Freaky Friday

Friday was a bit odd for me. As previously posted, my TL called off on Thursday, leaving me to man the guns solo. It was not not bad...only one issue to deal with and the paperwork was minimal as it was solved quickly. I left nothing to hand over to my Latin American helpers so I went home happy.

On Friday it was slow and my TL told me to leave early. So I left at noon (4 hours early...at least I can burn some vacation) and decided to hit a cache that is close by to the office that had just been unarchived. After that little gem (it was a micro) was found, I went to do some shopping.

I hate shopping and hate it even more during the holidays. Everyone is out and the pace is frantic. I was able to get most of what I wanted at World Market, then I came home. On the way home I looked for another cache but it is buried somewhere in a pile of pine needles, along with several small pine cones) and I just did not have the patience to sort through it all, so I just went home.

My wife did not get home until six or seven PM and while she was gone I just puttered around the house, doing little. I was not in the mood to do much so I didn't. The only thing I did was reload my Linux box, which I am going to log about later.

Saturday was cloudy and rather dreary. I spent the morning working on bills and finalizing my Linux install (mostly tweaking) and finally vacuuming the house. Once all that was done and my wife and I had eaten, she asked me if I was going out geocaching. I had not planned on it since the clouds were so heavy (cloud cover really affects GPSr reception). I had been looking at few caches in the area but was not sure when I would get them. I was telling my wife about one of them and how one of the cachers two year old child found one that had eluded many seasoned seekers for months. She grinned and told me that she sometimes thinks like a two year old so I asked her if she wanted to go. I was floored when she said "yes".

We got dressed in old clothes (the finds we were going after were in the woods), boots, and grabbed some bottled water. We were not going far (4 miles or so away) so the normal gear one would take would not be needed. We hopped in the GeoDak and headed to the site.

We found the area and started looking. I was pretty amazed that a .30 cal ammo can could be hidden in such a sparse area. There were so few places to look...now I see why it has plagued so many people. I checked the obvious areas first and my wife asked me exactly what we were looking for. I told her about some of the clues that that the cache owner left ("two cedars" and "replace the cloak") and told her my thought was that the cache was on the ground, covered with a home made cover of dirt, leaves, and cedar twigs. So we took sticks and started scratching the ground. We covered a pretty large area and I was getting just a tad flustered when my wife got up and moved to a new area. I got up and went to where she was and started moving leaves, branches and dirt and found a small wood frame. I moved a bit more dirt and saw it was the cache. I guess technically, it was buried (which is against the "rules") but to be honest, you did not have to "dig" for it, only move away a thin layer (1 inch or so) of dirt, wood particles, and leaves.

My wife and I rummaged through the can and I signed the log for both of us. She seemed disappointed that nothing of "value" was in it. I told her that the hunt is more of the spirit of treasure hunting, not actually getting something valuable. The object was to trade interesting items, not expensive ones, although I have been told of people who hide very difficult ones with real valuable prizes inside.

After we re-hid the ammo can (as good or better than we found it) we started off after one more of Jake in Texas's hides. While I had no idea where (or what) this one was, I figured my wife and I could at least try.

We started trekking west toward "Jakes Gecko" after leaving "Jakes Can". The path was slippery and choked with briars. I was afraid my wife would turn back, but she continued on. We got to a slippery slope near a creek bed and after I crossed (slipping but not falling) my wife fell and slid down the hill. I thought she might be hurt but the only thing bruised was her pride. She actually started laughing and I could only smile as I helped her up and across the creek as well as up the next hill.

We go to GZ (Ground Zero) but were unable to find the cache after 20 minutes or so of searching. Jake hides a mean cache and it is even harder when you do not have any clues. We turned around and found our way out (a tad easier than going in) and started back to the GeoDak. My wife asked me if there were any more close by, so I told her there were two that I had not been able to find withing a 1/2 mile. We walked to the first one and found it very quickly. I know I had looked in that area before and nothing was there. I later learned that the cache has been muggled 3 times in the past couple of years. We signed the log and walked back to the GeoDak and headed off to look for the last one of the day...another Jake in Texas classic, "Sleeping Candy Canes". Long story short: we could not find it. The weather started getting icky and we decided that two finds (with one of them being a Jake in Texas classic) was not a bad day. I personally like to find 10+ in an outing but when you get down to the hard ones, 2 or 3 is good.