Frickin' State Historic Markers and Burger Chefs and ....

Are you noticing a theme here? Although I was able to grab several categories that are next to impossible to find on the West Coast while on vacation in D.C. I was very frustrated by some of the waymarks that I was trying to find. I mean, do I really want to look for a Dunkin' Donuts while on vacation? I think not.

Of course, I've already bitched about my Toynbee tiles experience, but the State Historic Marker categories were almost as bad. Although I find the markers interesting, I really have no desire to hunt them down. I'm more interested in seeing historic places, not signs about them. Anyhow - I figured that I could take care of the Maryland, Virginia and Delaware categories on this trip and the Virginia one was quite easy. You can't spit in Virginia without hitting a historic marker. But in Maryland we had problems. The signs weren't as prolific and someone had gone through and posted the majority of them. I ended up having to settle with just a visit to a sign that I knew had been waymarked.


In Delaware I staked out a very cool sign that I saw located next to a lighthouse that I wanted to waymark. No one had posted it so I felt safe just having the one waymark to post for that category. I mean, how many waymarkers are going to be in Lewes, Delaware? At least one other it seems. Today when I went to post my waymark I learned that in the interim between when I originally checked the category and today someone else posted it. So for Delaware I ended up with just a visit as well in the SHM category. I would have waymarked backup markers if I had seen any, but there weren't that many markers in this tiny little state.


Other frustrations: checking out 3 different supposed Burger Chef locations to find all of the buildings demolished; checking 3 different Lustron home locations before finally finding one that hadn't been demolished; almost losing my tollhouse waymark; not taking the correct photos and therefore losing my Civil Defense Shelter sign waymark. There were many more, but now I'm just boring you.


My outlook on waymarking has definitely changed. In the past I might have dragged my family around looking for those blasted historic markers, but there's no way in hell I'm going to spend my well deserved vacation waymarking signs when there are endless 17th century buildings, and world class sculpture and incredible architecture to be seen. Although I'm still a grid hound, I'm not so compulsive about it and it has definitely made waymarking more fun for all involved.


The photo above is of the historic Chesapeake & Ohio canal and lock 19, one of 74 along the 185 mile canal. And yes, it was already waymarked along with most of the other remaining locks along the canal. :o/

Frickin' Toynbee Tiles

Okay, we are still in D.C. but I thought I had to quickly vent before I start packing up for the flight home. Over our 5 days in D.C. I have visited about 8 different spots where there are SUPPOSEDLY Toynbee tiles. Nothing.

I even emailed several waymarking friends, begging for tips and they sent me a link to a page that gave the street corners of 2 tiles that were spotted in 2006. We visited those today and they had been recently paved so the tiles were gone. I bitched and moaned about it, but then Bruce said that a pain in the ass category is better than a super common category anyday, and it put things in perspective. It was a lot more fun finding and waymarking a Native American trail tree today than waymarking the Dunkin' Frickin' Donuts shop that I had to waymark for an icon (there aren't any Dunkin' Frickin' Donut shops in Washington.)

Hope you all are having a safe and fun summer. Happy waymarking!

Unnamed Sources

Do you ever come across the ultimate online reference for a difficult-to-find category and then refuse to share the wealth? I'll admit that I've been known to sit on some Websites, even though I have a great category resource page over on waywardwaymarking.com to share this type of information. I don't hold back forever - just until I have a chance to waymark one for myself. After that I'm all about the sharing. Recently I hemmed and hawed about adding a certain Art-o-mat Weblink to the category resource page because there are less than 100 possible waymarks in that category (I believe) and I only have a visit so far. I would have held onto it if there were any spots listed that I could find in the near future (Oregon, Idaho or Washington) - but all of the machines in my area had already been posted. So I begrudgingly added the link to the resource page.

So am I the only stingy waymarker out here? I'm guessing that most of the gridders have been known to hide a resource or two. Who knows, I may still have some great ones that I'm not unveiling. I would tell you, I promise, but then I'd have to kill you. :)

I urge everyone to share their national and international online resources that pertain to specific categories (I don't include region specific resources so the page doesn't get too unwieldy.) Of course, I understand if you have to hold onto it awhile to get first dibs. I'm not looking for the sites that the category description already shares, but others that you come across that would help people locate waymarks within a specific category. Informational Websites are great, but information is often easier to come by than a great database or site locater. My goal is to build up the Webpage so all of us can use it as a resource. Just email me if you have something that you think might be a good addition to the page.

The photo above shows one of the two Art-o-mats that we have visited. This one is in Oak Park, IL, and the other is located in downtown Tacoma, WA. If we get a chance we may visit the Washington D.C. Art-o-mat in the the Tenleytown neighborhood next week.

2K

I don't often pay attention to my numbers but last week I realized that I had hit the big 2K - 2,000 posted waymarks. I had noticed when I was around 1,900 and thought that I should pay attention so I could see what the 2,000th waymark would be and then promptly forgot.

One of the things that I love about waymarking is that it isn't really competitive. Well, it is, but it's more "self-competitive." Lots of people create personal goals or have certain numbers that matter to them - some try to fill the grid, some try to fill in the map, but less people seem to be driven by total waymarks or the "stats" as geocachers are so fond of showcasing.

I'm personally a grid-hound, but I also have a personal goal of reaching 100 waymarks in several of my favorite categories. A long term goal of mine is filling in my profile map as I waymark my way around the U.S. I also come up with weird little mini goals on what seems like a monthly basis. Anyone out there have their own interesting personal waymarking goals they's like to share?

I was hoping that number 2,000 wouldn't be a lame waymark, like a McChain, and I'm happy to say, that I wasn't disappointed. Number 2,000 was a cross-posted waymark into a new favorite category of mine, "Great Buildings of the World." The EMP (Experience Music Project), a controversial building designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry, is located in Seattle next to the Space Needle. In fact the Seattle Center monorail from the 1962 World's Fair passes through a portion of the building. The photo above shows the track as where it enters the building. It's a wild sculptural building the the architect thought of as a "Temple of Rock." The building holds the "Experience Music Project," an interactive rock music museum created by Microsoft co-founder, Paul Allen. There is also the Sci-Fi Museum and Hall of Fame inside.

The next big number for me would be 5,000 but that's a few years down the road. For now I'll just keep myself happy hunting down waymarks for my favorite cats. This coming week we'll be heading for D.C. which should get me a good head start on 5,000. :) Happy waymarking!

Vacation Countdown

So we are trying to prepare for a vacation/waymarking adventure and it feels like we are not ready for it. There's so much to do at home that I haven't had time to do much scouting out of waymarks, which is a shame because I know there are several categories that I can get in D.C. or Virginia that aren't available here on the West Coast. I'll have to do what I can and not stress about it. We'll find the waymarks we can and just have to head back east at some point on another vacation to conquer the categories we've missed.

We ordered a gps navigation system for the trip that has a big database of pre-loaded POI's and it should be arriving in the next day or two. When Team Mindawg was here we played around with theirs and loved it so we decided it was hightime for updating our gps. The current one is a Magellan, several years old with a failing keypad and that doesn't sync with our current computer. Truly a pain in the ass, but not broken enough for me to justify throwing out. We'll still use it as a back up, especially for hiking, but the new Garmn will be our primary system now. It's a base model Nuvi - simple, basic, pretty much all we need and for a couple hundred bucks, well worth the money. It seems very user friendly, but I'll need to make sure I completely understand its ins and outs before we head for D.C. because I wouldn't want to miss any waymarks because I couldn't figure out my gps. Ah, one more thing for the "to do" list.

If I make it onto the plane with my sanity next week it will truly be a miracle.