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| Here's the original photo (click to enlarge) |
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| Red box.. Here we are. |
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| A blurry close-up but one none the less. |
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| Really Cool Full Sized Lanyard |
All entries must be in by Saturday February 5th, 2011. The winner will be chosen by random from all the correctly answered entries. Odds of winning is based off of the number of correctly answered entries at the time of the drawing.
My daughter Geoness's geocaching travel bug Wolfgang Von Pitterpat (TB21K6H) has just put on 10,572.67 miles in one swoop. The flight went from Southern England, UK to Victoria, Australia. Which means this is the closest to Wolfgang's goal of actually visiting Antarctica that it has ever been.
The total miles under this pesky penguin's belt is now 21083.1 miles. That beats our party animal Pete the Parrot (TB21K5T) who now is in second with 15664.1 miles and is currently enjoying China.
It was a spectacular day geocaching in Cary, North Carolina today. If you caught my earlier posts from my phone you can see that I was out with Daughter Geoness working on our latest milestones. I want to reach over the 400 mark by the end of the year and Miss Geoness wants to get her first 200 geocaches found so she can officially be ranked in the state. In case you didn't know it, a geocacher can be ranked by State, Country and the World if you so desire but you have to have at least 200 caches minimum. The website for you to check your ranking is here.
All total we found 16 finds and three DNFs. Even managed to see an assortment of squirrels, rabbits and birds today. I know I will be sleeping like a baby with all that fresh air. Miss Geoness is already catching Zzzzzzs. The best thing out of it all was we had a great time and had fun hunting caches together. 
My daughter Geoness by far is the better half of our Geocaching team. When we are out on the trail we have a serious competition for who finds the cache first. You see, that gives the winner instant bragging rights and the honor of signing the logbook first. She's currently twelve and has no problem telling people that she is a “pre-teen”. I still am not sure if that is to show the importance of her age or is a subliminal warning of her possible moods and just to deal with it. Ahhh, teenagers. Sending in this post from my blackberry.
Having a great Fall day geocaching with daughter Geoness. Three for three so far. Did a lot more walking in wooded areas than I originally thought. Wonder if that will continue all day.
I just couldn't stand it anymore, this was something I just had to get done. Earlier in the year I adopted a host of geocaches, over 60 if I remember correctly. A little at a time I have visited each of those caches and cleaned, restocked or down right replaced them. It was a mission of love for the sport, hobby, obsession of geocaching. I am a believer that the cache owner is responsible for the continual condition of a cache. Those words for many are controversial but I do not care. For many believe it is up to the geocaching community to keep trade items stocked and caches in good shape. Though that is a really great concept we all know it is not enough and I will add trade items to empty caches regardless if they are mine or not. So people should not be surprised if I take a sense of pride by keeping my caches stocked. Did I mention I have about 100 of them? No I am not rich nor can I afford loads of goodies but the Dollar Store is my friend and I do fill them with trading items when I can. Sue me for caring... but I digress. So where was I? Oh yes, my mission to update my caches in Durham, NC.
I took Daughter Geoness with me on one of the prettiest fall days I have seen so far. The sun was out and not a cloud in the sky. The temps were in the low to mid 70s and if we were not at peak when it came to the Autumn leaves we were darn close. I was really looking forward to this time with my daughter. Some times it really is not about the numbers. If we found five or fifty caches the time together talking and walking down wooded paths is priceless to me. She isn't going to stay 12 forever and before she runs off with some gooey eyed or is that doughy eyed dude I am getting my quality time in... There I go digressing again.. Mission, focus on mission...
The forty-five minute drive to Durham was very scenic and before we knew it the game was a foot. We started out of the gate in pretty good shape and was able to find our first three caches in great condition. On number four we searched for about ten minutes and by prereading the logs I already knew that the cache was most likely gone. This one was a micro and I found a devious spot to put the replacement. The coords were the same so this one was an easy fix. Moving on to the next cache I was amazed by the size and condition of the container. It was huge and in great shape from what I could see. Geoness was so proud to find it and gleefully signed the log first which is the rule we have between us. The one who find it gets bragging and signing rights and we both love a little competition when it comes to caching.
The day continued and we ended up replacing three more caches but had an absolute riot finding and logging the rest. Once the main objective was complete it was time to do some cache raids. As usual we started out with the goal of cleaning out Durham but once we started walking the trails we just gabbed and took our time. There was one park which was full of color and falling leaves. That and a rather large dinosaur. Yup a bronto from what I figured. Standing right there watching people as they walked by. I thought it quite curious as Geoness and I walked and there coming out of the trees was Big B. Without missing a beat I tell my daughter oh look a dinosaur and she goes, "yeah Dad, saw it about half a mile back." I have to get my glasses checked cuz it startled the beejeepers out of me.
Well as with many Autumn days this one went way too quickly and the sun was making a hasty retreat which made it time to head home. During the ride back we recollected the places and things we had seen during the day and it brought a smile to my face. Daughter Geoness must have seen me grinning and asked why I was smiling. "Just enjoying the company", I said, but I digress.
Sure the weather was a whole lot nicer early in the week. The mid eighties and sun gave way to upper fifties and rain but did that dampen the spirit of our finest North Carolina geocachers? Oh I say, "nay".
The Third Annual Fall Fling was held at Falls Lake State Park which is about 15 miles due north of Raleigh, NC. It is a very scenic park filled with trails, trees, wild critters and Falls Lake. The lake is completely different in appearance than from 12 months ago. Last year at this time Falls Lake was more like Falls two streams. You could walk in many spots from one island to the next. Now with a larger amount of rainfall and a tropical storm or two the lake is at capacity and in all it's splendor. Speaking of rainfall I personally wondered if the Fling was even going to happen this year. As I said before the week was picture perfect North Carlina weather with sun and the temps in the 80s. On Friday everything changed, the temps dropped and the rain came down in sheets. I drive past Falls Lake on my way home and I had a hard time seeing the road. I thought of stopping by but thought better of it based on what I was seeing. Once in my nice dry homestead I checked out our NCGO forums to see what was going on. I did not find much about the event except for an entry that someone else stopped by as well and the bonfire was in full swing. The tent camping cachers were having a blast even though the rain was turning out to be a bit "challenging". With that I headed to bed feeling fully geeked for Saturdays activities. 
I awoke to thankfully no rain and found my long pointy stick to wake up Daughter Geoness from her slumbers. You have to be careful with pre-teens as they awaken, they bite. It only took a couple good prods to finally get her moving and also the promise of some breakfast helped. We packed the cachemobile and headed north to the event coordinates. It took me about 45 minutes to weave the winding roads to FF Central. I was a few minutes early for registration and already I could see Horsegeeks and Billwolf1 getting the grills ready. They were in charge of the food for the day and because of that I knew we were in for some serious eats. Personally I have a huge weak spot for Horsegeek's Shrimp 'n Grits but that is another story. As Daughter Geoness and I walked up to the park community center I was greeted by some of the cachers who survived last nights deluge. To my surprise only one tent camper had to sleep in the car but everyone else stayed dry and toasty as best they could. If the spirits were dampended you sure could not tell by the friendly smiles on all the early risers. 
Anytime you come early to an event you are there to help setup. No one likes setup but when you get enough people together it is a lot less stressful. So chores like sign hanging, table placement, kitchen detail including the unloading of a ton of food and libations the morning started moving along. The weather was not terrible outside. There was some wind which was blowing inland off of the lake, a bit chilly. The sun was trying to peak from behind the clouds and actually did make some headway by the afternoon. I asked Daughter Geoness to do camera duty whilst I found out what mini events that would be going on today. There of course was the Carolina Cache 'N Dash where teams found well hidden caches that contained different interesting and sometimes scary tasks to complete to gain points. I don't want to get into details but lets just say there were more moons out than the one in the sky -=shudder=-. Then came the Geo-Olympics at the Beach, Daughter Geoness had fun as did a gaggle of other young cachers. I was helping setup the tshirt pickup spot and I could hear them laughing from here. I think one of the biggest kicks for the kids was the Ammo Box Painting. I wish I can find out who donated the boxes but there were a ton of them. The look on the little tykes faces was priceless and I have to be honest I wouldn't have minded picking up a half dozen myself, but I digress. Finishing the kids activities was of course the pinata; kids, candy, paper mache and a big stick, good times. 
So what did Daughter Geoness and I do while all of this fun, friendship and well, fun going on? Glad you asked, we worked. I thought the other officers of the NCGO are always busting their butts doing things for our enjoyment, why not give them a break? I didn't even have to ask Miss Geoness, she was helping in the kitchen before I even knew it. She loves to help anyways and when you throw in Horsegeeks and Billwolf1 who she considers as extended grandpas you couldn't drag her away. For me, I had a blast handing out the t-shirts, geocoins and other NCGO stuff. "Isn't that kinda boring?", you might think. Not at all, I was able to meet just about everyone who attended the event one at a time. I had more fun swapping stories, saying hi to familiar faces and greeting others for the first time. To me something like that is worth the full price of admission. It is so easy for everyone to separate and go their own ways. My table was one of the focal points in the event and everyone eventually came over to say hi. I loved it. 
For some the best part of a North Carolina Geocaching Event is the potential hunt, others is the fellowship, for this HeadHardHat it's the food. Horsegeeks, Billwolf1, Mrs. Billwolf, Geoness and a host of other people too numerous to mention. Worked all day for something known as Kenny and Celeste's Excellent Meal. Basically take a huge pile of NUM and multiply it by 100. I'm not kidding, good ole southern cooking is alive and well and I could not be more happy or was that hungry? I had to laugh because as the day wore on the smells from the kitchen were overwhelming. Every once and a while Horsegeeks would sneak out a plate of tasty tid bits to wet my appetite. Can we say BBQ? Truly nummy. Then at the designated time the feast began and everyone came a running. There was food everywhere including southern BBQ pork, Horsegeeks famous baked beans, homemade macaroni and cheese, sliced fruit, hamburgers, hot dogs and desserts by the truckload. There was more but I am getting hungry just typing this... be right back...
As the day started to push towards evening and everyone had more than enough to eat. It was time for the day's silent auction and awards ceremony to begin. This year we had about fifty items to bid on and the exchange was heated as usual. One person would put a bit on item 39 and then mosey over to something else of interest. Which gave the next auctioneer a chance to out bit on your item. When the time was up the auction ends and you pays your monies. It's all in good fun and everyone loves the challenge of getting the items they really want.
The final awards went to all the contestants from each of the main events. The most creative that I had seen was the gold painted ammo box medallions awarded to the Geo-Olympics winners. They were real ammo boxes painted gold with red, white and blue ribbons. All the rage in geocaching circles everywhere. 
What a great day daughter Geoness and I had on Saturday. We fully intended to blow our current number of finds record off the map. Our intentions were straight forward, get as many as we can and the sky was the limit. Go - Go - Go nothing was going to slow us down.
Sure enough there was the ammo box just asking to be investigated. We made quick work of signing the log and checking for any worth while treasures then the green painted cache was put back in it's hiding spot and we were back on the trails.
Eventually we made it to the car and continued on to our next cache on the list. I didn't realize it at the time but we ended up on the north side of Johnson Lake. We found a spot in a nearby parking lot and took a shortcut to the greenway in hopes of finding a couple of Horsegeeks caches. The view at this end of the park was no less spectacular with the lush greenery and shining water through the trees. We walked for about a quarter of a mile and came up to a very nice boardwalk that went over a more swampy like terrain. We had found our next cache location and after seeing the ground cover I told Geoness to hang back a bit and let me find this one. She agreed and I started up a small hill in the direction of the cache. I was instantly startled when I realized that I had walked right smack into an Orb Spider web. There is not too many things that will get your blood pumping more than looking eye to eye with such a large spider. Fortunately I had hit the lower part of the web first and the beautifully yellow, white and black colored beastie made it up to a large leaf. A bit shaken I continued my journey towards the suspected cache site. My suspicions were confirmed as I gazed down at the medium sized lock 'n lock box. I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up when I realized what I would need to do next. You see the cache was placed inside a hole that two twin trees had made between them. The hole was about a foot deep and another foot wide. Perfect spot for a snake den. Leave it to me to go on the one hike in a wooded area without my trusty backpack. This would have been a perfect time to use my grabber tool which was, say it with me now, in said back pack. Instead I did the next best thing and prodded the hole with my walking stick and after being mostly sure nothing was in there I held my breath and reached. 
The rest of the day consisted of several other green way hikes. I think we must have walked about five miles overall. There were several series that were fun including a lot of bison tube hunts. By the time it was getting dark we both were pretty bushed and we ended up with 18 finds for the day. Not the biggest amount when it comes to the numbers game but when it comes to the amount of quality time that the two of us shared it was priceless. 
The second half of Team HHB miss Amanda aka Geoness hit the 100 find mark. Not bad for someone who just started a couple of months ago. She has already attended several events and has taken on Difficulty 3 / Terrain 3 caches. Like the one at the FlashMob Flower Hill caches in North Carolina.
Taking a quick break to note I finally reached my #300 find yesterday. Now granted this is microscopic compared to many of the other cachers in North Carolina, I am extremely determined about my continuing voyage to the four digit mark.
Came home last night from another successful evening run in Smithfield, NC and did a quick glance at my email to see if any new caches published; and what to my wondering eyes did appear? Not one but two new caches just a few miles from where I work in Oxford. The posts came rather late and in a secluded part of the country so I was pretty sure they were not going to get found until today. Especially since both of them were from TimMcgrawlookalike and he is the only cacher that I know who has a working pair of night vision goggles. For now...
The second was one of those mean little caches that I just hate. You know the ones that are hidden in plain sight. I knew it was there but could I see the darn thing, oh heck no. Coords were just a bit off but that was expected. I could feel the moister of my now soaked shoes seaping through my work socks. A few more minutes passed and then booyah - success. Signed the untouched log and then jogged, well okay skipped to my car so I could get to work.
Just once I would like a holiday where I don't have to travel 800+ miles and can really enjoy a three day weekend. Ahh well, such as life.. Good news is I can add to my out of state scores!!!
Had a really great day on Saturday. Spent the afternoon with my daughter Amanda (Geoness) caching in the Fuquay-Varina, NC area.
One of the most fun and most painful was a rather sharp edged adventure called The Heart of Fuquay which put us in a nice wood surrounded by wild raspberries and briers. It did not help that we were in shorts because of the heat but we managed to make it through and I just loved seeing Amanda's eyes get wide when we found the ammo box filled with goodies.
Well daughter Geoness and I took another swipe at Fuquay- Varina, NC for a couple of hours and pulled away with some nice nature trails and some Grab and Go's. Added ten caches to our ever growing list.
