The Caching Dead

We had a stretch through the summer of moving several TBs. The kids were super excited that we were finding and moving so many. While at a local lake, we came across a "rock climbing travel bug", which was very fitting since there is great rock climbing at this lake. We have 2 tupperware boxes we carry in the car for geocaching. One has the swag we've found and the other has our items to trade and the travel bugs / geocoins we need to place. Fast forward a few weeks and we have placed all of the travel bugs in our possession, however, I'm still showing to have the rock climbing bug on my profile page. We look through all of our containers, all over my desk, my dresser, the car.... we cannot find this travel bug anywhere. I'm feeling terrible now because I've lost a travel bug. I decide we need to retrace our steps and see if we dropped it into a cache and forgot to log it. So, we revisit many of our past caches and cannot locate the bug anywhere. The main caches where I thought we'd have dropped it had no visitors since us, and I had received no e-mails from anyone saying they'd found the bug. Well, I was resigned to the fact that I was now going to have to tell the owner that I lost his travel bug. The kids were a bit upset that we somehow lost a TB, being as careful as we are with our caching, logging, etc. Well, a few weeks back, I'm packing for a hunting trip to Colorado. I pull out my backpack in which I carry water, etc. and what is this?!?! The TB is in a pocket, safe and sound. I had carried this bag on many caching trips and we must have stuck it in there with some trade swag, and never dropped it. I was relieved. This was perfect timing as well, because I could now drop it somewhere in Colorado or Utah while on our trip. I e-mailed the TB owner and let them know why I had it in my possession for so long, and he was very understanding. However, while on our trip, we didn't make any stops for caching, and I STILL have this TB in that pack. I really need to drop it soon. Thanks for your story and in turn the reminder that I still have this TB. Take care...

Today is my Mom's birthday, and her wish to us was to visit this cache. So, after I coach my son's football game tomorrow, we are heading to Austin to tackle this one. Going to take it easy and spend Saturday evening and Sunday morning on it before making the drive back up. Going to be a lot of fun!

We had 9 FTFs in one day (a new series was posted the night before), and those were our first FTFs. We've had one more since then and we have 108 total finds.

Great story!

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/default.aspx On the right-hand side of the page you'll find the cache note.

We've been throwing around the idea of heading to Austin for this one. I think it would be a lot of fun!

Sorry if I'm off topic here, but I saw the title and had to stop in. We aren't from Marianna, FL, but we were just there a couple weeks ago. We visited some family in Pensacola and drove over to Marianna to visit the Caverns State Park. We did a bit of geocaching while there and played mini-golf at Kindel Lanes. We also had dinner at The Oaks Restaurant. We had a great time in Marianna.

I carry a lumbar pack (sounds better than "fanny" pack... hahaha) that has 2 water bottles. We always have a pen and some swag to trade inside at all times. Sometimes I'll throw in a couple plastic baggies and replacement caches. If we know we are going into some wooded areas, we will spray down with insect repellent at the car and then carry a small bottle with us on the trail. Everything else we'd need (hand sanitizer, batteries, etc.) we keep in the car and get on an as needed basis. And yes, I carry my Beretta PX4 Storm 9mm. I just feel much safer having it with us, especially with the kids along for the hikes. You just never know what or who you'll run into.

We geocache as a family and have had along one set of grandparents or the other on most of our finds. We just started caching on June 5th of this year. We live north of Weatherford and cache mainly around Weatherford and Mineral Wells. We are also currently working to complete the TxGCC set of caches. This has been a great activity for us and we thoroughly enjoy it!