Lets see if I can remember what we did as it’s a long time ago now, LOL.

Had breakfast about 8 and then packed up the car. Once again it was cold! There were a few virtuals in a shopping mall just north of the motel which we had thought of doing in the morning, before heading off to the airport. The virtual resort had the intriguing name of ‘Zombie Mall’, but we just thought it was someone’s sense of humour. However when we got there we discovered that was exactly what it was. A huge mall and car park that had been closed down early 2014 and was just sitting there. There was a movie theatre and one outlet shop still alive in the entire complex, but that was it. Everyone else had moved over to the new mall across the road! Brendan and Rachel turned up to say hello as it was their munzees scattered around the mall.
From there we headed off to another small area of virtuals and then decided to head for Dallas/Fort Worth airport. Even though it was about 11 and out flights wasn’t until 8, we wanted to get there early as there were masses of virtuals just sitting around waiting to be capped! Just as well we did as it turned out. I directed the GPS to their airport offices and that’s where she took us, not to the drop off point, so we had to get the proper address and yeah, dropped off the car. She was rather dirty poor thing, and from the receipt I received, we drove 2419 miles, 3893 kms. I obviously hadn’t remembered the correct mileage when we picked her up, LOL.

We caught the shuttle into the airport, over a mile away, and started on the electronic check in. Got our boarding passes but then it wanted $25 for each suitcase, so we went to the counter. Well, just as well we were early. Apparently because it was an internal flight, we weren’t allowed to check the baggage all the way through to Brisbane, but had to collect it at LAX and then go through customs etc and recheck in again. When she saw the flight we were taking and that we only had about 90 minutes between landing and takeoff again, we were told we did not have enough time and it would be best to take an earlier flight. So we opted for the 3 pm flight which entailed an extra $75 each to change to, plus we still had to pay the $25 for the luggage. Just as well we were early. Anyway, found our gate, had a bite of lunch and then sat in the monorail 3 times around the circuit capping munzees all the time.

I think that about a 4 hour flight, it’s all blurred in together, and then we had a long wait in LAX because we had to take off 2 hours because of the time difference between the states. The flight took off about 11.30 pm and was just over 13 hours flying time. Not much sleep, and completely lost Tuesday, but did get to watch the new Star Wars movie. We actually landed in Brisbane at 6 am, an hour earlier than expected. Collected the suitcases and through customs, and then just did a bag drop as my case was already booked through to Perth. We had to wait a little while for Ron and Anna to appear, traffic not good that time of the morning.

Found the Qantas Lounge, have had breakfast and thought I may as well finish off my blog now as had 4 hours before my flight, which is 5 hours duration. Added up the Fitbit and have basically walked 250 kms whilst away. So this is it, catch you later once I’m home again, I have lots of unanswered emails & Facebook messages and all sorts of other things to sort out, but I will be home, always a good place to be. Thanks for joining us, be good and take care, L 🙂 xoxo

Well our last full day on Texas soil, and it’s still bitterly cold!!!!!!

We were both woken up at 3.45 by someone knocking on the door next to ours and it was hard to go back to sleep, so we had a latish breakfast. Chatting with the guy on reception (while eating breakfast, which is in the reception area, lol), who has family in Lilydale, Melbourne. He was there last year and he was going to show us all his photos, but he had removed them from his phone. With promises of bringing in his laptop tomorrow so we could see them ringing in our ears we made our get-away whilst someone else occupied him. Will see what the morning brings, lol.

Headed off to the Cottonbelt Trail, which proved to be a nice pathway behind some very large, expensive looking houses (with their own private park between them and the fence) and a railway line that didn’t have a single train go by on, but that might have been because it was Sunday or something as it didn’t look disused.

Even though it was once again blue skies and sunshine,the wind was very nasty, but we enjoyed the trail itself, lots of birds, but not a squirrel in sight! Probably sensibly staying in their dreys!

From their we visited a couple of other small parks and then headed back to the sports grounds where last years Christmas event had been held. Did that lot, then popped into Walmart for a cup of popcorn shrimp for lunch and for Maria to grab some t-shirts. Sat and ate lunch in the nice warm car and then kept driving. We ended up at the end of a 7 km impoundment road. It had been a through road once upon a time, but was obviously closed for quite a while to judge by the vegetation growing through cracks in the side of it. It separated a large grassed area and houses from what we assumed would be a large water body during heavy rains. Munzees where on the guard rails on either side of the road, so we zig-zagged up it for about 1.5 kms before turning back. It was very English looking the countryside, lol. We then drove to the other end and found the body of water!

From there we drove back to the motel, sorted out our packing and then walked across to Taco Bell for dinner. Very nice it was too.

I probably won’t be able to add anything tomorrow, but will try and write a finishing post when I get home, with our final mileage and kms walked! So will catch you then!

Had a great sunrise this morning and actually managed breakfast abut 7.30 and headed out to the AT&T Stadium for the virtuals there. It was bitterly cold, about 5 C and a very strong, very cold wind blowing as well. First day that I had to put my coat on, way to cold not too!!!! Most of the car parks around the stadium had been roped off,but we managed to find an entrance here and there, so stayed warm while we could. We did venture out eventually but not for long lol.

Across the road was the Ballpark, and so used their car parks as well. Whilst there we had a message about an Easter Event happening in Southlake that afternoon and would we like to go. It is about 30 minutes north of where we were, so happily sent our agreements. We left the car park about 10 and headed a little further north and discovered where their Christmas event had been held, lots of nice jewel munzees around the place, but far too many to finish off in a limited time, so maybe back tomorrow. Headed off to fuzzy’s tacos in Southlake which was the meeting place at 1 and we didn’t find anyone there, lol, it’

s hard when you don’t really know who you are looking for. However, they started to arrive as they had been out the back in Bicentennial Park capping the new Easter munzees. After a quick lunch and a few chats we headed out. Blue skies and sunshine, but still that biting wind. Bicentennial Park is large with all sorts of areas for many different sports, baseball, inline hockey, tennis, basketball, outdoor stage, amphitheatre etc. Lots of grassed & picnic areas, lakes & fountains, it was lovely. We wandered around looking for the Easter munzees, the normal ones and also did Eventzee, the photograph scavenger hunt which we managed to get all 20 clues. Hard work trying to do the 2 things at once, easy to get carried away with one and forget the other, but we cleared up the lot! One of the clues was for a photo of a 1775 flag. Asked several of the others what it was and none of them knew! However, at one of the entrances is a display of the 6 flags that US has had, and the first, 1775 one had the Union Jack in the place the stars are today. Stopped for chats with others scanning codes along the way, met a very nice couple, she was originally from Adelaide but moved here with her US husband, they geocache more then munzee, but were enjoying it all as well. When finished we headed back to fuzzy’s to catch up and thank the organisers, for the invite and the great day. More chatting and then a recommendation for dinner at a Texas barbeque place, so headed off again, but not too far to the Feedstore BBQ. Ordered the meat (ribs for us) and then had a selection of sides which to choose from. I had beans and turnip greens, Maria had mashed potatoes (but not plain!) Then the sauces and other condiments. It was very tasty! Maria’s birthday dinner. Then back at the motel by 6.30, must be one of our earliest evenings yet!

Handicap parking

We packed up the car again and had breakfast a little earlier than yesterday and checked out for real this time! LOL.

As check in in Arlington was after 3 pm, we spent most of the day driving around and about McKinney picking up a few strays here and there. We did however, start with a long walk around another shopping centre car park! We have been amazed at the number of food outlets in these shopping centres. There is a plethora of variety available, and how they make enough money to survive is beyond us! Another thing we were a bit taken aback by was the hardware/nursery type shops situated on the ends of the shopping malls. The had lots of stuff like pallets of mulches & gardening stuff, ride-on mowers, and plants etc. all out on the sidewalks and beside the buildings. When I asked, I was told that they leave it all out every night, it’s was too hard and not enough space inside to take it all in at night. They would lose an occasional mower or 100 bags of mulch every so often, but not enough to make them move it all!

Once again it was a cold, grey, bleak looking day, and in the afternoon a very fine rain started so it looked all misty on the distance. We left McKinney about 3 for the hour drive which took 2 hours, lots of traffic and a bit of rain!

We had dinner at the local Whataburger, which was very nice, the onion rings were good! And now going to have a reasonably early night, it’s only 7.30.  I did try to take a photo of a male red cardinal singing in his tree, but it just didn’t work, so here’s a photo of the view from our room, the only one we have had a reasonable view from! 3 nights here and then home!

St Patrick’s Day and what a day lol.

We packed the car up, had breakfast and then handed the swipe cards in at the Front Desk. The lass said ‘oh, you are checking out a day early’ we said ‘don’t think so’, Maria dashed off to get her paperwork from out of the car, and guess what, it was a day early! What a laugh we had! Whilst we were waiting for Maria, one of the receptionists said ‘I do love your accent’ which then prompted the ‘but we don’t have an accent, you do!’ She was amazed at this and the accent conversation continued!

We then returned all our belongings to our room and then headed out to MHQ to pick up the virtual puppies and then headed out for a nice trail of aquamarines. Well, the sky was very dark and it got darker. We had parked and walked a little way when we decided that it was time to turn around and the rain started, not too heavy, but we were a little damp by the time we got back to the car. Headed off to finish some of another garden we needed to do and then as the weather wasn’t looking much better, thunder and lots of lightning we decided to go to Denton, about a 50 minute drive, and tackle the green wheelchair virtual garden over the grounds and surrounds of the University of North Texas. The rain had eased off and had almost stopped, until we turned on to the highway and we were headed for some very dark clouds! Well, the heavens opened and down came the rain and then the hail. Couldn’t see anything, the noise was incredible and the road was completely covered. We then thought of heading home, so found a place to do a u-turn but it was still coming down so heavily that we then turned off the road completely and sat behind a building until it finally stopped. It looked like the whole countryside was under ice, the roads were starting to run with melt and enormous puddles! We figured we may as well head back to Denton as the storm was going the other way now, but there was miles of road with hail sitting on the sides. An accident slowed the traffic down for a while, but even though the sky was still completely clouded over it had stopped raining, but it was still very cold.

Found the University of North Texas and as it was spring break it was quiet so we drove around, doing lots of stopping and capping. We did have a walk through the grounds even though it was still cold. We saw lots and lots of squirrels, fascinating to watch. Wonder what all the householders think of them! We ended up with 1600+ green virtuals!

Back at the motel Maria had her coffee and then we walked up the road and under the highway to a shopping centre car park on the other side and did some wandering around there. Fascinating sight was the boat-tailed grackles obviously getting together for a pre-roosting chat on the power lines! Home again for another late dinner (well mine’s still in the microwave) and we will checkout tomorrow and head for Arlington lol.

We had a pleasant day today. Started off a bit frustrated, but then 3 cemeteries and a wood walk finished it off nicely!

Had breakfast again around 8 and then headed off to the Ridgeway Memorial Park as there is a virtual purple unicorn hovering over it. However, we got a little sidetracked with other groups of virtuals on the way, including one that was supposed to be a puppy. Way too big and placed over inaccessible fields (with long-horn cattle in them) and no roads to access the rest of it, so we gave up and carried on to Ridgeway. Very ordered with named roads running through it. A lot of family plots with large named headstones in the middle of their area and then the smaller individual headstones around them flat on the ground. Another munzee hunter, bobd caught up with us there and told us of yet another virtual garden! We will see about getting to it sometime over the next couple of days maybe! From there we visited the Pecan Grove Historical Cemetery. This was very peaceful and lots of old graves. Then at the back of it was the Ross Cemetery, which was a private one, but we had a walk through that, it was unkempt but once again peaceful.

Back to the motel for a sandwich and headed out to the McKinney Towne Park for yet another virtual garden. We walked around the largish lake, talked to the geese, and enjoyed the surroundings. Then we headed down the back and the woods, found a trail down the side of the highway for a little while, and then discovered a nature trail through the centre. The first wooded area we traipsed through was an open area with grass, weeds, and lots of spring flowers. Masses of grape hyacinths making the distance blue, violets (white ones as well) wood anemones, multi-headed daisies, and lots of small blue, pink and white flowers all throughout. Every step we took disturbed a multitude of crane flies, it was a great walk. Then we headed into the woods following more of the nature trail. We couldn’t get far though, too much water still on the ground from the rains a couple of weeks ago. There was however another entrance to the circular trail so we followed that almost all the way round until once again stopped by water. We did get to the other side of the wet patch on the first trail and then turned round and back to the beginning again. Lots of birds in the trees and even a bright red cardinal, he’s the spot the bird picture! Squirrels scrambling up trees, but not much else. Back here again for another late dinner. Last night here, we move onto Arlington tomorrow for 3 nights as it’s closer to the airport and makes life easier, no stressing about being late! So far we have driven 2012 miles = 3,238 kms and walked about 205 kms.

Had breakfast again around 8.30 and headed back to Munzee HQ to tackle the historical trail of diamonds and others of course lol. McKinney has a great historic centre, lots of old buildings. We popped into the Visitor Centre for a chat and to sign the logbook (Beth munzees as well) and then 3 hours later back at the Munzee Marketplace we once again met up with Rob for a quick chat and he mentioned the Barney garden! So after having an early lunch, 12.15, for a change! We headed off to the purple dinosaur and spent a couple of hours driving around.

Once finished Maria had spied a couple of rows of coloured virtuals in a park close by so we headed there. Well once the dots on the map loaded at Celebration Park we discovered more than just a couple of rows, the park was jammed packed! Funnily enough we bumped into Rob again. He had picked his son up from the nearby school and had seen us wandering along that edge of the park, so we got to scan the Munzee Car! The company that prints the munzee qr code stickers for Rob also make car stickers, not the usual back window ones, but full size car ones! There were flocks of the boat-tailed grackles everywhere, making their strange noises, and I watched them several times land in the car park, hop to the front of a car and check it out for edible bugs!!

3.5 hours later we had finished walking up, down, around and almost backwards, LOL, so another 11 kms under our feet and time again for dinner and bed!

Didn’t get up until 8, this daylight saving is just wrong, lol. But I suppose on holiday it does not really matter!

Breakfast and then off to Carolton, about 40 miles away, to return a faulty t-shirt that Maria had received. After making our way through some of these multi-road junctions, we found the spot, and he hadn’t got the new one ready, so it’s going to be delivered to the motel! From there we made our way to the munzee emerald garden back in McKinney. It was stretched out over 2 muddy ploughed fields, show grounds and an RV (recreational vehicle) park. Luckily neither of the later were in use, so we drove around and about. However, we had to walk the muddy fields, LOL. Mission accomplished, we headed back for a sandwich and then onto the historic town centre of McKinney where Munzee HQ resides. The Munzee Marketplace is a shop selling things like crushed sunflower seed butter and all sorts of exotic sounding natural food products.

Rob (Mr President!) was out when we, the first Australians to do so, arrived, so had a chat with a couple of other staff, grabbed a few socials and sorted out the virtual puppies. Then we went for a little walk, and kept going again.

The Californians and Arizonians, just like the Germans, are very pedestrian orientated, if you are anywhere near the side of the road they stop just in case you want to cross. However here in Texas it’s the opposite, we had the right of way at traffic lights, and 2 pickups went through in front of us and the third one stopped, looked like she was going to yell at us until Maria pointed out the flashing hand that is the ‘walk’ indicator on the traffic light! Also, there are very few pavements for walking on, so it was mainly grassy or rocky roadsides!

Back to the Munzee Marketplace caught up with Rob and had a tour of the upstairs offices! It is a building from the 1800s, which has been renovated a few times, but the structure is sound (except the roof leaks a bit, lol). More hellos and quick chats, then Rob showed us the first of his diamond munzee trail which highlights historic buildings around the centre. We are going back tomorrow to finish off the rest of them and to pop into the visitor centre. As it was way over time for Rob to head home, we drove down the road and did a little more munzeeing from the car. So we only did 6 kms today! Got back to the motel about 7.30, having dinner at 9, very tardy, lol.

 sign at the showgrounds

We had to adjust our watches again when we hit Texas and daylight saving starts tomorrow, so will have to do so again, lol

Went down to breakfast about 8.30 and then just walked out of the motel and munzeed, and kept on going. As the ‘home’ of Munzee there are so many here just trying to work out which street to walk up was a major decision in itself.

Amazingly there is lots of bird life around here, there is a large highway on one side of the motel, but this side is suburbs. Lots of gardens, trees etc. Saw a couple of red cardinal males, so very showy in their red plumage, more boat tailed grackles, and other birds with rather long tails as well. Plovers in the park where we found our Texas geocache, hanging in a tree, next to the river and squirrels as well. Everything here is much greener and luxuriant then Arizona & New Mexico, in fact some of the grassed areas were downright soggy!!!

Anyway about lunchtime we popped into the local supermarket, loaded up with supplies and walked back to the motel, which was actually further away than we thought it was. LOL, walking one way munzeeing distracts you from how much walking you do. A quick sandwich and back out again, getting back after a 16.5 km day!

Just a quick note, I will finish off this post later tonight, but just to say we arrived safely in Texas. Left Arizona at 6 am and 15.5 hours and 1593 kms (990 miles) later we got here.

The car was packed and ready and breakfast eaten ready for departure at 6 am. Heading east on the I 10, we had the sun in our eyes as it rose from behind the hills. Not fun, but we coped, lol. And then we just kept driving. There were lots of warnings about dust storms throughout Arizona and New Mexico and we encountered several small ones, but it was really blowing in some stretches. Even to our killing a giant tumbleweed that just had to roll out as we got to it. When the fuel gauge got to half we stopped off and topped up, coffee for Maria, removed the 3 twigs that remained of the tumbleweed from the front grill and kept going. We got into Las Cruces in New Mexico and refuelled and then we took a little side trip through some old pecan orchards (just dead looking at the moment, no leaves sprouting yet) and found a geocache, so that was number 3 for the trip, one in each state so far! Back onto the highway and carried on. El Paso was the first city we got to in Texas and it was huge, took ages to get past it. There must be thousands of trucks on the roads here, we overtook so many of them and the numbers on the other side of the road were huge! We stopped again somewhere or other to fill up again, we didn’t let the gauge go much below half each time, just in case, lol. Then we had the sun in the rear window and mirrors being a nuisance! However we discovered that there aren’t a lot of lights on the highways here, so barreling along at 70/75 mph 112/120 kph with only the cats eyes showing the route, was an experience. We turned off the I 10 onto the I 20 and then a bit later onto the I 30. Fort Worth & Dallas were the next major cities we had to get through and then to McKinney which is on the far side of Dallas. I think we were pleased we couldn’t really see the surroundings clearly when we discovered that we were on the very top road of one of those huge great interchanges they have. From the lights we were a long long way up!!!!!

Anyway, found the motel, and clambered out of the car, very stiff indeed, and very ready for bed!