Bakersfield Station

link to the geocaching website

We drove down from San Jose for Derek's Graduation from Barstow High. (Yay Derek!! Class of 2004!) We left on 9th, spent the night in Bakersfield, and right next to the hotel was a geocache. So, of course, we had to find it. This was a really nice train station, especially for what my perception of Bakersfield is!

If you place your hands on the globe, you can slowly move it to change the rotation of it. This was a virtual cache, so we answered the questions and were on our way.

(click on image to view larger size)

Jurassic Park

link to the geocaching website
lI grew up less than a mile from here so when we came to Apple Valley for Derek's graduation BBQ in Apple Valley, we had to stop here and see if we could find this cache. My dad used to know the man who created the dinosaurs, so not only was it interesting to find a cache so close to where I grew up, it was also fun to find one that I was familiar with. I had written a note to the cache owner about a month ago regarding this, so I knew that Jimmy and I would have to check it out once we were there for Derek's graduation. We only had about 10 minutes to look for the cache since we were on our way to Barstow from the BBQ. We tried to search a little bit, but were distracted by the burrowing owls, which I never saw while I was growing up there! I was also leery about desert critters (snakes, scorpions, etc). And, there was a teenager watching us the whole time we were there. Oh well, not a loss to me, because it was interesting being back in that area.

(Click on image to view larger size)

 June 10 by jretz (22 found)
Well, we made it down to the High Desert for graduation in Barstow. We only had about 10 minutes to look for this cache but we were highly distracted by the burrowing owls and of course, the dinosaurs. Also, there was a teenager hanging out by the nearby dirt bike birms obviously watching our every move. After our last post, I thought about it a little more and I seem to remember that the name of the man who created these was Mr. Coffman or Koffman.

 May 11 by jretz (22 found)
Haven't been to this cache but I was born and raised in Apple Valley and knew the man who made these dinosaurs. I lived on Zuni Road, which is the next road down from this location, between Central and Navajo. The man who built the creatures was a friend of my father's. I was very young, maybe 5 or 6, when I knew the artist, and he was very old, so I don't remember his name. I remember that I used to climb on the dinosaurs while my dad and the artist talked. This was in the early 70's. One of the houses on Zuni also had a dinosaur or two, but the next homeowner tore them down. I left AV in 1988 to go to college, but my parents lived there until they passed away. I've only been to AV once in the past 6 years. My dad was a bartender at the Apple Valley Inn from the 1950's to 1970's and my mom worked for the Bass family in the mid to late 60's.
It's cool to find a cache location that I'm familiar with. I'll have to check it out again if I ever find myself in AV again.