Saturday, February 2, 2013

Picture Scanning, Geocaching, Living

Panama City Beach, FL

 I know it's been a few days since the last blog, but I've decided that if there really isn't much to blog about, then no blog for the day. This past week was a week of few things to mention. We took care of many day-to-day chores required by Fulltimers or by those who live in more traditional structures.



 We continue to work on a project which seems never ending. We are in the process of digitizing ALL of our "past life" photos and paperwork into the computer for easier access and to eliminate clutter. I would imagine that these two boxes look pretty similiar. Actually, the one on the left is the "yet to be scanned" box, while the right is the "going to the dumpster" box. This is the second box of pictures to be scanned. I never realized how many pictures we had! It's interesting to recall memories evoked by each photo as you look at it, however. It brings back a whole rush of memories.

 You can only scan so many photos continuously without going crazy. Yesterday was time to take a break from that project and do a bit of GeoCaching. I've talked about GeoCaching before, so no more comment on our love for that activity. Yesterday was a bright, clear day so off we went to Conservation Park  just west of Panama City Beach, FL.


The following is taken from the Panama City Beach, FL Chamber of Commerce website:

  The Conservation Park is 2,912 acres of total area (908 acres uplands and 2,004 acres wetlands) with 24 miles of trail length and 1 mile of boardwalks. The Conservation Park serves two fundamental principles: to protect and balance our natural resources while providing outdoor recreational opportunities. The 2,900+ acres of West Bay Ecosystem is protected by the management and utilization of the City's reclaimed water to rehydrate the wetlands. The Conservations Park's forestry management practices will also lead to ecosystem restoration and habitat improvements as certain species are removed and native species are reintroduced.

 There are approximately 27 geocaches located within the boundaries of the park. We tried to locate just 13 of them yesterday with a success rate of 12 out of 13. We hiked approximately 5-6 miles yesterday while GeoCaching and had a great time being in the forests and walking the boardwalks over the wetland areas. No alligator sightings! Darn!



Area of Controlled Burn
Lunch Time Break in the Pavillion















We'll be back before we leave the area to attempt to locate the rest of the caches in the park. Most of the trails can also be explored via off-road bicycles, so we'll probably take our little fold-up bikes next time.


Thanks for stopping by and taking a look!

7 comments:

  1. Digitizing all of your old photos must be a daunting task (one I've been too busy or lazy to take on, but need to at some point). Makes you wish we had digital photography 30 years ago. I love watching my screensaver show family photos- talk about evoking memories!

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  2. Oh the life so happy for you both !! You will get organized don't let it overwhelm you ;) miss you bunches ! Shell

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  3. That picture scanning looks too much like "W-O-R-K".

    We've got loads of pictures, too that we need to do something with. Digital cameras of today sure make things so much easier to manage. I'm all about easy. :c)

    That is quite a record of geocache finds, 12 outof 13 in one day. Keep that pace up and there won't be many left...

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  4. Randy,
    I'm currently using an older flatbed scanner we brought with us from our "S&B" life. Scanner made by Microtek and has a 4800x2400 dpi capacity with 48bit color, although the scans are much less than that.

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  5. I originally had about 4 55qt tubs of photos to scan. I was originally using a flat bed scanner. Too forever. I finally purchased a self feeding scanner and it was SO MUCH FASTER and worth the $. I am finally done and not lugging those full tubs around any more. I also have been scanning craft books, etc, so I won't be carrying books around either.
    Here's my post about the scanner.
    http://greatescapefromnj.blogspot.com/2013/01/tom-sawyers-mississippi-river-rv-park.html

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  6. Ahh yes ... the photo scanning. As you can tell from the comments, you're not alone. I got through about half of our old photos and left the rest in storage for later. In the meantime, I am trying to stay above water with at least the fulltiming photos. I just have to learn to click the shutter less ;-)

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