June 11,2006: Take It Easy

Before I get into today's adventure, a note on the first one. Upon further investigation, we discovered that Frodo had his cache rated at a more honest 3.5 terrain. Tserof had downloaded the coordinates and difficulty to the "recommended parking area." Sorry about all the swear words, Frodo....

You're still a bastard though...

We hadn't planned to cache today because we were all still recovering from the events of the previous day. But our usual Sunday gaming session got cancelled at the last minute and we found ourselves with the usual caching team and one extra (Jalera) and nothing to do.

Now at this point, a smart group of people would have rented a movie, gone home to nap off the soreness of the previous day, or play a video game (which we eventually did, The Warriors, which is groovy beyond description). But if yesterday taught us anything, it's that we don't have two brain cells between us to rub together and Jalera is apparently similarly afflicted as she readily agreed to accompany us on yet another caching trip. "Did you read the log of yesterday?", I asked her. She replied that she had. "And you still want to go out with us?", I asked. She did. Not a bright girl...

We decided to do a bit more research and hit some caches that didn't involve mountains, falling down, climbing up, or snakes in any way (Ashlynne insisted on that last bit. Apparently that "watch out for snakes" joke yesterday has given her a phobia).

The first cache we decided to do was one of the ones that defeated us the day before, the cache near the library and dentist's office in Fayetteville. Sure enough, the wooded areas looked much less daunting in the daylight and we soon found a path in, guarded by only a few brambles easily brushed away.

We wandered into a trash-filled area. Apparently people from Alabama aren't the only ones who litter. Beer and coke bottles abounded, as well as what looked like pieces of a car. Mad Mike and I, being avid Sopranos watchers, began to speculate that we might find Big Pussy and Adrianna stashed somewhere in here.

Tserof dutifully led us to the area where the cache was supposed to be and we began to scout around. Mad Mike found a likely hiding place and began to poke around with a stick. "I think we've got one here", he said. Sure enough, he'd located our group's very first cache! Imagine that... A cache that can be accessed easily, is where the coordinates say it is, and doesn't require me to wear a hat with a little light on it to get to. Chew on that, Frodo, you bastard!

Ok, maybe I'm not as ready to forgive Frodo as I thought.

The cache was a nice one, a good big tupperware bowl with a ton of goodies in it. We signed the log book (which had seen a lot of hits from all over) and browsed the prizes. I selected a toy truck to take out (intending to place it in a different cache with a note to continue to do so. If it's a truck, it ought to travel) and we placed our "Instant Roleplaying Kit" inside.

Geocachers 1, Geocaches 0

And there was much rejoicing (yay)

Our second attempt looked to be an easy one too. It promised a "History of Fayetteville". It was a three-part cache with historical sites providing clues to the next waypoint. Since we all consider ourselves educated geeks and are always interested in a little history, we jumped at the chance to learn a little about where we live.

First stop on the agenda was the Fayetteville Museum, which was built where the old Borden's Milk plant used to be. We went to the coordinates listed and found a plaque none of us had ever paid any attention to before. We learned a little history about one of Fayetteville's historical industries and handed the clue, the date the Borden's factory opened, to Ash who is our group's Rain Man with the numbers. She soon mathed out the clue and we were off.

The next leg took us to the Stone Bridge park in Fayetteville where a cell door from the old jail stood. It was pretty neat to look at (again, we'd been here 1000 times and none of us had ever paid any attention to it) and once again we handed the clue to Ash who, with Raymond Babbit-esque efficiency, sussed out the last clue.

Off we went, anticipating another fun historical site and the location of the cache.

Tserof looks at the coordinates and says "that can't be right... That looks like the way to the old hospital."

The old hospital, for those not from the Fayetteville area, has been abandoned for several years since the new hospital was built. Its proximity to the projects (also known as "The Bottoms" to Lincoln Countians) and its large, unlit parking lot has made it the small-town equivalent of the Mall of America if the product you are looking for happens to be illegal and smokeable/injectable. It's a scary place to be at night and not a terribly pleasant place to be during the day.

"There's a cemetary near there," Mad Mike said. "I bet it's something in the cemetary."

We take off, now hopeful that our trek will take us to some ancient gravestone of a famous Fayettevillian that we probably didn't even know lived here. History is fun! Yay!

We drove to the cemetary. The GPS was not impressed. We moved past the cemetary. The GPS was not impressed. We reluctantly began to drive toward the scary abandoned hospital. The GPS begins to beep happily, alerting us that we're near our destination.

"I have a bad feeling about this..." was uttered on more than one occasion.

Fortunately for us, the cache wasn't actually IN the old hospital (as it probably would have been if Frodo had hidden it) but the GPS led us behind the hospital. "What kind of history could be back here?" we wondered.

And we wondered for good reason. Now surrounded by the old hospital on one side, a nursing home on another, and the bottoms as a backdrop, we find the area where the cache is supposed to be hidden...

We made some cursory efforts at locating the cache, but our hearts weren't really in it. We were getting some "through the window" stares from the nursing home and quickly came to the realization that poking around in the bushes with sticks, looking frantically for something, in an area known as a drug zone, might attract unwanted attention of the law enforcement variety...

We also were a bit concerned that we were probably more likely to find used needles than a cache.

Geocachers 1, Geocaches 1

Now someone please tell me who the hell hides a cache in an area full of drug dealers, drug needles, and muggles galore? Who the hell finishes off a historical quest by sending you to an ugly, non-historical, dangerous place?

On a brighter note, our friends are not any smarter than we are and the log of our previous day's exploits, enough to warn any sane person from ever travelling with us, has actually caused us to be inundated with requests to join the next expedition.

Kind of makes you wonder if there were a lot of people trying to tag along with the Donner Party.

Next week, our friend Fish joins us and, since he lives in Shelbyville, we're going to try some caches in the Bedford County area. Bedford's my old stomping grounds so I'm looking forward to it. I'm especially looking forward to one cache that's hidden on the grounds where the radio station I used to work at stood. It was placed by people who wanted to remember what used to be there and reading their comments brought back some good memories of my days in radio. I also happen to have exactly one of my old business cards from my days as news director there left and I'm intending to plant it in the cache to provide a little history.

Assuming we can find it. It stands at the foot of Horse Mountain and, given our team's luck with mountains, I'm not getting my hopes up...

More to come next weekend. Stay tuned.