We're Pirates!

As I've said before, Geocaching is a great activity for families. A couple of days ago, we took Beth's daughter and grandson on their first caching outing. We told little 4 year old Richard that we were all going on a treasure hunt and that we were Pirates. This would come back to bite us later in the day.

The night before I preloaded Ms. Garmin with what I thought would be some fairly easy finds with easy terrains. After all, I didn't want to be delivering little baby Allen, as that is way out of my scope of practice as a chiropractor.

Marie showed early, so we knew she was excited to see what this crazy hobby was all about. I donned Richard with one of my fishing hats and we piled into Beth's Dad's truck for the adventure. Weather was perfect!

First stop was a cache called "Hey Mom, Look What I did!". Its a nice kid friendly cache, very colorful and wide open for running and playing. It was a mini cache and we finally learned what a "nano" is....so the next time we pass through New Castle, VA, we'll score the one that previously got away.

After this cache, it was off to the next, located in a local cemetery up on Bunker Hill in Pearisburg.

The hint given by the owner of the cache was "Two woods not the same".

Richard and I were on this one! We just left Nana and Mommy on the southwest side and we just started walking the wall...low and behold, there it was!

But we let mommy and Nana log the cache. Note: When taking someone caching for the first time, inform them about proper footwear.

Ok! Now we're two for two. This is looking like a good cache day. Pirates always find their treasures, right? Well not exactly........

Next we headed to King Johnson. We totally struck out here, but Richard really loved the playground, and that's what it is about, having fun.

We also struck out at alwa artma of earisburgpa . Yes, this listing was really in pig Latin. So time for a drink. Water for the two middle aged ladies, DP for the youngster. A short break...back on the road.

The next cache was at The Inn at RiverBend, an upscale B&B in Pearisburg, overlooking the New River...oh what a view! This was a really great hide. We were only the second people to find, but that doesn't really count for anything. The cache blended nicely into the landscape. We may have tainted the experience for some other cachers behind us, as Richard had pocketed the Travel Coin we wanted to place in this cache. When the others drove up, he informed them in his cute little Richard way that we were pirates looking for treasure! So now they knew why we were there and exactly where the cache was hidden. Took away the thrill of the hunt for them I'm sure.

Last stop. The Pearis Cemetery. We were all getting a little tired and cranky.

Ok, I was getting tired and cranky.

All I could think about was what George Pearis, the founder of Pearisburg, would think about these strange folks tramping around his burial site. Think about it...an eight month pregnant woman in flip flops, a middle aged woman with a pirate bandanna and broken bifocals, a wild bangie 4 year old pulling up grave site stakes, and me.. an overweight chiropractor/auctioneer/yogi gal in a Pride T....what would this dude from the 1800's think?

I found it amusing. What I didn't find amusing was the fact that Ms. Garmin had us going off into some insect infested, poisonous plant laden area....but I sacrificed myself for the good of the game and I scored! Our clue: Not firewood. Hmmm...could this be it?

It was. I am the Dragon Slayer! No, I'm the slayer of the Dragon Slayer! No, I am the Dragon! Whatever...I totally disliked Coach on Survivor....and I hate the fact that he's sucking perfectly good air...but I digress.

So all in all, it was an awesome day. And to top it all off, I got this totally sweet picture of my little buddy, Richard.

Ok, don't you think its time to get out there? You keep reading this blog...go..go already!

Beth's Perspective On First Event

Our first event! I was psyched. I had a plan that would guarantee us some gold buttons if not silver, but it appears that others had the same plan. There were ten cache points, each with one gold, one silver, and ten bronze buttons.








As people started coming in to register I began to think, oh boy, this is going to be hard. There were about fifty to seventy five people. My plan was to go after the middle caches working up to ten then dropping back to the first set. What I did not expect was that the streets would be listed on the paper. This gave the locals an advantage I believe.

We got our paper at noon and watched the people run to vehicles, jump in and take off. We stopped in a parking lot to enter all the coordinates and took off. I was cursing all the red lights while Pippa was decoding the hints and handling Ms. Garmin.

Our first stop, we are going for the gold baby, oops, there are cachers, damn. Looks like others had the same plan I had, so much for strategy. The excitement of racing through Roanoke Co. was strong and I kept thinking of the reality show, "The Amazing Race." wow what they must feel for that much money on the line and different countries.

We saw some beautiful areas, and some not so beautiful, as Ms. Garmin took us through some rough areas to roads that no longer exist. We saw some areas more than once since we were not savvy on the streets of Roanoke, we did a lot of back tracking. We made it to eight of the ten caches points and collected four bronze buttons in the five hrs. allotted for this race.

When we checked in, we were told this was considered a great feat since we were unfamiliar with the areas.

I insisted on going to one last point which was off the Blue Ridge Parkway. This would have been a much nicer drive if I wasn't racing twenty miles over the speed limit and trying to pass every car we happened upon. We found this cache but it was empty. Pippa was worried that we would not get checked back in on time, and I the adventurous fast driving person I am, told her not to fret, we would be there in time. We got back with only three minutes to spare, that was a little close, but we were able to turn in our find.

We won nothing but had a great experience and met new people. Got to see new areas and just have a great day for only $48, gas and food. Oh, and I got a Pirate Bandanna which will be my new geocaching fashion accessory. Looking forward to the next event.

On the way home, Pip got to see her first double rainbow. Interesting enough, my sister, Mary Dee also saw one in Harrisonburg, VA. It was a really cool day.