Traditionally, Challenge ends with two Events on the final day: a CITO to thank the community for putting up with us for a week, and our final announcement of winners and the location of the next year’s Challenge. This year was mostly no different in that regard, but really very much different when it came to the CITO. Most years, it involves park cleanup or some such. In Conroe, we did a sapling bundling project for the Parks Department. This year, something different was in the cards. Our Event Coordinator, the often mentioned Razorbackgirl, wanted to do something different and, after working with the City for a year, we did.
I’d never heard of a CITO that painted murals before. I have now. While some were afraid that they would mess up because of their lack of artistic talent, a lot of folks got in on the art, whether with broad brushes to cover large areas or smaller ones to work on smaller details. There was little danger, though. It’s hard to mess up giant paint-by-numbers. These particular murals were of special interest to me because they were done in the traditionally Black part of town depicting prominent local Black figures, specifically Bill Pickett, Dr. James Dickey, and Tony Von.
A lot of people got in on the painting action …
… and, of course, if you’re a visiting Lackey, you have to paint!
Some of us stayed behind after everything was done to finish up, though some final details would not be added until a few days later thanks to some unexpected weather. But even unfinished, they still came out pretty awesome. We as cachers try to beautify the world around us as much as we can, but we rarely get a chance to do something lasting like this. So whenever I go to Taylor from now on, I can come by these murals and know we did this.
Once much (but not all) of the painting was done, I had one more duty to perform as MC of this entire shindig. I introduced the President of the TXGA and he took over announcing the winners of the Individual Challenge.
These are the faces of victory, folks. And note that one of them is my own older daughter! Kudos to her!
Then Team Challenge was announced. Bronze was East. Silver was the Out-Of-State Team (?!?!). And Gold went to perennial winners, North Texas. Congrats to them all! We’ll get them next time! Victory or mild annoyance!
And finally, my work done on this enterprise, the floor was taken by the current West Texas Representative of the TXGA to announce where Challenge would be in 2027. For me it was all in the rear view mirror, but for her it is all looming over the future. And she announced the biggest secret of the day.
The 25th anniversary of the longest running and only unbroken Mega-Event in the world will be March 13, 2027 in San Angelo TX! I expect to see you there!
As a final thought, it has been hard for me to look back at everything we did and feel a sense of pride and joy. Firstly, a lot of people made this happen; I just stood around and looked pretty. Secondly, all I can see are the things that either went wrong or almost went wrong. But everyone had a great time and we left behind something that I hope will be enjoyed in Taylor for years to come. Last year, I called upon all the attendees to come to Taylor and to all of Central Texas to gather and do this. You know what? We did this.
Geocaching While Black 