See As Janus Sees

Look back through the mists of time to the heady days of 2018. Geocaching was a new and magical thing for me, the latest obsession in the life of a man with many hobbies (if you ever see me in person, ask me about my fifteen thousand points of Space Marines). As new cachers are wont to do, I made some hides. Some failed. Some still rock on. One in particular lasted a while. Placed behind a building because of a good childhood memory involving my grandparents, it was active for about two years. Sometime in 2021, a company began using the building and erected a giant fence around the back, denying access to the cache I had placed. Under those circumstances, it only made sense to archive it. Over the years, several companies seem to have moved into and out of the building, but the enduring constant was a lack of access to my original ground zero in one way or another. At least until recently, that is.

About a month ago, I noticed that the building was vacant again. I assumed that another tenant would take up the space quickly (they usually do), but it sat quiet and undisturbed. After a suitable amount of time, I decided it was time to reestablish my old cache again. Early last week, I chose an appropriate container, made a late-night foray to place it with the help of a grabber tool, and then copied and updated the original cache description. The next day, it went live, and my tribute of sorts to my grandparents was active again after four years! All that was left was to wait for the eventual hunter for the new FTF. At the end of last week, that hunter came. They found it and noted how it was easy enough to find and mentioned that it still had the old log, which they saw their name on from when they signed it years ago. Confusion set in, and then it clicked. I never had a chance to get the old container back, and it was still there after all these years! It wasn’t where I originally placed it, but I wasn’t going to quibble over that; I could always fix that later. I guess I should find it first to make sure it’s in good shape.

Look ahead through the mists of uncertainty to the coming days of 2026. Morgantown is done. Hutchinson is up! That’s a heck of a lot closer to home, so much so that I could easily go (as long as my entire life doesn’t fall apart). I can make that happen, so I will. And maybe I’ll drag the girls along. Of course, that would change my priorities a bit. With the girls, I’ll want to show them some of the more interesting spots and caches, maybe even take them out to Mingo while we’re there. Without them, I’d definitely go up to Nebraska and run some counties up there (if I haven’t already when I head that way) and also pop over to Topeka to see the famous mural of my favorite fighting abolitionist and maybe go get Missouri’s First – Watts Mill (which I should have gotten on the way from Olathe to Kansas City, but I got distracted by a Mega).

One can never be sure what the future holds; this time last year, I was making preliminary plans for going to West Virginia. But Kansas is much easier for me than Appalachia.