The Best Christmas Present Ever

[+team walkingsticks]

Since I started geocaching about six months ago, I often share my cache stories with the high school students that I teach. I am a high school choir director and my classes are large, some as big as 100 students.

 

I took a couple of the more adventurous guys out caching with me a month ago and we had a blast (big suprise huh?). In school, the students get a kick out of hearing my tales of the trail. I even had a parent approach me at a restaurant to show me a new GPS they bought after their daughter came home sharing my adventures with their family! They were on their way out to their first cache.

 

Anyway, on Christmas morning I found an enormous package on my front doorstep. I proceeded to unwrap this package followed by package after package finally getting down to a CD-R. On it was written, "Merry Christmas...put this in your computer."

 

Upon doing so, I first opened a series of folders which were each labeled with the following: Buckle Up...You're in...For a Wild Ride....Enjoy....Good luck on your quest...

 

Then came the letter. It stated:

 

"If you are bored, YOU ARE about about to embark on the greatest cache conceived by A modern MAN . Since you have no more CACHES in your area to do I decided that for Christmas I would create some fun for YOU . This WILL not be an easy multi cache, but I have faith in you. At the end you will FIND a "patriotic" reward. Enjoy."

 

Following the letter, I was prompted to listen to the song "Fanfare for a Common Man" followed by a sweet reggae version of "I Can See Clearly Now"

 

The letter also included a first clue (a riddle) and a set of coordinates.

 

The students creating this cache are some pretty creative, intelligent, wacko guys! One is an All-American runner. They are all in much better shape then I am in and they embrace a challenge! You just have to love high school students.

 

I began the cache today and found stage one without much problem. It was another CD-R, sending me back to my computer. It was another clue and a tune to go along with it. It warned me this would be the last "easy one" and that things would be getting more intense from here on out.

 

I spent about an hour and a half searching for stage two and finally decided to give up for the day. (My inlaws are in town and I was feeling a little guilty!). I must have looked pretty odd in the middle of a huge field, across from a very large shopping mall, on the day after Christmas, digging through the bricks left over from an old, torn down house, GPS in hand... LOL!

 

Quite the gift eh? I hope I don't bore anyone with this gift story but I thought only fellow cachers can relate to how cool this is...I am just blown away that students would take the time to create a one-of-a-kind, personalized cache, that is already proving to be quite a challenge. I have a feeling before I am done, I will have traversed a good number of miles and risked both life and limb. But the students have faith in me and I will not let them down. The "Common Man" will not be defeated!

 

This is a fantasic gift idea. I am sure I am not the first to get or create one of these but I feel like I am! A cache like this can be a one time thing like this one, or a permanent cache that could be logged on this site.

 

Finally, if anyone has a real good excuse to get me out of the house to continue this quest, it would be appreciated. Somehow, I need to leave my wife, three kids (ages 8 months, 5 and 8) and the inlaws so I can feed my habit...Oh the guilt!

[+sept1c_tank]

That's truely a wonderful story.

[+Renegade Knight]

Sounds like you are an exceptional teacher. The kind that can teach more than the sum of their lessons and leave students with a gift that will last the rest of their lives. That's a rare gift.

 

Enjoy your sojourn. It's well deserved.

[+carleenp]

I have to echo RN here. As a teacher myself (at times, it is a side job), I know that when students do something like that, it is out of admiration. You must be a very gifted teacher and you are gifted by wonderful students who see that. Thanks for the great story! You and your students are truly blessed through each other!

[+CacheCreatures]

Or, they don't like you after all and there is no second part. You'll just be searching and searching and searching...

 

Seriously though, that is a great story. It sounds like you've been able to connect with kids at a stage in their lives when they typically don't like to connect with anyone. You've got a gift for sure.

[+ke6n]

You are obviously "da Man!" Reading your story above brought back memories of my favorite teacher back in high school. Heh... Mr. Perez... He was my pal. Not only was he my teacher for my elective speed reading class my senior year, he was also my track coach. We had this deal... I was ALWAYS showing up late for his class as it was the first class of the day and I liked to procrastinate. Well, rather than count against my grade for the class we made a deal. For every minute I was late, we would jog a lap around the track together after school. We did a lot of jogging together. I credit him with helping me to train and get into shape to break the school record for shotput my senior year. I held onto that record for 9 years. Mr. Perez was a great guy.

 

But to make a feeble attempt to get back on topic, I wish Mr. Perez and I had geocaching to share back then. -Ken

Edited December 27, 2003 by n6mhg

[+BeachBuddies]

Great story! Makes you want to be a teacher.

 

Keep posting so we know how your hunt is going, I love puzzle caches!

 

As for an excuse to go out, I say bring the kids with you. They'll love digging around in the bricks and stuff. I know my wife would let me out anytime, as long as I agreed to get the kids out of her hair for a while. Plus, they may be very helpful. Mine seem to find the cache a lot. I think it's just because they're closer to the ground (better line-of-sight). That's what I tell myself anyway.

[Cachengrab]

Hopefully they will be able to hear about the Teacher who cached in when you go back. Sounds like a great teacher, student moment in the making. Good Luck and please keep us informed.

[+team walkingsticks]

The saga continues...

 

Finally got back out again today to try again and find stage two. The clue was:

 

"In a hole in the wall, the next clue is found, But if it's rained since, You'll be on shaky ground."

 

The coord.s brought me to an open field. The only thing resembling a wall was a old foundation left over from a torn down house. There are about one layer of cement block left all the way around the edge of the foundation. The first time out, not to be outdone by teens, I took the time to kick around every block...for a couple of hours to no avail. I didn't get the whole "rain" reference though in the clue. Except there was one side of the foundation that the rain has washed away the dirt and there is now a good sized hole underneath. On the first day, I didn't bring my flashlight (Doh!) so I was armed with it today! I was quite sure I would find it under that foundation somewhere. NOPE!! Flashlight revealed nothing...

 

So, I began to wonder around that field and just try and think like teens. About 75 feet from the coord.s I noticed a sewer drain along the side of the road. Looking inside I saw a decent sized hole...It seemed to fit the clue perfectly as well as the minds of ambitious teens. I lifted the enormous, heavy grate, stuck my hiking stick down inside, into the water to measure the depth. I finally hit solid ground.

 

Here I was by the side of the road, across the street from the busiest intersection in town, with nothing but my feet hanging out as I hung my head deep into the drain. I kept thinking, "Fanfare for the Common Man"...I can do this!

 

Unfortunately I found nothing except as I came up, I noticed another drain across the road...could it be that one. Again, following the same routine, I hung down inside...nothing!

 

Now I am getting annoyed. Called one of the kids and explained where I was...laughter on the other end....the coord.s were way off!

I should be across the street at a drain on the side on the mall...!

 

Remember when I said I loved teens....................................

 

Anyway, after now quickly finding stage two (helps to have the correct coord.s), the next set of clues led me to stage three...under my own doormat at my house!

 

Had to give up for the night as dinner called. Hopefully, I'll be back at it tomorrow. The grapevine tells me there are at least six or seven more of these stages.

Edited December 29, 2003 by team walkingsticks

[+carleenp]

The saga does continue! Wow, this is a fun story! Keep us updated!

 

But to make a feeble attempt to get back on topic, I wish Mr. Perez and I had geocaching to share back then. -Ken

 

Isn't it funny how it is hard to recognize some teacher's efforts at the time, but in hindsight are really impressed? I hope Mr. Perez is still around. If so, you should find him and send him here to read your kind words. Makes me think that considering what a pain I was in school (at all levels) that I should go thank some teachers!

[+team walkingsticks]

Day three on my quest...

 

Well, I had found the last clue underneath my own doormat and in it I was instructed to "Go inside and say hi to Molly" [my wife and the students director/choreographer]. I did so, and called it a night.

 

This morning, I was eager to get going but had to get the inlaws off to their plane. As soon as they were gone, I made good use of Beachbuddies suggestion...I decided to take the two older kids along today and they obliged. The cold weather had somewhat dampered their spirits concerning geocaching as of late, but it hasn't been too bad in my neck of the woods lately...we don't even have any snow. My wife was happy to be down to only one kid around the house who was just about to take her afternoon nap...Ah, a bit of freedom for her!

 

I must go off on a tangent here to say that this search has allowed me to see geocaching in a new light. It's almost like how I imagine it was in the beginning. No rules/guidelines, no maps or parking coord.s, no ammo boxes or other standard containers. Just a set of coord.s and a clue out there duct taped to something! It's geocaching in it's rawest form. Some are even on "private" property which adds a little nervousness as well. (Not that I am complaining about the way things are now mind you!) Still, I realized I can do without all the help I am used to taking advantage of and in some ways it's more fun this way.

 

The last clue (under my doormat) had a set of coord.s and a hint about a tree. This stage wasn't too tuff and was found in a wooded area at the end of a golf driving range. The clue for the next stage proved to be quite a unique challenge though!

 

If you know little about music, then you may want to skip this next paragraph...I'll try and keep it as simple as I can. The clue was basically a grand staff with notes written on it. Where the key signature usually is was written the words, "A good steaksauce". Near the treble clef was an "N" and near the bass clef a "W". In the last measure of the bass clef was a circle (circling nothing) and beneath it was written, "Why is there nothing there?". I stared at this for quite some time until I realized the steaksauce was "A1". Thus, we must be in the key of "A". The notes on the staff each represented numbers, with the note "A" being "1" since that was the key we are in. Following this through on the treble clef line, I got the "north" set of coord.s. The bass cleff was a bit more challenging, as it contained several two note chords (both times, the notes "A" and "G"). Finally I figured since A=1 and G=7, by adding them together we could make an 8 (There are only 7 different notes in any given key). Finally the circle thing at the end of the bass clef line represented the number "0". Finally, the bass clef revealed the "west" coord.s!

 

I followed these coord.s to an area near a set of railroad tracks and eventually my son found another stash among some railroad ties there. The next clue just baffled me for the rest of the day... It was just one long set of numbers, which I assumed would somehow be a set of coord.s. It looked like this 12513426976. The 1 and 2 were underlined but the 5 wasn't. But then the 134269 were. In addition, the first 1 was italicized as were the last five numbers (26976). Most of my coord.s so far had been looking like this:

 

N4312850

W8617006

 

Needless to say, I was dumbfounded. I looked at this the rest of the day looking for some combination of things that would reveal the coord.s. I finally decided I was going to post it here and give you all a shot a figuring it out. Just before doing so, I looked at it again and it hit me...is it a phone number? I dialed the number and the student who made the cache picked up (mind you, it's midnight and he is in Florida vacationing for the week!)We both had a hearty good laugh as I told him what I had been going through. He finally explained that I was supposed to get his answering service...so I called back and it gave me the next set of coord.s.

 

There was also a clue with this phone number that says, "Now that you've found me, We go to look at a tree, Surrounded by water on 3 sides, But careful, lawyers aren't free."

 

I don't know about that "lawyers" thing.........We'll let you know what happens next! Hopefully, not anything I can go to jail over!

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Edited to change the phone number...thought it best not to leave the real one! He might not appreciate that.

Edited December 30, 2003 by team walkingsticks

[geko 201]

I began the cache today and found stage one without much problem. It was another CD-R, sending me back to my computer. It was another clue and a tune to go along with it. It warned me this would be the last "easy one" and that things would be getting more intense from here on out.

Sounds like you need a laptop next christmas

[+team walkingsticks]

Well, it's time to conclude this little tale...Let's just say for today's first find, don't try this at home and I don't encourage anyone else to do this!

 

Took off this a.m. for the "lawyer" stage and again had "thing one" and "thing two" with me. Sure enough, we arrived at an area literally covered with No Tresspassing signs. Not just, "No Tresspassing" like you usually see, but instead, "No Tresspassing. Violators will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. This includes knocking down fences, etc." Here I am, a teacher, with my two kids in back and I am driving around the area, looking for the closest place I can get in and out of here, and I'm thinking, "How am I going to explain this to my kids?" I am on a dirt road and finally think I have found the best spot and a truck pulls up behind us. I get paronoid and leave. My daughter then announces she has to poop....I decide to give it up and take her back home. Anybody else been here?

 

I drop her off and decide to go back and try again with just my boy. We park near a barbed wire fence, wait until there are no cars in sight and we slip around the fence. My heart is just pounding.... I keep envisioning my face on the front page of our local paper..."Local choir director caught tresspassing with his son...!" I kept thinking about the words, "Prosecuted to the full extent of the law." I knew I shouldn't be here but how could I give up now? Do you blame me? I remembered Criminals post once about he would go anywhere any animal can go. Well, that's all this place was!

 

We had to go about 3/4 mile around this man-made lake (We were on a local sand companies property). We're just hoofing it to get to the spot. Finally we find a "tree surrounded by water on three sides..." (this was the clue) but where was the next clue? I looked all around that tree as well as up in it before I noticed the clue had been carved into the trees trunk! It was a set of coord.s. and the letters IVI carved above them. "But gee, Dad, did you decide to pack so light for this little adventure that you didn't bring anything to write with?" Of course!

 

I'm thinking, how am I ever going to remember these coord.s? I first tried to memorize them, then take digital pics of them (the camera batteries died of course), nothing was working. The whole time I am sure I am going to get busted. This place reminded me of Area 56 or something....(Is that the right number?) Then my 8 year old says, "Dad, just put the coords in your GPS." I must be an idiot...I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of that!

 

This I did and then we were out of there. About half way back we saw a car driving through the woods and we took of running. It was just awesome! We running our butts off, hearts pounding, it was just clandestine I'll tell you. We felt like spys in some spy movie. We finally made it back to the van, huffing and puffing. We jumped in and took off...smiling all the way! I know this sounds ridiculous but it was a real bonding moment for the two of us. It was just one of those crazy moments you know you shouldn't do but you also know your kid will never forget.

 

Well, that set of coord.s took us back to the golf driving range from an earlier stage. At the far side of the range was a large sign that read, "DRIVING RANGE." The coord.s took us to the sign and on the back side of the sign, behind the "IVI" of DRIVING RANGE was a coffee container, duct taped to the sign. We opened it up to reveal a puzzle all in pieces. We brought it back to the van and then we noticed it had writing on the back of some of the puzzle pieces. We began to try and piece the puzzle togehter. Did you ever try and do a puzzle with the reverse side up? All the pieces are brown. This was going to take us forever!

 

Then I got the idea to buy some clear tape, do the puzzle right side up, tape it, and then flip it upside down again. We got the tape, headed over to Arbys for lunch and had it together in about 1/2 an hour. We flipped it upside down and it said:

 

"Congrats! Almost done. Now....DO I GET 20 PTS EXTRA CREDIT?

(The right answer will bring you to the most useless structure in the world and the end) YES [followed by a set of coords.] NO [also followed by a set of coords] Only one right answer! Have Fun!"

 

The student putting togehter this cache recently had 20 consecutive points taken off his grade from me. He had recently taken some noise makers I had left in a cache and he brought them to class where he continued to blow on them repeatedly (He had handed some out to a few friends as well and all were doing the same.) I warned him a couple of times to knock it off, and he just smiled and blew again. I said, "That's a point off your grade." He blew again, etc., etc. etc. until he hit 20 points. It was kind of a joke but kind of serious...Anyway, I've since been making him do random things to try and earn back the points. I gave him points for visiting my cache, for getting me coffee, etc. (all in good fun!). Thus, the 20 point reference in the last clue.

 

We first decided to see where the "No" coords would take us and it was basically into the woods and to nothing. Thus, we went for the "Yes" coords. These took us to the high school where I teach. The useless structure would be our glass staircase that looks like a lighthouse (Our logo is the "Sailors") We often joke about the wasted money on such a structure which merely takes you to the second floor of our auditorium. Yet, the entire thing is glass...it must have cost a fortune!

 

And what was at the end? Well, at our home we have this big wooden Uncle Sam which in summer we keep out on our front porch. Over a period of several years, these students have been kidnapping it and doing random things to it. Once it found a new home outside of my classroom door. Once they brought it all over our town and took picutures of it in various situations. Well, they somehow stole it out of my garage this winter (I hadn't even noticed) and there he was along with a congratulatory note saying how much fun they had hiding everything and how they hoped I had as much fun finding it.

 

The End!

 

Thank you everyone that kept reading. I can really go on can't I? I disgust myself....I keep thinking, why do I stay up until 2:00am every night posting this stuff when my kid gets me up a 7:00a.m.? But hey, if anyone can't get out and cache right now and they have lived vicariously through this thread for a couple of days, that would be nice. And if this tread that keeps popping up has annoyed any among you, well I am sorry but I am gone for now...good night...But remember, "Consider the gift cache !!!" It is a truly awesome gift and great fun!

[+Mastifflover]

Thanks for the story loved it!! Sounds like the gift cache would be perfect when I buy my wife her own gps.

Mastifflover

[+TeamK-9]

I enjoyed following this story, ad thought it was a great way to spend my forum time...

[+The Weasel]

Wow, this sounded really cool!! I wish somebody would make one for me!!!

[+CacheCreatures]

Agreed! What an adventure. Although, I've got to ask... do you live in a small-ish town or something? If I tried pulling anything like what your describing your students did, I would have been in detention my entire life and when I died the administration would expect me to come back for community service. I grew up in the Bay Area and the overwhelming majority of teachers here are so bound by "The Book" they forget how to make education fun (no offense to any BA teachers, its just what I've seen).

 

Anyway, keep up the good work! It seems your students are learning how to learn, how to be respectful and yet still enjoy what school has to offer. Thanks for sharing!

[Lisa TV]

Well, it's time to conclude this little tale...Let's just say for today's first find, don't try this at home and I don't encourage anyone else to do this!

What a great adventure! I'm so glad I read it here, rather than getting the details from you tonight (he's my bro ). It doesn't surprise me a bit that you didn't notice the Uncle Sam missing from your garage and that part of the story made it a classic for me.

 

My brother took me on my first geocache last summer with all of our nieces and nephews. It was great--such a fun activity to bring kids! I'm working to convince him to take a trip to Vermont this summer for some geocaching, hiking and eating. I can't imagine a more fun afternoon than one spent climbing one of the Green Mountains and finding a cache or two along the way.

 

Lisa

[+geospotter]

Great story! Thanks for sharing.

[+Doc-Dean]

Awesome tale! It is an instant classic as far as I am concerned!

[Captain Chaoss]

And if this tread that keeps popping up has annoyed any among you, well I am sorry but I am gone for now...good night...

Annoyed me ? Yea right. I rate this in the top 3 most enjoyable threads I've ever read on this site. What a great story.

 

Many others have already said it, but I'll echo the sentiments, you must really be a positive influence on your students, even though they seemed to take great pleasure in making you jump through hoops.

 

Thank You for sharing this tale with us all.

[+sept1c_tank]

Excellent story. Truely a great Christmas present!

[runningsticks]

What a wonderful story. As I sit here reading about your adventure I can't help but having a very large grin on my face listening to all of the fun you have been having. It is like being a painter and watching someone admire your work. I am glad you escaped Nugent unscathed and am delighted that you figured out all the clues. Even though it took you longer than 27 minutes to do I am impressed that you wrapped it up before school started again. I am also very relieved that our very own Uncle Sam was still there! I was scared that he would be seen and taken but thankfully he wasn't! I also want to say that all those people are right, you are one of the best teachers I have ever had and I will never forget the fun we have had. You have a great gift for teaching. I know we can be difficult sometimes but it is all in good fun. I am glad to hear that you picked yes and gave that poor kid his grade back, you are most kind. Well, I can't believe that I am reading geocache forums while i am at Disney Quest in Downtown Disney but the video games must wait! It made my year to hear about your journey. I think you should make it into a book... speaking about books... I have a book to put together. Maybe that will be a birthday present or something. Anyway i must get back to the Wide World of Disney. See ya S. Lawton! Happy New Year!

[alex_hughes4]

As one of the students responsible for hiding this cache, the work that we put into it was totally worth it. Mr. Lawton is an amazing teacher, and seeing him as excited as he was about our present was really something.

 

About the confused coord.s... We had taken his GPS to mark all the spots that we were hiding the things, so when we got home (one of the students with us is his neighbor) he saw us pull in, and asked where his "unit" was, we all thought that we never want to get near his unit. But we had to write down the coord.s in a dark car, with minimal paper to put it on, so needless to say things got a little messy. But as it turns out, it was no sweat off our back. Ha Ha.

 

Anyways, thanks Mr. Lawton...

 

Alex

Tim

Jay

Peter

 

[+Sparky-Watts]

Absolutely fantastic! Thanks for a great read! You are blessed to have made such a connection with your students. Last March when my dad passed away, he had been retired from teaching for over 25 years, yet a good half of those in attendance at his funeral were his former students. So many of them came by and told us what a difference dad had made in their lives that I lost count. Many of them stated that they continued their educations and got their college degrees out of respect for dad and the way that he taught them. A large number of them had even become educators themselves because of him. You seem to have started the same legacy with your students. Take pride in yourself, and your accomplishments! The gift is yours, the reward is theirs!

[+ellehciM]

I totally agree that you are blessed to have those students be a part of your life! Teaching is a noble & humbling profession that is sadly overlooked. It’s a heartfelt profession with the reward of a minuscule paycheck, but if you are hardcore, it’s *not* about the money. I come from the land of LeBron James & the whole idea of overpaid athletes really burns my a** & opens a ugly can of worms. Thank you so much for sharing your story!

 

Namaste

~M~