Geocaching and my weekend.

Good morning everyone.  Today I'm going to look at the Letterbox cache.  The oldest active Letterbox in North Dakota is 'Ten to the 2nd Power cache' GC3FZY2, hidden in April, 2012.  The youngest, or newest is 'Grazing Bison' GC89QGK, hidden in June, 2019.  For Manitoba, 'World Peace' GCG4ZM, hidden in May, 2003 and recently activated again by adopted owner Bike-4-Me.  The youngest (or newest) by virtue of the GC code is 'Dani-Radius', GC8B79F.  Twenty one letterbox caches were hidden on July 24 (including the above mentioned Dani-Radius), along with 39 other letterbox caches that were hidden in June to form possibly the largest letterbox powertrail.

Since my epic trip to North Dakota and the camping and caching event, I have basically done no caching at all.  I do have one find that I had found a week ago.  An evilish hide from RichardFam5 that I was able to spot, but too longer to get my fingers on.  That's it.  One find for the month of July in what should be my busiest month for geocaching.  There is only one explanation for this slump.  Burn out.  After finding 141 caches in a five day stretch and 266 for the month of June, I was burnt out.  I usually feel this way after having a big day of finding geocaches.  Sort of like when you overindulge on chocolate.  You don't want to see anymore chocolate for awhile.  That's never happened to me in regards to the chocolate, but it has for geocaching.  With two events this weekend, I figured it would be a good boost to get back into the swing of things.  First up was an event Saturday morning at the gates of Upper Fort Garry in downtown Winnipeg.  Four cachers from outh Dakota were on an adventure that brought them all the way to Winnipeg.  They held a meet and greet to meet some of the locals.  It was a beautiful morning for standing outside and talking geocaching.

Unbeknownst to the four South Dakota geocachers, (justT1, 5-4-fun, stlee, and raw54) there was another event taking place some three plus hours away.  A joint event with the North Dakota geocaching association and the Manitoba geocaching association.  With the way some of the notes were on the meet and greet event page, it sounded like there may not be anyone around to meet and greet these four.  I was leaning on the side of not going to the event that was three plus hours away.  After seeing the notes to the meet and greet, my mind was made up.  I'm going to the meet and greet.  I'm going to show what proper local hospitality is all about.  For those that left the notes, I'm sure they meant well with good intentions, but it came across in a bad way.  

Once the event wrapped up, it was off to find a few geocaches.  It became quite clear that my caching mojo is still off from that overindulgence.  I DNF'd on my first attempt, even with a PAF.  On to the next one on the list.  This was a quick find as I spotted it immediately.   

I found my second cache not far away from this one.  This was followed by another DNF.  I'm done for that day.  I spent some time with my boys, playing some Minecraft and having pizza before heading out for the evening.

A few weeks ago, I attended a tribute band festival called Unreal.  They had Cher, Johnny Cash, Elvis, the Beatles, Styx, British Icons, Guns n' Roses and Kiss tribute acts.  It was an awesome show.  Two of those acts, Styx and Kiss were performing just North of Winnipeg in the city of Selkirk at the Waterfront.  Neither of my boys wanted to go so it was just me, myself, and I that went and I had an awesome time.

(Domo arigato Mr. Roboto)

(Rock and roll all night, and party everyday)

That was my Saturday.  Sunday has another event, but it's even further North, about an hour, in the town of Gimli.  This one was hosted by two Nova Scotia geocachers that just happen to be in town for a family function.  harmonypair decided to host an event while they were there.  It was another nice morning, perfect for a drive to the first area where Icelanders settled.  I've been reading a book on a local band and internationally famous The Guess Who.  What better music to listen to on my hour drive to Gimli, than The Guess Who greatest hits.  It was a nice drive up.

Having never met harmonypair, I had no idea who to look for.  I knew I'd be easily identified as a geocacher with my Cache Canada t-shirt.  I found the couple sitting outside on the deck.  I spotted their track me name tag just as they spotted my Cache Canada shirt.  We were soon joined by Peter and Gloria.  We had a good visit and the weather was perfect for sitting outside on the deck.  

After the event, I set off to find a couple of geocaches.  Both newer caches.  The first one I found the coordinates to be off.  Although nothing was mentioned in the logs, but a clue as to what I should be looking for indicated a certain container type that I wouldn't find hanging in the tree that my phone app was telling me I should be checking out.  It was a quick find after that with the statue of the Viking in the background.

I walked over to the next cache.  This one was a trickier hide, but I was able to locate this one, sign and replace.  The only thing I didn't do was take a picture of it.  

It was time to head for home and feed my boys and have a couple of rounds of Miles Borne card game before departing.  That was my weekend.  Two events, four caches found, two DNFs, and still in a geocaching slump.  I normally have at least one goal for each month.  I don't have any for July.  That's how burnt out I am.  I should try to get four more finds by months end to give me 700 culminative total for July.  

Until next week, be happy, be safe, enjoy life, hug your loved ones, and most of all, have fun.  Peace out.