The 18th Annual Texas Challenge and Festival: Part the Second

So a bunch of Team Cen-Tex was having lunch. Our work was done and we were relaxing. We talked about some of the challenge caches we found and didn’t find. We talked about real life caches. We talked about our lives and all that good stuff. And then we eventually went our separate ways. Thing is we had a guest who didn’t know the area in any way, shape, or form because she was pretty young when she left here. So I felt it was only right to help entertain Emily for a while. So one of my teammates, Razorbackgirl, and I took her to grab a few caches. As fate would have it, her father is also a cacher and came down for the Challenge and to see her. We scooped him into our party and set off to find some real world caches!

One of the things we had to do was meta as all get out. We went for an unknown, aptly named Emily’s Cache. So I had to get a photo of Emily and Emily’s dad with Emily’s cache. Meta indeed. As fate would have it, the cache contained the answer to a different unknown, but that was for later. We grabbed a couple other solved puzzles, but puzzle solving does not always make for the most interesting caches. While looking for other caches, Razorbackgirl reminded me that I once told her that I would show her the easy way to a cache she hadn’t gotten. And it’s a pretty cool cache, so we all went out to Whispering Angel Falls. If you go through the park, you have to do some serious climbing up some almost vertical cliffs. But I found an easier way going around the edge of the park. So we went for a walk and we made it.

The last time I came up here we were in drought conditions so the creek below had pretty much no water in it. This time it did. We spent a good chunk of time tossing the bucket down to get water and spilling it by catching on tree limbs or the lip of the creek. Video footage of our attempts exist which may or may not show up on Groundspeak’s Instagram page or something similar. Believe me when I say hilarity ensued. Most importantly, we eventually got enough water to do what needed to be done…

And, of course, we all talked and told stories. We talked about the fun times we’ve had caching. We talked about some embarrassing moments. We talked about how caching got us through some dark times in our lives. Razorbackgirl mentioned that crashing my car must have been my worst moment caching, but I told them all why it was actually Paris. In fact, crashing my car wasn’t even in the bottom three.

This was one of the best afternoons I’ve ever spent caching. Great company, great times, a third thing that begins with “great.” But all great things come to an end. We made our way back to the hotel. The Challenge was officially over at this point, but there were still things afoot in the evening. We separated and all made our way to the evening’s (and my personal) big event…