*COPY* of MC's LOST Astrolabe (Silver) Geocoin

The owner has set this Trackable as missing.

This geocoin got to participate in a very special event. June 4th marked the 30th anniversary of my sweet wife and I getting married. In celebration, I rented a cabin in the Smoky Mountains up above Gatlinburg and we spent a week relaxing, hiking, visiting scenic spots, eating fabulous food, shopping, and finding a few geocaches.

Due to a couple of recent medical procedures I was not able to go on any long or strenuous hikes, so we picked some of the shorter, easier hikes, mainly to waterfalls. We hiked to Grotto Falls, where there is a path that leads behind the falling water. We also hiked to Laurel Falls, Abrams Falls, and Cataract Falls, in addition to the short, but very steep hike up to Clingman's Dome. I'll post several photos of our vacation and the amazing scenery we saw.

We spent most of one day in Cade's Cove doing some hiking and driving around. We saw deer, turkeys, squirrels, chipmunks, lots of birds, and lots of very pretty butterflies. When it was time to return to town we took a back road and spotted a momma bear and two cubs in the woods next to the road. My wife was thrilled. She had hoped to get to see bears sometime during the trip. I think that was the high point of the whole trip for her.

Another day we drove around the 11-mile Arts and Crafts loop road in Gatlinburg, stopping and shopping at most of the stores. This loop road has shops and stores set up all along it where local artisans and craftsmen display what they've made and give demonstrations of how they create their art. We saw so many wonderful things, it was hard to resist buying something at every store.

Of course, I had to mix in a little bit of excitement during the trip, so one day while we were in Pigeon Forge I rode the Alpine Mountain Coaster. It's like a mild roller coaster. You are belted into a little sled on a metal rail track. They haul you straight up to the top of a mountain, then you coast down, twisting and turning all the way down. The sleds have brakes on them that you can use to slow down, but I left the brakes fully disengaged all the way down. I held one of my GoPro cameras in one hand during the ride down and captured some of the excitement. The video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZb-3YbIo8Q.

All in all, it was a very relaxing, romantic, and theraputic week. We didn't want to leave. We'll definitely be returning here again for another vacation in the future. The Astrolabe geocoin got to share this very special and enjoyable time with us.

[b]Blue skies!
[blue]Model Citizen[/blue] - [red]Zero Discipline[/red][/b]

Okay... It's been almost three years since this geocoin was last logged. I guess it's safe to assume it's missing. Time to reset and try again.

[b]Blue skies!
[blue]Model Citizen[/blue] - [red]Zero Discipline[/red][/b]

I'm about to send this coin out to travel again. But first...
Road trip!! It's been very busy lately. Intentionally. I'm trying to do all my favorite things before I go under the knife for a couple of surgeries this Thursday. A long recovery period is expected, so this is my last big blowout before being grounded for a few months.

This weekend's trip was to Cullman, Alabama, to participate in Skydive Alabama's "Pirates of the Caribboogie" event. In the skydiving community a "boogie" is a big skydiving get-together, usually with extra planes, special or unique aircraft, and a party in the evening. This event just had one plane, but it was a really fast Cessna Super-Caravan that could carry 18 skydivers to 14,000 feet in under 15 minutes. The plane also flew at least one high altitude load up to 18,000 feet. Since the aircraft is not pressurized, all the skydivers had to wear oxygen masks on the ride up. The drop zone also brought in a hot air balloon that took a few lucky skydivers up in the morning and afternoon for low altitude jumps. The Caravan flew all day, turning back-to-back loads as fast as it could. At the end of the day there was a pirate-themed party and a shrimp boil. Most of the pirate costumes were quite risque, so I didn't snap any photos or post them here on this family friendly site. Suffice it to say, it was quite a wild party. That's typical when you get a bunch of adrenaline junkie skydivers together and add alcohol.

The jumping on Saturday was awesome! I participated in a few large-formation skydives and usually got to be one of the last jumpers to dive out of the plane. One of my all-time favorite things is diving out last on a large formation jump, seeing the formation building far below me, going into a steep, fast dive to get down to the formation quickly, then flaring out at the last moment to slow down and come in smoothly to dock on the formation. I also participated in one 5-person dive where we built several different formations during the jump.

Wingsuit flying is another favorite thing. There were several wingsuit jumpers at the event so I got to participate in a few wingsuit flocks with up to six wingsuit flyers in them. Wingsuits are fabric suits with large aerodynamic arm and leg wings built into them. They allow a skydiver to slow down their vertical fall rate dramatically and instead generate high forward speeds. It's just like flying. Instead of falling at 120 mph straight down like in a normal skydive, we fall at 45 mph or slower. And instead of very little forward speed, wingsuits can fly at 100 mph or more. A normal skydive lasts about a minute, but wingsuit flights can last three minutes or longer and cover over four miles across the ground.

I made a bunch of jumps Saturday, and made a couple more Sunday too, until the winds got so strong and gusty that it became dangerous to jump. At that time I switched into geocaching mode and went to find a few caches at the nearby Hurricane Creek Park (log to follow).

The Astrolabe geocoin and I made about a dozen jumps from 14,000 feet, enjoyed about 15 minutes of freefall and wingsuit flight, and spent almost an hour flying around underneath my parachute. Here's a video of some of the jumps that I edited together from my GoPro helmet camera footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKGx0XNk_-8&feature=youtu.be. It was fun, but the adventures aren't over yet! Stay tuned.

[b]Blue skies!
[blue]Model Citizen[/blue] - [red]Zero Discipline[/red][/b]