Bismarck’s Admonition

A couple of days ago, Razorbackgirl and I were in scenic Taylor getting a cache. We went for another regular to fill another empty hole in our virtual shelves. It turned out to be on the smaller end of regular (or, rather, the regular end of small), but you get what you get, and you don’t throw a fit. Invenimus, inscripsimus, reposuimus. We didn’t even encounter chiggers in the high grass or anything. Of course, you may be wondering why we were in Taylor. If you’ve been following for a bit, that’s obvious, but if not…

Otto von Bismarck is reputed to have said, “Laws are like sausages. It’s better not to see them being made.” He probably didn’t say this, but I don’t care enough to correct the record one way or the other. Mega-Events are like sausages as well: There’s a lot of stuff you don’t think about when you just attend them as opposed to putting them on. With or without other helpers, we have visited Taylor a few times as part of our preliminary steps toward hosting Texas Challenge in 2026. This time we were there to meet with a couple of staffers representing both the city and the parks and recreation department regarding Event locations and possible CITO opportunities. They were kind and interested in our ideas, and they had ideas of their own that opened possibilities we had not considered. Luckily, some of our ideas aligned with things they already had on their collective radar, so maybe there’s a higher possibility of getting some of them done. One of the things we discussed was getting the word out to residents that one weekend there will be several hundred people descending on their town from all around the country and the world, roaming their streets and driving their back roads, and that we’re not anything to be worried about even if we’re getting close to their fences or jumping in and out of cars inexplicably. After the meeting, Razorbackgirl and I grabbed our cache and, after a few jokes about Uranus, walked around Main Street, visiting locations we had previously seen but never entered, generating more ideas and talking to some shop owners to gauge interest in helping somehow.

There are a lot of things we still need to do: work on swag bags and T-shirts and coin designs, come up with activities for the competition itself, arrange more volunteers to staff things (though that’s more important later in the process), work out arrangements with the host hotels, advertise at other Events, communicate with vendors, provide for food and drink service, hide new caches and refresh old ones, and a whole plethora of details that never occur to you when you walk through the big doors into the main hall at any Mega. But this is what it takes to make things happen. So, the next time you find yourself at a Mega, take a few minutes to thank the organizers for all the work they put into it. And as for us put-upon souls in Central Texas, we’re going to keep spending the next nine months stuffing this sausage!