Disco Stu

30/09/2012 By Kabutroid
Wow, this was a close one. Due to... well... lazyness, combined with lots of things happening, combined with more procrastination, I almost missed a month. Y’see, ever since I started geocaching, I’ve taken a vague amount of pride in having never left a full calendar month without at least one cache found in it. So here we are in September, and I realize that... oh, wait... I haven’t actually FOUND a cache yet! I had a DNF a lot earlier in the month, but I’m running a bit low on time here for a find. Especially since by the time I realized this, it was about 4 in the afternoon, with the sun starting to go down closer to 7:30 these days.

So as appears to be the norm with me lately, I’m hanging out with friends... of which none of my friends are also geocachers... and not doing all that much. However, since we didn’t have any particular plans, I grabbed my geocaching kit and threw it over my shoulder on our way out. Because y’know... might be able to squeeze a quick geocache in amongst our travels.

My friends and I were hungry and in the mood for noodles, so they suggested trying the nearby T.H. Dang, since I’ve never been there. So we head over and enjoy a meal of wraps and noodle-based meals. While we were sitting there eating, the conversation wandered over towards my geocaching, and my vague attempt to find one today in order to accomplish my earlier stated streak. My friend jokes something along the lines of “And let me guess, there’s one right around the corner”?

I turn on my GPS to check out of curiosity, not expecting to find anything nearby since when I lived on Pembina a few years ago, I found all the caches within like... 5km’s of here. But wouldn’t you know it, there IS a cache right around the corner! Literally! Like... right there, I exclaimed as I pointed out the window in the approximate direction of the coordinates, about 30 meters away.

We all had a good laugh at the sheer coincidence of it, and then what the hell, let’s go after it. Probably about the first time that not one, but TWO of my completely non-geocaching friends have not only willingly gone with me after a cache, but ACTIVELY HELPED ME LOOK FOR IT! Most absolutely the first time either of them have actively helped me hunt. Slowly but surely, I’ll turn them into geocachers ToungeOut . The first step has been taken. From there, there’s no escape!

Due to my not being entirely sure where it is, we ended up accidentally walking around the entire Q 94 FM building there, but eventually found the coordinates. As bergmannfamily said below, the coordinates appear to be off, so we immediately expanded our search to take that into account. One of my friends actually ended up looking RIGHT in the proper place, but somehow missed it (likely due to having never looked for a cache before in his life). I took a quick glance at where he was looking, and instantly spotted something which I knew had to be the prize. For those who DNF’d looking around the posted coordinates, you’ll want to go about 15 meters East-ish.

Two seconds later, the cache was in hand, and I was showing my friends the logbook and how long it’s been around. Unfortunately, the cache wasn’t quite big enough to drop off a travelbug I’ve been needing to move along, so that will hopefully happen sooner rather than later. But with a quick signing, my friend placed it back from whence it came.

Otherwise, it was a fun hunt, and I enjoyed showing my friends the ropes BigSmile . Who knows, maybe I can talk them into going out with me more often in the future and slowly convert them. We’ll see... we’ll see.

Took: Nothing
Left: Logbook entry and micromail ball

NOTE: If for some bizarre reason either of my friends actually creates a geocaching account, possibly let Bill and Jack (or whatever their respective names are on geocaching.com) log this one as well, since they DID actually help with the hunt.