Geocaching in Wilmington, Illinois

Two weeks ago we made plans to drive to Wilmington, Illinois to geocache with my parents.  The forecast called for scattered showers, so we crossed our fingers and took off.

The first cache was in Braidwood and before the rain began....

Mom hopped out and made the grab at this lamp skirt cache...

I loved this cache - it was well hidden.  Do you see it?

We saw this great wood carving near by....

One of the caches was hidden by a geocacher near their coffee shop. They were opening up just as we pulled up for the cache....

This was a clever cache too.  Have you figured it out yet?

Afterwards we walked inside the shop and ordered some coffee and smoothies....

The whole shop was very cute, decorated with historic Rt. 66 memorabilia, and I got a big kick out of the bathroom....

Here's the owner, and fellow geocacher, making our coffee....

Both drinks were delicious.  If you're ever in Wilmington, be sure to stop by and say hello.

There's a cache hidden here - any ideas??

We always enjoy unusual statues....

It had started raining on and off, so we just dodged the raindrops and did the best we could....

This cache was hidden in a tree....

The last stop of the day was at "Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery."   The cemetery covers 982 acres and is dedicated to war veterans....

It's quite impressive with it's rows upon rows of markers.  It really makes you appreciate the service these men and woman gave their country.

As we were leaving, a funeral procession began to pull into the cemetery.  Literally hundreds of motorcycles, cars and police vehicles rolled past us.  It was really something to see.  We sat there for over 5 minutes waiting for them all to pass.

Afterwards we stopped at one of my favorite restaurants for lunch - White Fence Farm!

You just can't beat a day where geocaching and good food are involved - even if it does rain.

Happy to be Geocaching Again!

It's a beautiful day today - bright sun and clear blue skies with a high temperature of 38 and a stiff, cold wind.  But who cares?  We're outside and we're geocaching!  It's been a crazy busy winter for us with over 45 days of measurable snow and so far topping 75" of snow when our normal average is around 32".   That's a lot of snow.  So I haven't found a geocache in 5 weeks and that's the longest we've ever gone without finding a cache since we started geocaching in 2009.  We've been itching to get out, so we hit the road early this morning.

The very first cache and we were off to a dismal start.  The cache was hidden behind a chained fence, which I easily slipped through, and then somewhere on an old train car.  I slid underneath the train and poked around a little when my foot got tangled in a vine that was still frozen to the ground.  I yanked my foot, slipped on the ice and slammed down onto the ground, biting through my upper lip with my teeth.  I spent the next 15 minutes spitting blood.  Now I have a fat lip and to top it off, I didn't even find the geocache.  Talk about being ticked off!  I'm beginning to think that Romeoville, Illinois isn't a good spot for me to be geocaching.  Check out this post to see what I did last year when I was geocaching out there.

So, on to better things.  We cut our losses, pulled out and headed for the next cache, which we quickly found.  Most of the geocaches today were hidden in commercial areas, so the muggle factor was low and we didn't have to wade through too many snow piles.  Here's a couple of pictures of some of the more imaginative cache containers....

a salt shaker....

I loved this one - a definite LOL moment when we pulled this one out....

Would you like to dance?

 

batman to the rescue.....

I loved this old sign....

But the best cache today was one that we redeemed ourselves on.  This was a cache we tried to do last year with my parents and we couldn't find it.  At the time I bet we spent 20 minutes looking for it.  This time, I climbed out of the car, looked over the area, had an ah-ha moment, walked over and grabbed the cache.  Boy, did I feel stupid and I cannot believe we overlooked this one the last time.  I'll show you a picture of the general area....

We ended up grabbing 13 caches in just over 2 hours.  My sweet husband felt sorry for me with my busted lip, so he stopped and bought me my favorite snack - a giant Reese's peanut butter cup egg....

And then we stopped and had lunch at my favorite chicken place - White Fence Farm.  Fried chicken, baked potatoes and sweet corn fritters go a long way to soothing a fat lip!

Doesn't Everybody Cache in Cowboy Boots?

Usually when we go geocaching I have on my gym shoes if we're caching around the neighborhood or in parks.  Whenever we're in Kentucky or in the woods, I always wear my Vasque hiking boots.  But last week I wore something I've never worn caching before - my cowboy boots!

The reason was because we were caching for a couple of hours and then going out to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants - White Fence Farm.  I didn't really want to go traipsing into a restaurant on a Sunday in jeans and hiking boots, so this is my version of semi dressed up.  LOL!

So anyway, the very first cache was a DNF, which is not the way that I like to start out the day.  It's hidden someplace in this general area.  The square box on the wall had recently been replaced and there were  pieces of wire and metal all over the ground. We stupidly assumed that the cache was missing, which just goes to show you that you should never give up and not to assume anything.  Did you know that you should never assume anything because it makes an ASS out of U and ME.  Get it?  Don't mind me, I'm in a goofy mood tonight.  So anyway, I checked with the cache owner and he confirmed that the cache is still there so now I have to go back another day and find this sucker.

Moving on....We found the next one here before we even got out of the car...

and then Dad quickly avenged this one that we had a DNF on last year.  However, I would like to point out that it was confirmed that we had a DNF because the cache had been muggled, so I didn't feel too bad after I heard that.

This next one was really cute and we enjoyed it.  I like a nicely hidden cache and cute cache container.

My husband, our driver, taking a cigarette break.  I can't help it - isn't he handsome??

Beware of scorpions when you lift a lamp skirt....

Private Property?  Did you see a sign that said Private Property???  Shhhhh...  I found the cache....

 Dad and I hiked quite a ways to get to these rocks out in the middle of nowhere...

While Dad searched for the cache....

I did a little fooling around and phooning.....  See how well I can balance in cowboy boots?

By noon we had really worked up an appetite and stopped for our chicken lunch.  I can't even tell you how good it was.  We made this plate of chicken disappear pretty quickly.

On the way home we stopped and grabbed a 2 part multi cache.  How cute is this??  I'm not giving away the cache number because I don't want to give away too much.  But I will tell you that stage one was at a famous restaurant around here and Chablis briefly worked at it for about 2 weeks many years ago.  It's a really cute train themed restaurant geared towards kids.  I still have some really cute tee shirts from there too...
Choo-choo!!!!!

1900 caches and White Fence Farm

Last week we took the kids and went to one of my favorite restaurants - White Fence Farm.   They are renowned for their excellent chicken and they never disappoint.  We've been going there to eat since I was a kid and it's always a treat.

Out in front is the giant chicken.....

The restaurant is huge, with 12 separate dining areas, which all have special names - The Blue Room, The Red Room, The Garden Room, etc.  The front foyer is a giant museum and it's really interesting to walk around and look at all the collectibles.  Check out the carpeting in this photo below - it's white chickens!

Quite frankly, we sort of hurry through the museum area because we're in a big rush to get to the food.  Once seated, they bring bowls to your table filled with cottage cheese, kidney bean salad, cole slaw, beets and corn fritters.  We always order the chicken dinners, although they do have other items on the menu.  Honestly, I've never had anything but the chicken.  I mean, come on, look at this chicken.  It's tender, juicy and has the best coating on it that I've ever eaten.  Talk about melt in your mouth good!

Before lunch we had stopped and grabbed a few geocaches on our way to the restaurant.  The first one was really jammed in place....

This one was one of the largest geocaches we've ever found.  We had a hard time figuring out how to open it.

And my favorite of the day - the one that marked my 1900th geocache was located near this sign....

All in all it was a good day - friend chicken and geocaches - what's not to like?