Texas Geocache Challenge

Join us in a modern day treasure hunt in Texas State Parks

WHAT IS GEOCACHING?
Geocaching is a type of treasure hunt using a GPS unit to help you find hidden "caches" placed by people all over the world. Geocaches are everywhere - from just down the street from your house to the most remote wilderness areas. They range from extremely small containers (35-mm film canister or smaller) to large ammo-style boxes.

TEXAS STATE PARKS GEOCACHE CHALLENGE
We invite you and your family to join us in discovering hidden items while revealing exciting facts and stories about Texas State Parks. All you'll need is a GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) unit, the coordinates for the hidden treasure (or caches), and a Texas State Park Geocache Challenge Passport Book available at participating state parks or by downloading it here.

We have hidden a special geocache in each of 12 state parks for you to find. In each cache, you will find a logbook that describes a special feature of the park that you can use to answer a question in your Geocache Challenge Passport Book. Also, there will be a special orienteering punch that you will use to mark your Passport Book to claim the cache, and a logbook to sign. You may also want to log your find on www.geocaching.com

First Texas Geocache Challenge Debuts Nov. 1

Pilot Effort Will Test Way To Get People From "Online" to "Outside"

Oct. 28, 2009

AUSTIN, Texas — A new program at 12 Texas state parks aims to use technology to draw visitors into the outdoors. The Texas Geocache Challenge will run from Nov. 1 through Jan. 31, 2010, challenging state park visitors to use Global Positioning System technology to find a cache of hidden rewards in each park.

Participating central and southeast central parks are Bastrop, Buescher, Government Canyon, Guadalupe River, Huntsville, Lake Somerville-Birch Creek, Lake Somerville-Nails Creek, Lockhart, McKinney Falls, Monument Hill-Kreische Brewery, Palmetto and Washington-on-the-Brazos.

"It’s a good, healthy way to get out on the trails of state parks," said Chris Holmes, outdoor education coordinator for Texas State Parks. "We think it will be appealing to families, a really fun thing to do in a state park. The fun thing with the kids is that they literally get to find treasure, so we know they will be excited when they find the cache."

"Children today are very different from children of the past," Holmes explained. "They are much more technology-savvy, and our experience at park workshops for families has shown that the kids end up leading GPS activities. This is really using technology to be outside."

Participants can download a Texas Geocache Passport, as well as the coordinates of each of the caches, from the TPWD Web site. In each of the 12 parks a hidden box will contain small prizes, information about the park, a logbook for cachers to record their visit, and a paper punch unique to the park. Geocachers can use their GPS units to find the containers and then use the punch to mark their passports to verify their visit.

When geocachers have found all 12 boxes, they can mail the passport to TPWD, and the first 100 people to send in their passports will receive a commemorative geocoin. Other participants who finish will qualify for other prizes, such as a map of all 12 parks, Texas Geocache Challenge stickers and a certificate of completion.

The department also is making a low-tech version of the challenge available for visitors who don’t own a GPS device. Outdoor sleuths can download written clues to each of the hidden caches from the TPWD Web site. The department also is working on a Facebook page and a Twitter feed to accompany the challenge, which will allow participants to post photos and descriptions of their adventures.

"We really want people to get outside, and this is another reason for people to go out to state parks, Holmes said. "It’ll be a three-month pilot, and then we are going to evaluate it, and if it’s as successful as we expect, it could go statewide within a year."

Media Contact: Tom Harvey, 512-389-4453, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; or Chris Holmes, 979.229.2886, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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On the Net:

• http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/geocaching/

Corpus Christi - Down Beside the Sea

The good thing about San Antonio being so far inland is that - well, those hurricanes which hit the Texas Gulf coast are usually pretty well diminished to a stiff breeze and a lot of rain by the time they hit San Antonio. The bad thing about being so far inland - is that it takes a good three hours or so to reach the coast. The good thing about that is - it's a very scenic drive, either on IH-37 South, or if you hopscotch all across all of south Texas on secondary roads. No matter if the route takes you from Floresville to Kenedy, to Goliad and Refugio and points south- to Port Lavaca, Rockport or Corpus Christi, or anywhere else along the Texas Gulf Coast - it's all a good and scenic drive, meandering through gently-rolling green hills, threaded with steep-banked creeks and small rivers, which gradually flatten out and then give way to salt-marshes and bayous grown with rank after rank of tall reeds and bamboo thickets. The Texas Coast fishing isn't bad either.

And at the end of several hours on the road - there is the open sea, beckoning. Not that there is much spectacular when you eventually do get there. The Texas Gulf Coast doesn't have sugar-white sand beaches like Hawaii, or red-wood shrouded cliffs like California's Big Sur, but it's wet and salty and will do very, very well for us - even if it means another two or three hours, driving back home lightly sun-burnt and with scratchy sand working its way between your skin and your damp bathing-suit. A water park, no matter how lavish, just doesn't have the same zing, the same salt-smell, the same view of sailboat masts bobbing up and down in the marina, or the great hulk of an aircraft carrier halfway between shore and the horizon. The sunset doesn't paint it all with the same golden-apricot glow.

And although San Antonio does have a Seaworld ... there isn't quite the same air about it, stranded so far from the ocean, the I-don't-know-what-the-expression-for-it-is that an aquarium on the seafront does, an aquarium like the Texas State Aquarium in Corpus Christi. There is a sense of rightness about a sea-front aquarium, when you are barely a stone-throw from the world underwater. The aquarium in Corpus Christi shelters over three hundred different species of aquatic animals. Reptiles, amphibians, fish and other sea creatures are on display in specially designed habitats, habitats that mimic the natural world as precisely as possible. Visitors can get as close as a whisper, to creatures they would most likely never encounter - or want to encounter, in the wild. Floating jellyfish, stingrays, dolphins and otters - every day, from nine to five. And they have their eye - if they have eyes - that is, just as you watch them.

San Antonio Farmer's Market - Pearl Brewery

So, when we went to the yearly San Antonio Herb Market last Saturday, now that it has relocated from under the Oak trees at Aggie Park, to a splendid market-square venue around in back of the old Pearl Brewery stable building ... and what did we find, but a weekly Pearl Farmer's Market, round on the other side!

Gosh, we went for the potted plants and herbal stuff, and there was a whole market breaking out ... although, seriously, we should have had a clue, as we were looking for a parking place (under the 281, BTW) that we were in the neighborhood of serious foodie activity, seeing the people staggering away from the direction of the brick smokestack and the exuberantly beaux-arts dome of the old brewery main building, laden with shopping bags and flats of green herbs. That used to be the way that I located neighborhood street markets in Greece, and the very first time I went to the central produce market in Zaragoza, Spain.

All I knew was that the regular weekly street-market was in such-and-such a neighborhood, on a certain day of the week. Or in the case of the central market in Zaragoza, that it was over near the Avenida Cesar Augusto, in a grand 19^th century pavilion that was the very latest thing in modern design and convenience in, say 1895. Basically, the thing to look for was people with empty bags, or shopping trolleys going in a certain direction, and other people, with full bags and trolleys, coming away from that direction.

An Old Fashioned San Antonio Diner at the Alamo

I wouldn't claim that San Antonio's G/M Steakhouse is the oldest continuously operating diner and purveyor of fast food, in all it's infinite varieties and greasy-grilled glory, but at fifty years and apparently going strong, it's definitely in the running. This, my children, is what fast food used to be, before the days of Micky D's, BK and Wendy's drive-up window open to all hours. This fountain of classic fast-food delights - hamburgers, fries, grilled sandwiches, breakfast tacos and chicken-fried steaks (plus all sorts of other steaks) is just across Alamo Plaza from another classic San Antonio institution of slightly longer duration, the Menger Hotel. My daughter and I had lunch the Menger Hotel last weekend, after looking over the Alamo historical re-enactors in the gardens behind the Alamo.

Although the G/M isn't a classic diner; one of those early 20^th century pre-fab restaurants on wheels, the kitchen set-up is reminiscent of one. There is a single narrow lane of cooking area, right by the entrance, a wide grill and deep-fryer, the case of cut slices of pie and cakes on display, and a menu on the wall above - a menu of breakfast, lunch and dinner items.The breakfast and lunch specials are on the inexpensive side; this may very well be the cheapest sit-down place to eat on Alamo Plaza, even cheaper than the Subway, a couple of doors down.And the Subway probably doesn't have as interesting a place to sit and eat.

It's an interesting jumble of a classic tall 19^th century space with a pressed-tin ceiling, plain mid-20^th century diner tables and chairs, and shelves and cases along the walls filled with military memorabilia, photographs and relics. The current owner has a large collection, only part of which is on display. They updated the menu prices at the beginning of the year; most breakfast items are under $5.00, most lunch selections are well under $10.00 - and the décor can't be beat at any price.

The G/M is at 211 Alamo Plaza, and is open from 7 AM, every day but Tuesday.

Just as a lagniappe:

A recipe for chicken-fried steak - this is a 1985 prize-winner from the Chicken Fried Steak World Championships in Big Spring, which is spiced by marinating in the juice from a can of sliced canned jalapeno chili peppers:

• Cut 1lb round steak into four portions and pound until thin. Marinate resulting cutlets in the juice from a 4-oz can of sliced jalapenos, for at least half an hour.
• Combine in a flat pan: 2 cups flour, ½ tsp garlic salt, ¼ tsp salt, ¼ tsp black pepper, 1 Tbsp chili powder, 1 ½ Tbsp paprika, and a dash ginger
• Combine in another flat pan: 2 beaten eggs, and 2 cups milk.

In a large flat skillet or electric fry pan, fry 5 strips bacon, and when done, remove bacon, reserving rendered bacon fat. Add cooking oil as needed to fry the steaks. Dip marinated steaks, first in the milk-egg mixture, then coat with flour mixture. Fry steaks at 350 degrees, until done, at 350 degrees. Garnish with crumbled bacon and serve with milk gravy.

Other classic Texas recipes are found here - Garry's Home Cookin' Eat first, ask questions later!