The Girls and I mounted up in the car early-ish and began driving north and then west. We had a mind to get at least five new counties for their (though actually just the older daughter; the younger one confirmed she’s just doing stuff because she’s along for the ride) project. Our first target was San Saba because the last time we were in the area, we managed to drive entirely around it. However, we didn’t take the fastest route; we went through Llano. Why? Because it was International EarthCache Day (or thereabouts) and there was an EarthCache just south of the San Saba border. We took some time to learn a little about llanite, an igneous rock containing quartz and feldspar phenocrysts (I learned a new word!) unique to Llano County. We managed to not fall off boulders or get stuck by cacti as the younger daughter measured the size of the crystals (I remembered to bring a tape measure this time).
Once we submitted our answers to the questions, we headed a few minutes north to find a Traditional in a cemetery (there always is one) and then the San Saba County Challenge. Now, I’ve always been a little iffy about these county challenges sprinkled around Texas because they designate that you find a Traditional and a Nontraditional in the county and all the counties surrounding. Admittedly, a bunch of them were dropped to make it easier to complete the Texas Two-Step, but I’ve always wondered about the point of them: to complete them, you need a Nontraditional in the county and the challenge shouldn’t fulfill that role because you haven’t completed it to claim it, and if you do have that Nontraditional, you don’t need it anyway. What I had never done is look at the checkers for any of them. If you run them, they automatically count the challenge as your nontraditional if you don’t already have one. With that, and lacking the desire to drag the girls to another EarthCache requiring a hike in an inconvenient part of the county, we signed the log and claimed it. San Saba was done. It also represented a milestone: my older daughter’s first challenge!
From there, we proceeded to Comanche. I wanted to take them to my first cache there, the ammo can in the teepee, but it was archived. We signed the Comanche County Challenge, but didn’t log it as we were missing a couple of counties and one of them was not on our itinerary for the day. But we did take the time to stop for a Traditional in a cemetery and a Letterbox on the side of the road.
While it was not on the original plan when I first concocted this trip, I noticed the short distance to an unexpected stretch goal so I added it in. We took a short drive up to Dublin, home of Dublin Dr. Pepper, in Erath County. The older daughter jumped out and did the Virtual at the old bottling plant; her sister opted to stay in the car for this one. Then we went for a Traditional which turned out to be a problem. Our first two attempts were DNFs. It’s possible we just didn’t find the first one; I’m quite sure the second one was gone. Our third time was the proverbial charm, a duck festooned container in a city park. After a short struggle to get it open, we signed the log and then ran away from the copious and implacable flies that populate Dublin.
Our shot up to Dublin messed up our route, especially as it was getting later in the day, but it opened up a new possibility. Our next county was Hamilton and the original plan was to pass through the town going east to Coryell County, grabbing our caches along the way. The jog up to Dublin messed that up, but going eastward would pass us through the town of Hico in the far north of Hamilton County and was not far from a needed Traditional in neighboring Bosque County (we had gotten a Multi there some time last year). We made it to Hico’s cemetery for a Multi, but were completely stumped by all three Traditionals that were supposed to be there as well. The time was also getting late. We were supposed to be in a certain place at a certain time and we had only enough time to get there and acquire dinner beforehand. We gave up on Coryell and Bosque, grabbing a Traditional at a rest stop near the town of Hamilton itself. And where did we need to be?
In Goldthwaite! To end the day, we caught a western comedy about the Sutton-Taylor feud aptly named The Feud.
All that said, the planner in me was disappointed. Changes to the plan combined with a few too many DNFs ended up costing up a county, which might have been ameliorated by getting on the road an hour earlier. We got the EarthCache souvenir, but my poor collection management cost me two or three Treasures. Otherwise, four counties and some musical theater? I’ll call that victory!
Geocaching While Black 