It’s the Great Hocus Pocus, Charlie Brown!

It has been one breakneck Halloween season, with numerous gatherings (and another one on the slate for this evening), movies, and outings for Ms. B. and me — all of which are mighty welcome. October is always a busy month, and we’ve been working overtime on this one. It sort of helps make up for the near-absence of the Halloween season for us last year; not that there is one complaint about that situation, since we were overseas, getting married, and all that kind of good stuff.

Last night, friends Terry and Beth hosted an outdoor movie night, as is their wont this time of year. Last year, we watched Hocus Pocus, which was a first for me. I hadn’t much expected to like it, but — au contraire — I found it an agreeable hoot. This time, it was Hocus Pocus 2, and I liked it a lot as well. It wasn’t the classic that many consider the original to be, but it was funny and hit plenty of the right notes throughout. Also on our docket was It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. This one is an absolute prerequisite for the Halloween season (and we actually watched it a week or so ago, just for good measure). The drinks and company were delightful; a couple of folks in attendance turned out to be hardcore horror geeks, so we had a ton of topics to yak about.

This morning, Ms. B. wanted to see some fall foliage, so we headed out for a drive. I picked up a couple of geocaches, and we enjoyed lunch at a sweet little Mexican place in Gibsonville called La Casa Dorada. Fantastic Tacos à Diabla — spicy-hot to enough to prompt a couple of good hollers from me.

Tonight, we have the customary Halloween-themed geocaching event at friend Natalie’s place to attend. In fact, it’s just about time to get into character....

Tomorrow... Halloween arrives at last. Then comes the fast train to Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, and the eventual Final Chapter. Jebus, how time do fly.

A couple of wacky folk bundled up for Hocus Pocus 2

Lake view at Hagan Stone Park while geocaching this morning

The colours out of space

Nemesis Conquered

"I don't care how damn cold it is. Don't come across
until I can take the picture!"

It's always nice to have an extra day off after a long trip. Inevitably, I end up with a bunch of business to catch up on (much of it my mom's), including some serious catch-up writing, but it's always gratifying when I can work in a spot of geocaching. Though it was a bit chilly, today turned out to be the perfect day to get out after some hides, especially since a few new ones published over the weekend while Ms. B. and I were gone to Ohio (see yesterday's blog, "A Head Full of... Winklepleck?!"). Not to mention that, for months now, I've been hoping we might have at least a few days where the sky wasn't taking a dump so they would open the Reedy Fork Creek river crossing at Northeast Park. I have a cache — Destroy All Monsters #2: Angilas (GC25CYB) — that was reported as needing maintenance months and months ago, and because there's no bridge across Reedy Fork Creek (one must either hop across on rocks or wade) and the trails have been closed, I've been unable to get to it. Plus, my nemesis — a cache called "Out on the Brown Loop Trail" (GC7V4YH) has lurked out there since last July, having defied my one attempt to find it soon after it published.

Regular geocaching partner fishdownthestair (a.k.a. Natalie) also had a day free, so we decided to team up and hit Moricle Park in Gibsonville, where four new caches had come out over the weekend. And we thought maybe... just maybe... the river crossing might be open for the first time in ages at Northeast Park. Our expectation was that the Moricle Park caches would require some hiking but end up quick and easy, while the caches at Northeast Park —  including my own, since time does alter things in the woods — would likely tie us up for quite a while. However, as so often happens in geocaching, the reverse was true.

A couple of the caches at Moricle Park took us far longer to find than we anticipated. But we did prevail, and we finally headed out to Northeast Park. Sure enough, the river crossing was open, but the water was deep, cold, and fast-moving. The river mostly covered the rocks that can at least occasionally be used for hopping across. Well, no matter. The crossing wasn't closed and here we were, so there was nothing for it but to wade. And wade we did. Was it cold? Shoot yeah. Was it fun? Shoot yeah? Was it worth it? Shoot yeah!

Much to our surprise, we found "Out on the Brown Loop Trail" sitting out in the open near GZ. Well, that was easy. Judging from the teeth marks on the container, some critter had moved the container from its hiding place. We re-hid the cache where our coordinates led us, in what appeared to be a suitable location. Then we headed down to "Angilas," which Natalie had not found, and which I suspected I might not find, since I had hidden it in a target-rich area, and by all accounts, the area had only become target richer after so much severe weather in recent months.

Well, what do you know? Happily, when I hid the cache back in March 2010, I took some really good coordinates because they led me right to the little beast. It was sitting out a bit exposed, but at least not far from where it was meant to be. The contents, which I'd been led to believe were a mess, really were not, but I refurbished the container and put it back so the next finders will not necessarily have such an easy time finding it.

Ms. FDTS and I ended our outing with a nice lunch at Uptown Charlie's, where they make the best chicken wings I've had in the Triad (it's the Suicide Sauce). And then we headed back to the barn.

Man, I'd so rather not go to work tomorrow.