My Grasp Exceeds Its Reach

The Girls came down to visit from L-Town as they are wont to do. And, of course we had to go out and find caches. A couple of days ago, we decided to stop on the way to dinner to find one in a small island park on the edge of a wealthy part of town. We crossed a small bridge to get to the island and pulled into the park only to find that all the parking was taken. It’s both a popular dog walking location and kayaking point, so even late in the day there were people unstrapping their boats to take to the water as various puppers ran about. I drove around the lot a couple of times in hopes that someone might be leaving, but there was no such luck. In fact, a light amount of traffic circled with us in the same hope, but we were all stymied. This was especially annoying because the cache was only about forty feet off of the parking lot, but I didn’t want to just stop by the side; the entire thing (other than the parking spots, of course) was marked no parking and there was a cop car in the lot. As I swung past GZ for the second time, I realized the answer to my question was sitting both next to and behind me. I parked the car and sent the Girls off to get it for me. I don’t usually have the luxury of agents to do my dirty work for me, but they deployed and went after the quarry. Time passed. They searched. They weren’t finding it. I was loath to leave the car in an obviously illegal location, but someone else parked behind me to pick up a kayak they had left on the path. In solidarity with the other parking scofflaw, I jumped out of the car to help in the search. Of course, the second I got there, my older daughter found it and pulled out a cute 3D printed spider. She didn’t need my help. Well, actually, she did because though she found it, she didn’t know how to open it. Luckily, my experience with such matters made for quick access to the log. Once we all signed it, it was returned and the spider placed back in its hidey hole. With that, we prepared to mount up and head off to dinner. Well, two of us were ready; my younger daughter had slipped off while we weren’t paying attention to the riverside.

We left the car behind to search for her. She hadn’t gone far, but luckily she responded to the sound of my voice (she doesn’t always because, teenagers) because she wasn’t visible. But as she came back, it did get me thinking: how hard is the paddle down river and back? Because there are a few caches on the islands in Town Lake I’ve wanted to go after. One of these days, I’m going to rent a kayak for the day and go do the thing. Not on this day, but give me time!