The 9th Annual TCC Finishers Reunion (& Bar Crawl)

There were a whole bunch of blue shirts running around. This year it was a tiny bit confusing because the Texas Challenge volunteers had the same color shirts. Most of the weekend, it wasn’t an issue, but they were definitely outnumbered tonight. For those of you who don’t know or haven’t read about previous reunions, this is an Event devoted to us, the finishers of the Texas County Challenge. On the evening of the Mega, we all put on our blue shirts with our caching names and finisher numbers and drank to our shared accomplishment. There’s a big wooden board in the shape of Texas (which I somehow managed not to photograph this year!), and we all sign the board, the new finishers on the front in the county they finished in, the old finishers on the back. For ten of the new finishers …

… this was their opportunity to sign the log and join the club. One of the new signers, a certain Mad Finn, likened it to joining a cult. I couldn’t entirely disagree, as I stood congratulating new signers, greeting them with a friendly “One of us! One of us!“

Our host, Pathfinder33, addressed us all. We took a few moments to honor cachers no longer with us with words and toasts, and then there was beer and carousing!

We laughed. We joked. We were sad that the previous (non-caching) event at the brewery consumed all the food at the only food truck. But that food thing wasn’t important (OK, that’s not entirely true. I slipped out to bring back some food when I started getting hangry). What mattered was our communion, beer, and blue shirts all around. We partied into the night, but all good things come to an end. Eventually, we all made our way home. The next morning, we would have a couple more Events before the festivities would end. We slept the rest of the night away, and we would finish things up the next day.