All righty, well, welcome to Caching in the Northwest.This is the podcast from the birthplace of geocaching right here in the great Pacific Northwest.It's Thursday at 9pm.They call the normal host of this show Chris of the Northwest.
And we're going to talk about geocaches and geocaches from here and all around the globe.So while you're waiting for your BIOS update to finish, we'll be caching in the Northwest.
And tonight we're talking about the Route 66 Adventure Labs series with GSM Times Two.I'm glad you're here, Scott.Thanks for joining.
I am terribly excited about this.Thank you guys very much for inviting me.
Well, that's great, because Glenn is excited and I'm just terrible.So we got it all covered.
Hey, listeners, are you planning to get your kicks on Route 66?Give us your feedback, stay tuned and find out all about it because I'm excited to learn about it.But first, of course, it's time to bring in our road trip Tamarin.
Some say he's actually an AI chat bot.And others say he can sniff out an earth cache like a truffle pig.All we know is he's called Landmonkey.
Hey, hey, hey.And, uh, I am an AI chat bot.It's all about giving me the right prompt.Then you'll get what you want.Monkey GPT.Yeah, there you go.That's awesome.All right.
And hey, speaking of sniffing out earth caches like a truffle pig, unsolicited AI prompt from me is go check out my YouTube channel tomorrow.New video coming out all about sniffing out earth caches like a truffle pig.
I don't know how you knew that that was exactly what the video was.
Yes, you are also handy for all right.Well, hey, before we get to any more of that stuff, and really the important stuff is talking to Scott about the sales.But oh my goodness.
Oh, my God.Yes.How is your BIOS?
Oh, it's very fresh and updated right now.
We had it.We had a new opening graphic here.It looked a lot like this.
Yeah, that I saw that same thing.I was live.
Oh, Chris, we're glad you're able to make it despite your computer fighting against you every step of the way.
Oh, boy.Let me tell you.I could tell you a thing or two.
Well, let's save that for the after show.But first, we want to show our appreciation for all of our patrons who help to fund Chris's Computer Fund and keep this podcast coming each and every week.
thanks to Landsharks, L-A-N-D-S-H-A-R-K-Z dot C-A, one of our corporate sponsors.If you've seen anything on geocaching.com that you want to get, well, check and see if it's on Landsharks.They are an official geocaching.com reseller.
And hey, I would be remiss if I did not point out that Cachely is the premier geocaching app for iOS.
Version 8 with Cachely Pro features offline maps of the entire world so you can navigate while offline, even if your BIOS is rebooting, Delorme and counties so that you can finish those grids, and coming soon, CarPlay support with or without Dell BIOS.
find cashly in the ios app store or go to cashly.com and folks if you want to know more about supporting the show and clearly we need all the support we can get click that patreon link on the cashing and w.com website.Thank you for your support.
We are your, uh, we are your athletic supporters.Okay.So I did all of this trying to get a, uh, voicemail to play.So tell me if you hear anything, here we go.You can just nod your heads when you hear somebody else's voice.
Hi, Caching in the Northwest.This is Megan.I'm also known to the geocaching world RFU for 88.
Um, I was on a couple of weeks ago, we were talking about goals and I announced that I was going to get, um, have going cash in 2024 as my 5,000 and I did it.
Um, so I have five, well, over 5,000 now and on my way to 6,000 and for my, uh, photo, I got a picture with Brian Ross.So it made it extra special. I hope, can't wait to get on tomorrow night and have a great day.Happy caching.There you go.
That's awesome.That was worth it.
Yeah, that was worth rebooting your computer.I mean, I'm also on my way to 6,000.Everything was left in good hands, Chris.Yes.Scott was here.
That's right.That's right.I'm also on my way to 6,000.I'm on my way to like 2,200 first, but 6,000 is out there.
Yeah, that's a lot of fines.That's fantastic.Congratulations and very much appreciate calling that in.That was pretty cool.
I appreciate the call-ins and I think Witsend appreciates it more because he didn't have to read it. Indeed.
I enjoy reading them, but I really enjoy hearing other people.Yeah, exactly.
It's different in in tonations.So, so far, Megan wins the show.Oh, without a doubt.
Definitely not you, Chris.
I was going to say, I don't have somebody bringing me beverages during the podcast.
I prefetched mine.I put in an order earlier and I'm still waiting.Did you check your phone to see if it went through?
Oh, no.Oh, I probably had to pay something.I'm not going to do that.Did you order at the wrong location?Probably. And Megan's listening tonight.So congratulations on 5,000.You probably already passed 6,000 now.
Probably so.And thanks for calling in.
Indeed.How did she call in, by the way?We appreciate it.Well, the only way to call in is to call into 253-693-TFTC.That's right.Leave us a comment, ask us a question, or send us your feedback any time of the day or night.
And of course, you can email us at feedback at cashinandw.com.It's just not the same as your voice.
Unless you record that on that smartphone of yours, you know, that app that you have right there, you can record it and then email it right away, right from your phone where you could be in the middle of Route 66 looking for a blue whale.
I feel like we're going somewhere with that.
Definitely.It's one of the locations.
All right.I just thought it was interesting, the blue whale in Oklahoma.
Isn't that a landlocked state?That's why this whale is blue.If it was the other places, it'd be gray.Too funny.
Well, GSM times two.I don't think anybody listening to our podcast, you're new to them.I think they know you well.Uh, you've been around the caching community.You've made great, um, uh, contributions to the caching community.Uh, so welcome back.
You have been on an Epic journey and you, and you also are going towards a milestone towards, uh, 6,000, right?Uh, actually 6,000 times five.Yes.
And thank you very much.I am very, very pleased to be here and sharing the exploits that my wife and I did too, so that I could finish.Wow.And she allowed you to?Not only allowed me to, she came with me. No way.
And she's a muggle, but she does enjoy adventure labs and she does realize how important Route 66 has been to my contribution to geocaching.
Well, why don't you tell us a little bit about that contribution to geocaching?Because it's not something that we can easily overlook.
Well, you know, anytime I talk about Route 66 and my involvement in Route 66, I also always have to talk about KC underscore 11, because KC underscore 11 is the person who came up with the idea of linking Adventure Labs together to create a series.
His original idea was he had a couple of friends and they had ALs that they didn't know what to do with. And he said, hey, let's link together some of the Lincoln Highway in Illinois.
And then some people in Iowa got a hint, and some people in Indiana got a hint, and said we want to be involved.And then GCHQ got involved, and they created the Lincoln Highway Adventure Lab series going all the way from New York to San Francisco.
I was fortunate to get one of those sections in Utah, and I went up 400 miles from my house, went up, created it, and then on the way home, I was doing parts of them.
And then when I got time to head home, I was 300 miles from home, and I'm like, God, somebody should do this on Route 66.Someone should do this. Scott, you should do this on Route 66.
And I got involved with Gear Guru up in GCHQ, found myself eight state coordinators.They did the bulk of the work of dividing the states up into sections, recruiting reliable and task-oriented geocachers.And in four months,
we had the historic Route 66 Adventure Lab Series going all the way from Chicago to Santa Monica.
Isn't it quite a thing when the voice in your head knows your name?Hey you, you could ignore it, right?
Right.Yeah.If it had stayed someone, I wouldn't have done it.But, uh, and I don't know that I should have a legacy.Um, but if I did, this would be the geocaching legacy I would hope to have.It was a blast.
Well, it sounds like it.And it's quite a significant milestone to hit 30,000 finds.And, you know, it sounds like you put a lot.I'm also on the way to my 30,000th find, by the way.
But it seems like getting all the stars to align, all the planets to align and getting all those numbers to add up to make that just coordinate just the way you wanted it to.That takes a lot of planning.That doesn't just happen.
It's like, oh, look at that.It just happened to be this, you know. Can you share a little bit of your planning process so that you were sure to hit that milestone just when you planned it to be there?
I can, and then I'll share some time of my little mistake on doing that.
It was a bonus.That's my job.
It was a bonus, absolutely.So I had done all of the Califorce Adventure Labs.And then in May, when Jill Woodstock was going to be in Flagstaff, I'm like, OK, I can do a couple more up to Flagstaff.And I can do one in Flagstaff.
Fu Manchu, one of the organizers, actually had one of the Route 66 Adventure Labs in Flagstaff.Well, maybe I could do a couple more after that.And then I just, somebody said, somebody should just do the whole dang thing.
Scott, you should do the whole dang thing. So talk to my wife, came up with an idea of how I could do it in an economic way.And I set out in May to do the whole thing.Had a great plan and was going to do 60 locations a day.That seemed reasonable.
And then it just fell apart. It fell apart because the first day out of Flagstaff, at the end of the day, I'd done 50.So I'm now 10 locations behind one adventure behind.And I'm like, Okay, how do I catch up?And I don't catch up.
I'm just going to I want to experience not just the number.And, and so that's what I did.I slowed down and came up with a plan.I knew that on a certain date, I had an event already scheduled in St.
Louis because I have a niece and nephew who geocache and I like, you know, we're going to have an event there.So my plan was do as many as I could.And when I was halfway, half a day away from St.Louis, stop. get on the interstate and go to St.Louis.
And so I wound up with a gap of 86 from the southern Kansas border to close to St.Louis.There was a gap and I'll complete that someday. And then my wife and I had a discussion and said, hey, let's go out and get in those other 96 or 86 adventures.
And that's what we set to do.And I'm excited to talk about that.Wow.Okay.And you asked about planning for it.I guess I probably should mention that. So I, yeah, so I, you know, lined it all up.So I would have, you know, room to do those.
I knew that I was going to do an event.I knew that I was going to get one bonus cash.So I made up a plan of these are 40 some we're going to get on day one.
And these are the 40 some we're going to get on date and use GSAC and labs to GPX and created a GPX file and made up my plan.And then.
Yeah.Actually, day one minus two, I was just kind of fiddling around looking at something or another and like, how come there's only four locations on that one adventure lab there in Oklahoma?And I missed six.And fortunately,
And I had already lined up everything.And fortunately, they were the six closest to the Kansas border.So I just needed to add those six on and then we went ahead.And it was a little rush to do it, but we got it done.
Were all the adventure labs on Route 66 10 stops?
Not all of them are 10 stops.Some people, we wanted interesting locations.You know, there are parts of this country that for 30, you know, for 36 miles, not 10 interesting things on Route 66.
We had a couple people who had previously made Route 66 adventures as five location adventures.We invited them to join our group, and so those five were five.
Well, congratulations on the achievement, Scott.That's pretty remarkable, as we've discussed.
With that many finds, 30,000 finds, well, 30,000 plus, I'm sure by now, under your belt, what would be some advice that you'd give to other geocachers who are newer to the game and perhaps look at a number like 30,000 in awe?
You know, it's really funny, because when I first got in the game, my dad said, how do those people have 1,000?And I'm like, I have no clue how they have 1,000.
But to do people coming into the game, and this is a little, I thought about this for a while, so this is a little long answer. It's a great time to enter the game.If you're interested in numbers, there's power trails out there.
There's geo art out there.There's geo art with adventure labs out there where you can get a lot of numbers.Very, very good time to pick up numbers.And on the other hand, if you're quality over quantity, this is a great time to get into the game.
We have a lot of geocachers that followed Wes Pitt Tim's role model of creating good geocaches.There are now some really interesting gadget caches.
With this movement to refresh the game board to take some of those stale geocaches that have been out there getting no favorite points. If they go missing, archive them and put out something at least a little bit better.
Or it might be a case of just archive them and put out something better.And then also with Geocaching HQ, they're pushing a lot of maintenance.And Geocaching, the game board is getting better and more interesting.
If you're a social person like I am, this is a great time to get into the game because there's more and more events going on with the 25th anniversary coming up with block parties.There's going to be a lot of the large events coming on.
And that should cool interest.But the number one and number two way to get those numbers is to stay in the game a long time.And to do that, my two pieces of advice are there's many, many aspects of the game.
Laugh on to the aspects of that game that you like and enjoy and do those. and to stay in the game for decades.If those started getting stale, find some other aspect that you're interested in and keep yourself in.
My dad, he was a jogger and he started jogging when he was 32 and he jogged until he was in his 80s.And every day he would write down how far he ran, where he ran, what his time was, what he weighed.
And every New Year's Day, he'd sit and watch the football games and you know, compile those stats.And he would say, if you do something long enough, you will eventually attain big numbers.
Yeah.Keats 94 says the numbers add up.
Yeah, they do.So, yeah, so that's how to get the numbers.Do it a long time and have fun doing it.
And have fun, I think, is the important aspect.
absolutely so many aspects to this find one that you like yeah yeah and you mentioned a lot of them block parties events you know just so many cool things gadget caches i think i haven't met anybody yet that doesn't like gadget just they're just cool yeah so there's some fun things to do out there but we're here tonight to talk about the root 66 series so let's jump right into that with as much detail as we can fit in an hour
With Scott yakking away for five minutes after every question.So basically I talked about already KC-11 and Lincoln Highway.When we were done, we had created 194 locations, 89 adventures along the 2,448 miles of Route 66.
Two of those adventures, the people archived them.They didn't live near them.They were having difficulty with them.And then one of them was from Two Guns to Flagstaff.Two Guns to Flagstaff, 30 miles
right next to Flagstaff where they're going to have Geowood stock.And I'm like that, we can't have that not there.So I had an account that I was able to get a five stage credit.It was a six stage adventure.
And I just recreated that, just recreated it.So right now we have 188 locations on route.Very cool.
That is amazing.Now, I know I did a couple of them around Flagstaff.Oh, nice.They were very well done.I enjoyed them.My wife was with me and, you know, she's not so much into geocaching, but she does like the Adventure Labs.
I think it's got a more universal appeal.You know, it's kind of the gateway drug into geocaching, I believe, right?
That's what gear guru has referred to it as.
Um, but, but yeah, she enjoys it.Cause you, you can, you walk up, you discover something, you put in an answer and then you're done, you know, and, and they could be easier to find than perhaps a geocache.Right.Um, but yeah.
We did some of those along route 66, learned some of the history and it was fantastic.I love history.Right.Came up to some of these sites.Um, now you, we did the one, I remember the one with two arrows, not two guns, but two arrows in the ground.
Uh, there's one left.Uh, it was just, uh, but yeah, those, those stick out in my mind.Um, so how many people have done at least some part of this route 66?
A lot of people have done some part of it.I have no idea.Certainly with Jill Woodstock there, 1400 or however many people that they finally had, a lot of people did.A lot of people did at least the one in Flagstaff.
As far as I can tell, about 35 accounts have finished all of them.TWLAR up in your area was the first one to do it.And that was really fun because I was able to meet her.
I was putting on a GIF event and she kind of altered her plans a little bit to arrive at my GIF event.And we were able to together do the last, it wasn't her last one, but it was the last one to Santa Monica and together.
So that was really, really a treat.I have made the effort to go down.And as I know, people are doing it.If I can, I'll go down and meet them at the end.So I've had, you know, like I said, I think about 35 people have done the entire thing.
You know, when you think about it, that's really amazing.Yeah. I think you would have driven the entire 2,448 miles to do that?
Even more.Yeah, especially if you're going to do it by yourself and you get lost here and there.And some of the locations are not on Route 66.When we were making up the standard, it was, hey, try and stay within two miles of Route 66.
But if there is something of very interest, such as the first oil well drilled in Oklahoma, yeah, okay, that's about four and a half miles from Route 66, still worth the effort, it needed to be added.
Impressive.Yes.So you say about 35 geocaching accounts have done every location on the map.24, 48 miles and 188 locations is like 13 miles between locations on average.Some are closer, I'm sure.But of those 35, oh yeah, sure.
Yeah, it's actually the average adventure is about 32 miles, which makes it 3.2 miles between locations.That's good.
Way more.Sounds way more achievable.
And yeah, do not call it a power trail, please.
No, no.Because this actually interests me.Power trails don't.Of those 35 accounts, you added your name to that list this week, didn't you?
I did. I did.So I got to add my list to it.Like I said, I had done all of the ones in California, and then I went to do all of them.Actually, that discussion of that is available on several other podcasts if you want to know about that.
But yeah, I went ahead and did all of them.I had the 91 to do.And here last week, actually, my wife and I set out and in over two days did those 91. and was a little bit rushed.
I wish we had had at least one, maybe even two days to finish them all, but got to do them all and got to add it to my list.And the original plan was my 30,000th find, my milestone 30,000 would be the last Adventure Lab on that.
Did not want to not do the six in Oklahoma.So my 30,006 was the last one.And, you know, all milestones are milestones.It's the first time that you've ever done that number.So they're all milestones.
Yes.And yeah, just a blast.Let's see.I've kind of got to look over my notes here a little bit.
Well, okay.Tell us about the trip.I assume this is the major, the long trip, right?When you left Geo Woodstock?
Yeah, let's talk about the trip in May.So the trip in May, to make it economical, I rented a camper van so that my car and my nightly stay would be one expense.
And I just went ahead and went to Flagstaff and then changed my mind and said, I'm not going to try and do all of these.I'm just going to leave that little gap. And I'm really glad I did.It just made the experience so much better.
Probably the one that I will talk about here is going to the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial.
One of the locations on Route 66 was a church across from that, and he referenced that there is a very good adventure lab in the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial. And I've spent about an hour and a half there.
And because it was fascinating, because not only did they honor those people who had died in a very interesting way, they had chairs set up their names, and this row was on the first floor, this row was on the second floor, this row was on the third floor.
And so they honored all of those people. They had a wall that survived.The building was built on a hill, so one of the walls was actually against, you know, against soil.So that one was not destroyed.
They left that up and they have engraved all the survivors who were there because, you know, the survivors did not just walk out of there.Right.Yeah.They suffered also.
And then they had another little section to all the people who were otherwise affected, all the first responders, all the family members, all those people.And then they had a section that's dedicated to children.
And then one of the more interesting ones, I think the most interesting, when they originally were building the memorial, they put a chain link fence around it, like you would do with any construction site.
And over time, people would be hanging up things, hanging up teddy bears, hanging up notes, hanging up cards, hanging up whatever.And all of those things got categorized and put in a museum.
Well, after they built the memorial, they went ahead and left four sections of that chain link or put four sections of that chain link fence back up.And here, decades later, people are still hanging things on that chain link fence.
So that's the best example of taking the time, not just doing it for the numbers.
Experience trumps numbers every time, the chat says.
For some people, it does.And for some people, it's the numbers.
Subway Mark says he spent a lot of time at the Oklahoma City Memorial.It was very moving.
Iham asks, is there a specific naming convention for these Adventure Labs?
Yes, there is.And now all I have to do is think about it.
Yes, that's all you need to know.You answered the question.
It's called, it's close to Route 66, AL, and then it's the two locations, the northernmost city and the southernmost city.So, you know, Chicago to Joliet, for example, would be one of them. If the chat like you, I put a link in the show notes.
Maybe I didn't.I'll get something put into those.I'll put a link in in just a second that shows all of them.
So Scott, I mean, the Route 66 is definitely, as far as I understand, known as one of those old classic highways that in that time when people were traveling, it was known for the roadside attractions.
There's all kinds of things people would put, you know, the largest ball of twine, ball of paint and all that kind of crazy stuff.That's where you would see a lot of this kind of stuff.Were there some of those kinds of places to stop at?
There were some of those places to stop at, but I think they, I mean, my wife and I stopped at the second largest rocking chair.There's a lot of Michelin men still there.
They're not Michelin men anymore, but there's still a lot of Michelin men on Route 6. Um, but I, you know, as the hotels have gone out of business or whatever they were attracting, uh, some of those landmarks have gone, uh, gone out too.
And the world's second largest rocking chair.
Are there any Burma shave signs along Route 66?
Not very many.Not very many, but yeah, there used to be.
Things like the Cadillac Ranch.
Cadillac Ranch is still there.Yeah.And then to answer the question directly, it's called historic Route 66 colon space, and then the east or northern city, and then to the southern city.
Yeah, I am founded historic route 66 colon x to y. Yep.
Yep.So yeah, thanks for asking.And they all have the same graphics.So they're actually fairly defined.Oh, good.If you're
Well, that Bell on the Move asked a question about the graphic.Is there a way to get that numbered t-shirts, 1 to 35?
Yeah, thanks for asking.There is.We have a website, thanks to one of the people who had completed it, and I forget his name.It's Tom.He created it, and we do have, if you go to root66al.net.That has a lot of information.It has the GPX files.
it should have a link to where you can order the t-shirt.This was a fellow podcaster, Scott Burks, created this design.And his wife, Shorty Knits, was actually my Illinois state coordinator.
Very cool. Yeah.Okay, so you met the, oh god, oh, Brad Lang says there were several Burma Shave signs between Kingman and Seligman, Arizona.
Yes, yeah.There were a couple of them still out.Well, newer ones.I don't think they were the original ones.
Probably not the originals, yeah.
But for somebody who's, let's say, younger than some of the people in this room, Winston, why don't you tell them what the Burma Shares are?
Well, they were before my time, but my parents, my mom was born in Kansas and moved out to California, I don't know when, long before I was born and talked about.So they probably drove parts of Route 66 going to Los Angeles back in the day.
And yeah, there was a Burma, there was a
company that made shaving cream, the Burma Shave Company, and they made signs that they would stage along the highway in limerick style or poetic style, where they were just a short phrase, you know, a man, a miss, a kiss, a curve.
He kissed the miss and missed the curve.Burma Shave.
Oh, man, that was perfect.
So they were just, they were known for humorous that way.And a lot of people that did road trips back in the day, you know, they didn't have podcasts to listen to.They didn't have DVD players in the back seat.That was the entertainment.
You look for the Burma Shave signs and read the poems.
Yep.I was, I was in the back seat at probably about eight to 12 years old.And we liked the Burma Shave sign.
Yeah, between DVDs, right?
Yeah.Between looking for the ends in the next license plate or.Yeah, fine.Yes.
Alphabet game.Yeah, I played the alphabet game a lot.
And I always had to sit in the middle on the back seat on the hump right there on the mission.
No foot rest.No room at all.
Yeah.Youngest.And it was, you know, that was my spot.Yeah.Yeah.I never went at the license plate game because, you know, I wasn't closest to the window to see.
I was going to say, for all of the highlights and tourist attractions and things that you did see along the road, did you have any specific highlights that stand out?
you know, this last little trip with my wife.And again, we were unfortunately rushed.We really enjoyed going to some different places.There were a lot of people who loved to talk about, you know, met the inspiration for Mater from cars.
And, you know, and he was very interesting, very fun to talk to.If we had all the time that we could have, we would have spent a lot more time.We probably would have arrived at the end of the trip without ears.
But, you know, but yeah, but that was interesting.I think just for the one highlight, I'll talk about the independent Trails of Memorial that an artist put together on his own land, no funding involved.
And, you know, Trails of Tears, for those who may not know, was when they relocated several tribes.They walked them from Missouri and Illinois to Oklahoma to their new reservation.And there were a lot of deaths along the way.
So that's the Trails of Tears. And he had set up a very interesting, very beautiful memorial that we would have spent an hour or more at.We probably spent about 20 minutes at.And yeah, that was one of the highlights.
And there's many, many, many, many.
Wow.So, yeah, lots of fascinating things that that you came across.So someone, Scott, if someone's got their curiosity peak now and maybe they hadn't heard of this series before.
Now they've heard about it and they're thinking about, OK, starting to plan tackling the series themselves.Where can they get more information about the historic Route 66 AL series?
Okay, now that we're at the show notes where I can look and say route66al.net is our website.Over there, we'll have general information.We'll have the spreadsheet with all the links in it. And there's a map there.
There are links to, there's the GPX files, the GPX files can be downloaded into your apps, into the many apps that will take GPX files, or put onto, you know, put onto a Nuvi or any kind of GPS. So those are there.
There are links to the previous podcasts.
I've had the good fortune of being on several different podcasts, talking about how it was planned, and then my first trip on Route 66, and then this is the one where I'm talking about having finally finished it.
So all those podcast links will be on there. And then we also have a Facebook group, Route 66 GC Adventures is a Facebook group that we have about 400 members on there.And yeah, so lots of good information and a lot of good resources.
You will ask me in a little bit, but I'll tell you now if you have any questions, go ahead and contact me through the GCHQ. message board GSM X to pronounce GSM times.And I'll be happy to provide any information that I can.
Nice.Hey, jumping back for just a moment.I Hamless know was the trail of tears.The one in Rubidoux Springs in Waynesville, Missouri.
I believe it was in, it was in Missouri.Yes.
And I assume that's French.
Well, Rubidoux Springs, um, that, no, that was, that was a one put on by the city or, or that's in a park, but this one was just off the side of the road.
Uh, most people probably wouldn't ever notice it unless they were on route six and unless they were following this location.Okay.So.
So I asked you earlier before we started, but I'll ask again for the podcast.Can you really get a feel for what Route 66 was really like back in the day?
Or has it just all been paved over and so commercialized that it's just, eh, it's not really the same?
Okay, as far as the road, it's 85% of Route 66 is still drivable as Route 66.Okay, that's a lot.It will vary from nicely paved roads.There's a section just before Flagstaff that is dirt.
I think the more interesting, for me, the most fun was when Route 66 was right next to the interstate.There's a section of that in Southern California.A lot of the section in Illinois is like that.
A number of sections in Missouri are like that, where you're driving down a two-lane road, and you're right next to the interstate.And just the contrast is so spectacular and fun, because you're seeing all the trucks and all the cars.
and you're just driving on a road that's essentially a frontage road.So I really enjoyed that section.In Illinois, Illinois, there's a couple states that have really done a good job of maintaining, you know, G6, making it easy to follow.
Illinois is one of them.Missouri is one of them.Oklahoma, another one. And in Illinois, it was interesting because as Route 66 became more crowded, they had to expand it.
So much of the sections in Illinois were two-lane divided highways, or four-lane divided highways, not limited access, but four lanes. which was really unusual now that it's being used as a frontage road.
They've closed down one of them, and that's being taken over by nature.And then the others are driving along.
I kind of feel like I wish I could get a 1950s sedan and drive it.
It would have been fun, you know, and there's, well, and then the other part of it is, but you also get a feeling for what it was.And, you know, there is a lot of abandoned gas stations and there's a lot of abandoned motels.
But, on the other hand, it is sparking up.We're coming up to the 100th anniversary of Route 66, and some of those gas stations are being turned into tourist attractions, into roadside attractions.Some of the motels are coming back.
Some of them have been converted to housing, to apartments, and others are still as motels.
And I would really encourage those people who are doing it, and I have nothing against the Hyatt and I have nothing against Holiday Inn or any of those, but if you can, stay at those old ones.
You're going to find the rates are competitive, if not really good.And these people are trying to keep Route 66 like Route 66. Yeah.
And I stayed in a couple and, you know, and yeah, they're, they're not 80 some years old, and they're not the fanciest places, but they were really, really had a nice feel to them.
But I would also do my research, because some of them are kept up well, and some of them are not.
I saw a TV special not long ago, Abandoned Places or something, I forget.They talked about Roy's Motel and Cafe in Amboy, California there.That looks like a really nice one.
It is and it's been operated as a very nice restaurant.And yeah, and a lot of people stop by.And I think that's the thing that really surprised me is what an international attraction still is.
You know, our adventure lab would take you to some obscure places.But when I was going or we were going to places that were well known,
There would be four or five other people there, many of them speaking either a foreign language or speaking American with an accent that lets you know that they were from a different country.
And it really is an international treasure that I hope continues to survive.
Yeah.So Scott, we talked a little bit earlier about some pro tips for folks who want to, you know, they're new to it, they want to tackle it.
But if somebody, you know, anybody who regardless of their experience level, if someone was like, all right, you've motivated me, I want to take this on, what would be sort of the high level overall advice you would have for people who want to follow in your footsteps there?
This isn't in the show notes, but it's really a great hint.Go to that spreadsheet and click on each one of those, and it'll bring up a page that has a QR code on it.Print all of those out.Put them in a notebook in the proper order.
And that's a very quick way to be able to load your next adventure.Yeah, because if you get like in Oklahoma City, despite the fact that we have graphics and even in a list, it's hard to pick them up.
It's easy to pick them out in a list, but you're going through a whole lot of them.If you have that printed out in order, you can go from one to the other to the other.Good tip. And then I guess another one, again, not in the show notes.
There are sections of Route 66 that don't have internet access.And that's a challenge.Hopefully someday.It's the most requested feature for Adventure Labs.Please let us so that we can do them offline like we can geocaching.
If they would let us be able to do them offline and we would not need to have an internet access, it would be a lot easier.
So I basically had two phones and that way if I accidentally answered a question and it wasn't able to get to the server and I was now locked out of the app, I could go to the other phone and continue on my way.
And my rule was don't answer any questions unless I have three bars of 4G or 5G.And don't answer any question if I don't have it on two devices.But beyond that, going to the show notes. I did it my way, you should do it your way.
You do you, I did me.If you're into the numbers and you want 844 adventures fairly quickly, you can get them.
Or if you're looking for the experience like I did, and especially if you have unlimited time, good for you and enjoy a month of doing Route 66.
But at a minimum, use that read to be feature that's in the app now and let that read to you the initial description instead of hitting start, read the initial description and then read all of the locations.
You know, geocaching, many people will say geocaching takes you to the best places.Adventure labs take you to the best places and they teach you something about it.
If you'll read the description and take in that information that they're good, that they've, that they're allowing you to, that they're presenting for you.And, uh, yeah, definitely do that.Go ahead, Chris.
I was going to say fear the tubas says Scott.I love the way you describe the process.Indeed.
Yeah, and yeah.Okay, so this is kind of like a revelation I had.I was doing Fu Van Chu's one in Flagstaff, and it took me to a mansion.And it's telling me about the architecture of the mansion.It's telling me about the history of the mansion.
It's having me look at the mansion and counting windows or something along those lines. And as I'm doing this, I'm thinking, you know, if this was a geocache, I'd be over there by the split ray fence looking for a bison tube or a pill bottle.
So, and that's, you know, that's why our muggles' wives can enjoy these, even if they don't enjoy looking for pill bottles and split rail fences. Yeah.
So, uh, what did, did the, uh, camper van help or hinder?Do you think it was, it was a good choice to do that, to, to have your, your hotel room on wheels?
It would have been a better choice if I'd been 20 years younger. It worked out fine.I did spend more than half the nights in the camper van.But, you know, it was a camper van in which I was crawling into bed in the back.
For a couple days, I had some little leg cramp issues and that kind of cut into the enjoyment of it. Yeah, but it worked out.It worked out.It gave me an economic way to stay.I stayed, I think my favorite place to stay was truck stops.
Truck stops because they know that you're camping and nobody's going to bother you.At night, you can go brush your teeth and other things in a nice clean restroom.
In the morning, you can wake up and brush your teeth and other things in a nice clean restroom. So those worked out well, but I also stayed in some Forest Service campgrounds.I did stay two nights in an old rustic, you know, Route 66 motel.
I did stay one night at a casino. because they have good rates and yeah, and clean beds.So yeah, but it did work out.Would I do it again in a camper van?
I would consider it, but I might think of some other way to do it and maybe something other than just a camper van, but it worked out okay.
We have a lot of questions or a lot of comments here. Okay, CRS 98.There's a lot of kitsch and abandoned stuff on the section I visited.It was all fascinating.
And, yeah, and some of the people like the section that I that I created from twin guns, two guns to flagstaff, there was this old abandoned house and, you know, nothing special.But
the research that was done, that house, in three different instances, five people were killed in that house.
Yeah, you probably did.It was right next to Flagstaff.Yeah.So what did you think, Chris?
You read the first one, you go, wow, that's a tragedy.Wait a minute.What?It goes on? And there's another, I remember reading it.
I don't remember if I read it out loud to my wife or she read it out loud to me as one of us were driving and it's like, are you kidding?How can this be?
Yeah, and without an adventure lab, you know, that is not one of the hotspots for people coming here.
I would have driven by at 70 miles an hour going, huh, wonder what that was, and off I go.Yeah.That section of Route 66, I remember it well.Every crack, you know, there were long cracks in the pavement.
and grass coming up through it at least a foot tall, right?Nature is in the process of recovering this road, but it's a frontage road, you know?Yeah, I felt fine doing about 45.I didn't want to do much more than that on it.
And I was thinking, I go, okay, so if this is, I realized the condition of the road is not as good as it was when it was first built, but this is about the speed they were traveling. You know, this is a long trip to go anywhere.
It is a long trip.And when you get on those sections that are really the original Route 66, they're only about eight feet wide.They're narrow, yeah.They are narrow.
And yeah, you know, as I was talking to Jim, if you're in a long line of cars and one of them slow or you're following a truck, you know, that is not like today's trucks that travel very quickly.Yeah. It's a long trip.Yeah.The Abandoned Zoo.
I'm trying to remember that one, but yeah.
Yeah, CRS98 said my favorite spot was the Abandoned Zoo.Yeah. Well, GSM Times Two, thank you so much for coming on and talking about this.We could go another hour talking about just the special parts of Route 66.
There is one question I want to ask before we go, and this is from Fear the Tube, but as he says, it's a Canadian question.Is Route 66 something one could do in winter?
Absolutely.You could do it in winter.Well, actually, yeah, I would probably do it in fall.There's not a lot of elevation, but yes, as you get up towards Chicago and southern Illinois, you are going to run in snow.
Um, you know, south of that, uh, it's, it's going to be okay.There's very little elevation gain except around Flagstaff.
So in the winter, uh, you could encounter some snow around Flagstaff, Kansas, Missouri, they can have some serious, you know, storms.So you can, I would pack and, you know, just be careful.
We could do a whole show on being prepared for Route 66.Yes.Yeah.How to survive it.So, but it can be, it could be done in the winter and certainly during the fall.
Well, once again, thank you so much.Um, you know, we look forward to having you on to talk about something else.Um, you know, all the questions that you're, you get when you're on here, it just tells me how much people love you.So, yeah.
Well, thank you very much.I appreciate being an ambassador for geocaching.
All right.Well, something we appreciate is our patrons and everybody who supports us.Maybe as we wrap up here, thanks to Landsharks and Cashly, our corporate and high-level sponsors.Landsharks.ca is the outdoor adventure and geocaching store.
Check them out online.And Cashly is the geocaching app for iOS.Check them out at cashly.com.And we want to thank our faithful Denali-level supporters, of course, Landsharks and Cashly, but also CoolCow Cachers and Hawaiian Miley.
If you want to know more about supporting this podcast, well, click that Patreon link right over there on the CachingNW.com website.
That's right, just like Genies did.
And Trexor, who's in the chat.And Subway Mark, who led off the chat.
And MNerve.And JCAR.Peach of Washington.CRS98.And Limax, who's also in the chat.And also in the chat and on the video, GSM Times 2. Hey, let's see.
How about a GeoNav Pro?An AcurDoc.Just Carlo.Terrible Tease.
Antaeus.Be Pendragon.Cores Scott.Railroad.LG 9000.Gas Station Tuna.Geocaches.Logwork.The Camp Clan.Greenwards.Butterfly Girl.Kid Vegas 19.Sky Hawker.Utahx2Rocks.MC3 Cats.
Seaback Tribe, Doramor, UDAC, Just Finding Our Way, Flagman, Mountain Bike, Boomer 365, Geobirder, Team Noltex, BC Rockcrawler, and last but certainly not least, Whidbey Island Gal.
And Scott, you alluded to it already, but if people wanted to reach out to you, you mentioned they can go to route66al.net for information about the Adventure Lab and to reach you,
GSM X2 on the geocaching message board.I just love that as a communication method.
It's a good one.They designed that well.
Yes, they did.It's becoming ubiquitous.Yes.And folks, thanks for taking the time to listen to this episode of Caching in the Northwest.Your support helps keep the quality shows coming.
So if you like the show, please click the Patreon link on the cachinginw.com website.And if you didn't like the show, I say it almost every week.I don't know how you couldn't.Let us know what you want us to talk about.
But if you like the vibe, please subscribe wherever you get your podcast and leave us a review.Because if you were in a restaurant, you would tip.If you were in a live audience, you would clap.
But since you're on a podcast, leave us a free, fast, fabulous, fantastic five star review. Of course you can call in like, you know, our caller tonight calling to two five three six nine three T F T C and leave us a comment.
Ask us a question or help us update our bios anytime of the day or night.And of course, especially 9.PM on Thursdays.Yeah. And of course, you can email us at feedback at caching nw.com.Join us every Thursday night at 9 p.m.
Pacific for a live show and chat.The show's produced by Chris Humphanour, Jim Paul Woods, Jay Kennedy, and Brian Lane.It's licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License Copyright 2024 by Chris Humphanour.
And folks, I ask you to stay tuned for... The after show.Well, let's see.Keith says that Adventure Labs are an incredible tour guide and geocaching for that matter takes you to some great spots.
Seems like somebody has a YouTube channel set up with that as their theme.Somebody does.
Hmm, you know in case you were wondering about that particular youtube channel Very nice segue there the first episode.
This is from keats94 the first episode of my morocco series goes live saturday, uh chef choen sure Yeah is the town in the riff mountains.That's where you just you know, get out and play something
In the north of the country, I found my first African geocache there.Nice.And what else?Keats also says geocaching is more than getting out or is more than signing a logbook or getting an AL stage.Yeah.How very true.Let's see.What else do we have?
Starcacher has a couple of things.This morning, my virtual rewards geocache was published.It's Toledo Art Museum.And then, oh, that was a fatass.This one's a fat. Then this afternoon, what's he trying to say?Why am I the one reading this?
Okay.Then this afternoon, I published my first Adventure Lab series highlighting five of my favorite sculptures on the grounds of the museum.I have that AL credit since early 2020.Now they're much easier to get.
Good to use that up. Uh, what else we got?Is that about it?
Uh, cashing cans is whoops.It moved.There it is.Cashing cans is excited.It's less than 40 hours away.The Halloween extra extravaganza.
Uh, that's GC alpha whiskey, Charlie for Papa.
She cock C4P. That's not how I spell caulk.There's an L in it somewhere.
Yeah, that's it.Oh, let's see.
Chris, could I share something real quick?
Oh, please.Of course.Anytime.You're the guest.Please, be the guest.
Let's see.I don't have, where'd my chat go?
Oh, I know.I know the exact problem you're facing.
Okay, anyways, okay, what I'm going to share, maybe someone types this in GC, alpha, Juliet, Foxtrot, Kilo, Charlie, that's my, my virtual reward.And it's at the intersection of Lincoln Highway and route six. Yeah, so it was fun.
Casey and Eleven and I met there, took a picture, went over to a classic Roots to Six ice cream place, shared some ice cream, and that night I'm like, I know where I'm going to use my Roots to Six shirt now.
Oh, it was a virtual reward, right?It's a virtual reward.That's that's historic because those are two of the very early freeways.Lincoln being the earliest.
Lincoln actually might have been the first highway, as I say, as the first mapped highway, because when it was declared a highway, it was going through fields.
ruts and yeah, no pavement or no, not much pavement except in the cities and not much pavement west.Yeah, fun.
I saw that we had a new listener that jumped in tonight, wanted to know is this stream about geocaching and then asked several questions and our great listeners answered them.
It sure did.That was great.
That was, yeah, that was really good to see.So guys, thank you so much.I appreciate you.You are great ambassadors to the sport and MegaBlocks, welcome.Thank you for tuning in.
Um, the, oops, the GPX and link files on the website, that's root66al.net, uh, are great to have for sections without cell service. Are those sections well-labeled that you know ahead of time you need this?
Yeah, they talk about it pretty well that you don't need it.And the two sections that are the most difficult are from the California-Arizona border to, not Needles, yeah, the first big town in Arizona.Barstone or Kingman?Kingman, yeah, to Kingman.
Yeah, interesting sections, but yeah, essentially no self-service along the way.
Some of them are well labeled.If you take the time to read the description before you leave self-service.Exactly.
Nice.And you've done a show with us, uh, probably over a year ago on how to do adventure labs without cell service.
And that, uh, all of that information is now worthless.
Oh no.Do we need to do another?
Uh, you know, essentially now, uh, yeah, essentially the information that was presented there, uh, is not usable.Uh, the advice I would give now is don't answer the questions unless you have
And I'm just going to say either 5G service or have it on two devices.Because now if you answer it and it can't get up to the server, you're done.It's almost as sequential. So ignore all that advice.
I did an adventure lab not too long ago and didn't have good cell service.And you know, I didn't realize it.And it was a multi answer one, multi choice.And I hit it and it says, you can't give the right answer until you get into cell phone range.
Oh, that must be the right answer.Okay.
It is.And now you have, then you would have to exit to get into the cell phone range where before you could, okay, that's, that's not the right answer.I just, you know, make sure that you stay in the adventure lab.
But that advice is not, is not relevant anymore. So if GCHQ is listening and your most requested, uh, feature for adventure labs is offline.Sure.It'd be nice to be able to do that.
Yeah.Just have that adventure lab open.Then you can drive through all the locations.
When you get back to cell, then you can answer.So cell coverage and you can answer the questions.Yeah.Or maybe staying in one of those Keach, uh, hotel rooms.Yeah, maybe.
You know, the same way that you can do geocaching.You can do geocaching and you're right, you can't log it.You cannot log if you don't have cell coverage.Just make it so that we know that the correct answer is we get cell coverage.
We can then answer it for credit.Please.
There you have it.Well, GSM Times 2, thank you once again.Yes.Folks, thanks for tuning in.And until next week, go out on a road trip and get cashing in the Northwest.
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