The girls and I made it home just fine. From there, we returned to our regular lives. I can only speak for myself, but I often feel a little depressed after a Mega. It was a lot of fun, as the Geocaching Vlogger so ably recorded for public consumption (and please disregard my fat butt, as I have a face for writing). But returning feels like a giant comedown. You all know that feeling? You return from a trip where you’ve done all this stuff and all these things, and you’re feeling energized. Then you come home, and everything seems less vibrant and exciting. Sometimes, it’s about not being gone long enough to miss where you left. Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home, but I could spend a while living out there for a while. I have done so before, but that’s a series of stories for other times.
Of course, I’ve done some caching since I got back. A bunch of new ones have shown up downtown on the banks of Town Lake. It had been a while since I had cached in the area; the only ones I hadn’t gotten were all difficult beyond comprehension (Enigma machines, dude. Enigma machines). But it was nice to see a little water and have a little sunlight before the weather truly changes to summer, heralding the return of the thrice-hated Spear of Apollo.
I’ve even been to an Event: Razorbackgirl’s vernal equinox soiree. I was somewhat contractually obligated to attend since she and I have taken over hosting a seasonal series originally started by friends Tygress and Waterweasel. She does the equinoxes; I do the solstices. But the biggest thing on my mind is the project I’ve embarked on for the next year. I don’t know if any of you have ever hosted or considered hosting a Mega, but it was a duty I’ve known for a long time has been coming—ever since I took up the mantle of Central representative of the TXGA. Two and a half terms later, it’s upon me. Some preliminary legwork has already been done: a place has been chosen, a venue has been arranged, some local parties have been approached, and some cachers are on board as a planning committee. Delegation is going to be a big, big thing. I never wrote much about it, but I put on the other of the TXGA’s signature Events in 2023, the Lone Star Roundup, pretty much all by myself. I didn’t write about it at the time for two reasons: (a) I was in the middle of writing about the counties of the Northeast (and yes, to me in Texas, Maryland might as well be the Northeast), and (b) I wasn’t actually there because a couple of days before Roundup happened, I came down with “cholera” (and by “cholera,” I mean Covid). Luckily, I had gotten everything done so that a few people could step in for hosting duties, and almost everything went fine, with virtually no one any the wiser. (I did have to cancel a movie Event because I still had the projector.) My point here (and I do have one) is that I created a single point of failure for Roundup, and I was lucky that point broke at an inconvenient but manageable time. I’m not going to make the same mistake twice. Besides, it’s too big an endeavor for one person to do alone. I mean, maybe it’s possible for one person if they have an entire year free, an extraordinary amount of money, and absolutely no real-life distractions. I have none of those things. But even if I did, as I just said, I’m not going to make the same mistake twice. So, I’m putting on my project manager hat, and we’re going to get this done. And lucky y’all will get to hear about some of it! But only some. If you want the full experience, you’ll have to come to Taylor next March!
Geocaching While Black 