Geocaching and July, 2022

Good morning everyone.  Last month I was a little late in getting that month's blog published, but this month I want to get this out early.  I'll explain why later.

July has been an interesting month.  I've been on a few adventures, rode my bike, and I've been hosting a weekly themed event.

July started off with Auntie Mo and myself going on a spur of the moment road trip into the Southeast portion of Manitoba to do an Adventure Lab that takes us to some roadside attractions.  There was other ALs to do as well.

(big Buffalo in Grunthal, Manitoba)

(big deer in Saint Malo, Manitoba)

Later in the month, I tagged along with Auntie Mo as she did the four Adventure Labs in the East part of Winnipeg.  I had done them already, but I couldn't resist giving Auntie Mo a tour of Transcona.  This also helped set her up to be close enough to claim her 800th find while she visits family back home in Nova Scotia.  As I write this, she has reached that milestone and has seen some very cool places.

I have been riding my bike.  One particular day, I dropped my car off for servicing and a couple of new tires.  While that was happening, I made my way to Assiniboine Park and snagged a virtual cache.

It was from a group bike ride that I was invited to in June that gave me the idea of a weekly summer geocaching event.  That bike ride, we rode to three different ice cream places.  For my event, each week we visit a different ice cream shop around the city.  As I write this, I have hosted four events so far with seven more regular weekly events to come.  To cap it off, I'm hosting my own Community Celebration Event on September 21st, and it ties in with the ice cream events.  That's a total of twelve different independent businesses that we'll be visiting.  There's more places that didn't make this year's summer tour.  Maybe next year?

A couple of pictures from the most recent event.  We even had three geocachers from the Netherlands stop by.  How cool was that.

The reason why I want to get this blog out early is because I joined the Great Cycle Challenge.  For the month of August, I'll be riding my bike to raise money towards fighting kids cancer.  I've seen other geocachers doing this in previous years.  It was at an earlier ice cream event that I was talking to the Sweethearts14 about this.  It's so easy to join and you set your own goals.  I had started with 100 kilometers (around 62 miles), but I thought that was too easy, so I increased it to 200 kilometers (124 miles).  I'm hoping to raise five hundred dollars towards fighting kids cancer.  You can sponsor me here > Great Cycle Challenge 

It is important to note for those that live outside of Canada.  You will be charged in Canadian funds and your bank might charge you for an international transaction.  There is an 'other' option where you can donate your own amount (five dollars).

The back of my shirt that I purchased for this challenge.

As for my personal weight loss challenge, that took a hit this month.  It's a very long story, but in a nutshell, I'm off work again.  This time for stress leave.  Early retirement could come into play.  Even though I've been riding my bike, I still gained weight.  Hopefully cycling 200 kilometers will get me back on track towards losing weight.

I've been debating if I should include my July numbers since July isn't over yet.  There's still two more days of potential bike riding and geocaching.  So far, I've been on six bike rides, all with a minimum of 20 kilometers in distance.  My longest was just over 35 kilometers.  My total distance for July (so far) is 157.19 kilometers.  I think two hundred kilometers for August is a good, reasonable goal.

So far, I have seventy one finds for July.  20 traditional, 5 events, 2 virtual, 2 multi-stage, 1 mystery, and 40 stages of Adventure Labs (8 complete 5 stage ALs).  There is an event on Sunday, plus I was invited to go hiking in the Whiteshell on Saturday.  I'm sure there'll be a couple caches found on each day.

That's been my July so far.  With Auntie Mo reaching her 800th find, I have set a goal of reaching my 7,000th by October 12th.  I'm at 6,847 right now.  About seventy five finds per month.  Until next month, be happy, stay safe, hug your pets, and most importantly, just have fun.  If you do choose to sponsor my bike challenge, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.  ❤️🙏.  Peace out ✌️

There's always just a few more pictures to share.  My bike at a Spirit Wolf sculpture.

An old church that I came across in my geocaching travels.

My new motto.