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Scott shining his flashlight into a chimney where, just maybe, that geocache is hiding |
Last night, friend and regular geocaching partner, Scott (a.k.a.
Diefenbaker), drove up from Asheboro, NC, so we could make a geocaching
trip to Roanoke today. Scott and his wife, Jane, will be moving to the coast
soon, so it's about to become a bit more difficult to get together than it has
for past 15 or so years. I hope we'll have at least another chance before they
take off more or less for good.
As the sun set last night, we sat out on the front porch and drank a little
bourbon. Then we went to Wild Magnolia for dinner and drank a little bourbon. Afterward, I took him to a
nearby cache so he could hunt it (and, of course, he found it). From there, we
hit the ABC store to buy a little bourbon. Then we came back home and drank a
little bourbon (this rather inexplicably became the theme last night; don't
ask us how).
Much to our surprise, Mr. Moose, usually the shyest of the three cats, came
out and started begging Scott for attention, which, of course, he got. Moose
has had some medical issues over the past few months, but he definitely seems
to be on the upswing. He sure didn't have any problem getting treats last
night.
We retired reasonably late and got up pretty damned early this morning. We hit
the road, stopped for coffee and danishes, and made it to Roanoke in about an
hour. Our first target was just off the Blue Ridge Parkway, but that section
of it was inexplicably closed (there's certainly no snow or ice left out
there; it was 85 freaking degrees today, gack). So we switched it up and went
after a couple of nice multi-caches not too far away. The final stage of one
called "Sasquatch Joins a Bookclub" was at the local library, inside a Bigfoot-themed book, and as one might
guess, it turned out to be one of the day's favorites.
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| Autobots Roll Out! |
We had several favorites today, which was nice. So many newer hides are of the
simple, park & grab variety, which is great for padding one's numbers, but
generally pretty boring. Today, we ended up hiking well over six miles in some
pretty rugged terrain, and now I'm kinda tired and sore. But it's a good tired
and sore.
Another favorite was called "Autobots Roll Out," which was had a 4 out of 5
difficulty rating. The host was a 15-foot tall Optimus Prime sculpture made
out of auto parts. And yes, the cache was somewhere on/in it. I've always said
it's just as fine to be lucky as good, and that proved very true here. After
only a couple of minutes, I happened to notice a certain something that looked
a little off, and... YES!... it was the cache.
We found a decent lunch at Mission BBQ, where we had eaten the last time we were in Roanoke. Afterward, we went to
seek a couple of more. However, our sole disappointment for the day was a
cache hidden in a multilevel parking garage, which can often make for an entertaining hunt. However, in this case, we followed every clue as best we
could, hunted for an hour, and still came up empty. Definitely NOT a favorite,
though a future attempt to avenge it is not out of the question.
Then it was back home, and Scott returned to Asheboro. Mercy, it was a
great day, and I really hope he and I can work in at least one more outing before
the distance between us becomes too great.
Till whenever.
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| What do you suppose that strange man is looking for in there?! |
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| A little fountain in the middle of the woods |
L: Scott makes friends with Moose; R: Scott makes friends with a ceramic
bird with a cache in it