Eleven Happy School Books

WARNING: The following blog entry contains spoilers to the caches listed within. If you feel you may be caching in Tucson anytime soon and don't want to ruin your hunt, please proceed with caution.

NOTE: Following the advice of my new friend, Erika Jean, I've removed the cache coordinates from under the titles, and instead made a link to the cache entry on geocaching.com. Without a membership (which is free, by the way), one will merely see a series of question marks for the coordinates on that site. I originally chose to insert the coordinates here for style, but it's not worth the fact that a non-cacher can easily get to the site without even being a member of geocaching.com. Thanks, Erika!

This entry was delayed for almost two weeks, mostly due to the fact that we were without internet service for awhile.

We set out on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day for another bunch of caches. The whole family came this time, which is always a plus for me.

School House Rock

First up was a cache that was reported as vandalized and almost completely destroyed. I checked it again and saw that some kind soul had re-hid the cache and added a new logbook to it. We set out to find it, and did so quite easily. We found half of a dollar bill inside, and maybe one or two more small items. We added a bunch of things to the cache (some kiddie bingo boards, a Sylvester toy, and a Disney hockey duck toy), and took nothing. The cache needed help. I did also notice that the container needs to be replaced, since there's a large crack in the lid.

Two of the Terrors striking poses.

Allen's Happy Spot (aka Allerilla the Gorilla)

Here is a cache that we attempted to find a few weeks ago and failed in the attempt. (Click here for more info... it's the second to last entry.) I had found previous logs which better illuminated the sketchy hint of "Pull up." That hint means "pull up your car... and stand on it." We made sure to bring the car.

The last time we had been there, I noticed a rock on top of the carport. We figured it would be under the rock. Sarah and I stood on the car. I could see the rock, but couldn't reach it. The point was moot, for I could see there was nothing under it. (I did worry that the cache might BE the rock. Some clever caches are hollowed-out rocks with a log sheet inside.) I started to wonder if it might be stuffed in the little crenellations on the structure's roof.

Hmmm...

Once down from the car, Sarah spotted it.

This was fun, and I'm glad we finally found it, but the height really isn't fair. What if the cacher was on a bike, or on foot?

123 Book Exchange

I was floored. We PASSED this cache on the way to the Electric Substation cache the day before, and I had no idea! I hadn't loaded it in as a waypoint on my GPS yet, so it didn't show on the map screen. Here's the map from the previous entry, now with the 123 Book Exchange cache circled (gotta love my work with Microsoft Paint, huh?).

This is a large-sized cache, and the first of it's size that we've found. As I walked up to it, I knew exactly what it was. There were reports that the lock and key that the owner had installed were both missing, and had been for over a year. These reports are accurate. The top was heavy, but I was able to lift it up without too much effort. Voila!

This is me next to the cache, as Skylar walks up to check it out.

I knew this thing was full of books already (a "book exchange"), so I brought a few with us. The kids had fun picking out books. Just look at Skylar!

I found a book entitled, "Iguanodon." It's aimed for the child that loves dinosaurs, but Nikki plans on reading it to our green iguana, Fizban!

 And she really did. She's nuts! Unfortunately, Fizban wouldn't sit still for the whole story.

Here's a priceless picture. Kids reading... quietly. Ahhh....

We took What a Girl Wants (novel), The Early Bird (children's book), Bears in the Night (ditto), Dinosaurs Everywhere (ditto), and Iguanodon (ditto). We left Brain by Robin Cook, The Devil That Danced On the Water, a Robin Cook omnibus, and some toys: A Disney duck hockey player, and a Planet of the Apes toy. Reading and caching, combined into one great treasure hunt. We loved it!

Goes to Eleven

We just walked to this one from the 123 Book Exchange Cache. It was a pretty long walk, and once we got there, we saw this. Is this the cache?

The hint on the cache's page at geocaching.com is: "Remember this cache goes to eleven." (This is inspired by the mock documentary, "This is Spinal Tap.") You can see in the picture that there's a combination lock on this thing. We tried all different combinations. I was trying to select all the numbers that would add up to 11. As you can imagine, with three numbers, there would be quite a lot of combinations! Starting from 119, to 191, 182, 128, well it goes on and on. Sarah got it right by choosing "211." It goes TWO eleven! Smart kid!

Here's Sarah with the padded panel that was in front of the cache, and the Marvel cards she found inside.

I'm holding the log book, which brings me back to high school, since it's covered in heavy metal band logos! (Click the picture to make it bigger.) Sarah is holding the "Swag Log" and the cover to the cache container. Savannah has the dinosaur book that she got from the 123 Book Exhange cache. Skylar is holding the mini-skateboard that she got from this cache, and a rock.

We took Marvel cards, a mini-skateboard, a piglet figure, and a flashlight keychain. We left an elephant trunk mask, a girl figure, a pumpkin man, and a wind-up toy. We also found a travel bug in this cache, attached to a replica of a Gettysburg cannon. Nikki wanted this for herself, but I had to explain to her that both the travel bug and the item it's attached to is not to be kept, but rather to be passed on to another cache.

This turned out to be a really good hunt. Not only did we find four caches, our record in one day so far, (hey, the kids can only go for so long without getting tired or bored), but we found all the caches we set out to find.

Caches Found: 23