Captains Log - StarDate 080111-1

About that Grave Danger thing....well, you know how Dave and I like to Geocache...  (www.geocaching.com) .   After exploring Pea Ridge, we popped up the website to see if there were any quick geocaches we could grab.    It was a little too warm to interest us in walking very far.   Well.... there was a "fun sounding" supposedly easy to find cache not too far out of our way.  

I entered the coordinates into my DeLorme handheld GPS....asked for driving directions to get us close.  It pointed us towards this pasture road.   Since the hint had indicated the "owner" had given permission for this cache to be hidden on his property, we were not too surprised that we were entering private property, but being a little wary none the less.    As we approached a house in the middle of this pasture, we could not tell if it was occupied or not....there were no vehicles but the tall pasture had been mowed about 10 feet around the house.  Dave and I look at each other and decide to get out of the car. 

I switched the GPS to hiking mode....According to it, we are still 120 feet from the hiding location in the direction of the left end of the house.   With no cars visable, we were feeling pretty confident that we were alone.    We began picking our way thru the tall grass, circled the end of the house and two BIG dogs started barking their heads off.   They appeared to be tied up about 50 feet away but were raising a huge ruckus!   Still not feeling that comfortable standing on someone else's property, not knowing where we were really going or if we were even in the right place, we retreated to the car post haste!   Ha! 

I was ready to forget the whole idea.   Dave said he could see a road that ran behind the house.  We got back in the car, drove down the highway a quarter mile, found the entrance to the dirt road and followed the GPS back to the area.    Coming in from that direction, we climbed over the bar ditch and thru a wooded area trying to avoid the poison ivy.  We were still very close to the back of the house and the dogs started barking again.  When we heard one of the dogs hit the end of their chain, we decided the elusive geocache was not worth the medical bills for the potential dog bites.  

The road was narrow so our 3 point turn ended up being a 9 point turn.   On our escape to civilization, we met a car just turning down the gravel road that seemed to be unsure of where they were going.   Dave decides they may also be searching for this same geocache and he should warn them about the dogs.    We pull up and Dave rolls down our window, looks into the eyes of two shirtless bearded guys straight from "Deliverance" and says, "Are you guys Geocaching?"   The toothless driver says "Huh?"   Okay, to be fair...he had 3 teeth.   Time for us to go!

We put the GPS in the glove box where it should probably stay until we recover.   We enjoy the rest of our drive into Eureka Springs.  

With our "Drive About see where the road take us" plan, we did not have hotel reservations in advance.     We remembered our niece, Kerry had an internship at the Crescent.   The hotel that is considered one of the most haunted hotel's in America.   It was once a cancer hospital operated by Dr Baker who was scamming the patients and their families out of large amounts of money.   Luckily they have a room available.    We have a delightful dinner in the Crystal Dining Room which was a 2 hour 5 course meal.  Yummy!   The haunted house tours start just down the hall from our room on the 4th floor.   We skip the tour and go to our room around 9.  Now for the Intrigue!   Our message light is on.   I call the message center, we have no messages and the light goes off.   I wake up this morning and the message light is back on.   I call the automated service, no message for us and the light goes out.   Well, the light is steadily flashing right now.....don't think I'll bother to check.

Time to get rolling and see what America has to offer today!