The Day Before…

The girls and I awoke in a Wichita Falls hotel on Friday morning. When I travel alone, I barely even stay in hotels, but in the interest of being a good steward of my children, I booked a room at the convention center hotel. We spent our days enjoying hotel life close to all the sweet geocaching action. That began with a morning trip to an Event at …

… the actual Wichita Falls. Fun fact: soon after the city was founded, the falls were destroyed in a flood, so the city built a waterfall in the location of the original falls. Unfortunately (and this is a sentence I never in my wildest imagination thought I would ever type), the city did not turn on the waterfall for us. Never fear, though! We were resourceful! We all got cups of water to toss over the edge, singing “Waterfalls” the entire time. Unfortunately, in my exuberance …

… I accidentally splashed a San Antonio cacher over the head with water! Luckily, he was in good spirits despite his drenching. It also helps that we met before at an Event in New Braunfels. Who says networking can’t get you out of trouble? After having some laughs and logging the bazillion waterfall-themed Adventure Labs, the girls and I headed back to the Multi-Purpose Events Center across from the hotel for a welcome Event.

We gathered to commune with our brethren and sistren (and get our registration packets and swag). Stories and plans flowed like the water I can only imagine cascades over the falls when they are on. We heard about friends (members of the TexaSix) who went to get counties in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Colorado. We heard about farmers stealing obvious containers from along the back roads. We hung out with Signal as he went around the room, schmoozing with people, shaking hands, and kissing babies (at least he would have had there been any actual babies in attendance). As a sidenote, there were lots of kids running about and enjoying the kids table. As a further, more personal sidenote, another family of Black cachers was also in attendance, the first one I’ve seen at Challenge! I got to meet the parents, but I didn’t manage to get their caching handles. More’s the pity.

But in the end, dinner beckoned to rumbling tummies, both my children’s and my own. We fed our faces and then returned to the hotel to get to bed early. We had to get up early. Big things would be afoot when we arrived back at the hall in the morning for…