Loser, loser, loser

This whole tick thing has me paranoid. I have washed all the sheets, all the comforters, shampooed the carpets, and inspected the dogs. I even touched my " roots" up with some hair color, knowing the smell alone should kill anything that is crawling. But I continue to have nightmares about ticks, woods and flying monkeys. To cure this, I am going out for a normal day of caching, and I am taking the " pot stirrer". Now, she is the first to admit that she doesn't have the " drive" to geocache, as I do, but she goes along, "to keep me alive". Nice. So we head out to a town...how hard is a town? We pick up a couple of "no brainers" and then we get to the park. This is a cache, that has been adopted from a previous owner. According to the story, the previous owner disappeared, or something. The cache had been disabled, but some cachers,( who had found the cache earlier) checked on it, the cache was still there ( kinda hard to find) in a cool hide, so they adopted it. Still following me? So, we follow the present directions, which doesn't say too much, but it takes us to a cannon. We know it is magnetic. We search....we search...we search. No luck. We read the other logs. We have been in the same place as everyone else. We found the birds nests, we found the wasp nests, we found everything but the cache! We had our hands in every nook and cranny of that cannon! It is not there! Ok, so one of the other logs said it was " a find" on his 4th try! No, way we are getting it today! We are going insane. The "pot stirrer" is fed up! It is not here! So, we reluctantly leave. I am starting to feel these losses. I am starting to take this personally! I am ready to turn in my geocaching patch. I am not worthy. But, I say on the way home...maybe it is a bolt? Yep, that has to be it... a green bolt.

The "other " cache.

When I finally make it back to the car, I realize my hands are shaking. That was ridiculous! What was I thinking? So I turn on the I-phone, and head for my next cache. Hard to believe, I was lost in the woods for 45 minutes! The next cache is on a trail, where I was with my friend, the pot stirrer. Not a bad trail, but a long one, so I think I will just go to the college, the back corner of the college, and cut into the trail. Not like I have ever been that way, but it should work. So, when the TT wants me to turn ( into a "bad" neighborhood) I ignore him...I will just go to the college. I arrive safely, no one in sight...but according to my I-phone I am no where near this cache. Ok, enough is enough. It, of course, must be the I-phone. So, I leave and go to the entrance of the trail, so If I have to walk 3 miles, then I will walk, but I will go home with this travel bug! There is one car there ( empty) and now I am paranoid, so I need to re-think this. I check the info on the I-phone ( yes, of course, I bypass the screen warning of how geocaching can be dangerous ) So, wait, what side of the river is thing on? It wants me to go on the other side, by the boat docks. ( Yes, 1st Sgt's gps system points out rivers and creeks... of course it does!) But MINE does not. Hmmm...it is a holiday weekend, there is a fishing derby taking place. With every boat , there is at least, one drinker. Oh screw it... I am out of here. So, I head home. I dial the pot stirrer up on the phone. Now, normally everyone answers the phone with hello, or yea, or something. Not, " did you get the travel bug?" So, of course, I answer " Nah... decided not to, What?...margaritas? Sure, I am on my way". I am such a loser!

The wizard of Oz

When we were growing up, every year, and I mean EVERY YEAR, we watched The Wizard of Oz, and every year, I was scared out of my mind. I was under the covers (every year,) at the same point in the movie! But( none the less) the next year, we would do it all over again!! I think I liked the cowardly lion, but maybe I should have related to the scarecrow. Because suddenly I am in the "witches woods", acting like the scarecrow ( If I only had a brain) Just a "few feet down the path", turned into just a" few feet into the grasses". My I-phone could not pick up a gps location, due to the height of the grass. And I am looking for... what? Oh, yea a "tall clump of grass" I just kept putting one foot in front of the other. I didn't want to look down, just in case I saw a snake. Do we even have snakes here? And, what would I DO if I did see a snake? There was no way anyone could run in this ! I decide this is crazy. The travel bug will just have to sit. So, I head back to the dirt trail, but, ( as you can only imagine) I am turned around. The tall grasses lead me into a chained link fence. Where was there a chain link fence? OK...focus. Chain link should be around...where?... the outside maybe? Ok, just head out of the grass and for tall trees. I finally find myself on a dirt trail, with a steep incline. Now, that wasn't there when I entered, so obviously I am lost. My I-phone says I am 1.4 miles from the cache, how is that possible? I just want to get out. It was way TOO quiet, some animals were making scary noises ( I swear "it" was calling my name) and I was just waiting for the flying monkeys to appear. My first thought is ...what would 1st Sgt do? . Lets be realistic here...1st Sgt would NOT be here...not in tick filled grasses over his head, not with a gps of this caliper, not in these Woods. ( he will never admit it, but the flying monkeys scared him too) second thought... no one would find my body till...when? I decide to put my scouting skills to the test. Yea! what skills? I take a deep breath and head towards some light. When I finally see some light and asphalt, I brush off the seed pods, the ticks, and the thorns and head for my car. Well, the other cache with a travel bug... is on the way home.

Now is NOT the time.

After doing a 13 hour shift, I check the web site and see a couple of nearby caches, with travel bugs! Hmmm... well, I could just jot over there and pick up a coin, or bug or whatever. See, it is whatever, that I should have been concerned with. According to my new obtained knowledge, this travelbug has been sitting there for a month now! Totally unacceptable. These bugs got to move. Since one is only 2.7 miles away, It is like it is calling me! So, I head out, turn the TT on, and I am off. In my mind I know it is located at a certain, family oriented park, nice trails, easy cache. So, when TT tells me to turn left...I am a little confused, but you know, he does know his way around. I just do what he tells me. I am now winding in and out, up and down side streets, only to end up by... the sewer plant? Ok, lets check this out. I guess I never knew there was a little park back there, but what the heck. How hard can this be? The cach info says it is a terrain of 3, size regular, Tupperware container. The hint says look for a large clump of grass. I spray myself down with off. It is 85 degrees out. I head down the asphalt, not whistling ( because I can't whistle) but you get the idea. The info says follow the deer path? Ok now, we are getting serious! Is the deer path, the same as the dirt bike path? And the grasses to the side, are up to my chest! You have got to be kidding!! I think I saw the ticks doing somersaults, off the tops of some over grown bushes. No, way I am not going in. This makes caches that1st Sgt and I did in look like a kiddy park. Finally I get my wits about me. This is a park, I have never been in..The trails are undefined...the ticks are waiting...the "lump of tall grass" is long gone, just down right drowned! It wasn't like a bolt of lightening from above, but I did suddenly see the light. This is why, the travel bug has been sitting for 30 days. No one in their right mind, would go in there. Well, maybe just a few feet, to check it out.

Obsessed or Possessed?

My friend Sandy, the pot stirrer, says I am obsessed with this new hobby of mine. I really don't think so, after all, anyone new into geocaching does all the same things. When you are driving down the road, and see a car pulled over, doesn't everyone wonder if they are picking up a cache? Suddenly you can spot trees with great holes...historic signs that would work....gazebos located at the perfect spot... ditches that are waiting for a nano sized , cammo colored, container. They are everywhere! Now possessed, well that one is a different story. We grew up or down , whatever, from a family that I think was truly possessed! I was" skeered" of them. Apparently Big Sis, other sis, and the brother-in-law (future) were not! Not until the night they tee-peed their house. Yep!, that 12 gu shot gun, made a statement. The stories of hell, temptation and damnation had been etched in my head! I was never sure if Ma and Dad heard about it, that actual night, or maybe 15 years later at a Thanksgiving dinner. Those people were possessed!

So, to prove I am not obsessed, I am actually meeting a non-geocacher girlfriend for a drink. I am not taking the TT,( it is only 3 miles straight shot). I will not check in all the bushes before I enter...I will not check for magnetic holders under counters and bar stools... I will not talk geocaching...I will not be on the look out for muggles...I will not turn on my i-phone to the geocaching logo... I will not look for nearby sites...I will not pay for my drink with a geocoin.....I will not leave swag for the tip. I promise!

But, just in case, this whole possessed thing is bothering you...don't worry I plan to drink the devil right out of me! CHEERS!

Bugs, bugs and bugs

Everyone out there caching has had some kind of" hand-to-swat" combat with blood sucking skeeters. Since there seems to be so many of them this year, I am figuring Big Lots had a sale. This is also my first year for ticks! I have now seen them up close and personal, and they are ugly suckers. I have also imagined them, along with their relatives, crawling all over me. Then again there is no better form of exercise than swatting...brushing..and dancing around from invisible, yet perceived critters! The only bugs I really love are the travel ones! I actually found my first travel coin on my very first cache. Not that you will see that recorded anywhere...As I was a "noobie" with 1st Sgt, and the exact words may be cloudy, but the memory is crystal clear. As I recall, 1st Sgt was signing the log book, I said, hey there is some coin in here, probably didn't get the "in here" part even out, but....SWOOSH it was gone, snatched right out of my "noobie" hands. Can you believe it? I did pick up my first travel bug, shortly after going solo. Turned out it was 1st Sgt's travel bug. ( UH OH) ..." Gotche " me a travel coin just yesterday and have my eye on a couple of nearby coin caches near work. Never thought I would be so interested in collecting bugs.

Hang on baby (s) !

I had quite the day, geocaching with Peanut and the triplets. 1st let me re-cap the rules: quiet weekday/ area she was familiar / terrain of 1/ couple of caches/ sipping lattes. The actual day went a little different. I had searched the web the night before and printed off several caches, so Peanut could have her pick. She arrived dressed appropriately...no cammo, no combat boots...and the only thing she was "packing" was 3 babies. We were off.. The first thing I noticed about this town was the enormous amount of horrendous potholes! Hang on baby(s)! My i-phone was "down" so we had to revert to the old fashioned way, which consisted of TT and computer printouts. Lucky (?) for me she is navigational savoy... so we were set. Our first cache of the day was a magnetic at the roadside, so all was good. But, as the terrain went up hill...our day went downhill. I managed to be literally down in several creeks...to be over my head in grasses...attacked by a thorn tree...hooked on barbed wire and stuck in a rocket slide ( don't ask) All the while Peanut stood safely on a level 1 terrain with the TT. shouting instructions to me. "Go several feet north" Yea right, I"m over my head in weeds, which way is North? At the end of the day ( 8 hours) Peanut left with a smile, 10 caches and a mocha moo-latte from Dairy Queen! Me? Well... I did get a geo patch, my first geocoin, and a target gift card. Oh, and let's not forget, a torn shirt...a bloody arm..my first geo scar...an unusual rash on my arms and, oh yea.... 2 ticks.

Whatever Peanut may tell you, we DID NOT run over a duck! Hang on baby(s)!