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Geocaching and Community Day.

Good morning everyone.  How many days in a row have you gone with getting an FTF?  The longest daily streak for FTFs in Canada belongs to Carnigrewal with an impressive 94 days.  Locally it's klblue and Geo-Smart with a six day streak of FTFs.  I have a 2 day streak.  Down South, it's DrJay in Utah with an 85 day FTF streak.  In North Dakota, that honor goes to archiedais with a four day FTF streak.

This week I'll be sharing my experience on a recent Community Day event that took place on September 15th.  What is community day you ask?  Community day is actually a Pokémon Go event.  For those that don't play Pokémon Go, once a month for three hours, a designated Pokemon will appear (or spawn) more often than other Pokemon.  There's also a chance you can catch a shiny version of that particular Pokemon.  A shiny version is basically a different colored Pokemon with sparkles around it.  Some people get excited about catching these shiny versions.  I'm meh on that.  Having one is nice, but they don't really do anything but take up space.  This month, the Pokemon in the spotlight is Turtwig.

I joined a group called Raid Haunters last Winter.  This group gets together most Sundays to do five star gym raids.  Five star gym raids are the hardest and require a group of Pokemon players (trainers) to battle at the same time in hopes of winning.  I don't get together with this group often.  Depends on my schedule, timing, etc.  When I do meet up with them, I always have a good time.  For the past couple of community days, our group has held an event of sorts.  Last month it was a BBQ at St. Vital Park.  This month it was bring something to make a sandwich.  Sort of like a geocaching event.

This month, the group decided to host a community day event in Henteleff Park.  I know of this park as I have found geocaches here in the past.  A quick check of the Geocaching app showed a couple of newer geocaches hidden here.  Since I'm in the park, I may as well grab a couple of geocaches.  These will be the first ones I've searched for since August 4th.  It's September 15th.  That's a long time to not go geocaching without any reason other than I just didn't feel like it.  By my calculations, it's been 42 days since my last find.  That's a new personal "best?"  My previous longest streak without a find is 34 days back in May/June 2017 when I ended my daily caching streak.

I met up with the group, talked for a bit, then broke away from the group to go for a walk in the park.  I was after a couple of geocaches.  I slowly made my way down the path to a part of the park that I haven't been to yet.  I checked the app that's on my old phone that I have tethered to my new phone but doesn't have the geocaching app on it yet.  I'm not too far away.  With no one really around, I was able to make my way towards GZ.  Will I still have my geocaching mojo working?  There is that old adage "if you don't use it, you lose it".  The GPS on the app was bouncy to start with.  Not a good way to get back into geocaching.  I check for any clues that will help me out.  The hint says "tree".  There's a number of trees around GZ.  It's a micro.  What am I doing searching for a micro in a tree for my first geocache in over a month?  After a much prolonged drunken bee dance, I was able to find what I was looking for.  Signed and replaced.


 I carried on down the path towards the end of the park.  Not far from GZ I was reminded of one of the reasons I like geocaching.  Coming across wildlife in their habitat.  In this case, it's deer.  A younger one and possibly the mom.  The younger one did spot me and seemed somewhat curious as it did come closer to me before going back.



Once at the end of the park, I turned around and headed back.  There are paths that link this park to other riverside parks, but I wanted to go back and get the cache that's closest to the parking lot.  That one didn't take long to find, but I couldn't get it open.  I sent a message to the CO who I happen to be friends with and got the ok to log it as found.  I had passed the group as they had decided to go for a walk around the park, leaving only a couple of people at our spot, watching over the chairs and food.


As we sat and waited for the group to return, an elderly gentleman came up to us and asked if we were enjoying the park.  He introduced himself.  I missed the first name, but the last name was Henteleff.  We made the immediate connection.  He is a direct descendant of the family that the park is named after.  I wish I had taken a picture with him.  Now I'm interested in learning more about the history of this park and the Henteleff family.  This is one link that I found > henteleffpark

With the community day officially over, it was time to eat and announce a winner to a contest we were having.  

I did manage to catch two shiny versions of Turtwig.  You can see the slight difference in color.  Like souvenirs in geocaching, shiny versions don't do anything for me either.


That is how I spent my Sunday.  Meeting with a group of Pokémon players and squeezing in a couple of geocaches as well.  Until next time, be happy, be safe,  hug all your loved ones including the geo-pets, enjoy life (stay away from people who cause you drama), and most of all, have fun.  Peace out.




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