The Land of Oz

Well, we usually always get lost!--But sometimes you stumble across something magical. 

Not too long ago, in looking for free and cheap things for the fam to do, I came across Geocaching. This is a rather new past time cooked up with the invention of GPS devices.  It is like an electronic scavenger hunt where one person hides a goody box and then leaves clues so other people can find them with the help of longitude and latitude coordinates.

We were in Boone when we decided to give it a whirl.  I found this awesome one that referenced The Wizard of Oz.  Maybe it's my generation, but every year growing up, The Wizard of Oz came on TV, and every year I was securely planted in front of the TV for 2 1/2 hours.  

We drove up and down the mountain passing signs for Emerald Mountain, we knew we were close, but couldn't quite find this place, so we stopped at the only store for miles and the hubby goes up to the cashier and says, "I know this sounds crazy, but is there a yellow brick road around here somewheres?"  To our surprise (and my content) she just smiles and pulls out a map!

We stumbled across the Land of Oz right here in our back yard:

Why is there a yellow brick road in the mountains of North Carolina you may ask?  This was a theme park back in the 70s.  There was a balloon ride (above) made from a ski lift, Dorothy's crash-landed house, and even costumes from the movie were on display there at one time.  Today, there is an annual festival where costumed characters employed in the 70s reunite in this magical oasis.

We didn't find a geocache that day, but we made an awesome discovery:

"We suck at geocaching, but we're pretty good at scarfing down chips!"