to go to Oakland to find Halley's Comet for #1000. First we stopped at our Wish You Were Here cache to take the Johnson Space Center pen as a special cache goodie, but it has exploded. We managed to go early to the Science Center to buy an astronaut keychain. The first couple of caches were outside of Vallejo. "Road Less Traveled" is outside a closed Open Space preserve. The cache was hidden under a bush and there's a lot of trash in the area, but we found it. The next one was near a park-and-ride, though it was supposed to be a 1 terrain and was up a hill and across a field. The best thing about this one was the box turtle we found.

Then we crossed over the Suisun Channel. In Pinole we tried to find one, but couldn't find access to the trail. Then we found access about .3 miles from another and walked to it, where we traded travel bugs. Further, we looked for one in a brushy area and had no luck at all. I hate to spend all this time, and then not get something. We went on into Berkeley and found a little one in a little park. We looked for a moving cache, and with our usual moving cache luck, didn't find it. Then we had lunch, and then we drove up the street to another. With the clue being "He" I thought it was up, but it wasn't atop the parking garage where it should be, It was at a girl's dorm, and we didn't want to be lurking just there. So, we'd been out 5 hours, and only had 4 caches, the day was beginning to look really grim.

Time for a virtual! We went up to the Lawrence Hall of Science and answered some questions about the cyclotron. Heading back toward Oakland we saw a windmill and got another virtual. Then we found a little one on a sign, and began to feel a little more confident. Next was a lightpost one, the hardest part of which was waiting for the parking attendant to go somewhere else. And suddenly we were at #998 with enough daylight left!

We looked for one called Secret Trailhead #7 - Piedmont. This was in a really pretty spot and we parked really badly. And finally, we were ready! We were on Skyline Drive and got within .4 mile, so we parked and found a little trail up in the right direction. We went past an environmental camp, and chose one trail and then another, and finally, yes! WE FOUND IT!! I had a special Where's George, and a travel bug, and the astronaut keychain. I took the tub of Denny's building toys.

We were too late (almost 5) for the Chabot Space Center and for the Sibley Volcanic Park (which I MUST come back for!!) We did want to pick up one more, so I told Rich to drive along Skyline till he got to one street, must have given him the wrong name because we stayed on Skyline back to Berkeley and over the highway, etc. He hates mountain driving. Then we got back to the highway and went for a multi. This is at the Caldecott Tunnel on the east side. We had stopped to note down the numbers and get the second coordinates, and the owner of the property wanted to know what we thought we were doing. We told him, and he was fine with that. The second part is on the westbound ramp, but it's OK to drive the way we were. It's on a fake tree, a cell-tower.

After that, we came home. I was having a hard time logging all the caches, as my computer has been very slow, so I quit partway through. Only a few people know we actually made it!