Geocaching in Illinois

A couple of weeks ago, I took the scooter in for its first service. While I was waiting, I went to look for a few geocaches in Illinois nearby. The photos in this blog entry were all taken with the camera in my cell phone so they are not very high resolution. About 0.2 miles south of the bike shop that servicing the scooter is a confluence observation tower. This tower is about a half of a mile from the Illinois side of the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. There is supposed to be a great view from the top. The cost is $4 to go up the tower. There is an elevator that you get to ride.

The bike shop is to the left of the tower in the photo above. There are supposed to three geocaches very close to this tower. I could not find the one that is supposed to be between the tower and the bike shop. There is one close to where I took the photo, but it is on a structure that was surrounded by mud and water about knee deep. I chose to save this for a dryer time. There has been a lot of rain and flooding in the last few weeks. There are more examples of that to come. The next geocache I came to was supposed to be about 10 feet into the woods, but the poison ivy was so thick I decided that January would be a better time for that one.

I next went north to the Melvin Price lock and dam. There were a few geocaches there. I found 2 of the 3 that were close by that I looked for. The one I did not find was called “Headwaters” The clue was “Warning, You might get wet”. This is where it is supposed to be.
At first I thought that they did not really expect people to go into the falls and get wet finding the cache, but then I saw the sign.
I thought this one would be better another time when I was dressed for getting wet.

There is supposed to be a geocache within about 30 feet of John’s eagle project but I could not find that one either.

There was also supposed to be another one less than a mile from John’s eagle project near Ellis Island. There was no statue visible on this Ellis Island. I only saw birds. I also did not find the geocache. On my way back I saw some interesting views of the flooding. I wonder if the water is affecting the transformer in this photo. It looks like this land/marsh/lake is for sale. If the water drops just a little more, the phone number will be fully visible for those interested.

I ended up finding 4 of the 10 geocaches I looked for. I got to walk several miles, getting some good exercise and I got to see some very interesting sights. Next time I go to these places, I should take some help to spot the hard to find caches.

Shrimp Mango Tacos – Revised

Last year for Mother’s Day, I fixed Shrimp Tacos with mango salsa and posted it on my blog. The most labor intensive part of that was the Mango Salsa. Several months ago, we made shrimp tacos and just diced the fresh mango and put it directly into the tacos. It was really good and way easier. After my trip to Monterrey Mexico where we had key limes squeezed on almost everything, I decided to cook the shrimp for the tacos in olive oil, key lime juice, salt and pepper. It was incredibly delicious. We have had it that way a couple of times.

As explained in yesterday’s blog entry, I had asparagus from the garden to go with Mom’s coming home celebration dinner of Shrimp Mango Tacos. I usually get the key limes at Global Foods, but when I was there shopping, they were out of key limes. The weekly arrival was not expected for a few more hours, but I could not wait so I got regular limes instead. They are good but no where near the wonderful taste of key limes on shrimp. This batch was made with the regular limes.

The shrimp is cleaned, cut into chunks and stir fried with a little olive oil, lime juice, salt and pepper to taste. We like the tacos with some brown rice that has been fried with some olive oil and teriyaki sauce. The mango and avocado are each cut into pieces. Black beans and olive slices come from a can and then we have sour cream and our favorite Herdez Salsa Verde from Mexico. We can buy it at Global Foods and also Shop n’ Save. We have also included diced fresh tomato in the tacos but we did not have that this time. This is the spread of ingredients before making the tacos.

With good ingredients, how could it not be good?
They were really good. They are quite colorful, but a little diced tomato would have added even more color. With the lime juice and the mango, there is plenty of vitamin C.

Of course, the first asparagus was really good with melted butter on it. It tastes “green”.

When we did the shrimp tacos last year, we used our traditional corn tortillas that were fried in oil to a chewy texture. The last couple of times of doing the shrimp tacos, we have used flour tortillas that were warmed/softened in the microwave. They are great both ways, but the flour tortillas are easier and you can fit more stuff in them

First Spring Harvest

With the warm weather we have had (over 80 degree highs for a week) the plants have been responding. The asparagus has started sending up new shoots.
I picked the first ones yesterday afternoon, but Mom was not home yet, so I put them in the refrigerator so she could have some after she got home. We will have them as a small appetizer with tonight’s dinner of shrimp mango tacos.

The warm weather has caused the strawberry plants to blossom and start forming berries earlier than normal. We do not normally get strawberries to eat until about Mother’s day, but the blossoms came early this year, so we may have the first strawberries to eat around May 1st when everyone is here. At least we can hope.The fruit trees have been blossoming for the last week. Here are the nashi trees. Since the squirrels end up eating most of the fruit, I do not get as excited about the fruit trees as I used to.
I took this photo of the redbud trees in the woods in front of the house this morning in the light of the sunrise. I wish the flowering trees kept the blossoms longer, but the trees seem to be about the business of producing seeds for the next generation. I can enjoy it while it lasts.

Clean Up Continued

With the continued nice weather, I spent a lot of time working on the front yard. I cleaned the pond, trimmed the bushes and put down two loads of mulch. I think it looks a lot better. The blooming daffodils help improve the appearance. I will look into additional flowers since the daffodils will be done blooming by the end of April when everyone arrives. I think most of our tulips have died. I do not remember when the Dutch irises boom, but there are not many left.
These photos were taken late Saturday afternoon (between the afternoon and priesthood sessions of conference). The pond was in the shade so it is hard to see clearly. The pond lilies are all growing again and should reach the surface in the next week or so. In the meantime, the clean water makes the rocks and brick that are holding down the pump and filter look closer than their 16-18 inches of depth. Next I will add fish and work on the back yard.

Yard Cleanup

We have had a cold and wet winter and spring… until this week. The temperature got up into the 70s and then 80s. Yesterday, the high was 86. Today we are expecting 85 and tomorrow is expected to be 81. With the sunshine, low humidity and a light breeze, it was very nice to be outside. I have been trying to get the yard cleaned up a little as a good excuse to be out in the nice weather.

I started picking up some of the trash that had been blown into the woods and found a couple of items that have been in the bottom of the middle sink hole for a while.
The skateboard without wheels, that was used a snowboard, is a fairly new addition to the woods, but I think the yellow sled has been there a while. I did not have personal experience with the “snowboard” but I remember pulling some small children in the small yellow sleds 20 years ago. Some of those small children now have small children of their own. There were some great memories with sleds going down “Killer Hill” and other exciting sled runs. The years, weather, mud and collisions with trees and other obstacles have not been kind to this old sled, so it is finding a new home in the trash dumpster. I thought I should post the photo so those with fond memories can see it for one last time.

While I am cleaning up trash, Heavenly Father is also making the yard look nice. The daffodils and other bulbs are blooming.
Many of the trees have blossoms and it is starting to look very pretty.

High Water

The Mississippi and Missouri rivers have been into flood stage for a couple of weeks from spring rains and snow melting upstream. I went by Joseph's eagle project this morning to see if the benches were flooded or not. Last year’s flooding went higher than the benches. They were not under water but the water was close. The peak water level on the Missouri River a few miles upstream, according to official records, was yesterday morning. When this photo was taken this morning, the records show that the water was down about 0.5 feet from yesterday. So it looks like one foot higher than yesterday's peak would touch the bottoms of the benches. With warm dry weather forecasted for the next week, the river is expected to go down quickly.

I have been thinking about placing a geocache at or near the benches ever since we built them, but when it flooded last year I backed off of that idea. I might still do a cache where the container is in a tree and attached by a string to prevent it from floating down steam in a flood. I’m still thinking about it.

Scout campout at Pere Marquette - JB Weld to the Rescue

A week and a half ago, we had a scout campout at Pere Marquette state park. It rained on Friday evening but stopped about the time we went to bed. It was pretty muddy and the low temperature was about 38 to 40 degrees. A warm breakfast tasted good. We had scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and of course the traditional pancakes.

I had my 100 foot rope (5/8” diameter nylon) that I let the scouts entertain themselves with. The decided that they wanted to use the rope to get a scout into a tree. They found that it was harder than they thought to lift someone up, especially when the guys pulling are falling down.

After trying several approaches to the problem, they found that if they started on top of the trash can, they did not have to lift as far. Now that he us “UP”, what do we do? They pause and take photos with their cell phones.

While on the campout, one of our best camping utensils broke. It the inexpensive combination wire whisk and tongs.

There have been small rust color cracks in the plastic for quite a while, but a piece of the plastic broke loose while I was making pancakes

Since it is inexpensive, the plan is to get a new one. But until we actually get another one, I wanted to fix this one in case I need it. This is where JB Weld comes in. I held the whisk wire in place with a twist tie from the grocery store.

Then I mixed up some JB Weld and filled in the holes and even reinforced some of the other cracks.

Now it is “as good as new”, at least until another crack fails. In the meantime, we need to find a replacement before I need to any serious campout cooking again.