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!

Woke up early on this birthday morning, and went back to sleep, lol.

We had breakfast just after 6 and headed out once again to a spot suggested by Douglas. It was basically on the other side of the Saguaro National Park from yesterday and had petroglyphs inscribed on the rock face, very interesting. From there we popped around to his house to pick up the 600+ virtual puppies we had left with him the day before, and after a chat we headed off again to another suggested munzee spot. This was in an area where housing will be built, but currently is just roads, fences and open land. So we walked. When we had had enough there, we went back to the petroglyph place as Douglas had put out a virtual resort and we needed a room each, LOL. Back to our room for a quick sandwich and then we walked out to the bridge over the Santa Cruz River that was closest to the motel, munzeeing all the way there and back. Shower and change and we went out to dinner at 5. The Texas Steakhouse had a 25 minute wait for a table so we moved on to the Cracker Barrel, which had a 10 minute wait (well 20!) But they have a shop attached, so we browsed and bought and then they called us in for dinner. I had catfish and Maria had crumbed shrimp. Very nice meal. We have noticed that horseradish is a common ingredient in things like sauces (tomato+horseradish) and we had bought some horseradish cheddar cheese, which is very nice as well. From there we drove over to the University of Arizona, just outside Tucson and did some virtual munzees. Douglas had suggested we go on Saturday as the parking would be much easier, but as we want to leave early tomorrow, we decided on an after dinner trip. Boy, were we pleased we did. There were marquees and tents lining the roads inside the university grounds, as this weekend they are having a Book Fair, apparently it’s one of the largest held. So if we had gone tomorrow, we wouldn’t have found any street parking or been able to move!!! As it was it was a pleasant warm evening and easy walking.

BTW Maria took the sunset picture from the car as I was doing 60 mph along the freeway! Well done Maria.

As we have a long drive tomorrow, I won’t be writing an entry, but will catch you up the next night!

We had a great day today, almost tourists, lo.

Had breakfast, included with the room, and then headed out to the Santa Cruz River floodplain just up the road from the hotel. There is a virtual Mario garden stretched across it, so we had to walk both sides. I missed the road we were going to, so over the bridge and found a suburban street with an access way, obviously for overflow into the river. The Juan Bautista de Anza Trail runs along the river, so we walked a little along that, before finding a gateway through the barbed wire fence and started wandering over the floodplain, being careful to watch feet placements! Mind you it is quite chilly in the mornings so not much chance of a snake appearing. The floodplain is full of wild flowers, mesquite shrubs (watch those long thorns!!) and various other bushes. We did see a jack rabbit and also a road runner (no beep beep and no coyote though, lol) Lots of small birds, doves and one hummingbird. We worked our way over to the ‘river bank’ which has a trail on it as well and walked along that, Douglas tracked us down again and walked along the embankment with us for a while. Once we reached the top most munzees, we walked back to the fence as there were physical munzees along that, and down to the road bridge. Clambered up the embankment there, and then walked over the rather long bridge to the other side. Douglas caught up with us again, there, bottles of water in hand for us. He offered to take us up to the leprechaun munzee that had appeared up in the hills, but we wanted to finish Mario first, so we kept going. Down along the embankment on that side of the river, and this time the river was actually visible for most of the way. It’s only a small width currently, but the size of the floodplain is quite scary! Once we finished the virtuals, we went over to the road (the one I had missed when driving there) and walked back to the bridge, back over, and then some more of the Juan trail back to the car. Back at our room by 2, so lunch and we did laundry, as this nice establishment has a guest laundry available! Then on to the next adventure. We headed up into the hills for the leprechaun munzee. This area is on the edge of the Saguaro National Park and it was amazing. The trail was only a narrow rocky one, but we climbed quite a way. I did however find a rock to sit on when it became to steep for me, but Maria kept going! The cacti everywhere, mesquite and other shrubs were brilliant! Douglas has recommended another place as well, so that’s tomorrow. Stopped on the way home to just do a few car park munzees and then home for dinner, only 12 kms today, and the equivalent of 9 flights of stairs!
Another spot the bird!

We were packed and ready to go by 7.30, but we headed the wrong way for a little while to capture a room in a resort munzee, then onto the I 10 again headed for Tucson. This leg only took 2 hrs and I’ve forgotten to check the mileage! In California trucks (and there were lot of them) are only allowed a maximum speed of 55 mph, but here in Arizona they are allowed to sit on the speed limit of 75 mph! I generally sat in the slower right lane doing about 71 mph, but it is disconcerting having these huge trucks overtaking you! Anyway we rocked up at our next hotel at 10.30 to discover check in wasn’t until 3. LOL we knew we were early, but not that early. Anyway, what a dilemma then, which way to walk and which munzees to get, as Maria found this place in the middle of the 8^th largest mystery cluster in the world!! So we left the car in the hotel car park and kept going. This little corner actually has about half a dozen hotels/motels and other eating places all in one sport with Walmart and a few other shops across the highway. The local munzee hunter, Douglas, tracked us down for a chat. I commented that everyone drives fast, and he said that 10 mph over the speed limit was overlooked, however in Texas some of the highways have a limit of 85 mph. That won’t be me!!!!!!! We carried on munzeeing and got back to the car about 12.30, had lunch, just a sandwich, and then we drove out to a virtual garden called Toad. It was created over the top of a suburb and it was great driving through looking at all the great cacti in the gardens. Lots of the had the saguaro cacti, as well as the barrel cacti and other different ones. It was a very clean, nice looking suburb. From there we headed over to the virtual garden depicting Yoshi. Douglas had said that it was in an area that had been badly storm damaged and was going to become part of an estuary rather than reclaiming it. So with his warning of rattlesnakes starting to appear (it’s spring here) we headed off into the wilds of Arizona. It was lovely, sunshine, wind with just a little chill to it, blue skies, casurina trees and others I have no idea what they were. We stayed on the tracks and open spaces, but we walked around the whole area, it had been a disk golf course. It obviously had had water at some stage as the ground had those almost hexagonal cracked dried mud patterns everywhere. But we laughed at the sign about what not to do in the water! As we were leaving we saw a little ground squirrel, small & cute. We had seen some little lizards and heard a few birds, but nothing else.

From there we went back to check in, 4 pm by now, unpacked and then headed out to the Walmart for a couple of nights worth of frozen dinners, munzeeing all the way!

Today was almost a take it easy day, only walked 10.6 kms lol. We concentrated on a shopping centre car park again as we wanted to do our share of greenies for our clan requirements. However, as usual our munzee eyes could see more than our feet could walk, so we didn’t get it all done as there were lots of car parks lol. We left the car about 9.30 and got back to it about 2.30!

There were lots of boat-tailed grackles flying around, obviously a flock bird, and their repertoire of calls was amazing, great to listen too.

I actually heard a dawn chorus this morning which was good to hear as well.

BTW our bed is very squeaky so that proved interesting overnight! lol.

Another couple of general comments. The roads so far have not been smooth. Lots of joins especially in the concrete roads which sounded like we had flat tyres for miles! Also those indicators I mentioned in an earlier post. Not many people know how to use them!!!!!

Woke early, but Maria didn’t so did some computer stuff, then at 7 am the heavens opened and thunder, lightning and lots of rain!!!! Leisurely breakfast (our standard fare of fruit loaf lol) and finished off the packing and then rain had almost stopped. Maria packed the car as I finished checking the room and after dropping off the key we had to head over a couple of streets to replace a missing munzee for Douglas who we are meeting here in Tucson. However we got ourselves mixed up and instead of being on the same side of the road we went round the block to the wrong side, lol. Maria hopped out and crossed over whilst I programmed the GPS for our next destination and then we filled up with fuel. It’s really strange having to pay first and then go back for the refund! Left there at 8.30.

Finally we got onto the I 10, the interstate highway and negotiated our way through a cobweb of intersections a couple of times! It continued to rain for a couple of hours, then down to spitting, then cleared up finally. We stopped somewhere at about 11 and had an early lunch at Popeye’s Lousiana Kitchen. We had popcorn shrimp which was very nice if a little spicy. There were 3 munzees in the parking lot and 5 when we left, lol. Lots of wind farms closer to the city area, but it got quite hilly and then quite desolate looking with sand storms blowing in the distance. The road had warning signs about sand being blown across the road in areas and we did drive through one blowy sandy bit!

Crossed over the Arizona border and kept going. Noticed that on the California side all the exits had sequential numbers, on the Arizona side the exits were numbered for how many miles from the border they were! Lots of hills again and lots of saguaro cacti in the desert!

Found our hotel (340 miles/517 kms, 6 hours later) and unpacked, no lift, so Maria lugged the luggage up the stairs. Popped out for a little walk around a shopping centre car park, and back here for dinner.  So only walked 5 kms today. Sharing a bed so that will be interesting lol.