A Touch of Poison Ivy

It has been a while, but I had... A TOUCH of POISON IVY...thanks to geocaching! On Jeff's birthday (18 April) and the day after (19 April,) we went geocaching. In the woods. This was when everything was just budding out...there were pale green buds on most of the trees. And I didn't see any poison ivy. Well, let me tell you, the poison ivy was there! We went back to one of the areas 2 weeks later and it was COVERED in poison ivy. Here's what poison ivy looks like...just in case you don't know.

Poison Ivy, a plant native to North America. It grows along fences, in dry fields, and in open woodlands. Common poison ivy is found throughout the United States. It is a climbing or trailing vine or upright shrub. It has alternate, compound leaves. Each leaf is composed of three dark-green leaflets 3 to 10 inches (8 to 25 cm) long. The leaflets are toothed or lobed and have pointed tips; they are usually glossy. The common poison ivy has yellowish-green flowers and greenish-white berries.Poison ivy is composed of three dark-green leaflets.

The plant contains urushiol, an oily substance that is an allergen to most humans. It causes severe inflammation of the skin. Urushiol is present in all parts of the plant, especially the sap, which is most abundant in spring and summer. The poison is spread by contact with the plant or contaminated objects. It is also spread by burning the plant, heat vaporizes the oil, which is then carried in the smoke. Urushiol on clothing, shoes, garden tools, and other objects can remain active for a year or longer.

Symptoms usually appear 24 to 48 hours after contact, but may take 7 to 10 days to develop. The skin develops a red, blistering rash that itches intensely. After about 5 days, the blisters break and become crusty. The skin usually heals within two weeks. The rash is treated with cortisone lotion or cream. Calamine lotion relieves the itching and inflammation and dries up the blisters. In severe reactions, oral doses of antihistamine, benzocaine, and corticosteroid drugs may be prescribed.

Poison ivy plants are killed by spraying with ammonium sulfamate or the herbicide 2, 4-D.
Common poison ivy is Rhus radicans of the cashew, or sumac, family, Anacardiaceae. (science.howstuffworks.com/flowering-plants/po...)

Let me tell you, a poison ivy rash is HORRIBLE! (This picture is NOT me, by the way...nor is it Jacob, who also had a touch of the terrible rash! Instead it is some poor man that I found while searching for images of poison ivy. He looks rather uncomfortable and appears to be saying, "Oh #%$*&@! Look what happened to my arms!) My patches were a little smaller than this poor man's. I had a 4 inch x 5 inch patch on my left shin, a 3 inch by 2 inch patch behind my left knee (now that was bad) and a few smaller patches on my right leg along with small blisters here and there.

I ended up going to the doctor three times. Jacob was lucky since he only had to go once. Both of us were started on steroids. Jacob's luckily cleared up. My luck wasn't so good. I ended up back at the clinic within a week getting a shot in the butt. That still didn't do the trick...the large patch on my shin got infected and I ended up taking more steroids and antibiotics. Of course, with my luck, I was ALLERGIC to the antibiotic and got ANOTHER rash (mind you, I still had the poison ivy rash!) So yet another antibiotic was prescribed. Finally, it cleared up.

The next time I go geocaching in the woods, this is what I'm taking with me.

Jeff has been teasing me and calling me Poison Ivy, from the Batman comics. I think I'll get a tattoo to always remind me of how much I enjoyed my oozy, itchy, scratchy ordeal.

Look out for Poison Ivy!

Caching Events, Updates, Etc.

Well, I am finally updating our blog... We've had a lot of geocaching news since the last update!

Geocaching event #1: We were in a Geocaching contest that was held in Junction City with Military Affairs and the Junction City City Council for Military Appreciation. Well, it was a bust...we didn't win a prize even though we were the first team to complete the caches. We completed the caches with coordinates that were written wrong, coordinates that were off (we're talking miles off) and still, no prize (grand prize was $500, 2nd place $250 and 3rd was $150.) We thought the event was poorly organized and poorly run...

Geocaching event #2: We went to the 1st Annual Country Cache, which was south of Topeka. It was fun! We ate lunch with a bunch of cachers. After lunch, everyone was given coordinates for 40 new caches within Osage County. It was a lot of fun. We were first to find on 4 different caches! We found 17 caches that day! It was Jeff's birthday and he had a great time!

Geocaching event #3: A Whole Lotta Bull. We went to Doe's Restaurant in Manhattan and met up with local goecachers! It was a lot of fun. We talked with a bunch of people that we just knew by their geoname! It was fun actually meeting JBnW, KCMose, CCSteveC, Wolf Spider, Lego Laws, Alien Bounty Hunter, sarahbryce09, and everyone else! See the picture above and look at all the geocachers! What a way to end Jeff's birthday!

And now for our update...We are at 395 finds! In one year!!! We signed up at geocaching.com a year ago when Jeff came home from Iraq. He did the first cache at Heritage Park in Junction City. We've come a long way since then! I wasn't sure I'd like it, but we've found out that we love geocaching. It's a lot of fun, we've met a lot of wonderful cachers and we've even hooked a few (Craig and Kelly, Ken, Dad and I think I have another friend interested!)

Happy caching! :)

Another "Bomb"

Well, there is another geocaching "bomb" story...

A few weeks ago, we were planning another geocaching trip to gather up some more Kansas counties (105 County Challenge) and for another few grids for the Delorme challenge. Jeff was busy planning our route and he came across a cache that was close to home, on I-70 west at a rest area. This would be perfect for our trip since we were headed west. When we were finalizing our route, Jeff discovered the cache was no longer active. It had been archived. Jeff searched for more information...the rest area had been renovated during the past few months, but why was it archived now? Then he found this...

"The cache died today, the KHP Special Response Team blew it up. It was apparently found by a non-gecacher and reported to the Highway Patrol. They X-rayed the container and did not see anything hazardous inside, they blew it up anyway.... If you decide to submit another here, be sure to clearly mark the container and maybe we should use something clear for this one."

So last weekend, we placed a letterbox geocache (JC's Letterbox Hybrid http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=59af535c-6a3f-4fae-a67f-eb4cc2bec150 ) and this is what the reviewer posted on our cache:

"Recently a KDOT worker found a geocache in an unmarked ammocan in a rest area. Secluded in an area with some trees. He called the Highway Patrol and they sent out their Special Response Team. Even though a deputy caught wind of what was going on and told them what the can was, the response team X-rayed the can and it contained nothing that looked like a bomb. To be safe, they blew it up. A member of the response team then got a geocaching account to find out who the can belonged to. He contacted the member and they are talking about charging the cacher for the response. I am not sure what that costs, but you need to make really sure you have permission and/or a well marked container. I am not sure given this response team member's attitude, any marking would stop him from blowing an ammocan or military style container."

Be on the lookout for bombs...uh, ammo cans...

DeLorme Challenge and Kansas 105 County Cache

Yesterday, we spent the entire day geocaching. We left at 8:30 am and returned at a little past 7:00 pm. We drove about 350 miles through parts of Kansas we'd never seen before.

You might be asking why... Why would the crazy Miller family drive 350 miles to do some geocaches? The answer is easy. Actually, the answers are easy... The Delorme Challenge and the Kansas 105 County Cache.

So yes, we're crazy. We're participating in both of these challenges. In the Kansas 105 County Cache, we have to find a cache in each of the 105 counties in Kansas. We've done 25 counties so far!

On a side note, why does Kansas have 105 counties while Maine only has 16? In 6th grade or so (or maybe it was 5th) I had to learn all 16 counties of Maine. There was even a song that helped me memorize it. Do kids in Kansas have to memorize all 105 counties??

Anyways, the DeLorme Challenge is similar. We need to find a cache in each grid of the Kansas DeLorme map. There are 65 grids and we've done a cache in 16 of them!

So that's why we drove over 300 miles yesterday. (I'm so glad we have our new Prius and got over 42 miles per gallon!) We did 20 caches along the way and had a great time as a family. Geocaching is fun. We love it!

Police On Our Door Step

So yesterday Jeff and Jacob went rollerskating to give me time to study in a quiet house for my upcoming GRE exam. I'm working hard, studying, thinking, "How on earth am I going to pass this blankly blank test." And the doorbell rings. Standing on our front step is one of Junction City's finest...a police man. I'm thinking something horrible has happened to Jeff and Jacob...maybe a broken bone or some type of roller-derby-gone-wrong injury. Maybe someone has broken a tail bone from falling!

I'm standing barefoot looking up at this police man when he says, "Your neighbor called to report someone putting a mysterious ammo box in the tree in your front yard. Your neighbor thinks it might be a bomb."

Uh, that's our geocache. We have a 4 part multicache that ends in our front yard. You need to travel to 3 of our geocaches in order to get the numbers that will unlock the chain. Once you have the 3 numbers, you end up in our yard with the lock combo and the multicache is solved. But here I am, trying to explain why we have a ammo box in our tree with a lock and chain around it. I swear he thought I was crazy.

Of course, Jeff and Jacob miss the fun of explaining what geocaching is and that it's a game! Stuff like this only happens to us.

And to top it off, the poor cacher couldn't get the ammo box unlocked! Maybe he was trying to hurry before the "bomb" went off. :)

The "Bomb" (aka diecast64's "4 in 1" geocache)

Driving on Gravel Roads

We've had another geocaching adventure on a gravel road in Kansas...or were we in Nebraska?

We spent Christmas in Iowa with Jeff's family. On 27 December, 2008 we did a few caches on our way home to Kansas. It was a cold day with intermittent snow squalls and it was getting to be late afternoon when we did the cache "Ponies, Wagons, and Mail, OH MY!"

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=93a77775-c399-4ffd-af8a-5df8fa0799de

This was a really neat cache that was right on the Kansas/Nebraska border. Jacob and I stood in Kansas while Jeff took our picture from Nebraska. To get there, we had to drive a few miles on some gravel roads. Thank goodness the roads were frozen, other wise we'd have a different ending to our story.

Our next cache was about 14 miles away and we used the GPS in our new car to get us there. It showed the gravel roads, which are usually laid out in 1 mile squares...so it's like a big grid. The GPS was zoomed in all the way to show the gravel roads; when it was zoomed out, you couldn't see the gravel roads. We're driving and driving and driving...turning left and right and heading to our next cache (which was diagonal from where we started.) There are no other cars/trucks on the road, a few farm houses, a few herds of cattle and lots and lots of fields. This area is pretty hilly, so we're going up and down and there are a few curves that went around creeks (pronounced "cricks" since were here in the Midwest; although it's still spelled the same.) Since we had to have the car GPS zoomed in all the way to see the gravel roads, we weren't really able to see the big picture unless we zoomed out. So we're zipping along and the road curves to the right and goes down a steeper hill at the same time. The road had eroded a bit and there were big gullies in it. We carefully followed the road down, across a railroad track and discovered it ended right in a farmers field. According to the GPS, there was a road there. But in reality, there was a corn field. Even though the roads were frozen, there was no way we could get easily get back up the hill and find a different road. If we had 4 wheel drive, it wouldn't have been a problem. But since we were in my BRAND NEW CAR, there was a slight problem. I about threw up then and there. We were in a corn field with no cell phone (they were both dead and probably wouldn't have gotten reception anyways) and it was getting dark. It kind of reminded me of being stuck in the middle of nowhere in our new truck on an old railroad track...

So...we backed up, went back over the railroad track and looked at the hill. I'm thinking these horrible thoughts about leaving my brand new Prius and walking miles looking for a house. Right next to the railroad track is a small gravel road that the railroad uses to check the tracks. We decided to take that road and find out where it goes...it's not on the GPS...but it's better than walking miles in the freezing cold looking for a house. We followed that road for miles, up and down the hills and finally we came to a different gravel road that crossed the railroad tracks. We took that road and a little while later, we found our way to a road...a tar road...a real road that didn't end in a corn field!

Needless to say, we made it off the gravel road. And we even made it to the next cache as the sun was setting. We were glad that we spent so much time wandering the Kansas gravel roads...we arrived at "Is That a Dinosaur I See?" at the perfect time!

It's been a while....

Here's my version of the song "It's Been a While" from Staind.

It's been a while
Since I could hold my head up high
and it's been a while
since I've blogged about geocaching
It's been a while
since any one's read about our adventures
and it's been a while
since I've updated you
But everyone has been so busy; no time for blogging right here
the consequences that I've rendered
no one's laughing or shedding tears...

Somehow, I don't think I could make a living writing songs! :)

If you care to watch the video, check it out http://www.imeem.com/staind/video/qU-stg3x/staind_staind_its_been_a_while_official_music_video_musi/

If you care to read the original lyrics, check them out http://www.lyrics007.com/Staind%20Lyrics/It's%20Been%20A%20While%20Lyrics.html

I will try super duper hard to keep our blog updated so I don't have to torture you with my song writing capabilities! Happy New Year! :)