Civic Engagement

I needed a cache a couple of days ago, so I took a jaunt out to the neighboring town of Pflugerville. I’ve mentioned it before, but rarely. It’s a small town that once was barely an object of mention but has become connected to Austin by the capital’s seemingly never-ending sprawl. It still holds its own, though, despite being sandwiched between Austin and (also steadily growing) Round Rock. I pulled up to the building at ground zero (Pflugerville City Hall), got out, and began to do my work.

My quarry for the day was a recently placed Multi-cache based on a previous one at the same location. I had attempted the original Multi but never found it. I thought perhaps I had input a wrong digit or made a math mistake somewhere, and I would one day take another shot at it. It turned out that the location of the final had been the victim of new construction, prompting the archival of the original Multi and the placement of a new one. Since my previous visit, GZ had received a bit of what the kids are calling a “glow up.” The city had turned it into a cute little pocket park, maintaining the old mural and adding some new ones along with painted seating, whimsical foliage, and a number of artistic flourishes to make what had been a dark corner into a cool place to recline and rest or some kind of crap like that.

I quickly got to work, searching for information from the appropriate murals. I messed up my first try (as I’m sure many before me did) by incorrectly choosing the old mural for answers. Habits die hard, folks. But I identified the proper murals, and Certitude confirmed my information was correct, providing me with coordinates about six blocks away. When I arrived at the final, I was momentarily suspicious, pulling up to a bend in a residential neighborhood. I immediately worried that it would be a residential cache, which I am not a fan of. But once I turned around the bend to park, I could see that there was an empty lot, obscured by other homes. What a strange little area! One of the previous finders had called it a greenbelt, which had totally influenced my expectations. I popped into the lot and found my goal awaiting me: a blue bison on a fence bordering a neighboring house. Inveni, inscripsi, reposui. And with that, I bid Pflugerville auf Wiedersehen. At least until next time, that is.