Geo!Geo!Geocache! #3

Two days ago I went geocaching again. The first cache was on a pier. We couldn't find it, but there were lots of places to hide things.There were even a lot of rocks with space between them for stuff! We didn't spend much time there because we were in a hurry, though.

The next was at an overlook to the lake. It was in a pill container, and it only had space for a logbook. That's called a microcache. When we got back in the car and there was a bug in my mom's eye. IN my mom's eye!

        ____    To get it, she had to scrape it out with a corner of a piece of paper!(ew!)

       /    o   \

       \___'_/dot=bug

The next one had the last part of the code for the "This is VT:Grand Isle County" series. We found it easy! (geo-tip: look for hidden paths) The next was not found,(cache Bel-Air) but we found the next one on the trail.(Bella's Auto cache) 

Then we had lunch at Seb's Snack Bar. (go there!) There we figured out the code and went to the cache. The cache was easy to find, if you can track it.=P. After we logged it, we went home. We were tired.

Geocaching, Again?

  Yesterday I went geocaching again. We first went to the "This is VT: Alburgh" cache. It was confusing because there was a letterbox very close, so I accidentally grabbed that one instead! The next one was a park & grab that's in the same place as where I started hiking the day before. That one was easy to find though. The next was about 1/2way down the trail. We found a tracking bug there. A tracking bug is a trinket with a special tag with a code on it to log it on the website (geocaching.com). The next cache was in the Grand Isle Rec. field. We saw a dog there without a person, so we had to wait for it to leave to get it. The next was at Hyde log cabin,(oldest log cabin in America) and we (I) found it quickly. The last cache we did was "This is VT: South Hero". We didn't find it then. (we did today)

Geocaching in the Islands

  Yesterday I went geocaching with my family. The first cache we hit was at the head of Isle La Motte. We found it easily, wrote in the log book, and went to the next cache. We didn't take or leave anything because if you take something, you have to leave something, and we forgot our cache trinkets. Also, we had to be careful because my mom saw shotgun shells, and it was right after hunting season started.
  The next was an earthcache. An earthcache is actually a quiz that you answer with whatever kiosk is at that site. It was at the Fisk Quarry on ILM. What you do is finish the quiz, email it to the cache owner, then they will give permission to post that you found it on geocaching.com. The third cache was close to an area providing a place to play a certain sport.=P  It is what's called a park n' grab. That means it is very close to a parking area.
  The next was supposed to be a long hike, but we never found it! We hiked for 90 minutes with a stroller for nothing! It ended at a dead end of water & a beaver dam. But on the way back it was easier, we found another way. After that, we were really tired, so we went to Hero's Welcome to eat, but they don't serve after 5:00. We just had some chips then. We kept geocaching then, and went to another cache, but we never found it! While I was there I saw a cool, huge, bulbous, mushroom! Then we went to 2 others, and found them! We wrote in the logbooks, then took & left something in each cache. We went home after that, we were hungry and wanted to watch a movie. 

My Lock 33

   On vacation we went on a canal houseboat on the Erie canal. At one point I got out and biked alongside the boat. When I got to lock 33, (a point where a boat can change elevations) the "Lock master" gave me a tour that included the machine that opens the water valves. In the machine, there were electrical relays. Later, when my parents radioed in to get in the lock and pass through, he let me answer them! Then when they got in, they were sealed in, then I got to fill the lock with water. Then I put my bike on top of the boat, said goodbye to the lock master, and floated away.

Moldy mold, and maybe some bread

7 days ago I put a piece of moist bread and dry bread in separate bags. Now the dry one has only a tiny spot of mold, but there is almost no moist bread left! It's mostly a huge pile of mold. Hairy mold. =P (ew!) That shows that moist bread makes more killer mold!

When I went to the Gateway Arch!

    For my birthday this year I went to the Gateway Arch in Saint Louis, Missouri. I went to the absolute top! To get there, you had to go up in an elevator not unlike a space pod. It went up on one tilting track, so the "pod" had to readjust and tilt the other way about every 20-30 seconds.

    Did you know the arch is 630 ft high and wide? Cool, right? The arch was actually built as a monument to Thomas Jefferson. It's also taller than the Space Needle in Seattle, Washington. When I was in the top of the arch, I could look out a slanted window and see so straight down, I could almost look at the other side!

Salem Poem

These trials are so wrong
The girls scream at naught,
And they see me to blame.
I have never bewitched
Though they accuse the fact.
I am put in stocks,
In place of the culprit.
They believe this nonsense,
To think of me with magic.
And now I am hanged,
All for the fun of a girl.

-Written by Trevor Liloia, age 12

License Confusion

   Today I learned about license plates. Each plate has many possibilities for what it could be. Did you know that a normal state-issued Vermont plate has 12,812,904 possibilities! When they run out of plate numbers, they are probably going to change the system.
   Vanity plates are different, those are the custom 7-character plates. there are 35 possibilities for each space! That means there are 78,364,164,000 possibilities for each vanity plate!

Yesterday's Bugs!

     Yesterday I read a book called "Ugly Bugs". It's about bugs, insects, & their lives! There is a type of ant that makes bread! Also, guard termites explode to guard the nest they live in too. Bugs will do anything to protect their species!
     Did you know that there are 10 times more species of insects than animals? There were all those facts and more in "Ugly Bugs" by Nick Arnold!