The Future of Megas (And Daughters)

I’ve never really felt in the past that I had the luxury of looking far into the future. When I was secure in my resources, I never felt as if I had the time to look too far, lest I lose what I had. When I had the time, resources were sorely lacking and I couldn’t think about next year when I was looking at getting through next month or even next week. I’ve gotten to a point in my life where I realize that either time or money might be a problem at a random time I never considered, so why not hope for the best, even while knowing it might not happen?

This weekend, the girls were visiting me here in Austin. The Older Daughter and I attended a CITO on Saturday morning while the Younger slept in. She and I, while picking up trash on the roadside, also began discussing the possibility of attending other Mega-Events, as she did with Texas Challenge in Longview. Next year, it will be in Wichita Falls, which is almost the same drive time from Longview as L-Town is from A-Town. Considering I’m contractually obligated to attend, it seems reasonable to take her along, even if it’s a little out of the way for me to drive to East Texas and then to North Texas from Central. This decision coincided with another bit of Mega news: next year, CacheFest, which has been in Memphis for two years in a row, will be in Norman, Oklahoma. For this one, I intend to drag both girls. I have an uncle they probably don’t remember and a cousin they’ve never met both living there. My cousin has a daughter as well, and we’ve been threatening to put all our children together in the same place at the same time to get to know one another. Well, this seems like a good reason to do family stuff and get our collective cache on at the same time. Those two Megas seem like imperatives to attend, but a third possibility is also on the board.

GeoWoodstock XX is going to be in Flagstaff. The other two drives are nothing to me. L-Town to Flagstaff, though? With other riders, that’s a slightly different animal. Ten hours straight is what I can do to get to a starting point. Flagstaff would be fifteen. I’m pretty sure we’d have to stop for the night in Amarillo or Albuquerque. I would be able to pick up a couple of new counties on the way with minor detours and possibly dip my toe into Utah, but that’s still looking at an entire week (two days up, two days of festivities, two days back). On the other hand, it would be a chance for the girls to see the Grand Canyon. Can I pass up that opportunity? I don’t want to, but I guess we’ll have to see.

Wichita Falls in March, Flagstaff in May, Norman in July. Can I make all that happen? I don’t know (and don’t ask me about Going Caching; that’s not even a twinkle in my eye for a few years). But if I can let my daughters see more of the world, that’s just one more reason I go to all the places and see all the things and do all this.