A little over a month ago Mrs. All Beef and I hosted the 2nd Annual Cedar Rapids CITO Extravaganza event near the roller dam. The Cedar Rapids Parks Department said a lot of people illegally dump trash and garbage here, due to it's remoteness, and we can definitely confirm that because their was so much trash it was unbelievable. This is a geocaching CITO (Cache In Trash Out) event and we had 46 people attend (plus one puppy) help pick up all the garbage. We picked up 70+ garbage bags of trash and many, MANY bulky items. You can seen the bags and the bulky items (a chevy tailgate, tires, concrete horse, bed spring, etc) in the photograph above. It was a fun time and we also hid a small geocache in the area to commemorate the event (as we did at last years event).

We also gave out prizes donated to us from Uncle Stan's Military Surplus (2 ammo cans and 3 decon containers) and from IowaAdmin (Groundspeak Trackable 2008 volunteer geocoin). We also gave out some unactivated travel bug dog tags and a couple unavtivated 2007 Iowa Geocoins.

The place was nice and clean after we finished and the Cedar Rapids Parks Department was very happy. :) We're looking forward to next years event!

--All Beef

MOGA 2008

My wife, our son, and I attended the geocaching Mega-Event (500+ geocachers in attendance) called MOGA (Midwest Open Geocaching Adventure) for the second straight year! It was awesome and we had a lot of fun and met up with friends we made last year JC_Geo (that's their geocaching name). Their were a lot of people from the Iowa Geocachers Organization (IGO) who made the trip to Perry, MO (Mark Twain Lake) which was good to see.

I competed in the one-person competition this year and came in 3rd place! So, you're looking at the midwest 3rd place geocaching champion! :) I found 23 of the 30 hidden geocaches in 3hours 10 minutes. Those 10 minutes put me past the 3 hor time-limit which meant I was penalized one cache for every 5 minutes. So my official score count was 21. I also had two geocaches I could not find...so over all I made it to 25 out of the 30 caches. :) The terrain is not for the faint of heart as I ran and hiked right around 9 miles consisting of steep hills, valley's, ravines, obstacles to watch out for (often covered by leaves and sticks), streams, coves, etc! A total blast.

We stayed in a cabin this year instead of camping. Our son is too young at this point to be camping in a tent (or so says my wife). :) It was still a lot of fun and the place we stayed at was great. Very nice.

The picture above is of the Mississippi river at an overlook in Hannibal, MO. We stopped here on the way to MOGA to take a short break and do a little caching. Hannibal is an awesome town and has many great geocaches to find. We always love stopping here.

--All Beef

Kansas City Chiefs VS Oakland Raiders 2007

My wife and I went to the CHIEFS VS RAIDERS game last Sunday and had a fun time. The Chiefs unfortunately lost in the last few minutes of the game (again) and dropped their season record to 4-7. You can see some game action in the picture above.

The pre-game skit with KC WOLF was pretty hilarious. It was KC WOLF VS Darth Raider. A raider "fan" was dressed in black, wearing a Darth Vader helmet, and also wearing a black cape. Darth Raider and KC WOLF had a lightsaber dual right smack in the middle of the field. KC WOLF finally had enough and threw down his lightsaber and went for the flying drop kick! Darth Raider went down and KC WOLF proceeded with the bodyslam.

We went to the plaza the night before and had a good time walking around and looking at the famous Christmas lights they put up. We bought a few small items and also ate at UNO's while watching the KU-MU football game for the Big 12 championship. Everybody was pumped down there. We're Iowa Hawkeye fans though, so we just enjoyed watching the game and didn't really root too hard for either team.

--All Beef

Just wanted to share this picture of the sun setting while we were in downtown Tama, IA a couple weeks ago. The next morning we woke up early and went the the Hike-N-Seek geocaching event in Marshaltown, IA hosted by the Iowa Geocachers Organization. Both my wife and I are members of IGO (Iowa Geocachers Organization) and I am on the Board of Directors and also serve as the IGO Treasurer.

--All Beef

CHIEFS VS VIKINGS

My wife and I went to the Kansas City Chiefs VS Minnesota Vikings last Sunday and had a GREAT time! The game went all the way down to the wire and the Chiefs won 13-10. The Vikings had one final chance at the end and had to go about 60 yards and score a TD in the final play b/c their was :02 (or so) seconds left on the clock. I thought they were going to put the ball up for grabs on a Hail Mary, but they tried the ol' short pass and then lateral the ball around hoping a guy would get free. A few Viking players touched the ball on the play, but the Chiefs were able to stop them and get the win! GO CHIEFS!

During the 4th quarter a drunk (allegedly) fan ran out onto the field and ran the full length of the football field before security and the Chiefs mascot, KC WOLF, brought him down. The security guards tackled him and then KC WOLF put on the finishing move with the BODY SLAM!! Priceless. Here it is on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOofejdChSg

-- All Beef

2007 KC CHIEFS TRAINING CAMP

My wife and I recently had the pleasure of traveling to River Falls, WI to attend Kansas City Chiefs Training Camp. This is the second straight year we've gone and had a good ol' time. My wife made a nice big sign to take that was a tribute to not only the Chiefs, but specifically runningback Priest Holmes. In the photo above, you can see second year player Brodie Croyle signing autographs who may just be the Chiefs starting QB this year.

We were interviewed by UWRF campus public relations and the KC STAR. In addition to the interviews, HBO filmed my wife a little bit for the reality show "HARD KNOCKS: TRAINING CAMP WITH THE KANSAS CITY CHIEFS."

GO CHIEFS!!

--All Beef

Veterans Memorial

While out geocaching around Columbus Juntion, IA I came across this very nice Veterans Memorial park (where a geocache just happens to be hidden). Their is a full sized helicopter (see picture) suspended in mid-air which was very cool to see.

--All Beef