CacheFest Oklahoma

The girls and I pulled up to the host hotel soon after CacheFest began. Our primary destination was the main hall, teeming with vendors and cachers. After finding a spot to wolf down our breakfasts, my younger muggle daughter guarded our spots while my older caching daughter and I went over to the log and placed our ink upon it. As we all know, if we didn’t sign it, we didn’t find it. Here’s the thing: I wasn’t there to completely relax and enjoy. I had some duties to the TXGA to fulfill, and I had to keep an eye on my children (who, honestly, are old enough that it’s less of an issue, but I like to think I’m a semiresponsible parent). I also received something I didn’t expect: a lot of people recognized me, some from reading all this drivel, but most from the night before at the Noble Museum. Receiving praise is not natural for me, so I tried to gracefully redirect it all to the hosts and the other actors. As far as I was concerned, they did all the hard work; I just stood around and looked pretty. However, it collectively had an undesired result. I was so busy and distracted that I didn’t photograph the heck out of everything as I am wont to do. Consequently, I can only hope that my words are enough to create the picture for you. This is why I am a terrible correspondent.

The peace of the hall was broken as many began to gather for the unlocking of the Vault, overseen by Geocache Talk‘s primary hosts, Gslink and Memphis Mafia. Keys had been hidden all across the country for people to find, and most were curious about who would walk away with the contents. I, however, took the opportunity to slip out (I’m not usually interested in such contests for myself) to take a peek at the panels that were running at that moment. The first one was a gadget-building panel run by Gadget Talk host Bouncebounce. I didn’t see any of the talk because everyone was busy with the gadgets they had just built. From what I saw, they were relatively simple ones: plastic jars housed in ammo cans containing notched PVC pipe and a series of dice. I would have liked to inspect one more closely, but many folks were heading over to the Vault, and I didn’t want to interfere with anyone. The second panel was being run by Puzzle Talk hosts Pathfinder33 and Electric Water Boy. This one was still in session. There was a series of Adventure Labs on the hotel grounds (there were a couple, actually, but this was one) that was specific to Puzzle Talk, and you had to solve a packet of puzzles to get the answers to them. The panel was still projecting how to solve the puzzles, which ranged from simple to total pain in the butt. I was there long enough to overhear a couple of the solutions (and log the Labs) before heading back to the main hall.

Upon my return to the hall, my caching daughter wanted to peruse the vendors. We took a promenade around, looking at raffle items, learning about the upcoming GeoCoinFest in Syracuse, and stopping in on the TXGA booth I would be manning later. Of course, I was convinced to spend a few dollars at the Space Coast tables because I’m a bit of a sucker for my little girls. Once we returned from our jaunt, I looked at the trackable table. I made a point of dropping all the ones I had on me and trading them out for new ones. I also noted that when I first started caching, I saw lots of other cachers with tons of trackable codes on display and said I wouldn’t be that guy; yet, there I was with a trackable umbrella, T-shirt, and nametag.

Of course, finding caches is a thing. The girls and I had been finding them over the course of the last couple of days, and we wanted to take a few moments before getting lunch to find some around the hotel. We went for an easily solved nearby Mystery, and the Oklahoma sun convinced us to keep to that one alone. But we ran into a Community Volunteer signing it as we arrived. We all chatted as we signed it, picking up a couple of other finders as we gabbed for a bit. With that, we popped out for some Chinese food before I had to be responsible.

The TXGA booth was there to engage visiting cachers and to inform people of our upcoming Events: Lone Star Round Up in October and Texas Challenge in March. I had a shift in the afternoon. We also tended to a gadget cache. If someone could solve its puzzle and open it, they earned a pathtag! We spent a couple of hours answering questions, describing locations, listening to caching stories from other states, and responding with a few of our own.

The day became late, and the girls and I had family-related things to attend to. Around the time that Gary and Jesse started their live broadcast, we had to jet. I had hoped to get a chance to talk to them more the next day at the CITO, but torrential rain ended up canceling that for everyone. We all had a good time attending the Mega, even my muggle daughter, who spent much of it playing phone games. It made me regret that I had missed the previous ones in Memphis. And, of course, the girls are excited at the possibility of going again next year in Hawaii, but we’ll have to see how that works out. That flight is a much bigger deal than a drive up from Austin.

I want to thank everyone involved in organizing CacheFest Oklahoma, and I’m especially proud that I got to be part of it.

Of course, not as proud as I am that the Mega was my daughter’s two hundredth find!