Geocaching Adventure, 9-12-2023

(Written 9-12-2023)

Well friends, this evening I went out and Geocached for the first time in years. I needed something to get me out of the house and get my mind off of my musician's block issues and to just have fun. I don't normally go out and do stuff, unless it's something with my family or my Bible study group that occasionally gets together; so that was nice to just go out by myself.

Thankfully I have a car now, unlike a year ago where I'd have had to use my electric bicycle.

Exhibit A: My "Noble Steed" (nicknamed "Caroline", after my old scooter, which was nicknamed after my favourite Animal Crossing villager)

I first went to find a "micro-cache" (a very small Geocache, think of an Altoids tin or a film canister) that is near my neighbourhood, according to the Geocaching app. The one in mind was pinpointed at a lamppost in a parking lot at a strip mall. I got out, looked at said lamppost: up and down, around, on the ground, etc. I found nothing, so I consulted the almighty Geocaching app. Lo and behold, the hint on the app said it was able to be "seen in the dark, and not the light", or something along those lines. I then observed the removable box on the base of the lamppost, and voila! It was under the aluminum box! I opened the tin and found a tiny piece of paper with the purpose of being signed and dated by 'cachers like myself, so I did just that.

Exhibit B: The Altoids Cache

Then I went to find the next closest cache, which was in the parking lot of a local Baptist church. I went there, and it was practically the same as the last one: it was in the box of a lamppost. So I went, found the nearest post relative to the pin on the Geocaching app's map, and lifted the metal box. Badabing, badaboom, there it was: a small, orange drug bottle with a paper to sign your name on. I did just that, and went on my merry way.

Exhibit C: The Drugs Cache

Ok, you probably get the gist by now: get in car, drive to next location, search, log, ta-da!

Well that's mostly how this one went, except the location pinned on the app's map was off by about 10 feet, and oh boy, 10 feet makes a huge difference! I was searching for the 'cache down by a manhole near the busy, busy street, but after consulting the comments left by previous 'cachers who found the same cache, it was clear that others had the same issue of not finding it at the manhole. Sooo I looked around, and saw... you guessed it... a lamppost with one of those metal boxes at the base. How original! So I checked and BA-BAM! there was an old film canister inside (I mean the cache was dated 2006 according to the app). I did the same ole' song and dance (open cache, sign paper, close cache), but inside was also a little trinket called a "PathTag". It's a small token with a custom design and a serial number on it, and you log the "PathTags" you see on their website: pathtags.com. So I took a pic of the tag so I could log it once I got home to my computer.

Now one of these days I need to buy some "PathTags" to leave around ;)

The next place I went was a local bakery and gem of SETX, but I couldn't find the tag and I wasn't going to get in their bushes because that's private property, etc.

So no fourth 'cache. :(

That concludes my grand expedition around West End Beaumont, I hope y'all enjoyed this writeup.

Take care!

-MP