In The End…

… we had to face the music: all good things come to an end. But at least we could enjoy one last hurrah!

Well, actually, two last hurrahs. We started with breakfast at a local eatery that I wasn’t aware of. Credit where credit is due: L-Town has a surfeit of decent breakfast places, and I’m adding one more to the list. I can’t tell you how badly I wanted one of their cinnamon rolls (which I shouldn’t and didn’t have, but wanted so, so badly) …

We all got our breakfasts and talked about the good times and others to come. We began our collective wind down. Many of us would be leaving later in the day while others were planning more area shenanigans. But we had one more duty to conduct before any of those things would come to pass. The weekend always ends with a CITO. We gathered at a local park and gave some time and energy back to the city that had hosted us. In this particular case, “we” involved less of me. I was delayed a few minutes leaving the restaurant, and by the time I got to the park, it was swamped with cars and cachers. By the time I found a parking spot, the real work had been done by the small army that had appeared with gloves and grabbers.

Both the East Texas Rep and the President of the TXGA addressed the assemblage. They thanked the volunteers who provided the elbow grease that made the weekend work. They made a few notifications and then announced the winners of the Team Challenge. Unfortunately, it was not Team CenTex. Thus is life. Congratulations to the victors, Team Southeast. They played hard and deserved their victory (which was incredibly close, less than a point). And when the cans were awarded to the teams, the results of the Individual Challenge were announced.

And with that, the festivities were officially over. Another Challenge was finished, its events written in the books. All the friendship and laughter and camaraderie (though not quite all the caching) were done. For me, that meant it was time to return home, but I took solace in knowing that next year we would do it all again!

Next year, Wichita Falls!