The One That Took Reinforcements To Find

As I come to the completion of a year long geocaching streak, I decided it would be good to capture some of my experiences over the past 366 days. Anyone who has been geocaching has a story to share, and I urge my friends and family who participate in this Amazing Bug Race to author blog entries of their own. After all, sharing stories and reliving the memories we've made along the way is what it's all about.

To start this series of blog posts, I'll pick up where I am today: The End.

In some ways, 366 days has come and gone in the blink of an eye. On the other hand, the challenge and commitement to find a geocache everyday has tested my resolve over and over again. There's no doubt about it - any attempt to accomplish something consistently for 366+ days straight takes a certain level of commitement (and craziness).

To celebrate the completion of such a momentous accomplishment, I decided to take reinforcements to a cache I've DNF-ed at least 5 times. This cache, Veterans Memorial Park, managed to allude me all year despite the 1/1 rating and several search attempts. The worst is posting your DNF (for the third time) and having the next cacher post: "Quick and easy find!" Argh. Someone just put me out of my misery!

It happened just as I anticipated. I gathered several of my co-workers who enjoy caching and we drove down to Veterans Memorial Park on our lunch break. As we pull up, the techies in our horde are already punching away on our phones, pulling up log information, coords, hints, etc. As I am reading the hint aloud for those without phones, Greatful1 says, "Do you think it's a small container like this?," and holds up the cache. Less than 3 minutes after rolling up, she's got the cache in hand. I know I'll never live it down, but truthfully my pride can take the ridicule - I'm just so overly excited to log the find.

As we pull away, headed to our celebration lunch at the KFC up the street (where there just happens to be another cache I couldn't find), I think out loud, "I don't have to come back here anymore." I don't have to find another cache, either. But I'm pretty sure I will...