I went to have dinner with friends a couple of days ago. Their apartment is in a subdivision well outside of Austin that is renowned for its upscale (dare I say hoity-toity) sensibilities. It is archetypal of the kind of place I’m referring to when I talk about wealthy neighborhoods. This subdivision is the original and overarching neighborhood of an entire series of smaller, more exclusive subdivisions (one, a golf club, had gates and guards at the entrance). I was, therefore, impressed to find that there were actually half a dozen caches in the area, half of which were sizable enough to earn a Planetary Treasure. I dragged one of my friends down the road to a park on the Colorado River, where we found a big coffee canister suspended in a tree. Inveni, inscripsi, reposui. And I earned Earth for my troubles. Only four more empty spots left to offend me.
I learned something vaguely interesting. For a little project I’m working on, I was researching what the oldest cache of each type is. Some of them are easy (Mingo, amirite?), but others are a little more interesting, especially regarding the oldest Multicache. On paper, it’s Tour of Stone Mountain, going back to June 2000. However, I learned (and it is alluded to on the cache page itself) that it had been a Traditional until it was muggled in 2003. The original owner no longer lived nearby and transferred it to the current owner, who then made it a Multi. I think that very much undermines its claim to be the oldest. But if that’s not the oldest, then which one is? That would be our old friend Tombstone, the oldest cache in Texas. Why do I even care about such things? It’s not a general antipathy to Stone Mountain (I went there once BC—Before Caching—and despite my distaste for both the subject matter and Gutzon Borglum, I am impressed by the feat of engineering it represents).
I (along with some more crafty people) am starting work on a signpost that will point to some notable things. What those might be, I leave as an exercise for the reader. As for why, well…
My only other big deal of the weekend was dragging the girls to a breakfast Event. Had I been more on the ball, I would have taken some photographs, but I am not a morning person. Foo on me. But it was a lovely time stuffing pastries in our faces, so I call that a victory.
That is all.
Geocaching While Black 