That’s Brisk, Baby!

The mercury plummeted over the weekend in the Austin area, so I had every intention to stay mostly ensconced in a warm house (aside from a social engagement on Saturday and, of course, a short nip out for a cache). On Saturday night, I got a call from the Crazy Chicks, a caching couple out of San Antonio. They had put up a traveling cacher the night before who was going to be in Austin on Sunday and suggested that I might want to go out and grab a few caches with him. I didn’t have any plans, so I figured, Why not? and gave him a call. We worked out some details and then met on a brisk Sunday morning to bounce around town.

Meet Magftplanner and his trusty pupper, Ai-chan! Magftplanner is 190 days into a massive (and enviable) road trip to complete all the counties in the Lower 48! Holy monkey! Even more impressively, he’s been making videos and posting them on YouTube, offering daily updates on his travels! We met up on Sunday morning and began taking on the almost barren streets of downtown Austin.

We began at the capitol. He had already gotten most of the Virtuals in the area on a previous visit, so we actually started by filming. One of his personal side goals is visiting veterans’ memorials, so the many monuments of the Texas Capitol held his rapt attention. We walked around the almost deserted grounds, talking about previous times we had visited (several years prior for him, childhood trips for me). We went to find a Mystery Cache (the bonus for an Adventure Lab series) at one of the monuments. But leaves and detritus made it difficult to find, so we let it go in favor of returning to a warm vehicle. After a few minutes of discussion, we decided it was time to go get a different cache. So we went out to the third most favorited cache in the state of Texas, the Necropolis of Britannia Manor.

A quick drive and a short walk later, we were in the bounds of the best cache Austin has to offer. For him, it was a scenic display to fascinate his viewers. For me, it was an excellent chance to drop a bunch of trackables I had recently acquired, especially the Ross Perot book trackable that I had gotten in Wilmington (then gotten rid of and ended up with again!). Ai-Chan got a chance to sniff around inside, and Magtfplanner saw the Hill Country from the top of the tower. It was a good experience all around. We headed back downtown to grab a few more caches. For him, there were lots of options. For me, not so many. Outside of a few especially challenging Mysteries and very new hides, I have long since cached out downtown. But he insisted we find one I hadn’t gotten yet, and I needed a cache, so we went to the perfect place: Zilker Park. There were a couple of Virtuals and, importantly for me, an EarthCache I’d left sitting for a long time.

I’d never gotten it because I always thought it would be useful when International EarthCache Day rolled around. Unfortunately, International EarthCache Day tends to coincide with one of Austin’s most famous festivals, Austin City Limits Music Festival, also held in Zilker Park. So I left it for years until yesterday. I was lucky that Magtfplanner had a thermometer, so we measured the waters of Zilker’s beloved swimming hole, Barton Springs. The warm (compared to the freezing cold of the day) spring waters gave us the answers we needed, and soon after, I had a cache for the day. A couple more Virtuals later, we went off on a different tack. We decided to get a couple of library caches, but they both came up zero. One was closed because it was a Sunday, and the other was closed because of emergency preparations for cold weather. Besides, it was lunchtime. So we got some food, then shot off to another cache and to meet the Crazy Chicks, who were visiting for other reasons but stopped to grab a few with us. 

But all good things must end. The Chicks had to go home. I had to write something. Magtfplanner had to edit some videos. So we went our separate ways. I didn’t plan on rolling around town today, but I’m glad I did. I revisited old places and made new friends. It was brisk and cold and lovely. If winter days were more like that, I’d probably like them more. And to Magtfplanner, bon chance! West Texas awaits! Soon, I’ll be welcoming you as a fellow finisher of the Texas County Challenge!