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Acting as Old Rob's "tool of the trade" to acquire the cache. For him, there is no charge. This time. |
WARNING: first-world problem rants are sometimes found here.
No, I haven't changed my attitude about puzzle caches. For me, they mostly suck (note the emphasis on "for me" here). A lot of people actually enjoy puzzle caches, and more power to them. But many—and around here, most—puzzle caches require a considerable amount of dedicated computer time to decipher cryptic passages. Me, I started geocaching to get away from the computer. I'm on the computer day in and day out, first at work, then with my writing. Not that this is a complaint; these are necessary things, which I do willingly. But I'm not willing to spend a shitload of time on the computer to get to the place where I can go out and do what geocaching is supposed to be all about, and that's GOING OUT GEOCACHING. If puzzle caches—which, in my view, make up too large a percentage of new caches in the area—had been my introduction to the activity, I would have simply said the heck with it and missed out on so many of the greatest adventures of my life. Thankfully, there are a few local cachers who do enjoy working the puzzles and are usually happy to offer nudges to set the rest of us geocaching fools on the right course to go out hunting. Sadly, the focus on a lot of the puzzle caches is the puzzle, and when you go out and find the actual cache, it turns out to be unremarkable.
Not so today. Now, as is often the case, I had spent no little time trying to decrypt the puzzle in question, only to fail miserably several times before saying the hell with it. On the upside, I was at least partly on the right track. For my efforts, I did manage to barter a bit and acquire the coordinates necessary to hunt the cache. So, this morning, I met friend Robgso (a.k.a. Old Bloody Rob) near the cache site that we might conquer this beast. The location is back in some woods behind a shopping center, and a pandemic is definitely a plus as far as moderating the population such areas. Naturally, as I had no inclination to catch any contagious crabbiness from him, I kept a considerable distance from him at all times. We had learned from prior finders that our quarry lay at an altitude above our heads, and since Rob is forbidden by marital law from ascending to such altitudes, I offered my services—free of charge, as always.
Sure enough, at GZ (ground zero), we came upon an interesting tree leaning over a stream. It appeared to be the only climbable specimen for some distance around, and even though we couldn't see the cache, we figured that had to be our target. So, I hauled myself on up the trunk a ways, peered into a gaping hole, and—joy of joys—found the cache. So, in this case, we found ourselves a very fun, memorable cache, not just a pain-in-the-ass puzzle.
The rest of the day, I worked hard on New Hampshire: Ghosts From the Skies and made danged fair progress. In the realer world, things are pretty tough, and they may get tougher. If they end up warranting a good blather, then blather I shall.
Till then.
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