Friday, December 01, 2006

November 17 2006






































November 17
Time to make my way south. After some business in SC, I started caching southward thru Capitola. One notable was another of those darn nano's, stuck to the back of a railing out on the wharf! A lot of good ones in Moss Landing. USS Macon, Military Zeppelin (gcz5xc)has an extensive write up describing its fate, but I missed the connection to the cache location. However.........the cache did have some good TB's and I snatched up a fire engine and a duck (oregon) whistle :'). I have to get these logged so that I can get them off on their way. Caches led me through sloughs and state beaches, but the best one was a "DNF". Monterey Canyon (gcypm8) (pics) is set in the proximity of the eastern end of that sea canyon. It has a 4/4 rating, yet I was able to view it plain and clear. It is in the ocean, and you need a proper tide and an extension ladder to retrieve it. The cache even has a "friends" of group, and they are set to do a group effort of retrieval on Monday evening. Will have to see how that worked out :).
Captains Inn (gctm3n) is also an interesting hide. Hard to not get muggled, and to make things worse, as I was milling, trying to not be conspiculous as the girl walked by, she said "are you geocaching?". I just hung my head :(. I asked if she were the owner, and she said no, just a player. She did not hang around for me to ask anything further.
So, I was just meandering towards Monterey and somehow made it onto hwy 68 east of town. As I was nearing Laguna Seca area, Some treehouses (literal) caught my eye. Tough turn around, having to go a mile and 3 turns to do so, in friday afternoon traffic to boot, but was it ever worth it! Perhaps others know who Steve Blanchard is, I did not, but his workshop and gallery sit out here pretty much in the sticks. He has spent some 5 or 6 years creating Itsyville (pics), a village that looks fashioned after the hobbits or elves, around the exterior of his gallery. The detail is awesome, and the longer you look, the more layers to it you find. There are folks tucked inside through some of the windows, or great detail inside of the structures that you can peek within. Some are mutiple story, or condo units, built around and up tree stumps. I about fell over with laughter when the rooster appeared (pic). Anyways, a very en-light-ening stop. I have not visited it yet, but he has a website www.blanchardwoodsculpture.com. He was apparently at work in his outdoor shop while I was there, and as I readying to leave, someone waved as he went into another building, and I assume it was him. Very cool stop indeed.

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