Digging out of a backlog

My backlog is tiny in comparison to some that are out there. Personally, I try to keep up so that my backlog is never more than 25 or so waymarks. Of course, I said TRY. Sometimes you visit a place that is so spectacular that you come home after the weekend with about 75 waymarks and no time to post them. Such was our incredible weekend in Ebey's Landing National Historic Reserve on Whidbey Island.

I've managed to post almost 30 waymarks from the reserve, our incredible, inaugural camping trip of the season, but still have over half of the marks to post and don't know when I'll manage to finish them all. In the meantime, the grid continues to grow like some out of control monster and I don't know when I'll have time to check out the new categories.

In fact, my grid mania is starting to fade. Not completely - I can't avoid a compulsion that well - but there is less of an urge to run out and find a Disney or Lego store just to get a box on the grid filled. I mean, who really wants to be hiding from a mall security guard, trying to take photos for some business/commerce waymark when they could be waymarking a piece of sculpture, a scenic hike, a park, a neon sign or a historic building? Not me, that's for sure. So I'm not saying I will stop waymarking the commerce categories, but I'm no longer going to make the effort to fill those boxes. If I happen to be at a mall (a rare occurence) I'll take my camera and GPS in with me, but until then I won't worry about it. Life's too short.

For now I'm going to continue to plug away at that backlog and ignore the new categories. Team Min Dawg will be visiting this coming weekend and I need a clean slate for all of the waymarks that we will be finding when we visit Seattle and also hike up to the Ape Cache on Snoqualmie Pass. The weather is supposed to jump 15-20 degrees on Thursday and hit the mid 80's. Let the waymarking season begin.

So here are a few photos of our camping trip on Whidbey Island. The photo above was taken from Ebey's Landing and shows Admiralty Inlet and the beach of Ebey's Landing to the left and the bluffs and Ebey's Prairie to the right.



This is a view out to Admiralty Inlet and the islands beyond from the historic Coupeville Wharf. I highly recommend the cafe and gift shop at the end of the wharf featuring products of Whidbey Island artisans.






Fort Casey was one of three forts designated as the "triangle of fire" and charged with defending the entrance to Puget Sound. It is now a state park and all of its old batteries can be explored. Great spot for flying kites. Also, be sure to visit the historic Admiralty Head Lighthouse, near the battery area. The top photo shows several of the immense batteries, the inlet, and the Olympic Mountains in the distance. The bottom photo shows our waydog, Frodo, peering anxiously from Battery William Worth's watchtower.




And finally, a shot of the Olympic Mountains, Admiralty Inlet, and the paragliding field at Fort Ebey State Park from battery 248. Fort Ebey was built specifically for defense of the Puget Sound during WWII when there was worry over the threat of Japanese submarines entering the Puget Sound to destroy the Bremerton Naval Shipyard. The views from the park's bluff trail are incredible and I highly recommend their campground over the campground at Fort Casey, especially for tent campers. Make reservations though, because the island campgrounds book up fast.

Happy waymarking!

The Backlog

I was reading BQ's thread in the Waymarking forums about how much his backlog was overwhelming him and that he finally got to the point where he dumped his backlog waymarks and just started from scratch. Quite drastic. But it reminded me that I had about 15 waymarks in my backlog that I wanted to post to the "NRHP Districts: Contributing buildings" category. I sat down to start in on them and realized that my sheet of paper with all the coordinates and notes written on it are in my camera case, which is currently with my husband in Orlando. He's working at a builder's convention there and wanted to bring my camera to take some photos of the firm's display.

Anyhow - the result is that my good intentions will have to wait until he returns on Friday with my camera. I did post a few of them and saved them to submit later, but I hate not having the reward of completely finishing the waymark if I'm going to spend the time writing the descriptions and uploading photos.

I've really been enjoying the category lately, since I found a site that has online pdf's of the historic district narratives in Washington state. These can be tough to find, and so on Wayward Waymarking I've created a page to list the various states' historic properties databases that include narrative information. Right now we have Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin and Washington links listed (thanks BruceS) but would love to have any links that you might have found when posting in this category.

The photo above is of a the Ralph Metcalf house, a colonial revival style residence that is considered to be a "pivotal" contributor to the Stadium-Seminary National Historic District. The district is a historically intact residential area within Tacoma that was popular from the 1890's to the 1920's. It has wonderful examples of nearly every residential style current in the Pacific Northwest between 1888 and 1930. Also located within it are the public Stadium High School and the private Annie Wright School (previously "Seminary" - it's a boarding school for girls) for which the district is named. To learn about the district and see more photos check out my Stadium-Seminary National Historic District waymark in the NRHP category.

The Rainy Days of Summer

Most people know that Western Washington is known for its damp weather. I was born and raised here, and although I don't have the proverbial webbed feet I am well equipped for handling the rain - at least for 9 months of the year. However, I am not able to comprehend how to deal with a week of rain in July, especially after returning from a vacation in the blazing summer sun. It is absolutely ridiculous! Yesterday I had to dig out my rain suit to take my dog to the dog park. I couldn't even remember where it was. Usually I don't have to start looking for it until mid to late September.

Anyhow, Washington's rainy weather is prime waymark posting weather. It sucks to waymark in, but ahhhhh, a steaming hot cup of coffee, a nice warm laptop on your lap, and a backlog of waymarks to post is a great way to avoid the rainy day blues. Of course I feel a bit guilty because Troy is out working on the deck while I'm nice and dry and cozy inside. I'll just try to shut my ears to the hammering sounds and occasional exclamations of @#$% and work on my monster backlog of waymarks.

The above photo is of gorgeous Sylvan Lake in Custer State Park, South Dakota, where we camped while in the Black Hills. It happily reminded me of how summer SHOULD look. The park is waymarked in the American Guide category, and eventually I'll waymark the lake in the category by itself. It's on the aforementioned backlog.

The Backlog

I've been working on my waymarking backlog this week. Well, it isn't really a backlog, in the true sense. These places have been waymarked, but I haven't cross-posted them in the other categories that I like to cross-post to. Once I've posted something once, it gets boring to cross-post and so I put it off. This is a perfect cross-posting day, though. It's cold, wet, and grey outside (it's June, for gods-sake! When will this misery end!) and I have a horrendous sinus headache, so I'm sitting, drinking my coffee and alternating cold compresses to my face with typing up waymarks

Post waymark - 5 minutes with the ice pack - post a waymark - take more ibuprofen - post waymark - 5 more minutes with the ice pack - post waymark - cry out my misery to the dog - wipe dog slobber off of my face - post a waymark... This is my day.

I wish that I could come up with some idea of how to make cross-posting easier. It certainly would be nice to have some kind of cross-referencing system, at a minimum. I don't have any clever ideas, however, and it hurts to think so I'm going to move away from this train of thought.

Anyhow, the above picture is of the "Experience Music Project" building, built by Frank Gehry and located at the Seattle Center. This photo shows the point where the Alweg Monorail enters the building. I have the building logged and waymarked in several categories, but I just recently cross-posted the Seattle Center in the Tourist Attractions category, one of my favorite categories to cross-post in.

Waymarking Backlogs

As anyone who's posted a waymark knows, it's a heck of a lot easier to take coordinates and photos for a waymark than it is to post one. Because of this, avid waymarkers can build up quite a backlog of waymarks that they need to post. Some of my online waymarking pals have backlogs in the hundreds. I personally don't know how they do it because I get completely overwhelmed if I get more than about 20 behind.

Well, when I started planning the road trip we'll be embarking on in 6 weeks, I had this brilliant idea. I would pre-post (without submitting for review) the waymarks for all of the spots that I know we would be in and then, once I had the photos and the exact coordinates, I would quickly edit the waymarks and submit it.

As of this date, I have pre-posted over 75 waymarks and my bright idea is starting to backfire a bit. Here in the Tacoma area, I waymark all by my lonesome. Team Hikenutty is pretty much it. However, the areas that I will be visiting have competition and I am slowly finding that my carefully pre-posted waymarks are turning up in categories as other waymarkers beat me to the punch. For the most part, it's no biggie, but when it's a category that I can't find here in Washington it's painful. The one place that I figured I'd have no trouble with is the spots that I plan to waymark in my husband's home town of Evanston, Wyoming. Who goes to Evanston? I mean, it's no Yellowstone, let's just put it that way. So imagine my amazement when today as I was browsing through the newest posted waymarks that I should happen upon two Evanston, WY waymarks - both for the town's Lincoln Highway marker, and a third, for the Utah/Wyoming border 4 miles out of town. A 4th waymark that I planned to post over in Laramie, Wyoming was on the list too. Unbelieveable! I mean, Caverspencer, WHY on earth were you in Evanston? I know you weren't caving, and I can't imagine it was for the booming tourism industry. And NevaP -- you're from Nebraska. Did you have to take Wyoming's giant Lincoln statue? I would think that a Lincoln statue would be pretty easy to find, say, in LINCOLN, Nebraska!

Okay, I'm just joking with you guys. It's not like I can't log a visit to them. It's just, well, - best laid plans and all that jazz. In the end I will likely come home from this trip with a backlog of hundreds that will keep me busy until December, when I start planning a 2008 trip.

The above photo is Caverspencer's shot of the Wyoming/Utah border on I-80 that I planned on waymarking on June 22. Why Devil's Tower is on the sign is beyond me. It's in the opposite (NE) corner of the state. Oh I know! It's because they didn't think that a picture of sagebrush and skinny half starved cattle would be welcoming enough. :) (If my in-laws find this blog I am SO screwed.)