Geo- Milestones

DizzyL at her 100th cache

We are still geocaching every day and often an hour or two each day.  This has helped us get outside more during this beautiful spring and we've discovered so much about Central Illinois in the process.  On April 15th we hit three milestones: We found our 600th cache; We had cached 50 days in a row: and DizzyL (Laura) found her 100th cache.  Note: She found her 100th in just ten days.  The only other person I know who found caches at that rate is our geo-uncle WES37. 

We've found some interesting caches over the past few days.  Here's DizzyL near a unique cache....can you see it?

Here's another fun cache....you have to put your hand in a hole that you can't see into with a flashlight.  Here's what you encounter!  Touching that certainly gets you jumping!

See the acorns?

Earlier this month we hit our 500th cache.  To commemorate our achievement Sheryl created a special cache just for us.  She started teasing us about it a day before by sending a text with a picture of a goose and saying the goose knew where our special cache was.  The next day she sent another text saying she couldn't trust the goose and now it was an owl that knew the location.  Finally, she texted the coordinates....and off we went!

The coordinates took us to a nearby park and were in the middle of several good hiding places.  DizzyL and I were searching through the rubble of a fallen tree....all kinds of branches, bark and whatnot.   Finally, at virtually the same instant, we both spotted something interesting: Two acorns that were remarkably shiny. 

Lots of notes with messages

We got down on our hands and knees and saw that the acorns were attached to something.  We started pulling on them and out came a string with notes attached about two feet.  The very first note said, "Congratulations, you've found it!"  But as we pulled the string, more and more notes came out....and apparently, we hadn't found it yet.  Near the end of the 25' string was a note that said to stretch out the string and the cache would be at the end of the string. 

Walking the radius

We quickly stretched out the string and did a 360 degree walk about the site.  There were LOTS of likely looking places within the 25' radius....and even more potential hiding spots when you tied the string to a 5 foot stick and looked up at all the branches.  Since Sheryl had mentioned an owl we couldn't discount that the cache might be up in the air...potentially 25 feet in the air.  The hunt was on!

After an hour of searching high and low DizzyL decided to opt out.  Off she went, but we kept searching.  After another hour passed by without a find we decided to ask for a hint.  Sheryl replied to our text by saying that in the pic above, Laura is pointing in the right direction.  Whew!  At last a clue!!!!  But wait...is Sheryl saying that Laura pointing "down" is correct?  Or is she pointing to the "west" and that's the right direction!?!?!?  We can't decide which is right...so we search both.

We ask for another clue.  Sheryl texts that in the pic Mona is very close.  Duh!?!?!  In the pic she's near nothing but a tree we've searched high and low.  There's no way the cache could be there.  We keep looking and we're muttering about the impossibility of this find.  All of a sudden we hear laughter...and Sheryl comes out from behind a nearby tree.  She had come to laugh at our frustration!  (I never did like her!)

Can hear it, but not see it!

It's a major award!

She points to the string in my hand and says, "Read the first message!"  I do and it says, "Congratulations, you've found it!"  She points to the ground near where we were standing and says it's right around here....trouble is, she can't find it either!  We start doing a very slow search using the string as our guide and probing every square inch with a walking stick.  FINALLY, we hear a hollow thud!  We look down and still can't see it, but on our hands and knees we brush away the grass and there it is!!!  AT LAST!  It's a shallow little camoflaged box tucked into a pocket in the grass.  Opening it we finally get our 500 cache awards!  It only took 3 hours, but it was worth it!

Whew!  Glad that's over!!!!

Yesterday, we were caching near Harristown along old route 36.  We saw a County squad car pass us by...and sure enough, he turned around and turned on his lights.  He pulled up beside us and got out to ask what was going on.  "Geocaching" was our response, of course.  He said he had heard of geocaching but didn't know much about it.  We ended up giving him a twenty minute course on geocaching....showing him the maps, some caches and some travel bugs.  We're always making new friends while geocaching....including some in uniforms!  (This was Laura's second policeman this week!)

It's a rainy day today, but still need to get at least one cache to keep the streak going....gotta get going and find that cache!

Happy caching!