I was back in East Texas this weekend, which meant carting the girls around to some more counties. This time, however, we had an unexpected guest with us. The girls’ aunt accompanied us for the day. She had long known about geocaching from me and my older daughter. She and some friends even accidentally stumbled upon one on a trip to Snoqualmie Falls outside Seattle. She had a day free and a penchant for old cemeteries, so she rode along.
Our first stops were to take care of unfinished business. We needed a Non-Traditional in Upshur County, so we hit a Multi in a cemetery. After seeing some relatively unique headstones, we managed to get the final coordinates leading us to a guardrail farther down the road.
Afterward, we went for another Multi in Wood County. After an unplanned detour caused by my fat-fingering a cache name, at a quiet graveyard on the edge of Winnsboro, we found the grave of Mrs. White, who died at 106 years old. Our redirector was on the back of her gravestone. We had to solve an equation based on the numbers of her descendants listed: her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren, and—yes—great-great-great-grandchildren. Our calculations led just outside the bounds of the unfenced cemetery, and after a short search …
… their aunt found it. Not bad for an inexperienced muggle (and before you get mad at me, I consider my younger daughter to be a very experienced muggle). Once the cache was signed and returned, we bid Mrs. White adieu to rest in the pines and continued on to new business.
After finding a third cemetery Multi (this one devoted to legendary comedienne Gracie Allen) on the way into town, we stopped at the Hopkins County Courthouse. The primary reason was that the girls wanted lunch at their favorite sandwich restaurant across the street from the courthouse, but their aunt had also never experienced the now legendary (to us) one-way mirror bathrooms on the square. While the muggles watched the world from behind the mirrored walls, the cachers snagged the Traditional there that I had DNF’d all those years ago. In my defense, it had disappeared (I found its Velcro mounting back then) and been replaced. But either way, turning that frown upside down was vindication.
Unfortunately, the sandwich place was closed for the day due to unforeseen circumstances (the hastily taped-up sign said), but nobody went hungry. After some Tex-Mex and ice cream, we sallied forth once again.
Because of accumulated delays and our guest’s schedule, we only had time for one of the two remaining counties we had planned. The close one would be boring, the far one more interesting. I opted for the far one. We bypassed Delta and continued on to Lamar. Why? Because of the Eiffel Tower replica in Paris, of course! When last we were here, the girls could (mostly) dangle from the girders without touching the ground. My caching daughter had never logged the Virtual at the tower, so her Non-Traditional was taken care of. Our Traditional was more mundane; while the muggles popped into a store to get sunglasses, we cachers found the appropriate lamppost in the parking lot.
Two old counties were finished, and two new ones were completed. Thinking ahead, I realize it will probably take five more day trips to complete the entire northeastern corner of the state. It’ll probably take a couple of overnight trips to the Houston/Beaumont area to finish all of East Texas. When we go to Texas Challenge in Floresville this year, we might (emphasis on might) be able to get down to the coast again. A couple more overnights might get us to Abilene and maybe as far as Del Rio and Eagle Pass. After that, it’s going to get rough. The Valley? The Panhandle? The West? Next year is going to be a lot harder to travel for … reasons. This Project is going to take a while. I hope my caching daughter doesn’t lose the desire before then. But it’s her Project, not mine.
Geocaching While Black 