How Far We Have Gone

Sure, I grabbed a couple of caches over the weekend. Yesterday I went to grab a lab cache, but the but the Texas State Cemetery was closed and locked up, probably because of the time of cholera. I would have jumped the fence but there was a small group day drinking on a patio across the street. So I decided to go after another lab cache, except I think the key phrase to answer it has been painted over. So then I went for a nearby traditional at a park that I skipped out on once because it was night and I didn’t have a flashlight on me, but there were families with kids running around and I didn’t want to be that guy. So I opted for an unknown puzzle nearby. I managed to typo one of the digits of the coords and drove halfway across town before I realized that there must be a mistake because the corrected coords on an unknown can’t be more than two miles from the original. After correcting my typo I ended up next to a library that I’ve know for years and had always wondered why there wasn’t a cache there. Turns out that there is.

The day before that, I found one with the girls at a Catholic church. I’m a sucker for a labyrinth.

The day before that I found a whereigo, my first unassisted one. It was a nice chance to get downtown and take care of something I’d been wanting to do for a long time. This one sort of emulated a reverse geocache. I’ve always wanted to do one but haven’t had the chance yet. But give me time. I’ll get to a real one eventually. Maybe I’ll even make one sometime, though at this juncture I don’t know when that would be because something something global pandemic something.

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I’ve been thinking a lot about this entry considering that it’s my 400th. When I started writing this almost two years ago, I never could have imagined that it would last this long or go this far. I never imagined where all this would go or take me. The very idea that anyone would want to read what I’ve written is still a bit of a mystery to me. I still think of this as something I do for me and nobody else. Of course, that’s not entirely true. I am quite cognizant of other people reading this. On one level, I like the idea that what I’m doing can hopefully inspire other people to go out and do this thing that we all enjoy. There are a lot of people out there writing about this, too. I’m not any better than any of them, just more prolific. I feel a bit strange making that statement, but if anyone else has written this many entries about geocaching, let me know. This is something I feel happy about offering to other geocachers and the world. But I also know that I bring something to this that turns some people off: race. A lot of people don’t like to think about it. I don’t like to, either. In a perfect world I’d never have to think about it. But this isn’t a perfect world. I am quite cognizant that I am a black person in a primarily white space. I know there are going to be geocachers turned off by the fact that I talk about it in that way. Geocaching is a race neutral activity. But, again, this isn’t a perfect world. My perspective is very much informed by my difference. Sometimes it doesn’t come into play at all. Sometimes, it is crucial. But always it exists and, even though I’m sure I could expand my readership by letting that go by the wayside, I’m not. That is something I offer to me. And if anyone wants to come along, black, white, Hispanic, Inuit, or whatever category you claim, racial or otherwise, come along. The great geocaching pool is big and the water is fine. I thank you all for coming along on this journey and sticking with me as long as you have. Goodness knows it’s led down some meandering side roads. Then again, that’s what we do.

I will say this, though… I keep looking at this map. My vanity gets the best of me sometimes. I wasn’t the first, but I did that. Man, I need to add some more counties, preferably sooner rather than later. Anyway, I geocache and I’m Black so let’s keep seeing how they mix, OK?